Substitution

Jesus dies on our behalf, so how is it that his death counts for our sins.

If a someone is convicted of a crime, then a family member can pay the fine on their behalf.

But if the sentence is the death penalty, it is not so easy. If a young man has been convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to death, the father cannot say,

My younger son died in a car accident, so let his death count for my older son who is sentenced to death.

A court would not accept that. If the father offered to die for his son (because he was old and did not want to live), the court would probably not accept that either. The court would probably demand that the son who had committed the crime pay his own penalty.

The answer is that when we trust Jesus and surrender to him, we become one with him. Through faith, we became part of Jesus.

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13).

When we heard the message of truth and believed the gospel, we became “in Jesus”. God made us “those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). From that point on, everything that happened to Jesus also happened to us. When he died, we died with him.

Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death (Rom 6:3-4).

Strictly speaking, Jesus did not die as a substitute in our place. Rather, through faith we are joined with him, so when he died, we actually died with him.

Jesus died for everyone. Potentially, his death has the potential to count for everyone who has ever lived on earth. Legally that does not work. A judge will not just accept the death of one person in place of another. To receive the benefit of Jesus death, we have to trust him and surrender to him so God can put us in him. In Jesus, his death becomes our death, which satisfies the powers of evil who demanded that we die for our sins.

Jesus death has the potential to cover everyone. Legally, that potential can only become a reality for those who are united with Jesus through faith.

Because Jesus died, we do not need to die, so in that sense, he died in our place. However, from the legal perspective, we are in him, so we died with him. And because we died with him, we share in his life too.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection. (Rom 6:8).

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him (Rom 6:8).

That means that his death counts for us