Jesus Suffered for You

PRAY OVER THIS

“And they made His grave with the wicked—but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.” Isaiah 53:9-10

 

PONDER THIS

Jesus took your sufferings. He suffered because of sin. Nobody ever suffered as the Lord Jesus Christ did. There’s no grief like His, none. Nobody’s ever known the suffering He did. You say, “Well, other people have been crucified.” No, you don’t understand what happened there. He suffered the pain and separation from the Father He had been united with for all eternity. When Jesus died on the cross, the sins of the world were distilled upon Jesus, and the eternities were compressed upon Him. No one can ever describe how much He suffered.

Somehow, somewhere, sin must be paid for and Jesus, as my substitute, took my sin, my shame, my separation, my sorrows, and my sufferings, and Jesus paid it all. I want to tell you something: all to Him I owe. What a darling Savior. What a wonderful Savior that Isaiah spoke about seven hundred years before He was born.

How does knowing about Jesus’ suffering change your perspective on your own suffering?

Who do you know who needs to know the hope that Jesus can take away sin, shame, suffering, and separation?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for someone you know who needs to know this good news about Jesus. Ask God to give you an opportunity to share His hope.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Problem Solved at Calvary

PRAY OVER THIS

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.” 1 Peter 3:18

 

PONDER THIS

We have a problem. God is holy; He’s “the just.” We are unholy; we are “the unjust.” How could God, who is holy, punish sin and love the sinner at the same time? That’s the problem that was solved by Calvary. God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Here the doctor not only makes a house call, leaves Heaven, and comes to Earth, but the doctor Himself makes the patient well by taking the patient’s sickness. He dies: “the just for the unjust.” The judge not only adjudicates the criminal guilty, but also steps from behind the bench, stands in the place of the accused, and takes the punishment upon Himself. You’ll never understand the cross until you understand the principle of substitution. Jesus Christ died for us.

What does it mean for you that Jesus is your substitute?

Do you rely on Jesus as the perfect substitute, or are you still working to earn your own way before God? What needs to change?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of the ways Jesus is your perfect substitute.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Cross: Crossroads of Substitution

BIBLE MEDITATION:

“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’”... John 1:29

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

All through the Bible, God has been teaching the lesson of substitution. He has been talking to people about a lamb without blemish to be sacrificed to take away sin. By the time of Christ, the priests and the Levites have instructed a special rank of shepherds to grow spotless lambs. They are grown in Bethlehem. On Palm Sunday, those lambs are going up to the Temple Mount. The same day, riding upon a donkey, comes the Lord Jesus Christ. The Passover lambs and God’s Lamb enter into the city the same day. The priests and the Levites examine the lambs. They look inside the mouths, go through the fleece, the hooves…the eyes; even the eyelids are examined. If there is any flaw, the lamb is not worthy for sacrifice. Jesus is another Lamb born in Bethlehem. Mary’s little lamb, whose fleece is white as snow. He is the virgin-born Son of God. He too is examined…by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Herodian, and the civil leaders. He is pronounced sinless. Then comes the climax: at 3:00 in the afternoon, the priest tilts the head of the little spotless lamb and uses a lethal knife; at that very moment on cruel Golgotha, God’s Lamb pours out His royal blood for the sin of mankind. And Jesus says from the cross, “It is finished. It is paid in full.”

ACTION POINT:

The Lord Himself invites you to place your hands on that perfect, spotless Lamb and say, “Jesus, You are my substitute. Forgive my sin and take full control of my life. Thank You for saving me.”

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Only Perfect Substitute

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, - 1 Peter 3:18

Are you searching for forgiveness?

Are you filled with guilt? 

You are a sinner in need of forgiveness, justification, reconciliation and salvation.

Do you want to be reconciled to God because you know your sin separates you from a Holy God? 

Are you thinking about eternity?

Open your heart, listen to His words, they bring life through Christ, His death and resurrection.

Your eternal hope is in no other!

He is the only living King!

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. - 1 Peter 2:21

1 Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. - 1 Peter 4:1-2

23 But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone,

24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,

25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. - Romans 4:23-25

25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,

26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, - Hebrews 9:25-27

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. - Romans 5:1-2

19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds,

22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. - Colossians 1:19-23

4 For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

6 I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. - 2 Corinthians 13:4-6

6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

7 The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. - 1 Peter 4:6-7

Will God accept me? Forgive me?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God … 1 Peter 3:18

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

A soldier and a prison guard walk down a narrow corridor to a cell in a Roman dungeon. Imagine this scene: the soldier holds up a torch. Back in the shadows a man crouches in terror. The guard takes his key and opens the door. “Barabbas, get up and come with me.”

Barabbas begins to plead, “No, wait! Don’t take me! Have mercy!” The soldier interrupts. “You’re not going to die. Come here. Look over on that hill. See that cross we made for you? There’s somebody else on it. He’s taking your place.”

I don’t mean to imply that Barabbas was saved, but that God arranged a perfect picture of substitution.

When the Lord Jesus Christ died, He fulfilled yet another Old Testament symbolism. The high priest would take a goat called “the scapegoat,” lay his hand upon its head, and confess the sins of the people. Their sins were symbolically transferred to the goat, which would then be led outside the city walls. There, the goat would be killed and his blood shed. Jesus was led outside Jerusalem’s walls where His blood was shed and He died. Jesus was our scapegoat. Our sins were laid upon him. He carried them to the cross where in agony and blood He died.

ACTION POINT:

The sole purpose for Calvary’s cross was substitution. God forgave our sins through Jesus’ suffering in our place. Just and sinless, Jesus died for the unjust—for Barabbas, you, me, every human being—that He might bring us to Himself. Salvation, eternity in fellowship with God—it’s all there for the taking. Receive God’s offered gift today. All you must do is receive Him and make Him Lord.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers