The Meaning of the Cross, Day 10

Welcome to the tenth day of our “40 Days of the Cross” series. Each day we are taking just a few minutes to look at a word which will help us better understand the meaning of the cross. 

Today’s word is substitute. One of the problems in cooking authentic recipes from other nations is that they often contain exotic ingredients that you can’t find at your local Grocery Store. Sometimes you can find them on Amazon, but I’m not sure I want to pay a lot of money for a bag of Kaffir Lime leaves that I’m going to use once a year to make a Thai curry. So, what I do is google “kaffir lime leaves substitute”. This will provide me an option for a substitute that won’t be as costly to me: I can use a little lime zest as a substitute for the kaffir lime leaves.
 

The lime zest is a substitute that saves me a little money. The cross is a substitute that saves my soul. The price of my sin was great. In fact, the only way to pay that price was my own spiritual death: eternal separation from God. But through the plan of God, a substitute for my death was procured. Jesus’ death on the cross was a substitute for my spiritual death. His death on the cross was the substitute for all of us. He took our punishment as a substitute. 

2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “and He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.” The Greek word “for all” and “for their sake” is huper. It means in place of, on behalf of, a substitute for. Swiss theologian Karl Barth said it was the most important word in the New Testament, because it shows that Jesus on the cross was a substitute for us paying the wages for our sins. We deserved the punishment; Jesus took it freely upon Himself. Maybe that seems unfair. We’ll talk more about unfair on Monday. 

I encourage you to spend a little time in meditation and prayer thinking about how Jesus was our substitute on the cross after we close in prayer.
 

Heavenly Father, the price for our sins was too great for us to bear, so Your Son, Jesus, bore our sins upon His shoulders as He hung upon the cross to die in our place. Thank you for the love that caused Him to be our substitute. In the name of Jesus, amen. 

Continued on Monday