Sermon Tone Analysis

DIED HE FOR ME

Introduction

By raising your hand, indicate if you have ever heard of Wally Pipp.

Now, again by raising your hand, indicate if you have ever heard of Lou Gehrig.

That’s telling.

In football, and I assume in other sports as well, when there is a discussions about substitution—one player coming on to the field of play for another—the name Wally Pipp would often arise.

Wally Pipp was a first baseman for the New York Yankees.

In 1916 and 1917 he led the American League in home runs.

But in 1925, Pipp showed up at Yankee Stadium with a severe headache, and asked the team's trainer for two aspirin.

The Yankees' manager, noticed this, and said "Wally, take the day off.

We'll try that kid Gehrig at first today and get you back in there tomorrow."

Gehrig played well and became the Yankees' new starting first baseman and set a record for the most consecutive games played at 2130.

Wally Pipp never started for the Yankees again.

The Wally Pipp story is used to communicate to starters that they better be careful about letting a substitute take their place.

In football, a substitute coming in for you can have very negative consequences.

I often played injured, well below optimum, because I did not want a replacement of mine to give the coaches and general manager the idea of replacing me permanently.

In many ways in the realm of sports, substitution has negative connotations.

But today we consider a different substitution.

A substitution of which it is hard to think of anything more positive.

We return to the Prince of Preachers for a different perspective on substitution:

C. H. Spurgeon: “See you here the foundational truth of Christianity, the rock on which our hopes are built.

It is the only hope of a sinner, and the only true joy of the Christian – the great transaction, the great substitution, the great lifting of sin from the sinner to the sinner's Surety; the punishment of the Surety instead of the sinner, the pouring out of the vials of wrath, which were due to the transgressor, upon the head of his Substitute; the grandest transaction which ever took place on earth; the most wonderful sight that even hell ever beheld, and the most stupendous marvel that heaven itself ever executed – Jesus Christ, made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him!”

Or consider the opening verse of one of my favourite hymns for a similar outlook on substitution:

Charles Wesley: And can it be that I should gain

An interest in the Savior's blood?

Died He for me, who caused His pain—

For me, who Him to death pursued?

Amazing love!

How can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Amazing love!

How can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Amazing love!

The grandest transaction!

The most wonderful sight!

The most stupendous marvel!

Let us dive into the concept of substitution as it pertain to penal substitutionary atonement.

Hebrews 9:27-28 ESV

27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Substitution: The Necessity

Substitution is necessary because of who God is.

God is holy

God’s holiness means that he is separated from sin and devoted to seeking his own honor.

Psalm 99:3, 5, 9 ESV 3 Let them praise your great and awesome name!

Holy is he! … 5 Exalt the Lord our God; worship at his footstool!

Holy is he! … 9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy!

God is just

God’s righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right.

Deuteronomy 32:4 ESV 4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

God is merciful

God’s mercy means God’s goodness toward those in misery and distress.

2 Samuel 24:14 ESV Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress.

Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

God is love

God’s love means that God eternally gives of himself to others.

This definition understands love as self-giving for the benefit of others.

1 John 4:8 ESV Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

How can a holy and just God demonstrate his love and mercy?

How can God, who is eternally committed to punishing all sin and all sinners, demonstrate his infinite love and mercy to his people?

Just and holiness = “27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”

Love and mercy = “28 … to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.”

How can God be who he is and still save us?

Substitution!

“28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many …”

Definition:

• “Penal substitutionary atonement refers to the doctrine that Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinners.

God imputed the guilt of our sins to Christ, and he, in our place, bore the punishment that we deserve.

This was a full payment for sins, which satisfied both the wrath and the righteousness of God, so that He could forgive sinners without compromising His own holy standard.”

• From the excellent book on PSA called Pierced for Our Transgressions: “the doctrine of penal substitution states that God gave himself in the person of his Son to suffer instead of us the death, punishment and curse due to fallen humanity as the penalty for sin.”

Paul addresses the apparent problem of God’s character in regards to forgiving sinners in a passage we looked at last week:

Romans 3:23-26 ESV 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Through substitution, through the propitiating sacrifice of Christ on behalf of sinners, God can show himself just and at the same time justify sinners.

Substitution: An Example

The Passover

• God’s people in Egypt: in bondage and suffering; separated from their God

• God sends Moses to deliver them

• Moses and Aaron announce and administer 9 plagues: Blood, Frogs, Gnats, Flies, Livestock, Boils, Hail, Locust, Darkness

• The purpose of plagues was salvation from bondage and worship of their God: “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.”

• Moses and Aaron pronounce and prepare God’s people for the tenth plague: Exodus 11:4-6 ESV 4 So Moses said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘About midnight I will go out in the midst of Egypt, 5 and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle.

6 There shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there has never been, nor ever will be again.

• The previous 9 plagues posed no danger to the Israelites, but the tenth was different:

Exodus 12:1-13 ESV

1 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, 2 “This month shall be for you the beginning of months.

It shall be the first month of the year for you. 3 Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household.

4 And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old.

You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, 6 and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

7 “Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.

8 They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire; with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts.

10 And you shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn.

11 In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand.

And you shall eat it in haste.

It is the Lord's Passover.

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.

13 The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are.