Substitution

Think of the last time you got mad at someone.. think of the last time you said something mean and would do anything to take it back... think of a time you did something that went against your set of morals.. something "bad".. maybe you hurt someone's feelings, maybe you got mad or did someone to something. Afterwards, remember the realization that you can't believe what you did? Remember going to the person and pleading with them so that they would forgive you and things would go back to "normal"?

Whether or not you actually went to the person to say that you're sorry, I'm sure we could all remember a time we had a feeling similar to the one described above. Now, think about this.. what if you went to that person hiding your face by your hands pleading to say that you are sorry.. putting all your "badness" you have done to that person in your hands.. hiding behind all the awful things you feel soooo bad about. What if the person looked at you with a loving look, then turned to the other person in the room and punished them for the things YOU did wrong?! It just wasn't another person in the room, your friend turned to their SON! Someone sweet and innocent.. someone that didn't deserve it. Then they looked at you like nothing had ever happened between the two of you and things went on like "normal"? Pretty weird huh? I'm sure we would have a huge sense of relief in the midst of an array of massive confusion. "That was suppose to be me! Why didn't you punish ME???" Maybe there would be a little bit of resentment almost.. after all YOU were the one that deserved it, NOT that your friend's SON!!

John Piper in his book, This Momentary Marriage, made me think of the above scenario. That is what God did to us.... he looked at our hands full of sin, our "badness" and then took Jesus' hands and nailed them to the cross. Jesus was our substitution. Although this is no new news to me.. the way the book explained it made me think about it more deeply than I ever have before. Perhaps because the chapter was speaking about marriage.. maybe it's because since being married I can now relate to my relationship with God in a deeper, new, tangible way. A different way than I have ever looked at it before. Whatever the case may be, Piper made me think. I'd like to share something with you from the book:

From Chapter 3:

Pg. 45: Be sure you see this most wonderful and astonishing of all truths: God took the record of all your sins that made you a debtor to wrath (sins are offenses against God that bring down his wrath), and instead of holding them up in front of your face and using them as a warrant to send you to hell, God put them in the palm of his Son's hand and drove a spike through them into the cross. It is a bold and graphic statement: He canceled the record of our debt.. nailing it to the cross (Col. 2:14).

Then he talks about God's wrath and how it plays a part in your marriage.. to the justification and grace from God extending it horizontally to your spouse.

Pg. 48 But the reasons I stress living vertically from the grace of God and then bending it out horizontally in forgiveness and justification toward your spouse are: 1) because there is going to be conflict based on sin and strangeness (and you won't even be able to agree with each other about what is simply strange about each other and what is sin); and 2) because the hard, rugged work of enduring and forgiving is what makes it possible for affections to flourish when they seem to have died; and 3) because God gets glory when two very different and very imperfect people forge a life of faithfulness in the furnace of affliction by relying on Christ.

I love Piper's wording in the above paragraph... we will not even be able to agree with each other about what is simply strange and what is sin... haha We are all simply strange.. yes. We will never be able to fully understand one another, just like we will never be able to fully understand God. God is simply strange as well... Just funny because it's so true.

Well, those are my thoughts for the day.. Jesus, our substitution how magnificent! Remember all you married folks: As Mark South would say.. Grace is the lube in marriage! Through grace we have all been saved.... and through grace all our marriages have/will be saved.. marriage, a tangible expression of Jesus' relationship with his bride - the church (people - us!) Don't forget it!