Read: Genesis 22:1-14

“The Lord will provide.”

As we well know, we are sinners. And as the Bible tells us, the wages of sin is death. Our sin earns us death. It causes our separation from God. It has made us dirty, unclean, unrighteous. And because of that unrighteousness, there is nothing we can do to fix it. The only possible solution is a substitute. We need a substitute.

There have been many images of Jesus drawn from this passage, but the one I want to focus on is the ram. The substitute. Instead of Isaac’s life being offered, God faithfully and graciously provided a substitute. The ram took Isaac’s place on the altar.

While this story is not a perfect analogy of Jesus taking our sins on the cross, it does point us toward this beautiful truth: Jesus took our place. The Lord provided for himself the lamb – who would take away the sin of the world.

Throughout the Old Testament, we see that God had given animals as a substitute for the sacrifices for His people’s sin. The sins of the people would be symbolically laid on the animal, which would then be sacrificed – enduring the consequence of sin (death) on behalf of the people. But that’s exactly what it was – a symbol. As Hebrews tells us, the blood of these animals couldn’t actually take away sins (Hebrews 10:4). They were never meant to be the final plan. They were never meant to be the final substitutes. No, they were meant to point toward the greater Substitute, Jesus Christ. Christ, who became sin that we might become His righteousness. Christ, who endured death that we might have life. Christ, the perfect sacrifice. The perfect substitute.

Jesus took YOUR place on that cross. Just let that truth sink in.