For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Romans 5:10
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:32
Selected quotes from Chapter 6,
“The Self-Substitution of God” in
The Cross of Christ by John Stott
(EMPHASES MY OWN)
The substitute bears the penalty, that we sinners may receive the pardon.
Who, then, is the substitute?
What we see in the drama of the cross is not three actors but two, ourselves on the one hand and God on the other. ...For in giving his Son he was giving himself. This being so, it is the Judge himself who in holy love assumed the role of the innocent victim, for in and through the person of his Son he himself bore the penalty that he himself inflicted.
Divine love triumphed over divine wrath by divine self-sacrifice.
The biblical gospel of atonement is of God satisfying himself by substituting himself for us.
The essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man.
Neither Christ alone as man nor the Father alone as God could be our substitute. Only God in Christ, God the Father’s own and only Son made man, could take our place.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16
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More from Chapter 6 at Challies
