True Loving Service is Substitution

Tim Keller wrote: "All life-changing love toward people with serious needs is a substitutional sacrifice".

Case in point, the Gospel of the grace of God in Christ - where Jesus, for God's glory and our good, substituted Himself for us, taking our sin (Is. 53:12) and suffering our shame, so that we might live. And while He did it for us, in our place, it is not primarily about us but God. God is glorified and we benefit forever, but it is not first and foremost self-centered but God-centered.

If we do not understand the true gospel story, if we get that part wrong, if we read into it something the Bible does not teach, we will not understand the Christian life as God intends us to (and become very disillusioned when things don't go our way) and we run the risk of basing our relationship with God on Him doing what we want Him to do rather than Him doing what we could never do. We begin to be in charge rather than humbly at His mercy. We begin to see Him as a vending machine who dispenses comfort rather than a holy God who deserves worship. If we see Him as One who simply exists to meet our needs we can become very self-centered rather than Christ-centered. That is the story we will share with the world and we will be in danger of unknowingly preaching another gospel, as a result of making up our own version. So it is crucial that we get the gospel right.

God is a God of love, and as such it does not mean that He never will do something that we disagree with or do not understand - such as the common error of saying that 'God is a God of love, so I cannot see how He would ever do that'. That kind of 'love' really isn't true love, if by 'love' we mean condoning sin by turning a blind eye to it or winking at it. Sin took Him to the Cross, sin demanded our lives. It was due to our sin that He puts Himself in our place. As it truly is, as a God of love God becomes personally involved in suffering the same violence, pain, oppression, grief and shame that we experience.

"Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1

"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." Romans 5:6

"He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." 1 Peter 2:24

As John Stott put it in his book The Cross of Christ, "The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting Himself for us. We…put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God…puts Himself where we deserve to be.”

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21

So for a Christ follower to say they love to serve it must be based on the grace of God in Christ; as He has served them they in turn serve Him. It must be rooted in the self-sacrificing substitution that Christ entered into on the cross. To love to serve is one thing; to love those whom you serve (or are called to serve) is quite another. You can love to serve and not love those whom you serve – because of what you get out of it, such as a free day at Disneyland if you are a volunteer; or a paycheck if you are an employee – we can do it to gain security or approval or acceptance of the subculture, be it a family, church or community organization expects it – how can you tell the difference?

You will know by the extent to which you are willing to be inconvenienced, misunderstood or hurt for their sakes. To the extent that you are willing to give up your reputation for kindness, your right to comfort, your position of strength to be seen of as weak. To the extent that you are willing to make a personal exchange – your life for theirs. That is the heart of the true story of the Cross, the true gospel story. Substitution. Christ's life for ours.