Of the many things that can be said and have been said about Jesus, what cannot be said is that his intention was to be his generation’s Ghandi, Buddha, or Mother Teresa.  In other words, Jesus was not a good moral teacher who lived a life worthy of study and emulation, but no more than that. As C.S. Lewis famously observed:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.1

Jesus made it clear that he came to be something more than a teacher, miracle worker, or cultural ambassador.  He stated on multiple occasions that his reason for coming was to die a death that would save.2

When we speak of a “Savior,” we need to be clear about what we are being saved from. This has been discussed in previous articles of JTST,3 but suffice it to say for now that we do not mean merely being saved from less than ideal life circumstances.  We mean being saved from the wrath of a holy God against those who deserve his wrath because of their sin.4

So to speak of Jesus as Savior, the question is, “How? How is it that He saves us?” Throughout the history of the Church, untold amounts of ink and even blood have been spilled discussing the “How?”  But, for the purpose of this article, I will narrow my focus to two aspects of Jesus as Savior.

I. SUBSTITUTIONARY ATONEMENT5

I was probably about ten years old when, while sleeping over at a friend’s house, I broke the handle off of his family’s wood burning stove.  It was an accident.  I did not mean to, but I did it. My friend and I tried to get the handle back on as best we could.  We were not so much trying to cover it up as we were trying to fix it. At last, we got the handle to stay on and thought the impending doom had passed us by.

It was not until later that I found out that the next time my friend’s father went to open the stove to put more wood in, the handle fell off.  When my friend’s father asked him what happened, he had the chance to rat me out.  But, instead, I was shocked to find out that he did not tell on me. He let his father assume that he had done it, and he took the punishment (an epic spanking) for what I had done.

This is, though on an infinitely smaller scale, the essence of what is called Substitutionary Atonement.  Jesus stood in the place of sinners.  He substituted himself.  We deserved God’s wrath against us because of our sin and rebellion against Him, and He took the punishment that we deserved.  This is what Paul was referring to when he wrote in Romans 5:6-8:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.6

That Jesus came to appease the wrath of God7 in the place of those who deserve that wrath is also affirmed in such places as Romans 3:25 and First John 2:2.

Forgiveness of sin is often communicated in a way that insinuates that forgiveness is actually better stated as forgotten or ignored.  It is often thought of like a grandparent who does not tell the parents all of the things that the grandchild did while under their care.  After all, the grandparent loves the grandchild and does not want them to get into trouble for being a child and doing what all children do.  But this is precisely what we must not think of when we say “God forgives our sins.”  Forgiveness of sins comes at a great cost.  Just not at great cost to us.8

God, being completely just and righteous, cannot overlook or ignore sin indefinitely.  Though He does exercise patience, and oftentimes His punishment of sin is not immediate, He will require that all sin be paid for.9  The question we must all face is not, “Will my sins be paid for?”  The question is, “Who will be paying for my sin?”

The Bible gives us only two options when we answer this question.

The first option is to answer, “Me. I will be paying the penalty for my own sin.”  We have all rebelled against our Creator and have with our actions, if not with our lips as well, continuously told Him, “NO!”  This cosmic treason deserves eternal punishment because our sin is against an eternal God.10

Accordingly, Scripture is clear that God, being a just and righteous God, must punish all who sin against Him, because their actions are evil.  As an infinitely holy and just God, He must demonstrate His eternal goodness by actively pouring out His wrath against all evil.  The just punishment for sinners against God is to have His wrath poured out on them for eternity in a real and literal hell.

This is option number one.  “All have sinned.”11  “The wages of sin is death.”12  There is no escaping what we deserve and we will all get what we deserve.  We will pay the price for our sin ourselves.  Unless . . .

Unless we go for option number two.  Option two does not make our sins simply disappear or no longer need punishing.  Option number two is that, like my friend and the broken handle, someone stands in our place and takes our punishment for us.

Justice demands that the price for sin be paid for and so payment must be made.  If someone is willing to say, “My friend’s sin demands payment and I am here to pay it for them,” then the demands of justice are met and the sinner gets a substitute to take their punishment.  But this cannot be just any substitute.  The substitute must have no sins of their own to speak of.  They must be perfectly blameless and, not only that, they must be perfectly righteous.  Jesus Christ alone is the perfect sacrifice.  He is the reality that all of the shadows of Old Testament sacrifices were pointing to.13  He was the One who fulfilled the words of John the Baptists’ not so subtle declaration in John 1:29: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Jesus’ death was not merely a display of His love and selflessness, though these attributes certainly played a part in what He did.  His death was an actual payment.  He was standing in the place of, or substituting Himself for, those who deserved the wrath of God.  He did this willingly and He took the punishment in total, declaring with His dying breath, “It is finished.”14  So when we speak of Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we mean that He is our Savior because He saved us by standing in our place to spare us from the wrath to come.15

II. IMPUTATION

If we only have our sins forgiven, then we are still in trouble on the Day of Judgment.  If our sins are forgiven and nothing else has occurred, then we are not perfectly righteous; we are simply neutral with a record of one who has sinned.

Imagine that through a combination of bad decision making, a bad economy, and betrayal of your accountant, you find yourself in debt that is well over a million dollars.  If you are like me and most people I know, you would feel pretty hopeless.  There is simply no way that you can pay back that amount of money.  To add to the stress, imagine the interest that is gathering and your bills and your groceries and the costs of everyday living.

Now suppose that the president of the bank who owns your loan meets with you and says: “I have an account set up that has enough to pay your debt with some money to spare.  Because of my experiences earlier in life and being in debt, I want to give you the chance that I always wished I had. I want to give you a chance to start over debt free.”

Would you be ecstatic?  I know I would!  Now stay with me a bit longer.  Suppose, a month later after paying off your debt, you go to put an offer on a new house.  What will the mortgage company do first?  They will check your income and check your financial background.  As soon as they see that at one point in time you were in debt over a million dollars and that it was paid off but not because your income went up drastically, you can kiss that new house goodbye!  You may be “debt free” but you are still one incurred debt.  Your record is not clean.

If Jesus’ role in our salvation stops at forgiveness of sins, then we are still in trouble.  We must have a perfect record of obedience to stand righteous before God and none of us has that even if our sins have been forgiven.  That is where imputation comes in.

Remember when I said that the substitute had to be perfect and that Jesus was perfect?  That matters not only for substitution but also for imputation.  What happens is that God grants a two way transaction between Jesus and the sinner.  All of the sin in the repentant and believing sinner’s “bank account” is transferred to Christ.  All of the perfections of Christ’s obedience and righteousness are transferred to the sinner’s account so that God can justly declare our debt forgiven and our standing before Him righteous.  This is not because we cleaned up our act or kept a bunch of rules.  It is based squarely on the merits and actions of Jesus Christ alone!  This is what Paul is speaking of when he says:

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.16

We must remember that Jesus did not only die for us but He also lived for us!  His perfect track record of obedience, standing firm in the midst of temptation, keeping the law in total, fulfilling all that was required of Him, loving the Lord with all of His heart, soul, mind, and strength and His neighbor as Himself is all credited or “imputed” to those who have their sins forgiven.

III. SAVIOR INDEED

So often, those of us who have been following Christ for some time seem to lose a bit of our awe when it comes to salvation. I do not mean that we stop being thankful but we just sort of get used to the idea of Jesus as our Savior. “Of course He is our Savior.  After all, that is what He does!”

Oh, that the Lord would grant us to be bowled over and blown away at what it means that Jesus Christ is our Savior!  He did not come and just “do His duty.”  Hebrews tells us that He endured the cross, despising its shame for the joy set before Him!17 He lived a life of perfect obedience and glad and joyful submission so that, after having our sins forgiven, we who have not obeyed perfectly and have not lived life joyfully submitting to the authority and lordship of God over our lives could be counted righteous before God.

It is because Jesus Christ is the Savior that we have our sins forgiven and can boldly approach God with joy, not in fear of being consumed by His judgment and wrath, but confidently as forgiven, righteous, and loved sons and daughters of our God!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood;
Sealed my pardon with His blood;
Hallelujah! What a Savior!18

1. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (London: Collins, 1952) 54-56. [↩]
2. See Mark 8:31-32; 9:9, 12, 30-32; 10:34-35. [↩]
3. See “What is Hell Like?” in the Theological Questions page of JTST. [↩]
4. For more on this, see JTST issue 7, “The Depravity of Man” by Stephen Cavness. [↩]
5. The Biblical teachings of both Substitutionary Atonement in Section I and Imputation in Section II are two aspects of the broader Biblical teaching called “Justification.” For a more full treatment of Justification, I would recommend chapter 36 in Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000) 722-735; Sinclair Feguson’s Chapter on “Sola Fide” in After Darkness, Light: Essays in Honor of R.C. Sproul (Philipsburg, N. J.: P & R Publishing, 2004) 73-93; as well as these two books: John Piper’s Counted Righteous in Christ (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2003) and Charles Leiter’s Justification and Regeneration (Hannibal, Miss.: Granted Ministries Press, 2009). [↩]
6. All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version. [↩]
7. The theological term for this is “propitiate.” [↩]
8. There is a cost to us in the sense of our repentance and faith in this life may cost us in terms of self denial, status, reputation, worldly goods, etc. There is not a great cost to us in the sense that we must earn our salvation by performing good deeds before we die or that we must undergo a time of purgatory after we die in order to be forgiven. [↩]
9. Romans 3:25-26; 1 Peter 3:1-13. [↩]
10. If I disobey the speed limit, the punishment is relatively limited in duration. If I send a death threat to the President of the United States, the punishment will be much more severe, swift, and will last a lot longer than paying a fine or going to traffic school. The difference is the position and the innate value or office of the one “sinned against.” [↩]
11. Romans 3:23. [↩]
12. Romans 6:23. [↩]
13. Hebrews 9:15–10:18 covers this ground well. [↩]
14. John 19:30. [↩]
15. 1 Thessalonians 1:10. [↩]
16. Romans 3:26. [↩]
17. Hebrews 12:2. [↩]
18. “Hallelujah, What a Savior!” by Philip Paul Bliss (1838-1876). Lyrics found in The Hymnal for Worship & Celebration (Nashville, Tenn.: Word Music, 1986) 175. [↩]