Our Substitute, Our Savior, Our Sovereign

Hebrews 1:3

He who is our Substitute is our Savior. We are assured that his work as our Substitute and Savior is a gloriously effectual work because he is also the sovereign Monarch of the universe.

Our Substitute

The Lord Jesus Christ, who is God almighty, is the sinner's Substitute. He is the Daysman, the Surety, the Representative, the Mediator, the Substitute by whose obedience sinners are reconciled to God, without whom we could never be accepted of God. The key to understanding the Word of God is to understand the gospel doctrine of substitution. Christ stood before God as the Substitute for his people before the world began as the Lamb slain (Rev. 13:8), as our Mediator (Eph. 1:3), and as our Covenant Surety (2 Tim. 1:9). He lived in obedience to God as our Substitute in this world to fulfill all righteousness on our behalf (Rom. 5:19). He died under the wrath of God as the Substitute, in the place of his people, upon the cross (Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21). He intercedes for us today as an advocate in heaven (1 John 2:1-2), as our Substitute before the throne of grace. And he will stand before God in the last day as our Substitute at the bar of justice, as the ground of our eternal salvation (Jer. 23:6). If Jesus Christ is indeed God (And he is!), then all that he has under taken to do as our Substitute, in redemption, justification, sanctification, and glorification, must be effectually and completely accomplished by his own omnipotent arm. Those people whom he undertook to save must be saved. He who is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of his person he who upholds all things by the word of his power is an effectual, almighty Savior. It is written, "He shall save his people from their sins." "He shall not fail" (Isa. 42:4).

Our Savior

This Jesus, the Christ of the Bible, who is almighty God, is the Savior of his people. Christ alone is our Savior. Christ is our complete salvation (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:10). Christ is an effectual Savior. When he cried, "It is finished," he meant it! He worked out a perfect righteousness for us by his life of obedience to God in this world. He fully satisfied the justice of God for us in his death upon the cursed tree. He gave us life by the sovereign power of his Spirit in regeneration. He keeps us in life by his omnipotent grace. And we are complete in him, lacking nothing! Every believer stands before God perfect in Christ!

Our Sovereign

This Jesus, who is God, in order that he might save his people, is the sovereign monarch of the universe (John 17:2). He is the rightful Monarch of the universe as God, by virtue of his eternal divinity. But he has won the right of monarchy as our God-man Mediator, by virtue of his obedience to the Father in his great work of redemption (Acts 5:31; Rom. 14:9; Phil. 2:8-11). Because our Lord Jesus Christ is the absolute, sovereign Monarch of the universe, failure with him is an utter impossibility. He has power over all flesh. Therefore he has power to give eternal life to every sinner chosen by the Father and given to him in the covenant of grace. He has power to give eternal life to every sinner for whom he shed his precious blood; and he shall! It is written in the Book of God, "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied!"