Disaster struck Italy early in their  third game of the 1998 football World Cup finals. In the fourth minute Alessandro Nesta, one of their star defenders, was injured and had to be taken off. Thankfully, on the bench sat Guiseppe Bergomi. With 18 years of experience and 77 international caps, the man nicknamed “Il Capitano” was the ideal replacement for Nesta.

The Bible tells us of a substitution that was endlessly more important and timely. Jesus Christ took our place to do something we could never do—save ourselves. When He was nailed to the cross, Jesus was put where we should have been. At some point all of us, by our words or actions, have told God we don’t want Him to be in charge of our lives. That is why the Bible calls us “ungodly”. Jesus didn’t deserve to die because He never sinned. Yet “God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

Jesus is the perfect substitute. All we need do is accept Him as our Saviour. When we do we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us (v.1).

Author

Jon Lindsay

Topics

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