52. The Nature of Substitution
The Nature of Substitution
Chapter VII
Having found that logic and reason are in perfect harmony with the Scripture teaching that salvation from sin can be accomplished through substitution alone, we are not therefore to conclude that there are no further problems connected with our rescue from the ruin wrought by Adam’s sin and our own. No matter how completely valid the principle of substitution is as a program of salvation, of what use is the principle, if no one can be found who can qualify to act as an acceptable substitute? The very validity of the principle, and its adequacy to solve every problem connected with salvation, only mock our yearning hearts and intensify our agony in sin, if substitution is but a possibility that no one can fulfil. We must therefore seek to understand the problem God faced as He moved forward to provide an acceptable substitute. As we start out to find the answer to this problem, does logic leave us? Are we now in a realm where reason goes blind? If one presents himself with a claim that he is able to qualify as a substitute, is he to be accepted on his own representations, without our being able to find the principles on which an acceptable substitute can qualify? And if we accept any substitute God provides, must it be on faith only? Must we forfeit the concurrence of reason, or will it turn out that logic and reason are here also in perfect harmony with our faith?
There is at least one basic principle that can be conceived of which is axiomatic, and therefore on which both faith and reason can agree. It is the principle that the work of an acceptable substitute can be valid only as it brings no injury, even to the slightest possible degree, either to any principle of absolute righteousness and equity, or to any person in the universe, as he does his work of substitution. To permit any injury in any direction in providing salvation from the ruin caused by sin, is forever unthinkable of a God of infinite righteousness and holiness. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). And can He do right if He permits one injury in curing another? The logic of the answer is inescapable. As thought proceeds, then, from this starting point, there are conceivable at least six qualifications which, if they can be met perfectly by any one in the universe, will open the way for a perfect work of substitution to be wrought out, because it will be accomplished in such a manner that no injury could possibly accrue in any direction at any time.