Our Substitute

I wrote this for a lead in to communion. Hope that is ministers to you!

As we come to a time of communion it is a time where we get the chance to focus on the very reason we come. We have a chance to stop and remember what Christ did for us.
One of the great significances of Christ’s death and resurrection is that Christ became our substitute. He stood in our place. In the movies the stunt man takes the hit for the star, in our story Jesus the star takes the hit for us.
The idea of a substitute can be a hard one to grasp, we live post Christ, and so we have lived our lives under the substitute. We have not experienced being plucked from the fire as John Wesley was in history. We have not in the physical, experienced the relief of a substitute.
However, imagine for a moment that there was no substitute, how does your life change.
How would Abraham and Isaac been if the lamb was not provided for the substitute for the life of Isaac?
I was once in a situation where there was a longing for a substitute. I sat with a new mother as her six week old baby passed away in her arms. This young life, born with a congenital lung condition that caused this little boy to struggle for breath, all the best medical assistance could help. As we sat there we longed for a substitute, like we have never longed before! Matthew Owen Snook was my son, the mother was Kylie. I can’t tell you how much we longed for a substitute to stand in his place.
This experience taught us so much about how great a God we serve! Because, we serve a God who is the substitute! He died in Matthew’s place, He died in my place, He died in your place!
We do not sit and hold our lives in our hands; Christ stands there, the one and only substitute, our lives in his hands!
Romans 5:8 “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
So as the elements are passed out take the time to ponder, with the truth that Jesus stands in your place, there is a substitute!! Hallelujah! We can rejoice!