Bryson Smith recalls reading an article about movie stand-ins.  They’re the people who replace movie stars in scenes that are dangerous or just uncomfortable.  An example is Glenn Duhigg, an ex-lawyer who worked as the stand-in for Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 2.  Glenn reckoned, “It sounds very glamorous saying you’re the stand-in for Tom Cruise, but I don’t think many people realize the long hours and constant demands that deflate your ego very quickly.  The days are long.  Whatever scene Tom was in, I would be the one standing there, being him sometimes for ages as the crew set up the shot – getting the lighting just right and the props just so.  I’d be standing there for hours out in the weather, getting drenched in the rain or sun stroke out in the heat.  And then Tom would just walk on the set from his air-conditioned caravan or out of his beautiful sports car once the scene was ready.”  As one of the other stand-ins said, “I realized very quickly the difference between being a star and being a stand-in.” *

We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  Because of our sins, we deserve sin’s punishment: “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).  Imagine being convicted of a capital crime in the 1st Century in the Roman Empire and being sentenced to death by crucifixion.  The criminal would be nailed to a wooden cross through his wrists and his feet.  The cross would be dropped into a hole so that the victim would literally hang on that cross in utter agony until death, usually by asphyxiation because he would be unable to push and pull against the nails in his hands and feet in order to exhale.  This is what we deserve because of our sins.

This is exactly what Jesus, the Son of God, did for us.  He died, not for His own sins, but for the sins of the world, for your sins and for mine (1 John 2:2).  He did this because He loves us and in order to save us, for only He – the sinless Son of God – could pay the price for our redemption (Ephesians 1:7).

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

On the cross, Jesus Christ was our stand-in.  He endured the pain and the punishment from God, all in our place.  He suffered the full wrath of God against sin on our behalf so that we can be saved and receive the gift of eternal life.  Then, having died for our sins and being buried, He victoriously arose again on the third day, defeating Satan and death (Hebrews 2:14-18).

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

Jesus, the sinless Son of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, was our stand-in.  He died in our place so that we might live.  “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

He did it for YOU.  Won’t YOU accept His offer of salvation and eternal life on His terms?

-- David A. Sargent

* Source: “Standing In” by Bryson Smith, as published on www.perspective.org.au.  Perspective Vol. 8, No. 4, 2001, from an article published in the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, Sunday Life Section, Sept 17, 2000.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org