• Title Page
• Introduction
• The Nature of God
• The Nature of Moral Being
• The Nature of Sin
• The Nature of Moral Government
• The Nature of Justice
• The Nature of Mercy
• The Nature of Substitution
• The Nature of Grace
• The Nature of Salvation

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?