I’ll never be able to check an item off my bucket list. For over a decade now I’ve wanted to see B.B. King in concert. But apparently “Playing for Mike Leake” wasn’t on Mr. King’s bucket list and so I’ll never see him in concert. I almost did though.
You see, I had given my buddy $100 to buy tickets to see B.B. King. Instead he blew the money playing poker with some other friends. Knowing that I was upset he said he would make it up to me. A couple of weeks later he handed me a couple of Toby Keith tickets and figured that should call it even.
Now if you know anything about me you know that I abhor country music—and though I don’t know if I could name any of his songs I’m pretty sure that going to a Toby Keith concert would rank just under putting tiny cuts on my body and then taking a bath in rubbing alcohol. Though it might have been okay in his mind, Toby Keith isn’t an acceptable substitute for B.B. King tickets.
Now I have to confess this story is made up—all except for loving B.B. King and loathing country music, that part is true. I share this fictional story to make a point a substitute is only acceptable if the offended party says that the substitute is acceptable.
I thought of this the other day when studying Genesis and the story of Abraham. Remember the part where Sarah just couldn’t have a baby? And then her and Abe came up with this great plan to have a baby through Hagar. What are they doing? They are coming up with a substitute. Sarah couldn’t conceive. Hagar could. Why not use Hagar?
But God didn’t accept this substitute.
Fast forward to Genesis 22. You get the idea that Abraham learned a lesson. When God—and mind-boggling story this is—calls Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, he doesn’t take a ram up the hill as a substitute. He takes Isaac. The promised son. But he ends up sacrificing a ram caught in a thicket instead of his boy. Why? Because God ordained and accepted the substitute.
What does this have to do with you and I?
Everything, really.
You see, I’ve often got this half-baked idea that I can come up with substitutes that will be pleasing to God. But it never works.
Take me for example. I’ve gotten a bit better at this, but I can have a pretty sharp tongue. I can say things that I regret. Awhile back I was a complete jerk and disrespectful to this guy that I know. The Spirit pricked my conscience and I knew that I was being a goon. But what did I do? Did I confess my sin to this man? Did I repent? Nope. I decided to be really nice to him for the next couple of hours. I figured I could substitute niceness for actual repentance.
And we all do silly stuff like this often. We try to substitute good deeds, baptism, church attendance, moralistic living, recycling, humor, and a host of other things in place of actual God-honoring repentance. Repentance which acknowledges our guilt and runs to the only acceptable substitute; namely, Jesus.
God doesn’t accept any other substitute. But he ALWAYS accepts the substitution of His Son. It’d be wise for us to drop the charade and fly to Jesus. Whatever you are substituting in place of Jesus and His work is going to come up empty. It’s offensive. And it’s prideful. When I’m the offender I don’t get to pick the substitute. I don’t even get to say if a substitute is possible. God does. And God did.
Jesus alone is that acceptable substitute.
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Photo source: here
Reminds me of how awful I treated my brother the other day….I was demeaning and degrading towards him, cursing and using profanity towards him. I felt so guilty and so bad and I knew in the end I was wrong. I went to my brother and asked him to forgive me and that what I did wasn’t right. It wasn’t right, no matter how annoying or angry my brother treated me I shouldn’t have responded in that fashion. My brother said that it was okay and that I didn’t truly mean it (he isn’t saved) but no, he was wrong….that’s exactly what I meant for out of the heart comes the issues of life, evil thoughts which translate into action. I still feel pretty guilty.