If I may reply to this, I'm not sure what you're getting at exactly here - are you saying that you see the OT lambs as a substitute for Jesus? like, they substituted for the perfect lamb of God until He came? I have heard some people - well, one person at least - say they think of a "substitute" as something inferior, like a substitute teacher (a misunderstanding of the possible nuances of "substitution, imo), so they have problems with saying Jesus is our substitute.silentreader wrote:Lester, please don't misunderstand me, I agree with that, but my idea of substitution is that of replacing something that works with something else that works. I guess it could also mean replacing something that doesn't work with something that works. Perhaps I'm unclear on the nuances of the definition of substitution. (That's weird, almost always when I try to type substitution it comes up substation.)lesterb wrote:It fits because the substitute was the perfect lamb of God. No amount of punishment could atone for my sin. I don't believe that Jesus was punished for my sin. Rather, he died for my sin. There is a difference.silentreader wrote:
Next question, if my death can not atone for my sin, how does substitution fit in?
The wages of sin are death. But only the lamb of God could atone for sin.
I guess when I think 'Substitutionary Atonement' I think of the OT atonement lambs, which God ordained and accepted as an effective substitute until the Lamb of God came and made the final atonement.
Or do you see the OT sacrificial lambs as a substitute for the people of Israel - they died so the people wouldn't have to? In that case, Christ as the perfect Lamb is the final substitute. To qualify as the final substitute, one needed to be a perfect, sinless human being - which was not possible until the Incarnation of the Son himself.
Also, look at Lev. 16. The two goats symbolize Christ's atonement for sin, with the sacrificial goat symbolizing the purging of God's people from sin by Christ's own blood, while the scapegoat took away the impurities and sins of the people to the wilderness, showing how Jesus bore our sins and freed us from their guilt by taking them away. The sins of the people were placed on the head of the scapegoat by the high priest laying his hands on it and confessing Israel's sins. Together the two goats showed that they were substituted for the people and bore the penalty of sin.