In Our Place

The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death. —Matthew 26:59

Jesus’ trial before the Jewish religious authorities was a mockery of justice. It violated virtually every legal procedure of Jewish law. As we consider what Jesus went through, there’s an important takeaway for us.

The trial points out the substitutionary nature of Christ’s work in saving us. The Holy Son of God stood there in our place, on trial for our sins.

In a message on the trial of Christ, Dr. John MacArthur said:

My deserved trial is enacted in His undeserved trial. . . . My deserved con- demnation is carried out in His undeserved condemnation. . . . God should spit in my face, and punch me, and slap me, and execute me, and condemn me, but Christ took my place.¹

That, my friends, is the gospel. That’s the good news. An innocent man was tried and punished so that guilty men and women could go free.

¹ Dr. John MacArthur, “The Illegal Unjust Trials of Jesus, Part 2,” Grace to You, https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/2390/the-illegal- unjust-trials-of-jesus-part-2