The Perfect Substitute Series

Nearly two years after the start of the Civil War, the United States Congress passed the Enrollment Act of 1863 as a way of providing fresh manpower for the Union Army. The law required every male citizen between the ages of 20 and 45 to enroll in the Army. But the law was not received well by pacifists and those within the anti-draft movement, and so two policies were added to the original Enrollment Act…the policies of Commutation and Substitution.

The Policy of Commutation allowed for a drafted citizen to pay $300 (or the equivalent today of $5-6K) to opt out of service. Famous Americans such as Grover Cleveland and John D. Rockefeller took advantage of this provision, in effect buying their way out of service. But this policy created a lot of resentment and led directly to the slogan “Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight.”

But the other policy, the Policy of Substitution might have had an even more devastating effect. This policy allowed a draft-eligible man to NOT join the army if he could provide a replacement in someone that was otherwise exempted from the draft. Famously, Abraham Lincoln, who was too old for the draft (and who was exempted anyway as president), wanted to encourage other “ineligibles” like himself to voluntarily hire a substitute. And so President Lincoln paid a 19-year old $500 to enlist in his place.

Now, despite its good intentions, this policy created serious problems as the troops furnished by substitution often ended up being too young, too old, or in poor health where many were actually alcoholics, or even non-citizens who didn’t share in the ideals they were fighting for. In fact, many of these substitutes became known as “jumpers” where they would collect their compensation, desert their unit before they ever fought, and then repeat the process by becoming someone else’s substitute. Practically speaking, this policy never worked the way it was intended. And eventually the practice of substitution was abolished because they just couldn’t find suitable replacements…in other words, the perfect substitute did not exist.

Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to 2 Corinthians 5 as we continue studying the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in the Greek city of Corinth. Now you might be asking yourself, “What does this story from the Civil War have to do with Jesus and the church at Corinth?” Well, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus was born to be OUR substitute. And today, when you hear this statement, I want to challenge you to throw out any notion that there’s no such thing as a perfect substitute. In fact, Paul is not only going to remind us that Jesus came to be the ULTIMATE substitute to stand in our place, he’s going to show us the deep responsibility that comes with Jesus being our substitute.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

There’s a technique in story-telling called reverse chronology where the plot is revealed in reverse order. Authors and movie directors will occasionally employ this technique…in fact, there’s a famous episode in Seinfeld where he does this. Now I’m no Seinfeld, but I want to use reverse chronology to work backwards through this passage because I think it’s really important to understand the last verse and when we do, the rest of the passage will be pretty impactful. So let’s start out by going back and reading the last two sentences of this passage out loud together: “20b We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”