Posted on 08/10/2022 8:09:29 PM PDT by Pilgrim's Progress
“When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perisheth. The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead” (Proverbs 11:7-8 KJV).
“The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish” (Proverbs 10:28 KJV).
All the lost man has is in this life. When he dies, it is all said and done with. Their hope is not based upon anything real or eternal. They don’t have any eternal hope, only an eternal fear of destruction. We that are saved have an eternal hope: “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began” (Titus 1:2 KJV), and we have a blessed hope: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14 KJV).
We don’t have any doubt about it, when the Lord comes, we are going. Ours is a hope based on substance. Our expectations aren’t going to perish when we die. We are going to realize our expectations immediately upon death. Not so with the wicked man.
“The righteous is delivered out of trouble,” IS delivered. Right now! It’s there, we are not waiting for it, we have already been delivered.
“. . . and the wicked cometh in his stead,” that simply means that where the wicked attempts to bring the righteous into trouble, and tries to bring wrath upon the head of the good man, God reverses the whole thing and they end up being the ones to suffer. The Lord works it out, He makes the wicked a substitute. The wicked comes into trouble in his stead, in his place, as a substitute.
Consider the sin of Achan back in Joshua. God told Joshua that someone had committed a great sin so that His wrath has fallen upon the people. They lost their first (and only) battle at Ai, so that Israel could not stand before their enemies. In other words, the righteous were falling. God told Joshua how to handle the situation, and when he handled it, the wicked Achan was put in the place of the righteous and suffered their judgment.
It is a substitutionary thing—it is a type (or picture) of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ became unrighteous in our place: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (II Corinthians 5:21 KJV). Jesus died in our place.
When Jesus Christ dies in our place, how does He die? He is the sinless Son of God, but when He dies, He dies with all of our sins upon Him. He dies as a sin-bearer. Jesus said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15 KJV).
He takes our place, that we might be made righteous through Him. He bears our sin, and we bear his righteousness.
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I’ve always enjoyed the Book of Proverbs. I learn something new every time I read it.
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