Big Truth:

God Is Our Substitute

Isaiah 53:4-6; John 1:1-3; 18; Romans 5:6-11; 8:1-4; Galatians 3:13-14; Ephesians 5:1-2; 1 Peter 2:22-24; 3:18; 1 John 2:1-2; 4:9-10

Bible Verse:

For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

Big Ideas:

  • We cannot save ourselves.
  • God sent His Son to be our sinless sacrifice.
  • Jesus died in our place.
  • Substitution is final and forever.

Bible Story:

Genesis 22:1-24

Abraham was God’s servant. God had promised to make a great nation through Abraham and He began by giving Abraham a son named Isaac. God tested Abraham’s faith when He asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham obeyed God and set out to give Isaac as a sacrifice, but God stopped him before he killed Isaac. God provided a ram in a thicket nearby to take the place of Isaac as the sacrifice. Jesus is our substitute just as the ram was Isaac’s substitute. Jesus took our place and paid our sin debt.

Story:

Redemption

Thankfully, God does not just leave us in the broken world, but is repairing the brokenness through His Son. From the very beginning of time, God promised He would fix creation, and He kept His promise by sending Jesus to rescue us from our sin. Jesus came to live on the earth and willingly died on the cross so that sin’s power over creation would be broken forever.

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Every child should know that:

  • God sent Jesus to die in our place as our substitute.
  • We need a substitute because we cannot pay our sin debt on our own.

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Every child should:

  • Talk about why we need a substitute and how Jesus is our substitute.

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Every child should feel:

  • Awe at Jesus’s willingness to sacrifice Himself as our substitute.

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Every child should want:

  • To believe in Jesus’s work on their behalf to pay their sin debt.