The foundation on which our faith rests is this: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them. The great fact that genuine faith depends on is this: The Word became flesh and lived among us. Christ suffered for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God. He carried our sins in his own body on the cross. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

In one word, the great pillar of the Christian's hope is substitution.

The vicarious sacrifice of Christ for the guilty. Christ being made sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ offering up a true and proper expiatory and substitutionary sacrifice in the room, place, and stead of as many as the Father gave him. These are known to God by name. They recognize themselves by this: they trust in Jesus. This is the cardinal fact of the gospel.

If this foundation were removed, what could we do? But it stands firm as the throne of God. We know it. We rest on it. We rejoice in it. Our delight is to hold it, to meditate upon it, to proclaim it. We desire to be moved by gratitude for it in every part of our life and conversation.

In these days, a direct attack is made upon the doctrine of the atonement. Men cannot bear substitution. They gnash their teeth at the thought of the Lamb of God bearing the sin of man. But we who know by experience the preciousness of this truth will proclaim it in defiance of them—confidently and unceasingly. We will neither dilute it nor change it, nor fritter it away in any shape or fashion.

It shall still be Christ, a positive substitute, bearing human guilt and suffering in the stead of men.

We cannot—dare not—give it up, for it is our life. And despite every controversy, we feel that "Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure."