WHEN in China some fifteen years ago, I became acquainted with a custom which was then, I was informed, practiced among that people, and which very forcibly illustrates the above vital truth.
The Chinese are Buddhists by religion, and one of the articles of their creed is that of the transmigration of souls—that is to say, they believe that as soon as they die in one body they are again born into the world in another, and that it depends on their conduct in their present bodies whether they will be born again in a higher or lower position in life.
Death is therefore not feared, except by those who have been very badly behaved.
Notwithstanding this, death is a very common punishment under the Chinese law; but the custom of which I wish to tell you is that when a Chinese is sentenced to death, the law allows him, if he can, to find a substitute to suffer for him—and for a money consideration he finds little or no difficulty in finding one among the many very poor Chinese. A married man who has been unfortunate in providing for his family, finds, in giving himself as a substitute, an easy way of doing so, and by performing a most meritorious action confidently expects to be born in the family of a wealthy trader, or even of a mandarin.
No man can be put to death in China except under a warrant signed by the Emperor; and this document has to be endorsed by the judge who tried the case, that "sentence may be carried out by substitution, and that he approves of Chung Alvo as substitute in this case," the judge having previously satisfied himself that the law has no claim on Chung Alvo. For this certificate the judge receives a fee out of the substitution money, which is generally about fifty dollars (rather over £10).
On the morning appointed for the execution, the officer appointed to see it carried out brings the real criminal to the place of execution, where all is ready for carrying out the extreme penalty of the law, and proceeds to read the sentence and calls on the executioner to carry it out. When the substitute steps forward, the officer refers to the endorsement on the warrant, and finding it correctly signed by the judge, orders the real criminal to be released and the substitute to kneel beside the basket; he then gives the signal, and the executioner with one stroke of his sword severs Chung Alvo's head from his body. The officer in charge writes on the death warrant that sentence on the real criminal has been carried out, and hands the document to him, and from that moment his existence in the eye of the law is ignored, and he is henceforth known only by the name of his substitute, Chung Alvo.
This story illustrates (though in a feeble way) something of the wondrous manner in which our desperate case was met. We are all by nature children of wrath, condemned already, and the sentence about to be executed, yet careless and never looking for a way of escape; but God comes upon the scene. The poor criminal had to seek for a substitute and pay money for him; he had to take him to the judge and get the judge to pronounce the substitute free from all condemnation. Oh, how different our case God provides the substitute, the moving power—not money—"God so loved the world." The substitute must himself be blameless, have himself nothing to suffer for; where shall we find such an one? The Substitute of God's providing is "holy, harmless, undefiled." The substitute himself received money; God's Substitute is provided "without money and without price." This substitute was for one criminal; God's Substitute is a Substitute for all that believe, "for by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." This substitute suffered for the wrongdoing of the criminal. God Substitute "put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." The criminal was dead in the eye of the Chinese law the instant the substitute died; all who believe in Christ (the Substitute of God's providing) “are become dead to the law by the body of Christ.”
The criminal walks abroad in perfect conscious safety because he has in his possession the death warrant on which is endorsed the certificate that the penalty of death due by him had been paid; and much more may they who trust in God's Substitute, for they have God’s certificate in His Word "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”
The criminal's identity was lost, he was now called Chung Alvo; so those who trust in God's Substitute are "dead with Christ," but can say, "Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
Dear reader, this is how "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" (2 Cor. 18-21). Have you yielded yourself to obey Him? This is how He comes preaching peace by Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all). Will you take God's Substitute to be your Substitute? Then not merely has God made Him sin for you, but it is that you might be made the righteousness of God in Him. G. G.