Very briefly – Christian parents raised me and for my first 20 years I attended church regularly. In my early teenage years I attended classes held by the church and at the conclusion of those, having given the right answers to a number of questions, I was deemed worthy to receive communion. However my interest in sport [field hockey and cricket] began to dominate my life and my leisure time. So, after the age of 20 I stopped going to church and indulged myself in my sport and the social life that went with it. That was a very active social life including tours/trips to foreign parts and always included an abundance of alcohol resulting in much ungodly and sinful behaviour.

However in 1984 [@ age 38] things were to change. In the months leading up to my conversion I had been reading a number of books by a Christian author – mainly concerned with his views of what would happen just prior to the return of the Lord. I then began to read another book by the same author that outlined how the life and death of Jesus Christ was foreshadowed by many passages in the Old Testament. The verse that began to impact upon me was Leviticus 1:4 ‘And he [THE SINNER] shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering [THE SUBSTITUTE] and it [THE SUBSTITUTE] shall be accepted for him [THE SINNER] to make atonement [SALVATION] for him [THE SINNER]’.

The reality of my sin and its consequences [eternity in hell] became very real to me. I thought perhaps I could ‘sweet-talk’ my way into heaven on the basis that I wasn’t really too bad but then I read in James 2:10 ‘For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point [even one small “white lie”] he is guilty of all’. I realised that it only takes one sin to send a person to hell and I more than qualified. Fearful of the consequences of my sin I decided to attend a church service on the evening of 19th August 1984. I can’t recall what the preacher spoke about but I know that during the service God revealed to me that the sinless life and substitutionary death of Jesus Christ would solve my problem.

HE was righteous [“CHRIST is the end of the law for righteousness” Romans 10:4] and I needed HIS righteousness. I deserved punishment for my sins and HE didn’t for HE was sinless but HE suffered in my place [“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins {the substitute} the just for the unjust {the sinner} that he {by his sinless life and substitutionary sufferings and death – no work on my part} might bring us {not assist us to get there by our own works/endeavours} to God” 1st Peter 3:16].

Here I saw Christ fulfilling the role of SUBSTITUTE as pictured in Leviticus 1:4 but the missing piece of the ‘jig-saw’ revealed to me by God was this. Before Christ was nailed to the cross He was stripped and the last garment removed was “his coat; now the coat was without seam [a picture of perfect righteousness] woven from the top throughout [the God-man who came to earth]” John19:23. God revealed to me that not only was Christ taking “our [my] sins in his own body on the tree” 1st Peter 2:24 but He was also in exchange giving me His robe – His righteousness to cover me “the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe” Romans 3:22.

That night I was clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith and in consequence I knew I was “accepted in the beloved” Ephesians 1:6. Why did I know and understand all this? Because the Spirit of God had graciously “quickened” me [John 6:63 & Ephesians 2:1]. I went out of that service having been “born again” – I was like the man born blind in John 9 who declared in verse 25 “one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see”. I knew that Christ had given me a perfect and permanent righteousness [HIS] and that ALL my sins had been removed from me because “HE was wounded for our [my] transgressions, HE was bruised for our [my] iniquities…and the Lord hath laid on HIM the iniquity of us all [me]” Isaiah 53 5&6. That is the glorious and full gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ [His sinless life] and Him crucified [His substitutionary death] and because of HIS work one day I will join the chorus in Heaven to sing “unto HIM that loved us [me] and washed us [me] from our sins in his own blood” Revelation 1:5. May God bless you as you read of what HE has done for this unworthy wretch.

Cecil Andrews – “Take Heed” Ministries