No Substitutes

My daughter, the teacher, borrowed items from my baking cabinet.
Her second graders are learning about measurement.
Things that I don’t use all the time were taken.
Things that have duplicates were taken as well.

Except one item…Baking Powder.
My husband’s birthday was on the weekend and I was making his cake.
I reached into the cabinet to get the baking powder and it was gone.
For some reason, I did not have any more in my cabinet.

I was so glad the items were still in the bag ready to go to her classroom.
I was able to retrieve my baking powder.
When I was finished with it, I put it right back in the bag.

I made homemade soup last night and of course some bread to go with it.
I reached in the cabinet for my baking powder…Gone!
This time, the bag was no longer here.

I went over to my laptop at my desk in the kitchen.
What can be used as a substitute for baking powder in a recipe? 
I learned that cream of tartar and baking soda, in a 2:1 ratio, can be substituted.
Success!

The materials were needed for two days in her class.
I could wait until I go to the grocery store later this week.
I was baking again today.
Not thinking, I reached into the cabinet to get my baking powder…
Substitute again.

I was thrilled that I could substitute cream of tartar and baking soda for baking powder.
There are other ingredients that allow substitution.
Applesauce for oil when you bake…plain yogurt for sour cream…lemon juice added to non-fat milk to make your own buttermilk.
In the kitchen, substitutions amaze me…no one can tell the difference.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!
…I want you to know brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:6-8,11,12)

Paul makes it very clear in his letters.
NO SUBSTITUTES!

We may think that we can save ourselves, but we are making an eternal mistake.
We may think that we can rack up points that will be credited to our account.
We think that God will look at the balance sheet and see that our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds.

Problem is…it is our balance sheet…NOT His!
Our balance sheet, with all of our substitutions, comes up short…every time!

King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for a thousand of his nobles and drank wine with them. While Belshazzar was drinking his wine, he gave orders to bring in the gold and silver goblets that Nebuchadnezzar, his father, had taken from the temple in Jerusalem…As they drank their wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, or bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lampstand in the royal palace. The king watched as the hand wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way. (Daniel 5:2,4-6)

None of the king’s enchanters, astrologers, or diviners could read the writing on the wall.
It was suggested that Daniel be brought in since he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams.
Daniel reminded Belshazzar that his father, Nebuchadnezzar, humbled himself before God…something Belshazzar failed to do.

You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life and your ways. Therefore, He sent the hand that wrote the inscription. This is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, PARSIN. This is what the words mean: MENE: God had numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. TEKEL: You have been weighed on the scale and found wanting. PARSIN: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and the Persians…That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians was slain, and Darius, the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of sixty-two. (Daniel 5:23-28,30)

You have been weighed on the scale and found wanting.

That’s how it is when you trust in substitutes.
They fall short.
They don’t save.
They end in death.

It is important to read the writing on the wall!
There is no substitute Gospel.
There is no substitute Savior.
There is only ONE way of salvation.

Jesus…is the real Savior.
Trust in Him alone…with NO substitutes!
Only Jesus is mighty to save!