The Great Exchange

“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

Martin Luther called this truth “the great exchange.”  It is the instantaneous transaction that takes place when we first believe in Jesus.  God transfers our sin to Jesus and his righteousness to us.  Our sin and death are exchanged for Christ’s righteousness and life!  This means that God the Father made his Son to be sin for us even though he was “without sin” (Hebrews 4:14).  The Father treated his Son as if he was a sinner.  He did this because he had imputed our sin and guilt to him.  God essentially made his Son a sin offering as in the prophet Isaiah, “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).  When the Father punished his beloved Son on the cross, he condemned him for our sin, not his own.  On the cross Jesus was bearing all our sin.  This is why he cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)  Ponder the sinless Son of God on the cross.  See him as he is made the idolater, the blasphemer, the liar, the thief, the prostitute, the adulterer, the whore, the murderer!  He is innocent yet by imputation he becomes guilty.  He is judged as if he committed our crimes; for he dies for our treason against our God and King.  We may ask, “Why did God the Father do this to his Son?”  Our text tells us the answer: “so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Behold the entire gospel in a single verse!  Christ is made our sin; we are made his righteousness.  Christ is condemned; we are justified.  “Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood: Hallelujah!  What a Savior!”  Our justification before God consists not only in the forgiveness of our sins but in the imputation of the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.  His perfect obedience is imputed to us.  “For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).  He perfectly fulfilled the law for us.  “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.  By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:2).  When he obeyed, he fulfilled the law’s precept; when he died he fulfilled the law’s penalty.  His righteousness includes his whole life of obedience which culminated in his death on the cross.  He became “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).  This is how our God has made his beloved Son to be our righteousness.  The best biblical illustration of this truth is the third chapter of Zechariah’s prophecy where we find Joshua the high priest standing before the Lord in filthy garments.  There we see this great exchange in action.  On the one hand, God removes Joshua’s filthy garments; and, on the other hand, he clothes him with clean garments.  This reveals the double blessing of our justification in Christ.  God exchanges the filthy garments of our sin for the clean garments of the righteousness of Jesus.  What a glorious exchange!  This is cause for great rejoicing!  “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10).  Today let us sing of this spiritual transaction that has taken place in our lives!  “Jesus, thy blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious dress; ‘midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head.”  Christian, be assured today that all your sins are forgiven through the blood of Jesus and all his righteousness has been imputed to you!  “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

The Lord on My Side

“The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”  Psalm 118:6

Here we have a comforting truth, a confident assertion, and a probing question.  The comforting truth is that the Lord is on my side.  From one point of view, the Lord sides with no one but himself.  When Joshua asked the commander of the Lord’s army, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?”  he said, “No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord?”  The Lord is on his own side.  From another point of view, however, the Lord does side with his people.  He takes up their case and rises to defend them.  He has bound himself to them in covenant and promised to do good to them and their children.  The Lord’s defense is a promise to all those in covenant with God and is a promise that the individual Christian must personally apply  The psalmist says, “The Lord is on my side,” speaking not of the Lord’s defense of his people in general but of his defense of him in particular.  The Lord siding with us is an expression of his favor.  He is for us, not against us.  He loves us and is committed to our welfare.  Let us rejoice in this truth that the Creator and Redeemer of Israel has sided with us in Jesus Christ!  And we have here a confident assertion that follows from this comforting truth.  “I will not fear.”  If the Lord is on our side, what shall we fear?  Shall we fear the bitter providence that is in his sovereign hands?  Shall we fear the unknown future that we cannot predict or control but is governed by our Father's wisdom and goodness?  The Lord’s defense gives us courage.  We dare not shrink in fear when the Lord takes up our case.  We have no reason to fear when we walk in the shadow of the Almighty.  And this leads to a probing question.  “What can man do to me?”  At first glance this question seems absurd.  We know that wicked men have power to harm us greatly in this present life.  They can steal our possessions.  They can beat our bodies.  They can ostracize us from our earthly relationships.  They can kill us or those we love.  They can defraud us.  They can persecute us mercilessly.  Yet the psalmist asks, “What can man do to me?”  He must mean, “What can man ultimately do to me?”  If the Lord is on my side, then the Lord will vindicate me.  If the Lord is on my side, man may kill my body, but he cannot take my soul.  If the Lord is on my side, then man may take my treasure on earth, but he can never take my treasure in heaven.  If the Lord is on my side, man may separate me from my family and friends, but he can never separate me from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.  So today we need to ask ourselves, Is the Lord on our side?  Are we in covenant with him?  And are we on his side?  And if he is our Defender, then let us not fear either God’s providence or man’s persecution.  For God is working all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.  And as for man, What can he do to me?  My help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth! 

Holding Back God's Word

“Thus says the LORD: Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah that come to worship in the house of the LORD all the words that I command you to speak to them; do not hold back a word.”  Jeremiah 26:2

Preachers may sin against the Lord by not declaring the whole counsel of God.  It is not that the preacher announces heresy but that the preacher simply does not proclaim all that God has commanded him to speak.  God directly revealed to Jeremiah all that he wanted him to speak to his people.  God reveals today to his preachers what he wants them to proclaim by the Spirit through the written Word.  Preachers are always under orders to proclaim only what God has said and all of what God has said.  We do not have the freedom of holding back a word.  Christians should learn from this that we must not only examine what a preacher says but also what he fails to say.  Many Christians are seduced by popular preachers because they do not hear any obvious heresy in what is preached, but this is only a part of our responsibility as discerning listeners.  We must also give thought to what might be missing.  What is the preacher holding back?  The most deceptive form of false teaching is distortion by subtraction, not addition.  Rather than preaching something false, the false teacher removes something true.  He holds back a word.  He may hold back a word of judgment.  He may speak, “Peace, Peace,” where there is no peace.  He may hold back a word of repentance.  He may heal the wound of God’s people lightly without calling for reformation of heart and life.  He may hold back a word of salvation.  He may preach the law but not the gospel.  He may strip sinners of self-righteousness and not provide the robe of Christ’s righteousness.  He may hold back a word of application.  Some preaching is all doctrine and no application.  He may speak in the lofty ideas of theoretical abstraction and yet not bring home the truth to people in front of him.  And yet he may hold back a word of doctrine.  In his zeal to be relevant he may not ground his exhortations in the instruction of the Word.  How preachers need to be on guard against the sin of selective preaching!  How Christians need to be on guard against the sin of selective listening!  When you listen to the preaching of the Word, are you selective in what you receive?  Do you take heed only to the doctrine and not to application?  Or do your thoughts wander during the preaching of sound doctrine only to come back again when the doctrines are applied to life?  Do you love to hear the booming thunderclaps of the law but not the trumpet blasts of the gospel?  Or have you only ears for good news while plugging your ears to the oracles of judgment?  May this never be!  Let us love to listen to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth!  May we not diminish the glory of Jesus or the completeness of God’s perfect revelation by holding back one word of his precious truth!     

Weeping with Jesus

“Jesus wept.”  John 11:35

This is the shortest verse in the Bible and is easily overlooked in our reading.  John is describing Jesus’ response to Lazarus’ death.  The sight of the weeping Savior must have been a moving moment for the onlookers because upon seeing him the Jews exclaimed, “See how he loved him!”  Others sought to detract from our Lord’s grief by saying, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”  Nevertheless, our Lord’s grief was real.  He was truly troubled over the death of his friend.  Later John tells us that when Jesus came to the tomb, he was “deeply moved” yet again.  The tears of Jesus over the death of Lazarus are instructive for us.  They remind us that grief and sorrow are not unspiritual.  Jesus knew no sin.  We dare not think for a moment that Jesus’ tears are the result of sin or unbelief or lack of maturity or any such thing.  Our Savior was a man of sorrows.  The Bible tells us that Jesus wept.  It never once tells us that he smiled.  He may have smiled, but let us not think for a moment that being a mature Christian means that we are not allowed to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and grieve the loss of a loved one.  He was able to grieve even though he had perfect confidence in Lazarus’ future resurrection.  The hope of glory does not nullify the suffering of this present life.  Christians grieve but not as others who have no hope.  Our grief is real; yet it is tempered by the expectation of heavenly restoration.  We also learn from this that we have a sympathetic Savior.  He understands us when no one else seems to feel our pain.  He knows our suffering and temptation.  He knows the trials of life.  He knows what it is like to miss a loved one.  Jesus is not stoic and does not call his followers to stoicism.  We may talk all we want about a victorious Christianity where we have no struggles or sins or shortcomings or hardships, but this is not the way of the cross.  The theology of glory is not the Christian way.  We have a theology of the cross.  We have a way of sorrows.  The good news is that redemption and restoration are coming.  The Lord Jesus shall wipe every tear from our eyes.  But the coming restoration does not mean that our wounds are lightly healed.  Our Lord Jesus is not insensitive to our hurts.  If we come to him in an evening of weeping, he will assure us that joy comes with the morning.  He will rejoice over us with loud singing.  He will quiet us with his love.  No one weeps with those who weep better than Jesus.  He will not break the bruised reed or snuff out the faintly burning wick.  He will not kick us when we are down.  He will be there.  He will never leave nor forsake us.  Let us go to him with our sorrows.  Let us be confident that he understands.  Let us hear the voice of mercy calling.  As the hymn goes, “I will arise and go to Jesus.  He will embrace me in his arms.  In the arms of my dear Savior there are ten thousand charms.” 

Quenching the Spirit

“Do not quench the Spirit.”

1 Thessalonians 5:19

Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  Let us never quench the Holy Spirit’s fire!  There are several ways that we can do this.  We quench the Spirit when we put out his graces.  The Spirit seeks to produce fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  He breathes his holy fire by means of the Word of God.  He causes us to put sin to death and offer our bodies as instruments of righteousness.  Whenever we leave unattended the fire of our sanctification because it calls for too much stoking or whenever we snuff out the embers of holiness because we fear the cracklings of repentance, we quench the Spirit’s graces.  We can also quench the Spirit by snuffing out his gifts.  The Holy Spirit has given every Christian a gift for the common good.  Although all Christians possess spiritual gifts, many Christians never use their gifts for the edification of the body of Christ.  This happens because Christians are timid or lazy or selfish or uninformed or for some other reason.  Yet we are called to use our gifts.  Our lives burst into holy flames when we are active in the service of King Jesus.  May we not allow the holy fire of Christian service burn out in our lives!  If the Spirit has given us the gift of generosity, let us share this gift with others in the body.  If the Spirit has given us the gift of hospitality, let us invite one another into our homes and enjoy Christian fellowship.  If the Spirit has given us the gift of faith, let us pray for one another and encourage one another in our walk with the Lord.  Do not bury your talents beneath the earth only to find your Master disappointed for your lack of investment!  Employ your gifts in the service of Jesus and for the good of his Church!  We can also quench the Spirit by putting out his guidance.  The Spirit of God leads the sons and daughters of God.  We know that revelation has ceased and that the canon of Scripture is closed.  We are not deluded into thinking that God is still revealing new truth to his people.  The ancient paths are sufficient for us.  Nevertheless, let us not suppose that our God is no longer communicating with us by way of illumination and guidance.  Revelation is complete; guidance continues.  The Spirit of God will remind us of the truths of Scripture at just the right time.  He will prompt us to apply a promise or to obey a commandment in a specific situation.  He will lay another person and his needs on our heart.  He gives us holy impressions that are always within the confines of the Holy Scriptures but enable us to understand and apply those truths to our everyday lives.  When we sense the leading of the Spirit to obey some commandment of God in a particular way, let us not snuff out the burning within us.  This is not the mysticism of seeking visions and dreams and extraordinary experiences.  This is nothing more than sensitivity to the working of God within you.  The working of God within you is the work of the Holy Spirit.  Have you not had moments where you had an idea for obedience that seemed to descend upon you straight from Heaven?  You may have had a sudden desire to talk to a family member about Jesus.  You may have felt the need to give a little more money to the work of the kingdom.  You may have sensed that something needs to change in your devotional life.  Perhaps you find that you need to spend more time reading the Word or more time praying.  All these matters are subject to the Spirit’s guidance and direction.   Mark well that he never works independently of the Bible, but he takes the living Word and makes it a living reality in our daily walks with God.  God is not giving new revelation, but he is still speaking through his previously given revelation.  He is still communicative.  The Good Shepherd still leads his sheep.  His sheep still hear his voice and follow him.  So let us covenant together to stop putting out the Spirit’s fire!  May we not leave the flickering embers of holiness unattended!  Let us use our gifts!    Let us stay sensitive to the leading of the Spirit!  Let us seek to be filled with the Spirit!  May the Spirit of the living God descend upon us and purify us with his holy fire and fit us for his holy service!

Eternity

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”  2 Corinthians 4:17-18

God wants us to have an eternal perspective.  Temporal affairs cannot compare with eternal realities.  Without question our earthly life is beset with light momentary afflictions, but, when our minds are fixed on eternal truth, God is able to make our sufferings fit us for heaven.  God’s Word makes it clear to us that we can look to one of two different realities.  One is the physical and temporal world of this present life; the other is spiritual and eternal world of the life to come.  While it is certainly true that Christians cannot and should not ignore the present life, we are called to view our lives in light of eternity.  We are called to see all of life in proper perspective.  There are extremes to avoid.  Focusing on eternal life to the exclusion of this present life is escapism; focusing on this present life to the exclusion of eternal life is worldliness.  Escapism may be used to shirk responsibilities that we have in this present life.  An eternal perspective must not be used to justify this sort of self-serving attitude.  Worldliness may be used to justify an obsession with the world’s possessions, pleasures, power, and praises.  We may live in this world but not of this world.  But what does that really mean?  It means that we must live in the present for eternity.  This eternal awareness brings meaning to our life now because now matters forever.  Our present life has eternal implications.  This understanding lifts us from mundane meandering through the monotony of life into the realm of purpose and significance.  We should remind ourselves every day that forever is coming and coming soon.  Soon we shall be in either heaven or hell.  Soon we shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ.  Forever is soon.  Are we living with this perspective?  It gives meaning to our light momentary afflictions.  It gives unending hope and purpose and joy.  This day let us live in light of eternity.  Let us seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 

A Joy and a Delight

“Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.”  Jeremiah 15:16

God commanded Jeremiah to eat his words so that he might speak them to Israel.  God desires his people, and especially his preachers, to consume his Word.  When we read, study, and meditate on God’s Word, his Word becomes our joy and delight.  The meal is not delicious as it sits on the table.  It satisfies our appetites only when we begin to feast on it.  Even so the Bible will never be a joy and a delight to us as it sits on a shelf; it must be taken down from the shelf and consumed.  Too many Christians settle for a superficial reading of the Scriptures, but this is like taking a bite of a delicious meal only to spit it out.  Others may chew the meat of the Scripture for a time, but if it takes too much chewing, they will soon spit it out.  The Word will only delight the soul that consumes it fully.  This speaks of reading, studying, and meditating.  This requires time, prayer, concentration, and use of good resources.  We must seek and find God’s words, and when we find them, we must consume them.  Then and only then will his words become the joy and delight of our hearts.  The Bible is an acquired taste; rarely do people immediately and instinctively find reading it to be a joy.  But when the Spirit of God breathes life into our dead hearts, we receive the spiritual taste buds to enjoy the fine flavor of God’s eternal truth.  Jeremiah was not able to enjoy God’s Word in his natural condition.  He needed to be called by his sovereign God.  He took delight in God’s Word because he was called by God’s name.  The Lord of hosts effectively summoned him out of his dead condition in sin and into a living condition of communion with the living God.  We will never hear the voice of Jesus unless we are his sheep.  We will never come to him unless he first calls to us.  We are completely dependent on the sovereign and effective call of God in order to find his Word to be a delight.  Let us not, however, conclude that we are waiting for God to zap us with a love for his Word.  Our God is a sovereign God who is free to work without means if he chooses to do so, but he is pleased to work ordinarily through means.  We should read his Word and pray for this delight in it.  He will use the means of grace, prayer and the reading of his Word, to awaken within us a desire for and delight in his truth.  Perhaps most important of all is to sit under the pure preaching of God’s Word.  God’s ministers are best suited to preach life into dead hearts.  God loves to stir our affections through those shepherds who feed his people with wisdom and knowledge.  Preachers will work with you for you joy so that you might take delight in God and his Word.  So then let us feast on the Word of God today.  Let us not think that it is a bitter pill.  But let us come expecting to be nourished, strengthened, and satisfied.  Jesus is the joy of man’s desiring, and he walks the pages of the God-breathed book.