THE GREAT EXCHANGE
1. I Cor 1:18 tells us that in the preaching of the Cross is the power of God. To fully benefit from the power of the Cross you must understand identification.
a. The word is not found in the Bible, but the principle is there.
b. Identification works like this: I wasn’t there, but what happened there affects me as though I was there.
1. The Bible teaches that we were crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20), we were buried with Christ (Rom 6:4), and we were raised up with Christ (Eph 2:5).
2. We weren’t there, but whatever happened at the Cross, in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, affects us as though we were there.
c. To identify actually means to make identical so you can consider and treat the same. On the Cross Jesus became what we were so that we can become what He is.
d. Identification means our complete union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
2. God created man for sonship, for fellowship, for relationship. Eph 1:4,5; Gen 1:26
a. But, the first man Adam, disobeyed God. Because of identification, his actions affected the entire human race. Rom 5:12-19
b. We are born into a fallen race with a sin nature inherited from Adam. As soon as we are old enough, we commit our own sins. Eph 2:1-3; Rom 3:23
c. As a result of all of this, death, which is the consequence of sin, reigns in our lives.
Rom 6:23; Deut 28:15-68
d. Because God is righteous, He cannot have fellowship with sinners and He must punish our sin. But, the only punishment which will satisfy divine justice is eternal separation from God.
3. God’s solution to all of this was and is the Cross — the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
a. God wanted to treat us as sons, but because of our fallen nature and our sin, He couldn’t do it.
b. So at the Cross, Jesus identified with us, united Himself to us in our sin and death.
1. Then, God had to treat Jesus as we should have been treated.
2. All the consequences of our sin and disobedience went to Jesus. God did to Jesus what should have been done to us to satisfy divine justice.
c. Because of the value of His person, Jesus could satisfy the claims of justice against us.
1. Once the price for our sin was paid, because He had no sin of His own, Jesus could come out of death.
2. Because He united Himself with us at the Cross, we were with Him when He came out of death in the resurrection.
3. When Jesus rose up free from sin, death, and the grave, we did, too, because we were united to Him.
4. The Cross was a means to an end. Through the Cross of Christ God obtained His family.
a. Jesus became what we were so that we could become what He is — a holy, blameless son of God free from every trace of sin. Rom 8:29; Col 1:18
b. He took the consequences of our disobedience so we could have the blessings of His obedience.
c. At the Cross an exchange was made. We want to spend the rest of the lesson dealing with that exchange.
1. God, the Lord Jesus Christ, became a man so He could die for us. Heb 2:9,14
a. Rom 5:6–While we were yet in weakness — powerless to help ourselves — at the fitting time, Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly. (Amp)
b. Jesus died for us. For, in the Greek (HUPER), means for the sake of, in behalf of, instead of.
c. Jesus died the death due to us and endured the penalties due to us.
2. Once He went to the Cross for us He could identify with us or be made identical to us — all that we were and all that we were bound by — and be treated as us.
1. II Cor 5:21–We were in sin so He took our sin on Himself. The man Jesus was made sin.
2. Gal 3:13–We were under a curse so Jesus identified with the fact that we were under a curse. He was made a curse for us.
3. In Isaiah 53 we get further light on what happened at the Cross.
a. When Jesus hung on the Cross, God laid our iniquity on Him. Isa 53:6
1. Iniquity in the Hebrew is AVON. The word includes not only the sin, but the punishment that sin brings.
2. In its fullest sense AVON means not just the sin or the iniquity, but all the evil consequences of sin and the judgment it brings. Gen 4:13; Lam 4:6,22
b. On the Cross Jesus bore our sins and carried our sins. Isa 53:4,11,12
1. In the Hebrew the word borne is NASA and the word carried is SABAL. These words mean to lift up, to bear away, to convey, or to remove to a distance.
2. Both words denote substitution (assuming a heavy burden) and complete removal of a thing borne.
3. In Lev 16:20-22 we see this idea perfectly illustrated in the scapegoat for Israel. Iniquities is the word AVON and bear is the word NASA.
4. This is an OT picture of what God desires to do with our sins and the judgment and consequences that come with them — transfer them to another for the purpose of removal.
4. When Jesus hung on the Cross He identified with us and God treated Him the way we should have been treated.
a. All the evil that was due to us because of our sin nature, our sin, our disobedience, went to Jesus so that it could be dealt with and removed for ever.
b. Then, once it was dealt with, we could come out of it with Jesus when He came out at the resurrection. We were made as free from sin and death in all its form as He is, with the same standing He has before the Father — a holy, blameless son of God.
c. On the Cross Jesus became what we were so that in the resurrection we could become what He, the man Jesus, is. What does it mean to be like the man Jesus?
1. It means to be a literal son of God by birth. John 1:12; I John 5:1
2. It means to have the life of God in you to enable you to live as God desires. I John 5:11,12;
II Pet 1:4; I John 2:6
3. It means to be righteous or right with God — in right standing with God. II Cor 5:21;
Rom 5:18,19
4. It means to be free from the power of sin and death in all its forms. Rom 6:8-10
5. It means to be conformed to the image of Jesus — to be like Him in character and power.
Rom 8:29; I John 3:2
d. God obtained His family through the exchange made at the Cross.
1. Jesus died our death so that we can share His life. Heb 2:9; John 10:10
a. Jesus came that we might have life. He gave us that life by first joining us in death at the Cross.
Then, when He was made alive in the resurrection, we were made alive. Eph 2:5
b. He went to death, through death, to bring us out of death into life.
2. Jesus took our punishment for sin so we can have peace with God.
a. Isa 53:5–He was punished so we would have peace. (New Life)
b. Isa 53:5–The chastisement needful to obtain peace and well being for us was upon Him. (Amp)
c. We have not been let off the hook for our sins. Our sins were punished in the person of our substitute, and now we have peace with God — the same peace Jesus has. Rom 5:1,2
3. Jesus was made sin with our sin so that we can be made righteous with His righteousness. II Cor 5:21
a. No other word better describes a man apart from Christ than sin. Sin is an act, a nature, and a state of being.
1. Rom 5:19–By Adam’s act of disobedience we were made sinners.
2. Eph 2:3–We were by nature objects of God’s wrath.
3. II Cor 6:14 calls unbelievers unrighteousness. I John 5:17 says all unrighteousness is sin.
b. II Cor 5:21–Him who never knew sin God made to be sin, on our behalf, so that we through our union with Him might become the righteousness of God. (20th Cent)
4. Jesus bore our shame so that we can have His glory.
a. Shame is a consequence of sin.
1. It may range from severe embarrassment to a cringing sense of unworthiness keeping us from a relationship with God.
2. We see it first in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned. Gen 2:25; 3:7,10
b. Jesus bore our shame on the Cross.
1. Crucifixion was the most shameful of all forms of death, reserved only for the lowest criminal. The executed was stripped of his clothes and exposed to passersby who jeered and mocked.
2. Heb 12:2–He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the Cross, despising and ignoring the same. (Amp)
c. God’s aim was to bring us into glory through what Jesus did in His death, burial, and resurrection. Heb 2:10
d. Rom 8:30–And those whom He justified, He also glorified — raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition [state of being]. (Amp)
5. Jesus bore our rejection by the Father so we can have His acceptance as a Son of God.
a. On the Cross, Jesus was not only rejected by men, He was rejected by His Father. Isa 53:3;
Matt 27:46
b. Through the Cross we have been accepted by God, made acceptable to God. I Pet 3:18; Eph 1:6
6. Jesus was made sick with our sickness so that we can be healed. Isa 53:4,5,10
a. In the Hebrew the word griefs is CHOLI which means physical sickness. The word sorrows is MAKOB which means physical pains.
1. v4–Surely our sicknesses He hath borne, and our pains He hath carried. (Young’s Literal)
2. v4,5–But only our diseases did He bear Himself, and our pains He carried … and through His bruises was healing granted to us. (Lesser)
3. v5–He was beaten so we could be healed. (New Life)
4. v10–He has put Him to grief and made Him sick. (Amp)
b. Sickness is a consequence of Adam’s sin. God dealt with our sicknesses at the same time and in the same way He dealt with our sins — at the Cross. Rom 5:12
7. Jesus was made poor with our poverty so that we can be rich with His riches. II Cor 8:9
a. This exchange occurred on the Cross. Jesus was not poor during His earth ministry. Matt 8:20; John 1:39
1. He didn’t carry a lot of cash, but He never lacked anything He needed, and He had enough left over to give to the poor. Matt 14:15-21; 17:24-27; John 12:4-8; 13:29
2. When He sent His disciples out to preach, they lacked nothing. Luke 22:35
b. Poverty is a curse or consequence of sin. When Jesus bore our sins, He bore our poverty.
Deut 28:15-18; 47,48
c. Jesus, on the Cross, was hungry (no food for twenty-four hours), thirsty (“I thirst”–John 19:28), naked (John 19:23), in need of all things (buried in a borrowed robe in a borrowed tomb–
Luke 23:50-53).
8. Jesus became a curse so we could receive blessing. Gal 3:13,14
a. The curse of the Law includes every one of the curses listed in Deut 28–humiliation, barrenness, unfruitfulness, mental and physical sickness, family breakdown, poverty, defeat, oppression, failure, God’s disfavor, etc.
b. Every one of those curses came on Jesus that we might be released from them and blessing come on us.
c. What was Abraham blessed with? He had righteousness through faith and he was blessed in all things, physically and spiritually. Gen 15:6; 24:1; Rom 4:6-12
1. Through our first birth we were born into a fallen race, the race of Adam. Through our second birth we are born into a race of new creatures in Christ. Col 1:13
a. In Adam we were, we had, death, punishment, unrighteousness, shame, rejection, poverty, sickness, cursing.
b. At the Cross Jesus took all those things so He could remove them and we could be and have life, peace, righteousness, glory, acceptance, provision, wealth, blessing.
2. All of these things are already ours in Christ. We simply have to learn how to walk in the reality of them in order to experience them in our lives.
a. You have to learn to agree with what God has done for us, what He has provided for us. That means to speak and act in agreement with what God has done and provided.
b. But first, we must know what has been provided and become persuaded or convinced of it. That is why we are taking time to study the Cross.
3. As we study, remember the “why” behind the Cross. Why did God make this exchange at the Cross?
a. Because He loves us, because He wants to treat us like Jesus.
b. Health, provision, acceptance, life, blessing, righteousness, glory, peace — what father wouldn’t want those for his sons?!!