The Great Exchange

The central and core truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what some call the Great Exchange. Let me explain it this way:

1. Every man or woman on the planet is a sinner and has come short of the glory of God.

  • God’s glory is measured by His perfection. Sin is the difference between God’s perfection and our attempts at perfection. All of us come short. Romans 3:10-12; Romans 3:23; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Isaiah 53:6
  • Sin is also the violation of God’s law. 1 John 3:4
  • Sin is also the lack of faith. Romans 14:23
  • Sin separates us from God. Isaiah 59:2

2. The punishment for sin is death – the eternal separation from God.

            Romans 6:23; Ezekiel 18:20; Habakkuk 1:13

3. Justice requires that law-breaking be punished, and God is a just judge. He cannot simply overlook our law-breaking. We would not tolerate our human judges who repeatedly broke the law. In order to be perfectly just, God cannot tolerate even one violation of His law. James 2:10; Galatians 3:10; Matthew 5:48; Matthew 5:20

All sin must be punished otherwise He is not just. This plan I am explaining allows God to be just as well as a justifier (a judge who declares someone righteous) of those who believe. At the same time, it allows God to love us without violating His justice. Romans 3:26

This inborn sin problem is exactly why Jesus told Nicodemus that in order to see the kingdom of God, a person must be born again by the Spirit of God. John 3:3-8. A person needs to be a new creation
 2 Corinthians 5:17

4. Jesus is God who came to our earth as a human being. He lived a perfect life and completely obeyed every law of God.

  • He came to save us from our sins. Matthew 1:21; Acts 3:26; Revelation 1:5
  • He did this by becoming a substitute for us. Isaiah 53:5-6; 1 Peter 3:18; Romans 5:6-8; Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:24; Galatians 3:13
  • He took the blame for our sins and was punished accordingly being crucified on a Roman cross.
  • He rose from the dead on the third day defeating both sin and death. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
  • Anyone who believes in Him and trusts Him is credited with Jesus’s perfect obedience and is rewarded accordingly. This is the great exchange. Our sins are traded for His righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21
  • Receiving eternal life and making it to heaven have nothing to do with the level of our obedience because we all fail. Receiving forgiveness of sins and reaching heaven are a result of Jesus’s righteousness credited to us as a gift of God. We have a righteousness that is not our own but is credited to us. Philippians 3:9; Romans 3:21-22; Galatians 2:16;
  • The forgiveness of sins is complete and thorough. Psalm 103:12; Isaiah 1:18; Isaiah 43:25; Acts 10:43; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:13-14; Hebrews 10:17; 1 John 1:7-9

5. All of the above – the exchange of our sins for Jesus’s righteousness, the saving from sin, forgiveness, eternal life, and the certain promise of heaven is received by faith. That means by believing God in what He has promised. All of it is unrelated to our performance because perfect performance is not possible and God knows that and, because of His love for us, provided a way for Him to be just and a justifier. He can justly declare us righteous. John 1:12; John 3:16-18; John 3:36; John 5:24; Acts 4:12; Acts 16:31; Romans 1:16; Romans 3:28; Romans 4:5; Romans 5:1; Romans 10:9-10; Romans 10:13; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:24; Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 3:9; 1 Peter 1:8-9