The Great Exchange| Colin D

This message was preached  by Colin D'cruz at Word of Grace Church on February 26th, 2017. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here

Q. How many of you have exchanged something?

You give your old phone and get a new phone. Earlier, people would knock doors ask for old clothes in exchange of vessels. That is not a great exchange. Today we will look at a great exchange.

We are not unfamiliar with this but it is important to remind ourselves of it and value it. Secondly, as life gets more and more busy, we sin. We do things that are wrong and don’t do things we should. This great exchange gives rest to our souls. God is for us even when we fall short of His standards.

2 Corinthians 5:21- “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

This verse is said to be the essence of the Bible. We will look at 4 things from this verse. We are sinners by nature and by action, right from birth. The evidence for sin is tremendous. The result of sin is a life without God and hell. But in this verse, there is good news. This is the solution to the sin problem.

1.      Begins with God- There are no men saying where is God. The solution started with God. Romans 3:11-12 “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one”. This is God’s judgment about man. John 18:11- “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?” Who planned that Jesus will die on the cross? It is the father’s plan for our sake. Romans 5:8 tells us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

2.       Jesus was the only one who had no sin- Romans 3:23 says all have sinned. But Jesus was blameless. John 8:46- Jesus could not be blamed. In him there is no sin. No man could pay for another man’s sin. We can’t help one another. So God sent Jesus to come to earth and he lived a sinless life. Heb 7:36- “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.” Heb 4:15- Jesus was sinless from the beginning to the end.

3.      God made him to be sin for us- this is the great exchange. It does not mean that Jesus sinned. Isaiah 53:6- “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” All our collective punishment was put upon him.

In the Second World War, in a Nazi Prison, there were a group of prisoners who were to shovel and come back at the end of the day to the prison. Everyday the prisoners and the spades are counted and one day a spade was missing. The police threatened to kill one person if they don’t own up to it. Someone steps forward and owns up to it. He is killed immediately instead of the other guy he was going to kill. Later that day they find that all the spades were there and that it was a miscalculation. This man gave his life in place of another. This is exactly what Jesus has done for us.

It was horrifying that he was separated from God the Father.

4.      In him, we might become his righteousness- The word is imputed. The benefits of his sinless life are credited to each one of us. You are as righteous in your position as Jesus is. We can come before a Holy God because of this righteousness.

We can respond in two ways. Take it for granted. Can I go on sinning then? If we ask this question, we haven’t understood the gospel. Our desire needs to be to please Jesus. We are a new creation. The second response is in 2 Cor 5: 15- “and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” We evangelise. We reconcile people to God. We want to share this news with everyone we meet. Jesus the sinless saviour died in my place.

Q. When was the last time you shared this message with someone?

In our nation and across the world, we are living in dark times. Things are not getting better. The only solution is taking this message of Jesus to the world out there. You are here for the purpose of telling people about this great exchange.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.  

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