With Christmas coming soon it causes me to think about the day after. December 26th is as big as Black Friday there in the exchange department. All the wrong colors, wrong sizes, and just plain wrong gifts that were received just the day before, finding their way back to where they came from.
This exchange makes sense because both the exchanger and exchangee (if that’s a word) receive something of somewhat equal value. Not so with the exchange in God’s economy. He gets something broken. Scarred. Pitiful and weak. And we get Him. His Holy Spirit coming to live in us. His inheritance. Heaven. Only God’s love would agree to this.
There’s a Big Daddy Weave song that really got to me the other day. Got me to thinking about the word “exchange.” In this case, Jesus, exchanging His righteousness, for mine. I never thought about it like that before. I only thought about mine exchanged for His. I couldn’t be righteous enough on my own so I needed His help, I needed to trust Him for the kind of righteousness that made me “right” with my Heavenly Father. The kind that allows for salvation. I could not be good enough, work hard enough, or even believe strong enough. Even though I trusted Him to be my Savior, I needed a reminder that in order for the exchange to take place, He had to take on something unimaginably awful, not a good gift at all but me, I got something unimaginably awesome.
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6
Our sin, (and we are all sinners, Romans 3:23), has blown it for us. Makes us unclean and unrighteous, and carries us away from God. This would translate to hopelessness if it were not for Christ.
My righteousness is “as filthy rags.” That is what I have to offer. He took that on the cross. He received the punishment for that. And all I had to do was believe. To think about the fact that He was nothing but righteousness, and me, nothing but unrighteousness. And He agreed to the exchange.
Jesus I Believe
I wanna walk with You Jesus
Feel your presence
And know You’re near
I wanna see You Jesus
Move in power
And cast out fear
I need to hear You now
I need to know it’s You
I’m standing on your promises
I know your Word is true
You’re bigger than what I see
It’s You and in exchange for me
‘Cause even the impossible can be reality
Jesus I believe
Jesus I believe
I wanna say what You’re saying
Speaking life to what is dead
And I wanna cling to You Jesus
Oh, hanging on to your every breath
I need to hear You now
I need to know it’s You
I’m standing on your promises
I know your Words are true
You’re bigger than what I see
That it’s You in exchange for me
‘Cause even the impossible is your reality
Jesus I believe
Jesus I believe
So let your kingdom come
And let your will be done
Here on the earth
Just like it is in heaven
God let your kingdom come
And let your will be done
Right here on earth
Just like it is in heaven
I need to hear You now
I need to know it’s You
I’m standing on your promises
I know your Word is true
You’re bigger than what I see
It’s You in exchange for me
‘Cause even the impossible is your reality
I need to hear You now
I need to know it’s You
I’m standing on your promises
I know your Words are true
You’re bigger than what I see
It’s You in exchange for me
‘Cause even the impossible is your reality
God even the impossible is your reality
Jesus I believe
Jesus I believe
Help my unbelief God
Jesus I believe
Songwriters: Jason Ingram, Michael Weaver
The greatest gift exchange of all time. Dear Reader, I hope you are a believer and have experienced this exchange. It is my prayer that you realize, every, single, day, what a great sacrifice He made because of the great love He has for you. If you don’t know the words to pray, this song could be your prayer. The prayer that saves you or revives your heart to love Him more fervently or gives you hope in your “impossible,” for nothing is impossible for God (Luke 1:37). Accept the exchange, truly, one size fits all and is for ALL who believe. (John 3:16)
When we exchange an item, they take back the goods, but they can’t be damaged, they can’t be worn-out or stained or torn. At the cross, He took us back, messed up, damaged, scarred, broken to pieces and exchanged all that for His Spirit in us, His Kingdom, ours…forever.
Glory Renewed 