APRIL 2022
The Greatest Exchange; A Sinner For A King
When you think about an exchange, you think about it as the act of giving one thing and receiving another, especially of the same kind. A feature of a good exchange is usually fairness. The person on the receiving end usually wants to feel they have gotten a good deal. If it's not similar, you prefer it to be better, but definitely not much less. If it is much less, you begin to feel cheated, and that brings all sorts of negative emotions into your heart.
Father God, in the greatest exchange of all time, took the worst deal ever and gave us the very best deal anyone could ever desire. His exchange was driven by extravagant and unconditional love. God's Love caused Him to choose you and I, the sinners, and grant us to become royalty (kingship) through His Son, Jesus Christ our Saviour.
To expatiate on this, let us consider when God created man and placed him in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were in perfect communion with God in the garden. Adam chose the names of all the animals with God and God told Adam that he could eat off every plant and animal, except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We know the rest of the story, how satan deceived Eve and Adam into eating from the tree. They sinned and were rebellious, then discovering they were naked and finally, they were ashamed. Because of God's holiness and righteousness, sin had to be punished. God had to punish them and drove them from the garden. So, man's access and communication with God was broken.
Romans 6:23 says that "the wages of sin is death". God's Law was that anyone who sinned would die and man had broken this law (Gen 2:17; Romans 5:12). However our God and Father, so loved the world that He created, and made a great redemptive plan to rescue us from the scheme of satan and restore the relationship and communication between Himself and man. To do this, Father God sent His only Begotten Son and King, Jesus, to be born into this world as a baby and to live a sinless life and die in our place. In this way, the wrath of God was averted. God sent Jesus for the great exchange, so that I as a sinner, can through My Lord Jesus Christ, take on the place of Jesus and enter into His Kingdom. We can sit with Him, in His place, even as Jesus took on the sin of the world at the Cross (1 Peter 2:24).
You may be wondering, where exactly was this great exchange made manifest. It was made manifest at the Cross. In Jesus's humanity, He was born under the law, and kept the law perfectly, and was qualified as the perfect Adam (man) to save God's people (Romans 5:15-19). At the Cross the Lord took our sin upon Himself and gave us His righteousness. Because Jesus lived a perfectly obedient life, God the Father credits Christ's perfect righteousness to his people who have faith in Christ alone. These are all those who call upon the Name of the Lord (Romans 10:9).
God the Father put all the sins of believers, past, present and future on our Lord Jesus who had no sin. Jesus freely took those sins and died to redeem all who would believe. These have become Christ's Bride (Hebrew 12:2). In addition, this great exchange becomes ours not by works but by faith in Jesus Christ alone.
So, what should we be doing with all this grace and mercy. We are called to rise up and step into the royalty that we have been called into. Let's not keep the King of kings waiting for us to take our place as royalty any longer. Romans 8:19 says that creation is groaning as it is earnestly waiting for the revelation of the sons of God. This means that creation is waiting for you and I to walk as the sons of God. God is our Father, but also King, so His children automatically have royalty thrust on them. Besides in 1 Peter 2:9 it reminds us that we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation. This implies that because we are God's own purchased special people, we can set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.
To achieve this, Father God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit (John 15:26; John 16:7) to help us. We can be empowered by the Holy Spirit as we lean into our relationship with Him. We can yield ourselves to seeking and understanding God's Word. We can then open ourselves completely to receive the overwhelming love of God as we spend more time in the secret place with our bridegroom, Lord Jesus.
May God bless you as you prayerfully enter into the fullness of what is available for you and in this great exchange, a "sinner for a King ".
God Bless You,
Mina Bajomo
