Men’s retreat starts tomorrow night. About 30 of us will head to a house at Ocean Shores and cram into it for some “close fellowship” . . . a bit of fun . . . and too much food. I’ll have the privilege of leading the Friday night session . . . not really preaching or teaching . . . but leading. Anticipating an extended time of walking through Psalm 22 together and ending up breaking bread in remembrance of Him . . . a bit of a throw back to my spiritual heritage and my days in a “Plymouth Brethren” assembly. I’m looking forward to it. So, I’ve been going over Psalm 22 a few times over the past couple of weeks and I think that’s at least part of why 2Corinthians 5:21 jumped off the page this morning . . .

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” – 2Cor. 5:21

That is the Great Exchange! That is the heart of reconciliation.

God who is holy, holy, holy . . . so loved me, who is not . . . that He determined to satisfy the demands of a just God through the exchange of His Son. Sin demands payment . . . the wages of sin is death . . . atonement is required . . . and I was bankrupt. I had run up the debt of sin . . . but I had nothing to pay it with. Enter the Great Exchange.

God determined to provide a means of reconciliation . . . to bring together two parties separated by a vast expanse. His initiative . . . and at His cost. He made His Son to be sin who knew no sin. Amazing! Jesus the Christ . . . the image of the invisible God . . . God with us . . . God in flesh . . . the Creator and Sustainer of all things . . . who Himself was holy, holy, holy . . . without spot or blemish . . . sinless . . . became sin for me. What was that?!? How can I enter into all that means? What was at the depths of His cry on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” What did it mean for Him to be made sin? Beyond the physical death, what spiritual transaction took place such that the just judgment of God was satisfied for all men’s sins for all time? Questions beyond my full comprehension . . . but this I know . . . He who knew no sin, was made to be sin for me.

This too I know, I have become the righteousness of God in Christ. The payment fully paid at Calvary, I have been declared righteous before God. The Great Exchange was His life for my sin resulting in my righteousness in Him. I am “in Christ” . . . oh, glorious thought . . . oh, glorious position. Though so aware of my failings and frailties, I sit here this morning in complete assurance and confidence that through His sacrifice, and in Him, I am “a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (5:17). And this confidence is not in anything I have done . . . or am currently doing . . . or hope to do in the future . . . it rests solely on the fact that, concerning my salvation, “all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ” (5:18).

Perhaps not particularly new or original thoughts . . . but tell me again the old, old, story. It is the gospel, the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). Not new thoughts, but what amazing truth . . . that He who knew no sin would become sin for us . . . that by His grace and through our feeble faith — even that is a gift from God — we have been given the righteousness of God in His Son.

Praise God for the Great Exchange! Looking forward to tomorrow night . . .