The Great Exchange
Hello, my friends!
I've been doing a lot of pondering lately on the staggering truth of our righteousness in Christ. It's one of those concepts that can so easily become an intellectual theological idea rather than the mind-blowing, life-transforming reality it truly is. But when we grab hold of this with renewed wonder, everything changes!
The Scriptures make it abundantly clear – those who receive the “abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). Do you hear the richness in those words? We aren't earning or attaining righteousness through our efforts. No, it is an extravagant gift lavished upon us by the overflowing grace of God! And wrapped up in this precious package is the ability to reign victoriously in this life we've been given.
Yet if we're honest, so many of us live spiritually impoverished lives, as if perpetually in a famine of grace. We strive and toil, believing the deceptive myth that our behaviour and performance qualifies or disqualifies us from the blessings of God. But friends, this is the exact mindset Satan aims to keep us trapped in – ignorant of the truths of righteousness and grace. For when we remain blind to these realities, we are essentially rendered powerless, living life from a deficit rather than abundantly receiving our divine inheritance in Christ.
The apostle Paul goes to great lengths to demolish this defeatist thinking by pointing us to the ultimate example of Abraham. He calls him the “father of us all” (Romans 4:16) precisely because Abraham got the most critical thing right – he had a revelation of God's way of righteousness through Jesus! You see, God preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, telling him that through his future “Seed” (Christ), all nations would be blessed with righteousness (Galatians 3:8).
Jesus Himself confirmed this when speaking to the Jews, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). Can you imagine having a friend who gets so euphoric at the very thought of you coming over? That's the kind of explosive joy Abraham experienced as he looked ahead to the coming of His promised Messiah!
You and I have believed that same gospel Abraham heard and celebrated. By faith in the finished work of Christ, just like our father Abraham, righteousness has been credited, imputed, and lavishly imparted to us as a gift (Romans 4:3). We didn't earn it through religious resume-building. We simply received the good news, and in that moment, righteousness flooded our spiritual checking account!
This truth is foundational to our entire relationship with God. Righteousness qualifies us to receive every blessing, every promise, every precious inheritance our Father has in store. Which is why Satan wars so fiercely against this doctrine – because he knows it obliterates every lie and unlocks the floodgates of Heaven over our lives.
At the heart of righteousness is what’s often called The Great Exchange. As 2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Can you see the transaction that has taken place? Jesus, who was perfectly innocent and righteous, had our sins imputed, credited, and transferred to Him on the cross. Every foul offense, every missing of the mark, even sins we've not yet committed – all were heaped upon the spotless Son of God and judged in full.
Meanwhile, in this glorious exchange, His perfect record of obedience and righteousness was imputed and credited to our spiritual account! No longer are we seen through the lens of our mistakes and flaws. From Heaven's perspective, we are the very righteousness of God by virtue of our co-union with Christ. We don't behave into this; we believe into it!
This was the ignorance Paul lamented over the Jews (Romans 10:3) – their lack of understanding that righteousness comes by grace through faith in Jesus, not by prideful self-effort in keeping rules. They spurned God's free gift and tried to “establish their own righteousness” which amounted to filthy rags compared to the gift of Christ's perfect obedience. So many believers sadly remain trapped in this same delusion.
But for those who embrace righteousness through Jesus, everything changes! There is a massive difference between innocence and righteousness. When an innocent person sins, their sin is imputed, reckoned to their record. But when a righteous person sins, when you and I as blood-bought children of God stumble and miss the mark, our sin is not imputed to us! No, it was already imputed to Christ on the cross. As Hebrews 8:12 gloriously declares, God has chosen to be “merciful to our iniquities and remember our sins no more.”
That's why, even after Abraham's embarrassing half-truth about Sarah being his sister, God was still able to bless him abundantly (Genesis 12-13). It's why when Abraham slipped up again in essentially the same way with Abimelech, God came with a warning, yes, but also a word that Abraham was still being blessed and protected because of his righteousness through faith in the promised Seed (Genesis 20).
You see, God was not relating to Abraham on the basis of his behaviour, as troubling as it was at times. No, He was blessing him and favouring him on the basis of righteousness – not Abraham's own, but the righteousness credited to him through the gospel of grace! This was God's heart from the very beginning – to have a people who could reign in life, not through their own piety or resume-padding, but through the abundance of His grace and our gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus.
So, my precious friends, I implore you today – leave behind the exhausting delusion that blessing is earned through your efforts or forfeited because of your failures. Receive by faith the gift of righteousness, established by the obedience and shed blood of Jesus Himself! Yes, choose daily to walk in humble repentance, submitting your will to His Lordship. But never negate the grace by which you stand, fully justified and righteous in His sight as you remain spiritually united with your Lord and Saviour.
It's time for the people of God to unapologetically reign in life without the constant drag of guilt, shame, and religious striving. You are forgiven. You are made eternally righteous through the Righteous One. And in Him Heaven's abundance – spiritual, relational, financial, and every other blessing are made manifest in your life. Reign in grace, my friends. Reign through the righteousness which is yours by gift, not merit. Let this be the cry and reality of a generation encountering our Redeemer, just as our father Abraham did so long ago!
Phil