The Great Exchange at the Cross

If you have any need or problem whatsoever in your life, there is one place, and only one place, to which you must go to find God's provision or God's solution. And that one place is the cross of Jesus.

Through what Jesus accomplished by his death on the cross, every provision of God for you—spiritual, physical, material, for time or for eternity—has been made available. But there is no other basis than the cross for all the provisions of God. It is through the cross, and through the cross only, that you can come to God and receive his provisions and his blessings.

In order to do that, you need to understand the basic nature of what took place when Jesus died on the cross. At that point, a divinely ordained exchange took place, ordained by God and predicted many centuries before in the prophets of Israel.

It's all summed up in one key verse of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 53, verse 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.”

That's the absolute center of everything that God has to offer for us.

It's entirely the grace of God. We have no claim upon God, we could not have demanded this from God, but in his infinite grace and mercy, God ordained this exchange. Let me state it very briefly. God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all. The word iniquity could also be translated rebellion. Our rebellion, the rebellion of the entire sin-cursed Adamic race, came upon Jesus on the cross by divine appointment.

Now, that's the negative side of the exchange. The positive side is that in return, all the good that was due to the sinless obedience of Jesus might be made available to us. Let me put it more simply still. God visited upon Jesus the evil due to us, that in return, he might make available to us the good due to Jesus. Let me say it more briefly still: the evil came upon Jesus that the good might be made available to us.

Now, there's no claim that we can make upon this. It initiates solely from God's grace and mercy. But thank God, his grace and mercy have ordained this exchange and made this provision.

Now, I said that the word iniquity could perhaps be translated rebellion. I find in studying the Old Testament that this word means two things which are closely related. First of all, rebellion, and then all the evil consequences and judgments that come upon rebellion. And this is how we need to understand it in this context. God visited upon Jesus our rebellion, and then he endured all the evil consequences of our rebellion, which by justice should have come upon us. And from whatever aspect you view the cross, you see this truth of a divinely ordained exchange: the evil coming upon Jesus that the good might be offered to us.

Let me just give you a few of the aspects of this exchange in very simple terms. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven. He endured the judgment due to our rebellion, the punishment. The wages of sin is death. Jesus was punished that we might be forgiven.

Then in the physical realm, Jesus was wounded, physically wounded, that we might be physically healed. The scripture continuously emphasizes this fact.

“By his wounds we are healed.”

He himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 24 says of Jesus,

“by whose wounds you were healed.”

That's the exchange. Jesus suffered physical wounding that we might be physically healed. How many, many Christians need to know that, that their healing has been provided by the sufferings of Jesus in his body on the cross.

And then again, the scripture says Jesus was made sin that we might be made righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says,

“God made Him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Notice it's not our own righteousness, it's the righteousness of God.

And then it says in Hebrews 2 and verse 9,

“that Jesus, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man.”

Jesus tasted our death. What's the exchange? That we might share his eternal life. On the cross also, Jesus endured our poverty. He was stripped, he was left totally impoverished. He was left with nothing. He took our poverty that we might share his abundance.

And then on the cross, Jesus was rejected by God the Father. He cried out and there came no answer from heaven. And he died of a broken heart, a heart broken by rejection. But by his rejection, we have acceptance with God the Father. So that that truth comes out time and time again: the evil came upon Jesus that the good might be made available to us.

Now, in my talk today, I'll be focusing on another aspect, one to which the Holy Spirit sovereignly directed me some years ago. I've never found it referred to in any book that I've read or any sermon that I've heard. And yet, if we can understand and apply the truth contained in it, it has the potential to revolutionize the whole course of our lives. I myself have witnessed the impact that this truth produces, both upon individuals and communities.

This aspect of the exchange that I'm speaking about now and will be speaking about for the rest of this week is described in Galatians 3 verses 13 and 14, where Paul says,

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus.”

Now, the exchange is obvious, just as in the other cases. The evil is the curse, the good is the blessing. Christ was made a curse on the cross that we might qualify for and receive the blessing.

In order to receive this provision which God has made for us, it's necessary to understand the nature of both blessings and curses. And if you don't understand that, you will not be able to avail yourself of this provision. Both blessings and curses are major themes of scripture. The words bless or blessing occur in the Bible about 430 times. The word curse in various forms occurs about 160 times. In other words, the Bible has got a great deal to say about both.

Both are absolutely real. We must understand this. So real that Jesus had to be made a curse that we might be redeemed from the curse and receive the blessing. Some people are inclined to think that blessings are real, but not curses. That's illogical. Any pair of opposites that we can care to think of, if one is real, the other must be real. Like day and night. If day is real, night is real. Heat and cold. If heat is real, cold is real. Good and evil. If good is real, evil is real. Strong and weak. If strength is real, weakness is real. We cannot focus simply on one and ignore the other. And so it is with blessings and curses. Blessings are real, and curses are real.