God is Love: The Great Exchange

by Jonathan Pless

A few weeks ago I wrote on God’s love, and that it is most clearly seen in the gift of His son, Jesus Christ giving His life to rescue us. To explore God’s love, we had to wrestle with the reality of what God does not love: sin.

It is in taking a good, honest look at these two truths that the beauty of the gospel shines so brightly. The perfect, good, holy Creator God of the universe loves me, a rebellious and imperfect sinner. This can only be possible through the gospel.

See what Jesus has done for you and I: Christ came and died, even while we were still enemies of Him! (Romans 5:6-8) He loved us with an agape type of love.  He loves us with emotion and action — with an unconditional, sacrificial love, a love we could never earn.

Jesus died for a reason. Jesus took on and bore the full wrath of God instead of us.  

But why? Why can’t God just forgive sin without demonstrating wrath on sin? Allow me an illustration:  

Suppose you and I are walking in a parking lot and I pick up a rock. I mosey over to a seemingly abandoned car. The car has flat tires, windows are busted out, and clearly, this jalopy hasn’t been used or thought of in years.  

Suppose I take my rock and I scratch the door of this car. What would happen?  

Well, other than removing paint and making an awful noise, not much would happen. You may wonder why a streak of vandalism came over me and take a couple steps away, but no real consequences would come about.  

Now, imagine instead of scratching up the abandoned car, I walk over to a car parked in the store parking lot. Someone has just left their metal steed and briefly ran inside the store. I scratch this person’s car with the rock. What then?  

Well, when the owner returns, they will likely be visibly upset. They may even call the police and file a report. Insurance would be exchanged. My rate may go up, etc. There is a bit stiffer of a consequence because of my action.  

Finally, suppose I walk over to the Ferarri dealership and scratch one of their brand-new cars on the lot. What happens then?  

The police will definitely be called. And, depending on the damage and the jurisdiction, I may catch a misdemeanor or criminal destruction of property. Why is this?  

I scratched up three different cars. My rock nor my action didn’t change. So what changed?  

The issue is not so much what specific damage I committed; the issue was with the value of what I damaged. There were stiffer penalties as the value of what I damaged increased. 

When we sin against the infinite, holy, holy, holy God, we instantaneously owe an infinite debt because of the One we sin against. It doesn’t matter what specific sin we commit. The infraction is so great because of Who we sin against.  

What is sin? Simply, sin is attempting autonomy from God. When we choose our own way over  God, we put ourselves in God’s place. This is sin. 

What is our penalty for sinning against God?  Romans tells us in 6:23, “the wages of sin is death.” 

Just as you may earn wages at your job, you earn death because of your sin.  Our sin debt is infinite in nature because of the One we sin against.  How can we sinners ever pay? It would take an eternity to pay this debt. We are not infinite, we could never pay an infinite debt.  So what can we sinners do? Can we do anything?  

Grace be to God! We sinners only contribute the sin and wickedness in this great exchange. 

“For our sake God made Jesus to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Jesus  we might become the righteousness of God.”  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath in full when he went to the cross. Christ Jesus took our sin and exchanged for it his own righteousness — all as a free gift.  

Jesus exchanges his righteousness for our wickedness.  

Read with me Ephesians 2:1-10

“Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. 

But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that  you have been saved!) For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. 

God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from  God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about  it.”

This is our greatest example of love.  

So how can we not only emotionally understand love, but also act love out as Christ has done?

Family, Missionary, Servant 

When we have faith in Jesus and his work on the cross, we have a new identity. Three of the characteristics are as follows: we are now part of a family; we are missionaries no matter where we go; we are servants of others.  

We should live our lives in light of who God is and what he has done. He has modeled love for us by sending Jesus.  

Be blessed, friends. I love you all!