Weekly Devotion 1 - The Great Exchange

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The Great Exchange

Have you ever thought about your sin and how you were forgiven simply by repenting? Have you ever thought about how God continues to cover you? That's because God gave us Jesus in exchange for our sins.

2 Corinthians 5:11-21 passage talks about us being God's Ambassadors and how he had given Jesus to us (he's given us beauty) to replace our sin (ashes). I have paraphrased passage 2 Corinthians 5:11-19 below. Please read the passage in its entirety at the end of this devotion.

• Our goal is to make our Father proud

• It is for our benefit to bring glory to God

• We do this by fulfilling our responsibility to bring others to Christ by sharing the good news

• We believe that Christ died for us so that we can have new life

• We also believe that our old life has died because of Christ sacrifice

• This means that anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person

• God has given us a task to help reconcile people back to him

• Which means no more counting of sins

Then the passage concludes with 2 Corinthians 5:20 - 21 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

One thing I have always believed that it takes work to please God. Work is important in the body of Christ. No matter how hard it may be, how much pain, suffering, and sacrifice I may endure, the cost is never too much when God and God's people are involved. That's why the Great Exchange is so important. Jesus died so that I can live. Jesus sacrificing his life in exchange for my life is not even apples to apples.

You see, you cannot just repent for your sins, then sin again and think that you are good. No, you have to put work behind your repenting. To repent is to say it out loud, then never do it again. As humans with flesh, that is a difficult thing for all of us to do is to never sin again or to never repeat the same sin again. We have to put work behind that action. For example, if you are repenting because you used to be an alcoholic or you are very negative to people, then you will have to work hard at truly turning from those sins. Once you have completely turned away from those sins, then it is your responsibility to share your testimony to help bring people to Christ. You might say, well that is easy. In reality, it takes work to bring people to Christ. You have to be humble, persistent, available, resilient and have a pure heart (a heart filled with love no matter the circumstances). You have to remember that the people you are trying to bring to Christ, sins have been exchanged just like yours. When they give their lives to Christ, their old lives will die and their new life will begin.

Just think how pleasing it is for our Father to see more and more people turning to follow Him. I imagine that all the time. I want to please God. I know what I've done in my past. I know the sins that I have committed. The smallest thing that I can do is repent, completely turn away from sin, spread the gospel, and help in the fight to bring people to Christ.

Finally, remember to give all the Glory to God because that is pleasing to Him. He is the one that set all of this in motion. I appreciate the great exchange the question is, do you?

2 Corinthians 5:11-21

We Are God’s Ambassadors

11 Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others. God knows we are sincere, and I hope you know this, too. 12 Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart. 13 If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. 14 Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life.[ 15 He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

#greatexchange #2Corinthians5 #Christ #love #ittakeswork