The Grace Exchange

In the Bible, Jesus is called the Righteous One (Isaiah 53:11; Acts 13:14, 7:52, 22:14; 1 John 2:1).

This means Jesus was completely pure, clean, loving, holy...without a sinful thought, desire, or deed.

Everyone else is unrighteous (Romans 3:10).

Isaiah 53:11 revealed the Righteous One would come and make the unrighteous righteous by bearing their sinfulness and giving them his righteousness.

This is the Grace Exchange.

The Grace Exchange is when Jesus exchanged his righteousness for our sinfulness.

It is when he took upon himself our sinfulness and gave us his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

It is when the Righteous One died for the unrighteous ones (1 Peter 3:18).

It is when Jesus went to the cross and took upon himself the sinfulness of all humanity, our sinful thoughts, desires, and deeds, and now offers us his righteousness as a gift.

He doesn't force his righteousness upon us, just as we did not force our sinfulness upon him.

In love, he chose to take our sinfulness.

Now, in love, he offers us his righteousness as a gift (Romans 5:17).

We do not earn righteousness, we can't.

We have earned death through our sinfulness (Romans 6:23).

In receiving his righteousness, we are declared and made righteous in our identity.

We now offer our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.

We are righteous ones, even though we still battle sinful thoughts, desires, and deeds.

We are completely righteous in God's sight.

We are innocent, pure, and clean before God.

God sees us as if we never had a sinful thought or desire, or committed a sinful deed.

And why did Jesus do this?

Why did Jesus exchange his righteousness for our sinfulness?

Why does God offer us the righteousness of Jesus as a gift of grace?

Because he loves us and wants us to live eternally with him in his kingdom of righteousness.

His kingdom is called the "home of righteousness" (2 Peter 3:13).

It is a kingdom of no evil, no hurt, no pain, no heartache, no sickness, no suffering, no fear, no worry, no doubt, no tears, no death.

It is a kingdom of eternal joy and peace.

God wants you to live in his kingdom of righteousness.

But no unrighteous person can enter his righteous kingdom, for to do so, would make his righteous kingdom unrighteous, thus bringing hurt, pain, suffering, etc...into the lives of people in his kingdom (Revelation 21:1-4).

So he offers us the very righteousness of Jesus as a gift.

We receive God's gift of righteousness simply by faith in Jesus.

We are aware of his grace exchange...we admit our sinfulness...we accept his righteousness through faith in Jesus.

Then God gives the very righteousness of Jesus.

It is an eternal gift of righteousness, allowing us to escape death that sin brings, and enabling us to live eternally in his kingdom of righteousness, where we receive a new body, one without sinful thoughts and desires, that matches our new identity.

This is the Grace Exchange.

To read more about this Grace Exchange see Romans 3:21-26, 4, 5:12-21, 6, and 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.