"The Great Exchange"

It is that which holds such sheer magnitude, making it impossible to ever fully comprehend. While, perhaps, something that may be understood in finite form, is utterly incapable of true, full comprehension. And is, perhaps, why it is labeled as a "mystery".

***

The blood ran over the edge of the knife, as his breathing becomes labored. His face is smothered by a dark, gloved hand to prevent his screaming for help. Glancing up he can barely make out the cold, gray eyes of his attacker. There is nothing but hate in them. The pain is spreading now as his body relaxes. His legs stop kicking; he can feel the sticky blood running down. His blood. His nostrils flare as the scent of death begins to form. His attacker removes the hand and stands up, wiping the blade clean on his pants. He tries to yell, but instead chokes on the blood and vomit that rises up in his throat. He feels himself slipping now, his eyes are rolling back. The blood runs down his chin as he slumps to the floor. He breathes his last. He was murdered.

***

She can taste the metal of the gun in her mouth as it is pushed harder, deeper. Her eyes can't make out his face through the tears. Her arms ache from where they are being pinned. She twists and tries to roll; he is bigger, stronger. With one hand on the grip of the gun, the attacker reaches down. Finding clothe, he rips and tears until it is only flesh left. She shakes her head violently as he touches her. She blinks, clearing the tears just enough to make out the attackers eyes, gray and ice. She shudders as he forces his way into her. She prays for darkness to come. The attacker stands up, and turns to leave. She is bleeding and torn. She blacks out. She was raped.

***

They had never been so cold. Could not imagine it getting worse. Their attackers could. They are stripped naked as they are pinned against the wall, held motionless at the end of the rifles pointed. Their bodies begin to shake as they had not eaten in days. The cold of the wall is pressed into them as they feel the searing pain ripping along their backsides. They are devastated by belts, rope, chains. They are then shoved, pushed, and whipped as they are forced to move forward. One by one they are told to lie down. They soon feel the tear of flesh as their stomachs are sliced open, fashioned in the form of the broken cross. The symbol of their attackers. The stench of their intestines rises as they are then forced on their feet and made to enter a dark, brick room. As they reach down, gasping for breath, they hold their stomach in place. The sound of a rush hits their ears. Their eyes are clouded by a fog. Their hearts pound faster. They drop to their knees, their guts spilling on the floor, as they hear the laughter outside the room. They fall motionless, inhaling the poisonous fog, a door opens. They see, with fading vision, the vicious, gray eyes of their attackers. They draw their last breath. They do not exhale. They are all dead, hundreds of them. They are the Holocaust.

***

He had never known anything like this. With the snapping of the tendons and nerves in his arms, the pain was beyond anything he'd ever experienced. His legs go numb as he struggles to force himself up. He can barely make out the feel of the blood that is rapidly running down his body. He cannot control himself as he urinates all over; he can smell the filth of his excrement dripping down his legs (1). There is a sharp snap in his chest as a lung collapses. What was once near impossible becomes fully so. He is unable to breath. He gasps and tastes the blood and dirt in his mouth. There is a jolt as nerves are exposed, sending violent shudders through his body. And here it comes. He feels it slipping in through the scraped, ripped, destroyed flesh of his back. It smells, the filth and stench, centuries old and rotting. It finds it's way into his body, and courses through his veins. He feels the tightness in his chest, as it replaces his quickly beating heart. He looks down and can just see the eyes of his attackers. They are gray. As his body grows cold, the skies cloud over. He knows now. It has him. It is him. The crowd below gasps in shock. Slowly closing his eyes, he feels it. Going cold all over, his torn, ripped, bloody body shakes violently against the tree. He is now separated. As he screams his final words, he hears no response. No one is there. Not yet. He can feels the stabbing of the knife. In fact, he plunged it in. He is a murderer. He tastes the cold metal of the gun. In fact, he held it. He is a rapist. He breathes in the gas. In fact, he released it. He caused the holocaust. He feels the shame, disgust, and repulsiveness of who he suddenly is. What has been done. What will be done. It reeks, the filth, the stench, the wounds, the pain, the agony, the separation. There is no need to open his eyes anymore. He knows. He feels it. Despises it, but knows. This is what must be. His final breath passes from his lips. His head drops. Behind his closed lids his eyes go dark. They are cold. They are evil. They are sin. They are gray...if only for the moment.

***

The big idea here is what has been referred to as "the great exchange" by Martin Luther. It is one of the most overlooked, misunderstood, and often air-brushed doctrines is Scripture. Theologians call it the Doctrine of Imputation, and is only one aspect in the highly involved Doctrine of the Atonement. The gist of this doctrine is that upon Jesus' death on the cross, all sin, our sin, past, present, and future is placed in and on Jesus as his righteousness is then placed upon us. The magnitude of this transaction is truly mind blowing. Let's first examine what Scripture tells us about imputation.

"Him who knew no sin he made [to be] sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him". -1 Cor. 5:21


"...and Jehovah has laid on him the iniquity of us all". -Isa. 56:6b

-Rom. 4:5-8, 23-24; 8:3-Ga. 3:13


As eternal God, one of the members in the Trinity, Jesus was there from the beginning (John 1). He was present for the first sin, that of the arrogant pride of Lucifer, the direct disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden, the murder of Abel, etc. As Holy God, Jesus had a front row seat to all the bloody, disgusting, stench-ridden lust, murder, greed, lies, thefts and many other atrocities. Jesus saw sin disconnect man from God. Sent on a rescue mission, to save us from this kindling world, Jesus enters humanity as one of us; with one major exception. He is sinless. Perfect. Fully divine and fully human. He never knows the touch of relationship-destroying sin. But he also knows what must be done. He knows that he is sent not only to be our example, but to be our Saviour and Lord. He is sent to wage victorious war over Satan, sin, and death as Christus Victor. He is sent on a mission to be our substitutiary atonement, propitiating God's just wrath, and, through imputation, providing justification for us. Most undoubtedly this is the primary cause for his anguish in the garden of Gethsemane. His blood-sweat is a result of the extreme stress (2), the knowledge of what was to come. Surely, the physical pain he was to endure was a factor, but even more than this is the dread of being in the foreign position of having sin alive within him. As Jesus hangs on the cross, he feels, experiences, that which he had only seen prior. Through the death of a perfect, sinless man/God, he becomes immersed in the sin of the world. Your sin. My sin. This is not a mere semblance of sin or it's affects. It is not an echo of sin. This is the raw, festering, stinking rot of sin in it's totality. Can you grasp this? All that is evil, disobedient, countering any and all of God's good law; this is sin. Murder, rape, theft, lies, homosexuality, gossip, lust, pornography, drugs, occult, witchcraft, greed, adultery, fornication, selfishness, pride, self-righteousness, religion, morality, etc. It and all it's effects are placed on Christ. Jesus becomes the very essence of sin.

To top it off, Jesus, on the cross, not only feels the repulse of sin he's never known, but for the first and only time in history, is separated from God the Father. Where he had previously been in constant, on-going community and union within the Trinity, he now finds himself separated, cut off and alone. His Father turns his back on him. The life of the perfect one is now fully corrupt. And here's the thing. His former righteousness, that sinless perfection, gets passed to us.

This is the exchange. That our sin flowed to Christ as his righteousness is now ours. God treated Jesus as though he had committed every sin, and us as though we had lead a sinless life.

It truly is incomprehensible, the reality of what happened at the cross. We may attempt to dissect, analyze, figure out the totality of the Atonement, but all that really matters is that we now live in light of this reality. Through the imputation of our sins and Jesus' righteousness, we must allow this new life to direct our steps. There is no room for sin; no "messing around". Not at this price. We must have humility, repent, and subsequently pursue our new, regenerated lives with passion. As ambassadors of Christ, (2 Cor. 5) may you now take the reality of the cross and it's paradoxical beauty to all.

The mission of the gospel declared, must be the ends we seek. The means has already been accomplished.