The Gospel is all about trading places. It’s about substitution. Someone taking my place. Me filling in for someone else. Christ Jesus paying a debt he did not owe. Me bearing burdens that belong to my brother. An exchange. A switch-out.

The Gospel is this way because our God is this way.

God is love. And love–real love, intimate love, liberating love, Gospel love–is all about this exchange.

Think about your small group that meets most Sunday nights. Think of the emotionally wounded person in your group. There is no way to listen to and love that person and stay completely emotionally put-together yourself. As you listen to him and attend to him, he will probably begin to feel stronger and better. But that won’t happen without you being emotionally drained yourself. There’s an exchange. A trade. And it takes a toll.

Parenting is the same way. We sacrifice and give and serve in order that our children may live. We decrease so they will increase.

God’s salvation through Jesus works the same way. He submits to us. He leaves his heavenly home. He serves. He sacrifices and suffers. He takes on shame to give you glory. He dies so you can live.

John Stott wrote:

“The essence of sin is we human beings substituting ourselves for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for us. We put ourselves where only God deserves to be; God puts himself where we deserve to be.”

If we’ll open our eyes and look for it, we’ll see that the exchange is all around us. We live in the exchange. We are trading places all the time. This is our salvation and our holy call. Praise God for trading places!

Peace,
Allan