The Great Exchange by Rod Bayley, 30 September 2007, 1 Peter 3:18a
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of alienation of people - between family members, between those who
were once friends, alienation of ethnic groups, and even nations.
This is a very sad truth in our world - there is an overwhelming need
for reconciliation for so many people. But the bible tells us that
our greatest alienation, and our greatest need for reconciliation is
in our relationship with God. In fact, this needs to happen before
true reconciliation between people is possible. There is a yawning
divide between ourselves and God because we've broken the
relationship. Have you ever asked the question: what would it take
for me to be reconciled with God? And perhaps you've wondered how
Jesus' death on the Cross, which Christians remember every Easter,
fits in with this. Why does Jesus die? We'll see today that these
two questions are closely connected. This brings us to the first of
three points - the what.
What was the purpose of Jesus Christ's death? The answer is given in
the first part of the verse we are considering today - "For Christ
died for sins once for all ..." The purpose of Christ's death was to
die for sins - But what is sin? It is our rejection of God as ruler
of our life. When we say that we are going to rule our own lives by
living how we want, without reference to God, we are rebelling against
God. This rejection of God's right to rule over us as our Creator is
what the bible calls "sin." The specific things we do wrong day by
day - our proud words and thoughts, our lies, our selfish actions
which hurt those around us, etc - these are called "sins", but they
are just a symptom of our root disease, our core problem of rejecting
God's rule over us. Committing sinful acts doesn't make us sinners -
we commit sinful acts because we are sinners by nature, who reject
God's authority over us.
You might be thinking, well, even if the bible defines everyone as
sinners, why does that make Jesus' death necessary - why can't I just
be good enough? - why does anyone have to die for my sins? Why am I
powerless to do anything about this problem? It is because God's
standard is 100% perfection - even one sin destroys our relationship
with Him and renders us unable to please Him. As it stands, our
relationship with God is severed - we are in fact His enemies because
of our rebellion against Him, and the penalty of death stands over
us. Our rejection of God's rule is a great offence to Him, and means
that we face God's anger. God cannot simply ignore our rebellion
against Him as He is perfect - it would be unjust to simply ignore our
wrong-doing. He must judge us for our rejection of Him and the result
is death - sin is serious, it's consequences are final. We know it's
destructive effects in our own relationships are easily seen, and in
our relationship with God a great barrier is created that separates us
ultimately from being with Him. As a result, we need outside
intervention - we need to be saved from our sin to be back in
relationship with God. In today's age where we are proud of our
problem solving and like to fix things for ourselves, it's hard to
admit that we're powerless to solve this problem. But, we need to be
rescued - we can't save ourselves.
What's it like to be powerless? In August of 2000, the Kursk, a
Russian state-of-the-art nuclear submarine, which was twice the length
of a Boeing 747 - was part of military manoeuvres off Norway, north of
Russia. On Saturday August 12 during these summer exercises, there
was an initial underwater explosion, followed by a much greater
explosion two minutes later which measured 3.5 on the Richter scale -
the equivalent of 5 tonnes of TNT detonating. It is thought likely
that a torpedo on board the Kursk prematurely detonated due to a fault
or freak accident, which led to further weapons on board exploding
shortly after. The result inside the Kursk would have been mayhem - a
worst nightmare. The second blast which must have then ripped through
the torpedo compartment at the front would have sent water cascading
through the first 5 sections, sending the submarine nose-first to the
bottom. However, despite the incredible size of the blast, those in
the back half of the submarine were still alive. Some of what
happened in the aftermath of the blast is known because of the
scribbled handwritten note of 27 year old Dmitry Kolesnikov, which
was found wrapped in plastic in his pocket. There are several notes -
the first was written 2 hours after the explosions and reads, "All
personnel from compartments 6, 7 and 8 moved to the 9th. There are 23
of us here." He had written out the names and ranks of all 23. There
is another note written a further 2 hours later to his wife - he
writes, "I love you. Don't be too upset. Say hello to your mum. Say
hello to my family too." There was obviously not much hope at this
point - they were powerless to save themselves - a final note further
down the page shows that though alive, they were basically dead men,
waiting to die unless someone could miraculously rescue them. Nobody
can say when the last part was written as there is no date or time
written, but his father believes that it was written several days
later under conditions of appalling difficulty once the lights had
gone out, the temperature had plunged and his son realised he had
little time left. The note reads, "It is dark to write here, but I
will try to write by touch. Looks like there is no chance ... Let's
hope that at least somebody will read this."
These men were a picture of powerlessness - facing death with no way
of saving themselves - truly helpless, and dependent on others to act
to save them. It's the same with us and sin - we're powerless to save
ourselves from the consequences of our sin - which is death, and
separation from God, and so we needed Jesus to rescue us from it. He
died to save us from our sin which we couldn't save ourselves from.
Another verse in the bible, Romans 3:23, says we are all in the same
boat (pardon the pun) - we all sin, no-one is perfect as God requires,
so we're disqualified from pleasing Him, and cannot get ourselves out
of this predicament. That is why we need Jesus to save us from God's
judgment.
This brings us to our second point - the how. How does Christ dying
for our sin solve our problem - why does that work? The reason is
that Christ was without sin, the perfect son of God, and so he could
act as our substitute - he dies in your place, in my place. This is
what the second part of the verse is about - "... the righteous for
the unrighteous ..." Jesus is the righteous one who dies in our place
- we are the unrighteous, the sinners. It's an incredible trade, a
great exchange, whereby the perfect Jesus takes the place of you and
me, the imperfect sinner - you and I are offered life through His
death.
During World War II, Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish Catholic priest, was
put into the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, as a punishment for
helping Jews to escape. One day in July 1941 he was called out with
the other prisoners and told that a man had escaped from the camp. As
a deterrent to the prisoners who remained from trying to escape also,
the guards had decided to kill ten men in the death chamber. The ten
were simply selected at random from the lined up prisoners - who lived
or died was in the hands of the camp's commandant - each person he
pointed to would be dragged away. On this particular day a young
Polish soldier was numbered among the condemned, but as soldiers came
to take him away, he fell to the ground and cried out in anguish
"Please no ... my wife .. My poor children, I will never see them
again." The commandant was ignoring the pleas when there was a
commotion in the ranks as the unbelievable happened. A small prisoner
had broken ranks and stepped forward - so stunned was the Commandant
at this that he reached for his pistol and yelled "Halt! What do you
want?" Maximilian Kolbe said, "I want to die for this young man. I
am willing to take his place." After some indecison, he was allowed
to replace him, and was dragged away with the others to the death
chamber. The young Polish soldier could not believe what had
happened. He would live to survive Auschwitz and tell this incredible
story. He would live every remaining day of his life knowing that he
was breathing because Kolbe had paid the ultimate price.
Isn't that incredible love! Kolbe mirrored what God had already done
for him in sending his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world,
to live and die. But Jesus died for all people, and not for someone
who was a friend, but for us his enemies who rejected him. Christ's
death says we matter to God, and to prove it, look how far He will go
for us.
This brings us to our third and final point - the why. This
incredible substitution, this great exchange of Jesus' life for our
life, opens the way for reconciliation with God. Though we were
enemies of God, with our relationship broken by our sin, Christ's
death can bring us back into a right relationship with God. We can be
forgiven - this is what the last part of the verse is about: "... to
bring you to God."
A broken relationship is often difficult to reconcile. Elizabeth
Barrett, the famous English poet, had parents who disapproved so
strongly of her marriage to Robert Browning (also a famous English
writer), that they disowned her altogether. Almost weekly, Elizabeth
wrote love letters to her mother and father, asking for a
reconciliation. They never once replied. After ten years of letter
writing, Elizabeth received a huge box in the mail. She opened it.
To her dismay and heartbreak, the box contained all of her letters to
her parents. Not one of them had ever been opened! Today those love
letters are among the most beautiful in classical English literature.
Had her parents opened and read only a few of them, a reconciliation
might have been effected.
The bible is God's letter of reconciliation to us - and it centres on
the Cross. Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins and bridge
the chasm between you and a holy God. Don't ignore God's message to
you - He has acted to reconcile you to Himself by sending His son
Jesus to die. It is our problem of sin that separates us - we are the
ones who have ended the relationship and said "I want nothing to do
with you God!" - and yet God has made the first move. In His great
love and mercy towards us He has made a way back into relationship
possible - a way by which we can be forgiven through accepting Jesus'
actions on our behalf - He asks us to respond - Christ died "to bring
you to God."
When it comes to rollercoasters, I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
The higher the loops and the faster they go, the better I like them -
I think I've been on every major roller coaster in Australia, and a
few in the United States as well. Knowing this, a friend of mine sent
me an email a few years ago about the world's tallest, fastest roller
coaster which was nearing the end of its construction phase at Cedar
Point in the United States. It's called the "Strata-coaster" and it is
420-feet-tall and travels at 120-mph, taking coaster riding to new
levels of height and speed. Riders launch out of a "starting line"
position and travel from 0 to 120 mph in four seconds by use of a high-
tech hydraulic acceleration system and then rocket up the vertical 420-
foot-high hill, rotate 90 degrees, crest the apex and plummet straight
down the 400-foot drop while spiraling 270 degrees and cross the
finish line into the station. Sounds great doesn't it.
Perhaps you're thinking - that's crazy - how can a person trust that
it's safe? Is it proven technology? Well, the email tells me that a
rigorous testing, inspection and licensing program occurred following
its final construction stages. Perhaps you don't find those words
reassuring - even if several thousand people have now survived this
ride.
There are some parallels here with the good news about Jesus' death on
the Cross for my sins. How do I know that it works and that this
brings me to God? I'm called on to trust my life to Jesus - to trust
Him for forgiveness before God that I might be back in relationship
with God, and so have the promise of eternal life. If you're like me,
you wouldn't just give your credit card to anyone - you probably
wouldn't just give your car keys to anyone either. So how can I give
my whole life into Jesus' hands? How do I know this death of His for
my sins works?
The answer is the resurrection. Jesus' death on Good Friday could be
viewed as defeat, just like any other death that has occurred on
planet earth, if it weren't for His unique resurrection on Easter
Sunday. This proves that He paid for our sin and overcame its
consequence of death, because He was raised to life on the third day.
He has been victorious. This is how we know that Christ's death for
our sins can bring us back to God. You see, Christ died "once for
all" - He only had to die once, and we know it was effective because
He rose from the dead.
Unfortunately, many people today reject God's rescue plan, and seek to
come up with their own plan. They try to be right with God or achieve
eternal life by doing things - by going to temples or religious
festivals over and over again; they chant chants or pray prayers or
meditate meditations over and over again; they give up pleasures or
give their money to charity over and over again; they give themselves
to community work and good deeds over and over again; they may even
fast or beat themselves over and over again, hoping that this will
bring them to God. But as we've seen, the bible says that Christ died
for sins once for all - we know it was effective because He only had
to do it once, and He rose on the third day.
This message is called the gospel, which is a word which simply means
good news. It's God's good news to all people - that whoever places
their trust in Jesus' death and resurrection, believing that He died
in their place, can be forgiven and brought back to God. The broken
relationship can be healed - all we need to do is repent and believe.
To repent means to do a 180 degree turn - to accept Jesus as Lord of
our life and stop rebelling against God and ignoring His rule over
us. The ball is in our court - it's a message that requires a
response, a decision to be made. We either accept God's good news of
Jesus' death in our place, or we reject it. God calls on each person
to respond to his good news. We need to make a choice, a choice which
really is life or death. It's the greatest news we will receive in
our life, and it is the biggest decision we will make.