“For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
Sin severed the relationship with a holy and just God. Hell is the destination of every sinner unless they are reconciled with God.
The perfect love and mercy of God formulated a plan called the Great Exchange, giving unbelievers the opportunity to be pardoned of their sins and experience reconciliation with God, without violating God’s holiness and justice.
It is crucial for every sinner to be reconciled to God through the Great Exchange. It is also critical for every Christian to fulfill their responsibility of being an ambassador of Christ, imploring unbelievers to be reconciled.
Man’s Great Need for Reconciliation
When Adam and Eve sinned, all of humanity became sinners, separating the human race from a holy and just God. Sin severed man’s relationship with God, causing enmity between the two parties. Consequently, hell is the destination of every sinner unless they experience reconciliation with God.
Although our sins angered God, God’s grace still desired reconciliation with man, not because God needed man, but because God is perfect Love and realized man desperately needed Him. God not only pitied mankind, but He still perfectly loved all of His creation, despite all their sins and imperfections. Regardless of who they are or what they have done, God still today desires to adopt every sinner, making them His beloved children, being a perfect father to all, especially those who have or will experience the pains of the father’s wound. God loved the world, even though man sinned against God, and didn’t love God.
Although God perfectly loved man and immensely desired a relationship with man, a holy and just God couldn’t simply just ignore the sins of man. Time had to be served for the wages of sin; the penalty of sins cannot simply go unpunished; if that were the case, God would no longer be a perfect, holy, and just God. Despite how much our sins angered the holiness of God, God desired to reconcile man with Him so much that God chose His Son Christ to pay the penalty of all our sins in our place, by Christ dying on the cross, and through the process of the Great Exchange, man can therefore be reconciled to God.
The Great Exchange is defined as the “theological event where the sins of humanity were imputed to Christ, and the righteousness of Christ was imputed to believers”, enabling man the opportunity to be reconciled with God and to escape hell, in which man experiences after accepting Christ as his Savior through faith in Christ. The Great Exchange began on Good Friday when Christ was crucified, which God purposed to happen, in which God chose to have His Son die to pay the penalty of the world’s sins, so those who believe what Christ did and those who accept that gift of grace from God will be considered righteous by a holy and just God.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Sinless Jesus endured on the cross the judicial guilt and consequences (punishment) of all humanity’s transgressions; in return, those who become a Christian receive the “righteousness of Christ” – righteousness not earned by merit, but received by grace, as a gift, through faith. This involves a double imputation: once saved, the sins of the new believer become credited to Christ’s account (in which Christ paid the penalty of these sins through Christ’s suffering and death on the cross), and Christ’s perfect obedience to the Law (His righteousness) gets credited to the new Christian’s account, enabling reconciliation with God as a holy God now views the believer as “having the same moral standard as Christ did in His sinless life” through justification.
Those who choose to become Christians through faith in Christ and acceptance of His gift of grace will be reconciled to God, forgiven of all their sins, and become adopted children of God. Instead of experiencing hell in the afterlife, they will enjoy eternal life in heaven in its place. (Please check out my plan of salvation page to learn more about becoming a Christian.)
Perfect love and perfect wisdom chose the Great Exchange so that you and I can be reconciled with God forever. God loved the world so much that He chose His beloved Son to die, desiring no one to perish. Regardless of who you are or what you have done, God loves you. He wants an intimate relationship with you so much that He allowed His Son (who also volunteered to do so) to experience unimaginably, excruciating pain and suffering on the cross in hopes you will come to Him. “No greater love than to lay down their life for a friend” (John 15:13) – Christ chose to do so even while you were enemies to Him.
Freedom is only freedom if given a choice. Love cannot force itself on another, even though it loves that person. To be reconciled and to experience eternal life, you must choose Love. You must choose Christ. A holy and just God cannot simply ignore sin; justice requires that sin must not go unpunished. Either Christ or you must serve the penalty of your sins. Please choose Christ, not yourself, to serve the time. When you choose Christ, you will experience forgiveness of sins, be reconciled to God forever, enjoy God forever, and experience eternal life in heaven someday.
Because of the Great Exchange, reconciliation between God and man is now possible. Those reconciled with God through the Great Exchange will be reconciled to God forever. Once saved, the Christian becomes a new creation; they now have the Holy Spirit within them, guiding and empowering them not to sin, to the extent they allow the Spirit to do so. The Christian’s life can then be rehabilitated from the brokenness that sin has caused. The perfect love of the Father is capable of healing any wound, including the Father’s wound for His children. The Lord will also become a Shepherd to His children, always leading, providing, and protecting. The child of God will experience countless fringe benefits from being reconciled with God, as He will always be perfectly loved by a perfect Abba Father.
In addition to the benefits of being reconciled to God, there are a few responsibilities that come with being a child of God. One is to live daily as an ambassador of Christ, conveying and embodying the message of reconciliation through one’s unique God-given purpose:
“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. 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. 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” (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).
An ambassador of Christ is a representative of Christ who spreads the message of reconciliation to those in the sphere of the world where the Christian resides. Through the context of their unique God-given dream (purpose or calling), the ambassador seeks to spread the message of reconciliation to their world, through their actions and words, according to their unique God-given SHAPE (the spiritual gifts, the heart passions, the abilities, personality traits, and experiences that God gave each person uniquely, forming their identity, when they were born). Since every Christian is SHAPED uniquely, each has their own unique way of being an ambassador, but regardless of how they are shaped, at least a few principles are the same: the Christian must represent Christ by living as Christ lived, and they must be receptive and submissive to the Spirit leading them in what they say and do daily, and also receive from the Spirit, leading and empowerment to do and say what they Spirit guides them to do.
An ambassador of Christ is a “point of light.”
Sin is a “darkness that everyone must face”. Sin wants to “take what’s good and fair and turn it to waste”. It has made humanity evil, created much destruction in the world, and sent too many people to hell already. Without Christ’s ambassadors, the world will remain in darkness, tyrannized by sin. If people don’t know about the freedoms of the Great Exchange without the ambassador’s presence to show them the way, how can people in your world become reconciled with God? And experience the fringe benefits that come with it? If Christ died so that sinners can be reconciled, without an ambassador’s presence to know the truth, Christ would have died for nothing. Therefore, the Christian is called to be an ambassador of Christ.
There is a point in a Christian’s life where they “cannot walk away”. They have to have the courage to “stand up straight and tall,” say the words, and daily live the life the Spirit leads them to. Every Christian must take time each day to decide whether they will do what God says is right. When they choose each day to become an ambassador of Christ, “they become a point of light”.
When many Christians band together and choose to become ambassadors of Christ daily, our world in darkness can see a great, bright light of Jesus, and when unbelievers are reconciled, not only do they experience heaven instead of hell, but they also have the Spirit present in their lives. And when the world gets saved and has the Spirit within them, and as these people allow the Spirit to control their lives, they love more and sin less, and not only can lives be rehabilitated and become free, but they also become a potential point of light to another. Through a ripple effect, the more points of light that share the message and live as Jesus did, the greater the light that overcomes the darkness in this world.
“Let’s all become a point of light. “If you see what’s wrong and you try to make it right, you will become a point of light”. The darkness of sin in this world will continue “to cover everything in sight until we decide together to be a point of light”. Souls will also continue to go to hell instead of heaven. For the sake of your family, your neighborhood, your city, your nation, your world, and for the sake of future generations, Christian: decide to be an ambassador of Christ!
Links:
Being An Effective Christian Ambassador
The Armor of God, Part 1: The Christian Warrior Assessing His Armor
The Armor of God, Part 2: The Christian Warrior Preparing For Battle
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