Interchanged or Exchanged?

Interchanged or Exchanged?

"The term 'Exchanged Life' refers to the Christian’s core identity in Christ. The Christian is a new creation, born of God. They are not what they were before – all things are new.
The missionary J. Hudson Taylor made the term 'exchanged life' popular through his testimony of how God made him a new man.( Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, page 154) " The word "exchanged" means that God has made it possible for us to exchange our complete inability to live the Christian life for Christ's total sufficiency to live His life through us. (I discussed the Exchanged Life in my first post to this Blog on December 3, 2008.)

I came across another term for this same concept. Noted theologian and scholar Bishop N.T. Wright uses the word ‘interchanged’ in his commentary on Second Corinthians. Wright says that at the heart of the gospel proclaimed by the Apostle Paul is the fact that “what is true for the Messiah is true of his people.” For Paul this is not just a powerful thought or belief but a fact of experience.

Wright explains this ‘interchanged’ as: “the Messiah died, so his people die in him, sharing his suffering; the Messiah rose again, so his people rise again in him, knowing the power of the resurrection to comfort and heal, already in present time, and cherishing the hope that one day they will be given new, resurrection bodies like the one the Messiah himself has now.[1]”

Wright’s explanation of ‘interchanged’ gives great insight to the depth of Paul’s prayer in 2 Corinthians 1: 3-7. In this brief passage of scripture the Apostle Paul uses the word comfort, in one form or another, ten times. Ten times in five verses. In using this word Paul does not mean comfort like someone giving you a hug and assuring you that they care for you. He means so much more. He means a comfort that meets you where you are and then raises you up to where you can see new hope, new possibilities, and a new way to move forward. Paul says this is the comfort of God for us when we are suffering. Paul also says that this comfort is so real, that once you have experienced it, you can actually share God’s comfort with other people.

In this brief passage Paul reveals the essence of The Exchanged Life: What is true of Jesus becomes true for His people. What was true for Jesus is that he was comforted by God. Paul says Jesus’ people can experience the comfort of God. What was true for Jesus is that he comforted and healed others. Paul says that Jesus’ people can share the comfort and healing of God with others.

I appreciate Wright emphasizing that for Paul (and Hudson Taylor) this is not just a powerful thought or belief but a fact of experience. Whether you use the word exchanged or interchanged the result is the same. You give up one so that you can accept the other.

Maybe this helps us understand why, on the whole, the Twenty-first Century American church is so lukewarm in its witness for Christ. Our culture believes “it can have its cake and eat it too.” Experiencing what is true for Jesus as being true in your own life comes from giving up your life so that you can embrace new life in Christ.

Giving up control, giving up living by the ways of the world culture, giving up on the idea that God became incarnate in Christ so that we would or could be better – giving up is hard! But God doesn’t want us to improve our lives. He wants us to exchange – interchange – our lives. We give God all that we are, -- spiritually dead, guilty sinners and Christ gives us all that He is, -- Resurrected life, forgiveness, righteousness, acceptance.

Imagine what the witness of the church would be if just one small group embraced their new life in Christ and began to live their exchanged life each day. Actually, you have an example of that. The Apostle Paul described the life of his church in Acts 17:28 “'For in him we live and move and have our being.”

Because of that witness here we are --- the followers of Christ 2,000 years later.

Selah
\O/
Alex


[1] Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone 2 Corinthians (London, SPCK) p.4