What’s the best trade you ever negotiated? Perhaps you got something great in exchange for something of much less value. Or maybe like me in my Kindergarten trading days, you ended up with a cheap plastic turtle while the boy in the back of the bus took home your Partridge Family lunch box. (My mother was not happy with me.)
If you have a saving relationship with Jesus, then you’ve received the best trade of all eternity. Read the following passage for the details:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21, NIV
Verse 21 highlights this spiritual exchange. Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness. Hallelujah! This “trade” purchased our salvation.
Look back through the Scripture passage. List the benefits we receive because of this trade.
How should we respond to this glorious exchange?
It is a great trade indeed.
Since we are reconciled with God through Christ Jesus, we should be sharing this great news with others. We also need to be more forgiving toward those who hurt us.
Iris, good reminder about forgiveness. Thank you!