The Great Exchange

God wants to Give You His Righteousness

1. "For our sake” - Sinners

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 3:23

The word sin means to miss the mark. How many of you know about the stories of Robin Hood. Robin Hood was said to be an excellent marksman with a bow and arrow. If people were shooting in an archery tournament years ago and someone missed the middle of the target, the crowd would maybe say, “Oh no! He sinned!”

And as human beings, all of us have missed that mark. But the Bible actually tells us that we were never interested in hitting the target in the first place. Before Christ, we are described as enemies with God.

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:10 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

This is the bad news of our condition. I’m sorry to deliver this bad news to you, but the good news would mean nothing if you didn’t hear the bad news first.

2. “He” - God

The next word in our verse that I want to look at is “He”. He is pointing us to God. The way the Bible describes God is pretty amazing. One of the words that is used to describe God the most often is holy.

In , Isaiah got a glimpse into the throne room of God and there were angels flying around everywhere that were proclaiming HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory. When Isaiah saw this display of glory, he fell to his face and said woe is me! He admitted His sinfulness and the sin of the people he hung out with right there. He thought that encountering God that way would actually kill him… and truthfully, he was right.

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are told here that our sin earns us something. Our sin brings the payment of death. What we deserve for sinning against a holy God is to experience the all powerful wrath of a holy God for all of eternity. But the good news is coming. You see, Isaiah was spared when he saw the glorious display in the throne room and sinners can be spared too, but we can only be spared on God’s terms, so let’s look at the next word in the verse that I want to highlight.

3. “Him” = Jesus - Sinless

So the question is what did God do in order to offer His righteousness to us. The answer is that He sent His Son, Jesus. We talked a little about this yesterday, but Jesus is fully God and He took on human flesh. He came and was born in a feeding trough, he was heralded by shepherds. He lived in a poor carpenter’s home. He grew up just like any of us would.

The Bible says He was tempted in every way that we are, but He never sinned. He was the spotless lamb of God that came to take away the sin of the world. He washed the disciples feet on the night He was betrayed, he was led to a courtroom where people flung ridiculous accusations at Him. They mocked Him and spat in His face and nailed Him to a cross.

All of that was awful… but the worst was yet to come. On the cross over a stretch of three hours, everything went dark. From that darkness, Jesus cried out in lament, he actually quoted part of a Psalm on the cross. He said Eloi Eloi Lama Sabactani, which is to say, “My God My God, why have you forsaken me?” And for the first time ever, Jesus refers to His heavenly father, not as father, but as “My God”. You see, in those three hours, he was facing the punishment of my sin and yours as He hung on the cross.

4. “to be sin” - Jesus Took Our Sin

As the verse states it, Jesus was made “to be sin” for us. Our sin wrecked the relationship between God the Father and God the Son for the only time in all of eternity. God turns His back on His Son and Jesus cries out alone on the cross bearing the weight of my sin.

But why? Why would God the Father allow this to happen to His Son. He is the only truly good person to ever walk the face of the planet, and the most horrendous thing happened to Him. Why would God allow such and awful thing.

5. “the righteousness of God” = God offers His righteousness to us

Why would God allow something like this? He actually was pleased to crush His son Jesus. Here is why.

Isaiah 53:10–11 ESV

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Isaiah 53:10–12 ESV

Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Because Jesus is fully God and fully man, because He is the righteous, and sinless one, because He never sinned, He is the only one who has the power to save us. Jesus died on that cross, God died… but He didn’t stay dead, the Bible says that three days later, He rose again. He conquered sin, he conquered death and the grave and because He did that, He now offers a trade to you.

Application

You have two choices tonight if you don’t know Christ. The choices are these. You can choose to pay for your own sin. You can choose to live your life without Jesus. Some of you might think all you need to do is be a good person or go to church or give money to people who need it. The problem with all of those answers to your sin problem is that you are not perfect and a perfect God will only accept a perfect payment. If you choose to pay for your own sin, the Bible describes a terrible place where the wrath of God is poured out forever, where you never enjoy the embrace of the Lord and where torment is all you will know for eternity. That’s an awful thing and I would not wish that for anyone here.

So choice number 1 is you can pay for your sin yourself or try to rely on your strength to save you, but that will never work. Every other religion on the face of the earth will tell you that God resides on the top of a mountain and all you have to do is climb the mountain and do enough good things in order to reach the top. The Bible flips the whole thing upside down. The Bible describes one way. It says that it is by grace, that is a gift from God that we can be saved, because the Bible teaches that God is at the top of the mountain and sees that we are not able to make the clim b. So, His answer is to send Himself, wrapped in flesh. Jesus is the only way. So here is choice number 2. Jesus paid for your sins past present and future on the cross. If you trust in what He did. If you recognize your sin before a holy God, if you confess that sin to God and repent and turn to Jesus the one who paid for it all, then He will hear you, then He will save you and you will have the start of a relationship with Him, you will go from enemies to friends, from slavery to being a child of God, from guilty to innocent, because when God looks at you from now on, He will see Jesus and you will stand forgiven!

I would like for everyone to bow their heads and close their eyes, we are about to pray and then the Birdsongs are going to lead us with one more song before your cabin wrap up. I just want to ask you one question. If you are here tonight and you have never asked Jesus to be your personal Savior, I would like you to just slip up your hand. I just want to pray for you. I’m not going to make you do anything strange or have you stand and walk up to the front, I just want to pray for you, so if that’s you just slip up your hand so I can see and then just slip it right back down.

Ok, I am going to pray for each one that raised their hand, and I would like for those of you that did to please do something for me. I would like for you to talk to your counselor tonight. Maybe right after we sing, during your wrap up time. Just let your counselor know that you would like to know more about trusting Jesus as your personal Savior. I will be available tonight as well if you want to talk, my wife is around and many others here. This camp exists to see people trust Jesus with their lives and trust Him as Savior. This is the most important decision you will ever make in your life and it is more important than any activity we have left to do tonight. So, let’s pray together and then let’s worship our great God who made a way for us when it looked like all was lost.

PRAY