The Exchanged Life

One of the phrases that we often use in classes and messages is, “the exchanged life”. As near as I can tell, this phrase was first used by the pioneer missionary to China, Hudson Taylor. I think this is a great phrase to describe the Christian life. It would not be a bad translation of Romans 5:8 to say, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died in exchange for us.”

When a person savingly believes in Jesus Christ, think of all the exchanges that take place: Christ exchanges His righteousness for our sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV) “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” We exchange our old life in Adam for His resurrection life. Romans 6:6 (NKJV) “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” Colossians 3:4 (NKJV) “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” We could go on and on with the exchange that takes place. We exchange our weakness for His strength; we exchange our deserved wrath from God as a son of Adam and receive in exchange adoption into God’s family and we become joint-heirs with Christ.

The exchanged life, however, is not just doctrinal truths; it is the practical way we walk in holiness and power daily. Daily, we reckon on what happened at the cross and count by faith that the old us, in Adam, that sin had dominion over is crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6, 11). We reaffirm the presentation of our body to Him in total surrender (Romans 12:1), and we walk through the day abiding in Christ which means that we live in a constant conscious dependence on Christ to empower and direct us. Every demand made on us throughout the day is in reality a demand on Christ in us and He is sufficient. This is the exchanged life. It is really just walking by faith. It is probably best summarized in Galatians 2:20 (NKJV) “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Most believers have somehow missed these “exchanged life” truths even though they are clearly taught in the New Testament. Most believers see the Christian life as simply trying as hard as you can and maybe asking God for a little help. This approach is a flesh empowered approach and always leads to frustration and failure. If this flesh approach is then taught to our children, the error perpetuates itself generation after generation. Some parents discover these exchanged life truths but believe that they are too deep to be understood by children. Actually children grasp these truths more quickly than do most adults because they do not have to unlearn years of programming that the Christian life is “grit your teeth and try as hard as you can”.

When a child comes to Christ, teach him what happened at the cross. His old man (nature) was crucified with Christ and while we still have the old man’s programming (the flesh), we have Christ in us to strengthen us to walk in victory over that flesh. Teach your children the truth as was phrased by Major Ian Thomas, “I can’t; He never said I could. He can and He said He would; I’m going to trust Him”.


Pastor Phil