“Trade ‘ya.” We picture two second graders eyeing each others’ sandwiches at the school lunch table. The motivation, of course, for such an exchange comes from a preference for something other than what one has. The most common exchange in our culture is money for goods, and the more equal the bargain seems, the better.
Hudson Taylor, pioneer missionary to China, used the term, The Exchanged Life, to describe his experience when he met Christ. Here we begin to see the absolute unbalance of the deal. Puritan writer, John Flavel, puts it this way:
We may say, “Lord, condemnation was yours, that justification might be mine; agony was yours, and victory mine; pain was yours, and ease is mine; stripes were yours, and healing mine; vinegar and gall were yours, that honey and sweet might be mine; the curse was yours, and the blessing mine; death was yours, that the crown of glory might be mine; death was yours, and eternal life mine!”… Christ says, “All I have is yours”, and we say: “Though my person is vile, and not worthy of being accepted, but such as it is, it is yours. My soul with all and every faculty; my body, and every member of it; my gifts, time, and all my talents are yours.”
What grace is this!! We have nothing to offer in exchange for everything from Christ but everything we have.
A little song I learned as a child comes to mind:
After all He’s done for me,
After all He’s done for me,
How can I do less than give Him by best
And live for Him completely,
After all He’s done for me.
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