{"id":25809,"date":"2015-05-14T00:20:28","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T04:20:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=25809"},"modified":"2015-05-13T22:16:38","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T02:16:38","slug":"the-great-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/14\/the-great-exchange\/","title":{"rendered":"The Great Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SeekingHimLogo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion];
\nit is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me;
\nand the life I now live in the body I live by faith in
\n(by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God,
\nWho loved me and gave Himself up for me.
\nGalatians 2:20 AMP<\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 * <\/span><\/p>\n

I know<\/strong> Christ was crucified for me. But I never thought about what that really means<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  • Christ swapped places with me<\/li>\n
  • We exchanged lives<\/li>\n
  • He became the sinner, I became the sinless<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    Even as I type this…I cannot comprehend the full impact of that statement.<\/p>\n

    What does it mean to be crucified with Christ? \u00a0Galatians 5:24 NLT puts it like this:<\/p>\n

    Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed
    \nthe passions and desires of their sinful nature
    \nto His cross and crucified them there.<\/p>\n

    The AMP version calls it our ‘godless human nature.’ \u00a0Our sinful nature and desires have been exchanged for Christ\u2019s holy and righteous one. \u00a0Life in the flesh is no longer life AFTER the flesh. \u00a0I Peter 4:2 AMP says we \u201c…can no longer spend the rest of his {our} natural life living by his {our} human appetites and desires, but [he {we} lives] for what God wills.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The NLT translates it like this…<\/p>\n

    \u201cYou won\u2019t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires,
    \nbut you will be anxious to do the will of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

    How is this possible? \u00a0Colossians 3:3 AMP states, \u201cFor [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.\u201d \u00a0Romans 6:8 NLT tells us \u201cAnd since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him.\u201d \u00a0A brand new life in Christ…in exchange for our old life with all its flaws and failures. \u00a0We are simply managing this new life given to us by Christ. \u00a0But how on earth can we manage this new life any better than the old one? \u00a0Faith.<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\u00a0 It can only be done by living it by faith<\/strong>. \u00a0Faith<\/strong> intimately connects us with Christ.<\/p>\n

    Through Him also we have [our] access (entrance, introduction)
    \nby faith<\/strong> into this grace (state of God\u2019s favor)
    \nin which we [firmly and safely] stand.
    \nRomans 5:2 AMP<\/p>\n

    Faith<\/strong> is how we access God\u2019s grace, His guidance, His directions. \u00a0In order to live by faith<\/strong> we must live as Jesus describes:<\/p>\n

    \u00a0…even so whoever continues to feed on Me
    \n[whoever takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me]
    \nshall [in his turn] live through and because of Me.
    \nJohn 6:57b AMP<\/p>\n

    Quite an exchange, isn\u2019t it? \u00a0Why would Christ sacrifice Himself in exchange for me? \u00a0Romans 8:37 NLT holds the answer \u201cNo, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.\u201d \u00a0Christ loves us and wants us to be victorious. He laid down His life in exchange for ours, so we could spend eternal life with Him. \u00a0He chose to die for me. \u00a0Now that<\/em> is amazing love<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

    *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0 \u2665 \u00a0 ~\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u271e\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0~ \u00a0\u2665 \u00a0 ~ \u00a0 * <\/span><\/p>\n

    Lord, I am so thankful and grateful You chose to exchange Your life for mine. \u00a0I cannot fully comprehend the depths of Your love for me. \u00a0Help me live by faith so that I may manage this new life in a manner pleasing unto You. \u00a0In Your Holy name, I ask – Amen, It Is So!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3020],"tags":[8852,8842,5889,3367,365,2440,8845,425,5368,3174],"class_list":["post-25809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","tag-1-peter-42-romans-52","tag-crucified-with-christ","tag-cynda-cottrill","tag-daily-devotions-2","tag-faith","tag-galatians-220","tag-galatians-524","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-john-657","tag-seeking-him-devotional","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/SeekingHimLogo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-6Ih","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25809"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25814,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25809\/revisions\/25814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}