The Great Exchange (Foreword by Sinclair Ferguson) E-Book

Jerry Bridges

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2007

Beschreibung

Believers often take for granted the great act of salvation provided to us by the work of Jesus Christ. Beginning with the Old Testament sacrifices and the prophecies that foreshadowed Christ, authors Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington guide believers through the biblical overview of Christ's atonement. The Great Exchange helps believers see how the Old Testament practices tie in with the New Testament discussion of Christ's great work of salvation. As believers work through these principles, they will begin to recognize that even though we deserve condemnation and punishment from a holy God, he has given us the opportunity to experience his great riches through his Son, Jesus Christ. The clear gospel message presented throughout the entire book offers a great appreciation of Christ for believers and an opportunity for salvation for unbelievers.

Leseprobe

The Great Exchange

My Sin for His Righteousness

An Exposition of the Atonement of Jesus Christ Patterned after The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement by George Smeaton

Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington

CROSSWAY BOOKSWHEATON, ILLINOIS

The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness

Copyright © 2007 by Jerry Bridges and Robert C. Bevington

Published by Crossway Booksa publishing ministry of Good News Publishers 1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Josh DennisFirst printing 2007Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version,® copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible.® Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the authors.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bridges, Jerry.

The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness / Jerry Bridges and Robert C. Bevington.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Atonement—Biblical teaching. 2. Bible. N.T.—Theology. I. Bevington, Bob, 1956- II. Title.

BS2545.A8B75 2007

232’.3—dc22

2007002653

DP     17   16   15   14   13   12   11   10   09   08   07 15   14   13   12   11   10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

The Cross—where the God-man, Jesus Christ, traded places with the sinners he redeemed, exchanging his perfect righteousness for their sin, condemnation, and death.

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

—2 Corinthians 5:21

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Introduction

Part One: Christ’s Atonement: Overview and Context

1. The Unique Qualifications of the Apostles

2. Christ’s Atonement: The Apostles’ Summary

3. Atonement Foreshadowed: The Old Testament Sacrifices

4. Atonement Expected: The Old Testament Prophecies

Part Two: The Apostle-authored Scripture on Christ’s Atonement

5. The Acts of the Apostles

6. The Epistles of Paul on “the Righteousness of God”

7. Romans

8. 1 Corinthians

9. 2 Corinthians

10. Galatians

11. Ephesians

12. Philippians

13. Colossians

14. 1 and 2 Thessalonians

15. 1 and 2 Timothy

16. Titus

17. Hebrews

18. 1 Peter

19. 1 John

20. Revelation

Conclusion

Appendix: An Outline of the Doctrine of the Atonement

Notes

Foreword

It is a great privilege and pleasure to have the opportunity to introduce and commend this important book. It is written by two authors who have something of the spirit of the men of Issachar in Old Testament days, who “had understanding of the times, to know what . . . to do” (1 Chron. 12:32), for The Great Exchange addresses one of the greatest weaknesses of the contemporary evangelical church—a failure to be centered on the center of the gospel.

Perhaps a little history will help clarify what I mean.

Sometime on October 31, 1517, in Wittenberg, Germany, a thirty-three- year-old monk of the Augustinian Order took a small mallet from his cassock, found a nail, and hammered into place some sheets of paper on which he had written, in as legible Latin as he could write, almost one hundred statements about the Christian gospel. It was his way of provoking discussion on topics he was prepared to discuss and, if need be, to debate in public. He could have had no expectation that these sheets of paper would almost overnight shake sixteenth-century Europe to its foundations and impact the structures of Western society for centuries to come. But he himself was in the process of discovering the power of the gospel to save and transform people’s lives, and he understood that at the heart of the gospel message stood the cross.

The monk’s name was, of course, Martin Luther. The sheets of paper he posted came to be known publicly as the Ninety-five Theses. Among the last of them were these two statements:

Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Peace, peace,” and there is no peace! (Thesis 92) Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Cross, cross,” and there is no cross! (Thesis 93)

Luther meant that any gospel that does not focus on the death of Christ and its true significance, and any teaching on Christianity that does not emphasize a life of cross bearing cannot be the biblical gospel nor produce a Christ-honoring life. But when the cross is preached, and when a cross-centered life is lived, true joy and peace are known. At the heart of this gospel, Luther believed, lies the great and wonderful exchange that Christ has made for us on the cross. There Christ exchanged his righteousness for our sin, so that through faith we might exchange our sin for his righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). Luther understood what Paul meant when he said that of first importance in the message of the gospel is this: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). Ever since, evangelical Christians—gospel people—have believed, taught, preached, lived, died—and, yes, written books—in this conviction.

The world into which Luther spoke was in many ways different from ours. We have come far since then in science, in technology, in medicine, and a in thousand other things. But in the Western world at least, in one sphere we are in danger—perhaps surprisingly—of readopting patterns of life that bear an uncanny resemblance to those which Luther addressed. That sphere is to be found in the Christian church.

How so? The church of the Middle Ages was marked by several obvious characteristics. There was a strong emphasis on influence and power. One index of this was the way in which church leaders sought—and gained—social and political leverage and enjoyed having a voice at the table of the affairs of this world. Another was the rise of what we call “megachurches” (which they called “cathedrals”). Here well-known and influential pastors (whom they called “bishops”) exercised great influence in their society. The model to which young ministers were encouraged to aspire was not faithfulness to the gospel, but success. In these churches the “quality of worship” was thought to be outstanding (stunning acoustics, magnificent musical performance beyond the ordinary). It was also a world where the image dominated the Word, where people—so it was thought—would not listen to preaching, and so drama became the order of the day, whether in the colorful liturgy of the services or in the famed medieval mystery plays. And, to some degree, if one wanted health, wealth, and (especially eternal) happiness, these, too, the church could provide, for it had men who possessed charismatic gifts. Indeed, from the extraordinary power in their hands one could receive forgiveness, and from them, or at least from objects they possessed, one could seek even physical healing.

But something was sadly absent from all this, as Luther, who was once part of the whole system well knew. The true message of the cross was lacking, and its true meaning obscured. Of course, the church would have argued that it was there—after all, even the buildings were shaped in the form of a cross, not to mention the crosses that were worn or carried by its ministers. But the cross was not the message that was being preached; the way of the cross—a cross-centered and cross-driven life—was not seen as the very epicenter of Christianity.

It is difficult to avoid seeing some unnerving parallels to the evangelical church in our own society: megachurches, desire for political influence, ministers as gurus, charismatic gift-givers, an emphasis on worship as performance, drama as necessary for a nonverbal culture, and one other thing—a relative silence about the cross and its true meaning.

A moment’s reflection is likely to confirm that this is true. What have been the themes of the seminars, conferences, books, sermons, classes, DVDs, CDs, and songs that we have attended, heard, seen, read, and talked about recently? How many—what percentage of them—have been cross-centered? Of the titles of Christian books you have read, or of which you know, how many highlight the cross?

The answer to that question should probably alarm us.

More than thirty years ago in his landmark book Knowing God, J. I. Packer noted, “If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father.”1I would add today: “If you want to judge how well a person understands the gospel, ask him what he makes of the death of Christ, and what the message of the cross is.” The real Christian answers that while the message of the cross is foolishness to some and a stumbling block to others, to Christians it is the saving wisdom and power of God (1 Cor. 1:18–24). The confession of the real Christian is, “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14).

We need to understand that the cross stands at the center and heart of the gospel. Without it there is no gospel. That is why the message of this book is potentially so important for us and for our Christian living, and for the shape, style, and ethos of our church life. It is a book about what Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. It takes us to the heart of the gospel.

I noted that this book has two authors. Perhaps it would be better to say that it is a book with two builders and one architect. For behind it, as a kind of architectural design, lies the work of a wonderful, but now-little-known, nineteenth-century Scottish author and theologian, George Smeaton. In 1868 and 1870 he published two magnificent volumes, totaling almost one thousand pages, in which he carefully expounded all of the New Testament passages on the atonement. They bore the titles Christ’s Doctrine of the Atonement and The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement.2

Smeaton was an outstanding scholar with a brilliant mind and a deep love for Christ. My own conviction is that these two great volumes should regularly be in the hands of every person who teaches and preaches the gospel of Christ. They are treasure troves. But they are also lengthy. Now, out of a shared deep appreciation for the good that Smeaton’s exposition has done for them personally, Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington have taken the architectural design he employed for the second of these volumes, The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement, and have built their exposition of the gospel from the same biblical materials Smeaton first used.

The Great Exchange is the wonderful result. It meets the standard set by Lord Bacon’s famous essay “Of Studies”: “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Here is spiritual food to be chewed and digested. It will do you good. And it may well make you sing,

Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place, condemned he stood;Sealed my pardon with his blood:Hallelujah! What a Savior!3

I, for one, hope it does.

Sinclair B. Ferguson First Presbyterian Church Columbia, South Carolina

Preface

This book is first and foremost about the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ is the sinless sin bearer of all who are united to him by faith. But this raises two questions: (1) What does it mean that Jesus is our sinless sin bearer? And (2) What does it mean to become united to him by faith? Our purpose in this book is to answer these all-important questions by unpacking the key verse of our book—“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21)—within the context of the rest of Scripture.

The Great Exchange, in which God caused our sin to be traded for Christ’s righteousness, is crystallized and summed up in 2 Corinthians 5:21. The Great Exchange and the related expression substitutionary atonement represent the banners under which we will examine many passages of Scripture. These two banners will lead us deep into the historical gospel as the sole source and substance of the Christian faith.

Why write a book on this subject? Why now? The gospel is a timeless message and therefore extremely relevant for our day and age. But it is not only relevant; it is essential, because it is the only solution ever offered by God for the perpetual sin dilemma of mankind. Throughout history, the message of the Bible has not changed. The original languages are still the original languages, and the ancient manuscripts still declare this same message.

Yet, in recent times it has become apparent that some in the church have drifted away from the historical gospel and ventured to redefine sin and redemption and even the meaning of the cross. Some have done this in a sincere attempt to make the gospel message more acceptable to today’s culture. Others have attempted to usher in an age of greater authenticity and depth of commitment. But regardless of sincerity, no attempt to reform the church can succeed if it departs in any way from the centrality of the message that our sinless Christ actually died on a real cross as the sin bearer for those who are united to Christ by faith in his substitutionary sacrifice and righteousness.

The message of the cross—the historical gospel of the God-man, Jesus Christ, who personally visited the earth, which was created through him, with the mission of redeeming his own people with his own infinitely precious, bloody, substitutionary death—has been and must remain the solitary basis and the singular foundation of the Christian faith and worldview.

This gospel—that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures—is rooted in pre-creation, revealed in ancient prophecy, and fulfilled in real, time-space, dimensional history. It is a message that is alive, and it is the only message that imparts life. It is a message that simply will not budge in order to morph into the paradigms of seekers or culture. It consists of its own unchangeable paradigm. Yes, it is absolutist; if there is one thing in the universe that deserves to be, it is the gospel. Its immutability is woven into the fabric of authentic Christianity.

We do recognize, however, that the gospel is like an infinitely precious diamond in which there are multiple facets reflecting and refracting the brilliance of the message in various ways. But all facets of the gospel are necessarily connected to the substance of the gospel—the message of substitutionary atonement. The substance of the gospel and all its facets emanate from and draw attention to the cross, the site of the Great Exchange, where the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is seen by redeemed sinners in the face of Christ crucified (2 Cor. 4:6; 1 Cor. 2:2). The facets, while never ceasing to be connected to the substance, supply wonderful truths that help us more fully apply the meaning of Christ’s great atonement. Here are a few:

1) In the gospel, our worldview is radically changed. We refer to this facet as the gospel of the kingdom. It means that our definitions of health, wealth, security, comfort, and prosperity are turned upside down compared to the world’s view. It means we embrace the paradoxes of Christ’s teachings—to live is to die, to be great is to be a servant of all, and to be rich is to give sacrificially. All our values change, as do our views on community, poverty, gender, racism, orphans and widows, and the sick and the weak. But none of this can happen authentically apart from the cross, where our sin was exchanged for his righteousness.

2) In the gospel, Jesus provides us with the perfect example of how to live. When we need insight and direction, we can ask, “What would Jesus do?” We search the Scriptures to see how he handled situations. We look for the attitudes he conveyed and the way he communicated. But all of his doing and saying was connected to his mission in which he set his face like a flint to provide a perfect, sinless sacrifice. And were it not for the fact that his mission was successfully completed at the cross, we would never have the ability to apply the example of Jesus to our lives.

3) In the gospel, Satan was dethroned, and we were set free from his dominion. Sin and Satan and death no longer reign over us. We are free for the process of renewal, to be transformed into the image of the Son. But our freedom is not a standalone feature of the gospel; it is linked to the cross, where we are united into Christ in his obedient life, death to sin, and glorious resurrection. And the outward evidence of our transformation should primarily serve to deflect the eyes of observers to the cross that made our freedom possible.

4) In the gospel, we are provided with the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to grow, to be transformed, and to preach and serve. The Holy Spirit provides gifts of inward and outward fruit bearing. The gospel would not be complete without the role of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is not the complete gospel. The Holy Spirit came because Christ died for our sins as our substitute.

So we conclude that our goal is to declare the whole counsel of God in the gospel and to show how every aspect can be traced back to its substance in the substitutionary atonement. Our book is not about us; it is not our story. We aim to disappear now and display Christ and him crucified as the treasure of all time. We pray that you, too, will become self-forgetful as you turn these pages, because what you see here is God in Christ doing something that is truly larger than life, namely, providing an all-sufficient substitutionary atonement for us by his perfect, obedient life in the flesh and his perfect sacrificial death in the flesh. Herein you will find the meaning of the Great Exchange, the monumental reality that in the gospel: “For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in [Christ] we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).

This book is patterned after a nineteenth-century classic, The Apostles’ Doctrine of the Atonement,1written by Scottish theologian George Smeaton. While our book is neither an abridgment nor a modernization, it is nevertheless designed to make the brilliance and depth of Smeaton’s work accessible to mainstream readers while faithfully and accurately representing the intent of his original exposition. We acknowledge that we stand on the shoulders of others in addition to George Smeaton. We especially acknowledge our indebtedness to John Piper. Readers of Dr. Piper will recognize some of his well-known expressions and concepts in our text.

We also want to thank Greg Plitt for his invaluable assistance with the earlier drafts of the manuscript. Thanks also to Allan Fisher, senior vice president of book publishing at Crossway, and to Lydia Brownback for her outstanding editorial work. And also thanks to the number of friends who read portions of the original draft for their encouragement and suggestions. Finally, we invite you to visit www.thegreatexchangebook.com, where you will find a free study guide and other tools for deepening your personal or your group’s appreciation of the wondrous cross.

Introduction

When the apostle Paul wanted to remind the Corinthian church of the gospel, he wrote, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3).

Christ died for our sins. The gospel is the solution to our sin problem. So, before we can understand and appreciate the gospel, we need to understand the doctrine of sin. The basis for this understanding takes us back to the garden of Eden, where, from the moment Adam ate of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:6), sin became humanity’s overarching problem. Adam, by God’s appointment, stood as the representative of the entire human race so that his guilt became our guilt, and his resulting sinful nature was passed on to all of us. Paul speaks of this representative nature of Adam’s sin and its consequences when he states:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. . . . Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Rom. 5:12, 18–19)