A Good Exchange

Five-Minute Friday REPLACE (Three bad exchanges.)

Sometimes life feels like it is a series of replacements. A vehicle wears out, so you replace it. Sometimes the dealer will take your old SUV in place of cash as part of the payment for the new one. With some additional cash (or a ridiculous loan) you replace the old with the new, or sometimes just newer transportation.

Sometimes what you get in an exchange is not to your advantage. In today’s “modern”, “progressive”, and more “accepting” thinking worldview, what the Apostle Paul has to say about exchanges is met with contempt and is rejected without thinking. While some exchanges or replacements are beneficial, there is everlasting danger in a rush to reject what God says is a foolish exchange. Lest we think that it is only one set of sins that God says are a bad exchange, we should note that all sin is repugnant to God and is an exchange that is an epic declaration of war against the Almighty Creator. Gossip, murder, lying, envy, deceit, foolishness, ruthlessness, heartlessness, pride, and sexual sins are all individually and equally a declaration of war against the design of the Creator.

God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness

In his letter to the Romans, Paul makes it clear what we are under when we accept a bad replacement: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. Romans 1:18-27

Three Bad Substitutes or Replacements

Three awful replacements in Romans 1:22-27 (ESV)

We have three really ridiculous bad choices or exchanges in this brief passage. 1) Accepting an alternative to God and worshipping something that cannot help you or meet your needs is a really bad exchange. 2) Exchanging the truth about God as the Creator for lies is a devaluation of God’s plan that we would rightly image him is self-deception of the worst kind. 3) Substituting what is natural (designed by the Creator with a purpose) for something that is contrary to nature results in a penalty. That is not a good exchange. You aren’t getting your money’s worth.

How to Identify a Follower of Jesus

They have a new heart. They have a new love. A follower of Jesus knows that an exchange is needed. My heart needed to be replaced. The old heart was a heart of stone. It was unclean. Here is God’s heart examination and his solution as declared in Ezekiel’s prophecy:

“And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel 36:23-27

Ezekiel 36:23-27 ESV “I will give you a new heart” means the old one is being replaced.

Five Minute Friday

This post is part of the weekly Five-Minute Friday link-up.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.