Charles Stanley
Pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta
Dear Friend of In Touch:
If I could select only one topic in the
Bible to study, it would be the Cross of Jesus Christ. By the Cross, I mean Jesus’ death, burial,
and resurrection. It is the centerpiece
of New Testament preaching and thought.
I love to think and study on the Cross
because it is the place where a divine exchange occurred that affects the life
of every believer who trusts in Christ for personal salvation.
At the cross, our sin was exchanged for
the righteousness of Christ. “He made Him who knew
no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God
in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Martin Luther
spoke of this verse in this manner:
“Christ became what He was not – sin – in order that we might become
what we were not – the righteousness of God in Christ.”
This is no sterile doctrine. All of your sins – past, present, and future
– have been forgiven through Christ’s death on the cross. You do not have to perform to gain God’s
approval. You are holy and blameless
before the Father.
If that is not exciting enough, think
of this exchange that also took place at Calvary’s tree – our inadequacy for
His adequacy. “Not that we are adequate
in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is
from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5). God has
replaced our meager resources with His unlimited sufficiency.
Christ now lives in us through the Holy
Spirit, and we have been placed in Christ by God.
We can exchange our anxiety and fretfulness for His peace, our weakness
for His strength, our sorrow for His joy.
His grace, mercy, love, and help make us adequate for every challenge
and problem.
I can enjoy all the blessings of
Christ’s resurrection life as I set my mind on things above (Colossians 3:1-4),
submit my will to Him daily, and choose to obey His Word. The Christian life is not an endless struggle
but a daily adventure in allowing Christ to live His life through me.
The Cross is not just a historical fact
or event that occurred two thousand years ago.
You can experience its liberating reality each day through the presence
of the risen Savior who forgives us, accepts us, loves us, and equips us for
every challenge.
Prayerfully yours,
Charles
F. Stanley
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“It is my pleasure to wholeheartedly
commend to you the teaching and counseling of Exchanged Life Ministries. I myself, my family, and many of our church
staff have experienced a greater freedom to live victoriously, in Christ, as
a result of understanding the message of the Exchanged Life.” Charles
Stanley |