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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church

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with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and

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faith. And today, I would like you to consider at this time of year, this is the Lenten season when

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we are anticipating Resurrection Sunday, Easter morning, a time of great joy and triumph,

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the high holiday of the Christian calendar. I am so excited about Easter every single year,

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Resurrection Sunday, and I would like you to consider the triumph of our Lord Jesus Christ

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over sin, over your sin and your sin nature at the tree. I have been preaching a series called

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Tree Theology, where the apostles and the Old Testament, even the book of Genesis,

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talks about the tree, and our Lord was crucified on a tree. And we have tremendous consequences

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for eternity because of what he did there. And I would like us to reflect on that and challenge you

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to be prepared on Sunday morning, Easter morning, Resurrection Sunday, to celebrate with us the

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resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And towards that end, I would like to read a couple of verses

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here for you and just reflect on them. And I call this particular message, The Great Exchange,

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because our Lord Jesus Christ made a great exchange on the tree there, your sin for his righteousness.

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In any case, 1 Peter 2, verses 24 and 25, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,

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so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

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For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your

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souls. What a beautiful several verses, huh? And this message is then called The Great Exchange.

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Your sin for his righteousness, the great exchange. Now, when historians discuss the enduring impact of

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Christopher Columbus's explorations of the new world, those impacts are often described as the great

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exchange, or more technically, the Colombian exchange. Now, as contact and commerce increased between the

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old world and the new world, each world began to see things appear on their shores that never were

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before Columbus made its journeys. For example, Europe slowly saw these delicacies appear in their markets

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and on their tables. For example, potatoes. Potatoes were not native to Europe. The Irish really became

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Irish when they began growing this tuber. Were they ever really Irish before that? Or corn as well.

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Hard to believe that this staple was unknown in Europe, but it was. Or tobacco. Now, Europeans are

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famous for being chain smokers, but not before Columbus. Or cocoa. Oh, can you believe it? No

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chocolate in Europe for centuries. Think of it, ladies. What was Valentine's Day like without Belgian

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chocolate or a cold winter night without hot chocolate? Other delicacies that came over?

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Or tomatoes or peanuts or vanilla? And turkeys, too. Well, in return, the new world found these strange

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items disembarking onto her shores from the old world. The horse, for example. Oh, as a boy obsessed with the

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old west, I was shocked at this discovery. Only gradually did the horse migrate from Spanish colonies in

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South America in the 16th century, northward to Mexico and then what is now Southwest America, where John

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Wayne was waiting patiently to saddle up. But the American West was an environment ideally suited to the

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horse, and it soon covered the landscape almost as ubiquitously as the bison. Oh, and then bananas as

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well. We identify this fruit with South America today, but it wasn't native to South America.

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It's hard to imagine a banana republic without bananas, right? But it is native to the African

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continent. Or honeybees. The American of this period had very little use for their EpiPen since no one

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got stung by bees. But think of it. No honey, no pollination by these creatures, and no symbol for Utah.

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Oh, other delicacies that came over, onions or citrus fruits, sugarcane was not native to the Americas.

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Well, in the history of these two worlds, the old and the new, the great exchange looms large as a metaphor

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for how two different worlds and peoples can enrich one another. In the history of redemption, too, there's another

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great exchange that has made spiritual life possible for Christ's people, the church. And it is entirely fit

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for us to contemplate this great exchange here during Lent and in anticipation of Resurrection Sunday.

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Well, what was it that transpired at the tree on that day? What was the exchange between our Lord and

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us His people? Well, let's look to our text today. First of all, two points I want to make with you.

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Number one, the great exchange, encompassing verse 24 of 1 Peter, that is, he himself bore our sins

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in his body on the tree, so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness by his wounds.

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Now, Peter is here exegeting Isaiah 53 in chapter 2 from verse 22 onwards. As do all of the apostles in

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their letters, they sometimes cite directly, or they adapt slightly, or even allude to particular Bible

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verses while making a theological point. And that's what Peter is doing here. He's citing an Old Testament

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text, Isaiah 53, and applying it directly to Jesus Christ and his suffering on the tree of curse,

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the cross. And this makes abundant sense to Peter at this juncture in his letter. He's laying down an

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example of self-sacrifice for his people. Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, he says in

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verse 21. In doing this, he exposits a great deal of biblical theology for us, and that includes the

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tree theology. The heart of that tree theology is expressed in his succinct statement, he himself bore

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our sins in his body on the tree. At his elbow is the text we read this morning, surely he has borne our

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griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was

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pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that

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brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. That's from Isaiah 53. Now implicit in this

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declaration of redemption are a number of truths. First of all, let me observe with you, the Lord Jesus

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Christ, that is he himself, is emphatic here in our text. Jesus Christ is the called and capable and

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exclusive one to bear the sins of another. As John the Baptist would say, behold the Lamb of God who

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takes away the sin of the world. Or the book of Hebrews tells us, we have been sanctified through

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the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And we also see that the types and shadows of

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the Old Testament sacrificial system are now completely fulfilled in Christ. The temple worshiper used to

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lay his hand upon the head of the sacrificial animal to symbolize the substitute that this animal

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represented as a sacrifice for his sin, the worshiper's sin, life for life, as his blood was shed in his

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stead. And the priest would on the great day of atonement take two goats. He'd slaughter one and

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lavish his blood on the altar, and he would lay his hands on the other goat to symbolize the loading

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of Israel's sin on him and send him into the wilderness, bearing away the sins of the people.

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Now, all of this foreshadowing, this bearing away of the sins of the people, come to completion in

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Jesus' appointment at the tree. And he does this in his body. We were created, dear listener, as beings

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with physical bodies. We're not airy-fairy floating spirits as in New Ageism or the Hindu religion.

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We were formed gloriously from the dust, imbued with the image of God, and concurrently we fell

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as embodied beings, such that those same bodies were condemned to dissolve back into dust once more.

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But all of that changed as Jesus bore our sins in his body because of his sin-bearing in his own

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real actual body. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, Paul tells us,

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and this mortal body must put on immortality, Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians. There are glorious

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implications to Jesus bearing our sins on the tree in his divine, fully human body. And then again,

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as the only and exclusive God-man, Jesus alone could bear our sins on the tree, fully God. He was the

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sinless lamb who could bring perfect righteousness to the table in exchange for, in exchange for what?

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From us. Oh, fully man, he could represent us as covenant mediator by exchanging our sin nature

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and our actual sins for his righteousness. The great exchange. Our sins were laid upon him

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while his righteousness was laid upon us. As Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5,

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For our sake, he, that is God the Father, made him, that is Jesus Christ the Son, he made him to be

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sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Ah, behold, dear listener,

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this is the heart of the great exchange. Be real, dear listener, what is it we as condemned sinners

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from the beginning can bring to the cross in exchange for what our Lord will offer his righteousness?

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Will it be our own good works? Oh, the Bible tells us in Isaiah, we are all as unclean thing,

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and our righteousness are as filthy rags. Oh, or Paul tells us, we know that a person is not justified

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by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus

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in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law,

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no one will be justified. The truth is that all that we sinners can bring to the foot of the cross

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for exchange is our sin. It is the iniquity of us all that is emphasized as that which is laid on

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the Lamb of God. And if you have not the humility to admit that this is the summa bonum of that which

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you bring to God's redemptive table, then you will never be saved. All of what we can bring apart from

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him is an offense, an insult to his holiness and righteousness. The beautiful, wondrous thing about

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this great exchange is that our sin, your sin, my sin, is precisely that which God wants you to lay

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before the altar of the tree of curse. It is our sin which he fully intends to bear away from his

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presence. It is your sin which he fully intends to condemn and punish in his son's own body, the Lord

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Jesus Christ. I am put in mind of another historical moment. Sir Walter Raleigh was for a long time a

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favorite of Queen Elizabeth I in the late 16th century. He was a handsome, dashing adventurer who loved life in

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the field as a soldier and explorer, but also life in the courts of royalty. And he felt at home in both.

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He helped to found the colony of Virginia, named after Queen Elizabeth. She was known as the Virgin

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Queen since she never married, hence Virginia. And although Raleigh was forbidden to travel to Virginia,

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he always made a great show of bringing the then exotic fare from the New World into the court and laying it

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at the feet of the Queen. Turkeys or even Native Americans dressed resplendently in their feathers

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and buckskins, and especially chocolate and tobacco. Now, smoking tobacco in a pipe or sniffing it from a

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silver tin became a wildly popular court practice in Queen Elizabeth's court, started by Raleigh.

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And the Queen especially loved the cocoa he brought, mixed with sugar, and then stirred into warm milk,

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a novelty at the time. No wonder Raleigh was her favorite. He brought her hot cocoa.

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Well, humans often think that they are spiritual Sir Walter Raleigh's, bringing their good works

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into the courts of heaven and laying them at the feet of God, figuratively speaking, expecting to

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receive in return the favor of God, the righteousness of God. Elaborate theologies of good works have been

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developed in the church over the centuries. But is this how we are saved? Are we spiritual Sir Walter

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Raleigh's? How are those good works received, do you think, by God? Are they the exotic wonders on a

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spiritual level that Raleigh's were on the physical level? Hardly. What we bring to the great exchange is

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more like taking a skidster out into the alley and bringing in a dumpster and emptying it at the feet of

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the throne. What we have seen over the course of tree theology is that since our condemnation under

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the curse at the tree of curse is that it is no more possible for us to produce good works worthy of

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the righteousness of God than for a thorn bush to produce apples or a barrel of seawater to produce

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a glass of cold drinking water. No, no, no. In fact, it took the death of Christ,

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he himself, to bear away the dumpster fire of our good works forever and leave in its place

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the glistening righteousness of God. In the death of Christ, we die to sin with him and we become

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the righteousness of God. Once again, as Paul says, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin

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so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So united to Christ are we by faith that in

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his death we die to sin and we come alive to righteousness. We become the righteousness of

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God in all of its wondrous beauty, likened in Revelation to fine linen. John tells us there,

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it was granted her, that is the bride, the church, to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure,

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for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Unquote. Alive now to God in Christ,

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clothed in his righteousness, our works are now taken up into him and reckoned as wondrously,

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beautifully righteous. We live unto righteousness. There is a place for us to labor in good works.

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I want to emphasize that. I'm not diminishing good works. There is a place for them. That is,

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when he has borne away our sins and endowed us with Christ's righteousness. Then good works.

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We are made to able, able, excuse me, we are made able to live righteously by his wounds. We are healed,

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the text tells us. It really is possible to live unto righteousness. There is beauty in this world,

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dear listener. There is beauty, wondrous beauty in this world. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

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The Bible tells us numerous times, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. And it's more than a

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throwaway expression. Rather, it is an attribute, holiness, which we may possess as graced to us by

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the Savior. Even Hebrews tells us, without holiness, no one will see the Lord. But with holiness, we live

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a life of glory and righteousness. Throughout the scriptures, that righteousness is presented to us

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as a wondrous, beautiful thing. Oh, the temple and all of its surroundings were created to reflect the beauty

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of God in his holiness, including the priest in his vestments and the sanctuary decked in gold. The visions

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of God experienced by the prophets, Elijah and Isaiah and Ezekiel, for example, were so full of wonder and awe and

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beauty that they fell on their faces and thought they were about to die. Oh, dear listener, our Lord also

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displayed that same beauty of righteousness in his transfiguration on the mount and later in his resurrection

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appearances. Oh, we're coming up on Easter morning, Resurrection Sunday, when we will once again celebrate the

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beauty of his holiness in his resurrection. When one is intrinsically righteous, as Christ is, he is

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correspondingly intrinsically beautiful. This righteousness can be yours for faith in this

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one, dear listener, who has borne away your sins and healed you such that you may live unto righteousness.

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When I look out upon our congregation on Sunday morning, I see Christ Jesus in them. I see a sea of

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beauty, a sea of righteousness in our congregation. But you must trust the one who has shepherded you

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to the foot of this tree, which brings me to point number two, verse 25 of 1 Peter 2. And that reads,

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for you were like sheep gone astray, but you have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

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Yes, by interceding on behalf of the flock upon his tree, Christ rescued as shepherd, those of us

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straying since Adam's tree. That's what verse 25 is telling us. We have an authoritative apostolic

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interpretation of the Old Testament. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his

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own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Oh, I live on a farm. Now my wife and I

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have a farm. And I can tell you, a straying sheep is a pathetic sight. I left the gate open the other

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day, bringing buckets of water into the sheep and goats, and two of the little lambs wandered out into

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the open fields, scampering away as if they were making a great escape into the big bad world.

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Those two little lambs had no purpose, no direction. They followed their noses from clump to clump of

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brush and grass that's gradually beginning to appear through the snow. And their little tails

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occasionally wiggled in the air, right? I knew what would inevitably happen. I've seen it often.

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At some point, they would get their fill and stop and look around for Mama, having no clue as to where

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they were, not seeing her or anyone of the flock for that matter. And they would begin raising a cry,

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buying and bleeding into the air for someone to come and get them. So I forestall that

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inevitability and went and shepherded them back into the fold. Life on the farm has been a lesson for me

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in biblical theology. People really do wander and stray from God in this fashion. They follow their noses

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from sin to sin, like some delicacy sprouting up for them to gobble up like a greedy lamb or a kid,

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right? Especially for young boys and girls. Life in the world is like some fun app to download,

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or life is like a drug to swallow, or a buffet to browse. All the cautions and the patient instruction

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of parents, the friends, the church are just old-fashioned. All the out-of-date ways meant to

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spoil my fun and rob me of what life has to offer, they reason, or I used to reason as a young man.

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I really don't, I really do know better, they tell themselves. I know better. Everything I hear in my music

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and I see on social media is true, and my friends and I are smarter than our parents, right?

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Oh, bit by bit, app by app, trip by trip, morsel by morsel, we get our fill, and we look up one day

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and we discover that we are far, far from home. We don't know how we got here. We're broken and empty

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and destroyed and dying. This isn't what I thought it would be. How far have I strayed as a sheep, right?

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Where's home? Many in our world never do come home, tragically. Isn't that true, dear listener?

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We all know someone, a friend, a relative, a workman, a loved one, who's tragically in the grip

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of some sin or way of life that has them trapped, or worse, has them dead already, or soon to be.

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Maybe you are one of those straying sheep yourself. But if you hear this, it's not too late.

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The shepherd and overseer of your soul is on patrol for you. That shepherd is still aggressively

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out in the field, gathering those who have lost their way. Dear listener, return to him. Return to

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your shepherd. He is the good shepherd who cares for the flock. Oh, my wife, Debbie, is a born nurturer.

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Remember, she loves being a shepherdess. One of the payoffs for going out and gathering in a straying

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lamb in your arms is that a shaking, frightened lamb will snuggle up to you and lick you and will

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learn to trust you and run to you when you come into the barnyard. Oh, they really do know their

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shepherd, the lambs. And they come to him or her when they call the little lambs. They hear the voice

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of their shepherd. Perhaps you hear the voice of your shepherd today. You are a spiritual creature,

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dear listener, made in the image of God. If you have not yet had those sins taken away,

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you have a dumpster load of sins to get rid of and exchange for a robe of wondrous linen, that is

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Christ's own righteousness, to don as your own. It is this that he won for you at the tree.

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Return to the shepherd and overseer of your soul, dear listener. This has been Pastor David Bass at

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New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. We are looking forward to, and this message is meant

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indeed to encourage you to attend your church if you have one already, or if you don't,

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we ask you to come and visit us on Resurrection Sunday, or any Sunday for that matter, but especially

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on Resurrection Sunday, Easter morning. Come and join us, where we will indeed celebrate the

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resurrected Christ who has died for your sin and shown his triumph over sin by having him raised from

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the dead by his Father. And we have the victory with him in this as we are united to the Lord Jesus

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Christ. I urge you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ by faith and become his today and claim that

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forgiveness of sin and your establishment then in his righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ's

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righteousness. Come and join us at New Geneva. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at

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101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and we especially encourage you to come and join us

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on Resurrection Sunday. We meet at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard,

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and you can call us for more information or give us some feedback at area code 208-523-0196,

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208-523-0196.