Discovering Hope With James W. GollSample

The Divine Exchange

This truth that we become what we behold is part of God’s strategy in our lives. It is part of the divine exchange. This exchange is no small part of our faith in God. In fact, it is the very center of it, prophesied by Isaiah hundreds of years before Jesus came to fulfill it. Perhaps this is a well-known passage to you. Or maybe it’s brand new to you. Either way, look at it fresh with me by reading Isaiah 53:2–5.

Now this takes us from the early years of Jesus all the way to his crucifixion. But it doesn’t simply say, “The Messiah will die on a cross.” It goes beyond that to detail the divine exchange Jesus offers us.

I would like you to take your hands and put them on your heart right now. I have written some prayer proclamations based on this reality, and I want you to declare them out loud over yourself:

✦✦ Jesus took my sorrow, pain, and shame.

✦✦ Jesus, on the cross of Calvary, took the sin of all mankind—generations past, generations present, and generations future.

✦✦ It pleased the Father to fling, to put upon him—the spotless Lamb of God—the sin of all mankind.

✦✦ Jesus was crushed. He was bruised. He was beaten. He was pierced. He was scourged.

✦✦ He did all of this for my well-being, and by his stripes, I am healed.

This historic exchange happened on the cross of Calvary where Jesus bore our sin and gave us his provision and promise of beauty for ashes. By now we’ve seen many wonders of this promise, but going back to the theme verse for this plan, equipped now with the understanding of the divine exchange, we read that he gives us more than beauty for ashes. It also says he gives us joy for mourning. And he grants us the garment of praise in divine exchange for the spirit of heaviness. There are three exchanges here, and these are just some of the many exchanges that occurred for us at the cross.