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Preparing for value transference

There are two major things we must do to prepare ourselves before we being the process of transferring our values to our children. The first is found in Deuteronomy 6:6.

1) The words of the commandments must “be in (our) heart.”

We were sitting at a traffic light on Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach, Florida early in 1993. I tell you the year because I want to make sure you know that, although we were once “Palm Beach voters,” we weren’t those “Palm Beach voters.” My children were sitting in the back seat when a session of intense fellowship broke out.

“The word for becomes a most important operational word, the very fulcrum of the Great Exchange … . The gospel is written in the language of transaction … his death for my sin becomes my death for my sin, and his sinless life lived for me becomes my sinless life, my righteousness” (p. 219).

Patterned after The Apostles Doctrine of the Atonement by George Smeaton (published in 1870), The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness is a survey of the primary New Testament passages discussing the atonement. Second Corinthians provides the thesis for the book with these words: “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 ESV).

The book is divided into two parts. The first part attempts to establish a systematic theology of the atonement and presents the “apostles” (the New Testament books of Acts through Revelation) as providing the “completed view of Christ’s work of atonement” (p. 25). This “completed view” of the atonement is in contrast to the “Atonement Foreshadowed” (Chapter 3) in the Old Testament sacrifices and the “Atonement Expected” in the Old Testament prophecies (chapter 4).

Part Two is a walk through the New Testament with a pause at each of the key atonement passages for a concise presentation of their significance in the panoramic landscape of the atonement. Rather than systematizing the atonement, Part Two utilizes a biblical theology model in order to effectively show the atonement as one of the core teachings of the apostles. The book concludes with a very brief outline of the doctrine of the atonement, more as an afterthought rather than a sufficient summary.

The Great Exchange defines atonement as “the satisfactory compensation made for an offense or injury, in which a price is paid on behalf of the offending party, resulting in their discharge from the obligation to pay the due penalty” (p. 23). It goes on to remind us that the cross is the culmination of the atonement, and Christ was the substitute Who took our place and provided the atonement for our sins. Not only did He die for our sins, but He also lived to provide for our righteousness forever in Him.

Chapter six is a wonderful summary of Paul’s concept of “the righteousness of God” and rises to the top as one of the most helpful and quotable chapters. In it, the author defines “the righteousness of God” as “an attribute of God [that] refers to who God is in His holiness and perfect justice, and it ultimately means God’s unswerving commitment to display his glory and uphold his name” (p. 82). It further explains “the righteousness of God” as, “the righteousness that is transferred from the sinless Christ to sinners as a result of his finished work on the cross” (p. 82). The only way to harmonize these two ideas of righteousness is in the grand Bible doctrine of the Great Exchange: my sin for His righteousness.