An "Exchanged Life""

An “Exchanged Life” what does it look like?  I believe the “Exchanged Life” is best defined as: giving your life over to Christ, and receiving in replacement a life that is free of the control of sin.  Peter the fisherman, a disciple of Jesus Christ, who denied Jesus Christ, and after the Holy Spirit entered Peter’s life, a bold servant of Christ who proclaimed Jesus wherever he went.  He was never the same after the Holy Spirit came upon him!

When a Peter steps on the stage of life, and by self-will allows the Holy Spirit to run the show, to originate his life, and to be willing to be made willing no matter what God allows, God allowed the following: “And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.”  (Acts 4:1-4 ESV)

We would be wise to learn from this lesson, when doing what the Spirit leads you to do may not feel right, but may get you in a lot of trouble with the religious leaders and others who follow them.  But from a kingdom worldview God will honor what He has put into your heart, and if you are blessed to see the results, that is great but it does not always work out that way.  Peter and John must have been told because Luke the physician reports that those who believed were about five thousand and only the men were counted.  Does that change Peter and John’s situation?  No they are still in jail   waiting for a chance to address those who had authority to keep them in prison or take their lives.  When we talk about the “Exchange Life” this is not the Peter who was afraid of the servant girl in the courtyard where Jesus was being held, no this is the Peter who understands; “I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’  (Galatians 2:20 ESV)  This Peter does not know what the outcome will be tomorrow, but he is full of confidence in who controls tomorrow.

“On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:5-12 ESV) 

A good number of people have come up with a more generous plan than what Peter is addressing in this exchange with the rulers of the people, especially when it comes to verse 12,  “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”   I am not sure by what authority you come up with a salvation without Jesus as the only way, but if we examine the authority that Peter is speaking under it is none other than the Holy Spirit of God.  And earlier, Peter while addressing the crowd told them; “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.”  (Acts 3:14-15 ESV) And it is the Righteous One, the Author of life, He has also spoken in John 14:6 ESV, “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”  If you are one of those with a more generous plan to bypass Jesus or to earn your way outside of the cross, please rethink your plan, where did it come from, and is that one greater than the Author of life?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice