The Great Exchange

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Studio Update, Illness, and Summer Projects

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and it has been a couple of weeks since I�ve been in the studio here. Somebody said to me that I make too much noise on my desk. I�m going to try to be super careful today and not bang things, or when I�m writing notes or something, maybe I could mute it.

But you get what you pay for, right? I didn�t feel well last week in real time. I guess that�s the only way you can feel poorly, or well. And I thought, �My lungs are killing me. And so I went to urgent care.

My O2 was fine. My temperature was fine. They just said, �Oh, there�s a rattle in your lungs, and you have pneumonia. So here�s a couple of antibiotics and some cough medicine. And then go home. So that�s, what, eight or nine days ago.

I should have had Pastor Steve preach for me last Sunday, but I, you know, if you have pneumonia and they put you in the hospital, they call it pneumonia. If you have pneumonia and you can still walk around, still function, you�re not in the hospital, they call that walking pneumonia.

So I think I had preaching pneumonia, because I could still preach when I had pneumonia. I have no idea what I said, but I really hope it was biblical. Once in a while, I pull up the Message Bible, because I find it fascinating.

And I don�t have a Message Bible with all the Bible. I only have one of those Marcian canon kind of messages, New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs. I could probably do a whole show about partial canons, but you know what?

It fits in your pocket, so you can�t complain. I looked at the Ecclesiastes passage in the Message Bible, and it says these are the words of the quester, Q-U-E-S-T-E-R, David�s son and king in Jerusalem.

And instead of calling him the preacher, as I think Martin Luther first did, he�s called the quester. He�s on a quest, right? You think of the English word �question. You�re on a quest for the answer.

The Spanish word for �question I think, is �preguntas right? And so there�s information, and you want to find the resolution that�s pregnant with meaning. In German, I can�t pronounce German very well, but �frog there�s a fragment, right?

And you need the answer for the question to be no longer fragmented. Anyway, we have the quester. What�s the quester? They call me the seeker. They call me the searcher. I want to break out into some pop tunes.

And it does say in chapter 1, verse 2 in the Message Bible, �smoke. Nothing but smoke. That�s what the quester says. And the Hebrew word there, �habel it could mean, in its base, at its root, it�s, you know, ethereal, temporal, �here today, gone tomorrow like a vapor.

But it can mean futility, frustration, vanity. It could mean something, you know, temporary. It just depends on the context. But so far, in all my studies of the word for �vanity or �futility I think Romans 8, the world is subject to futility.

That's the same Greek word there, Romans 8, that is used in the Greek version of the Old Testament, right? The Old Testament written in Hebrew. But we do have the Greek version of it because people, for a long time, spoke Greek in that area.

Thanks, Alexander the Great. Is it true that Alexander the Great cried toward the end of his life because he had no more countries to conquer? Could be. Could be. I wonder what the quester would say about that.

But I've never heard it translated �smoke. I know dogs named Smokey. I knew this guy in Nebraska, his name was Smokey, Smokey the Bear, of course. But we've got the quester and Smokey, so there you have it, a no-compromise radio.

We might have a sponsor coming up. I'm in negotiations to actually have a sponsor. That would be interesting. I don't know if you like that or not, but hey, we might have a sponsor if you want to help out NoCoRadio.

You can go to Patreon. One of these days we'll get a new website. I should, by the time this is airing, have a book almost done, a compilation on the doctrine of assurance entitled No Condemnation. I don't know if it's going to be by Mike Gabendroth, with Mike Gabendroth, a lot of stuff, just Puritan articles that I put together, and I'll have an introduction, etc.

So that will be the latest no-compromise info. And also, I think we're going to be filming some assurance and sanctification videos for American Gospel Television. So there you have it. Then it's summer, but I think I've got most of my summer shows recorded.

The Justice and Righteousness of God in the Great Exchange

All right, today on no-compromise radio, I want to talk a little bit about justice, the justice of God. I'd like to talk a little bit more about the righteousness of God. And I have a little pamphlet here in front of me called The Exchange Between the Sinful and the Sinless, Horatius Bonar, 1808 to 1889.

You know how I love that author, and this is a little chapel library tract. And I enjoyed, the last time I did this, reading a little tract, making comments, and the last time I did it, it was the almost Christian-discovered, the awful, hyper-Lordshipy Matthew Mead Puritan.

Don't read if you want to relax. Do not read. Anyway, I'm sure that got me in a lot of trouble with people that think I, by teaching the third use of the law of God, somehow promote licentious living.

They can believe whatever they want, but they obviously don't listen to my sermons, and they don't listen to the radio shows. Maybe they listen to Twitter, and I will continue to poke people in the eye on Twitter that confuse justification, sanctification, functional Roman Catholics.

Anyway, that's a different show. He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Second Corinthians 5 .21. Horatio starts off with the justice of God.

In showing favor to a criminal, an earthly sovereign must consider whether he can do so without loss of character, without breach of law, without encouragement to crime, without infringement or compromise of government.

And if you're going to show kindness or favor to a criminal, can you do it properly? Can you do it rightly? Horatio said, all these things have been amply provided for in the divine scheme of pardon. So can God forgive sins without losing any character, without breaking a law, without encouraging people to sin, and without compromising his justice or government, as Horatio calls it?

And what happens in discussions like this is I want you to be amazed at this plan of redemption. How can God show graciousness and goodness and kindness to law-breaking people? How can he simply forgive them?

Doesn't something have to be done? We forgive people by just saying, I forgive you, but it's not that simple when it comes to divine forgiveness. Laws are broken, divine laws, and therefore there must be punishments.

That scheme is the embodiment of such provision, not only containing the prevention of any such wrongs to God and to his universe, but the development of principles and revelation of facts, which far more than compensate for the threatened evils and bring immense glory to God and his government, out of that which otherwise would have been big with dishonor and confusion.

You notice how he writes that? I think that's so funny. Otherwise that would have been big with dishonor. That would have been dishonorable and confusing, but he says that would have been big with dishonor.

Maybe if you're little with something, but here you're big with something. Speaking of which, my daughter Haley and her husband Marty are expecting their first child, my first grandchild, and we found out yesterday it's going to be a boy.

I don't know what I think they should name the boy Boaz. I like that name. Isn't that masculine? Boaz. But I'm not going to tell them what I think. They can pick the name. They're sovereign over that.

They have their own free will according to their nature to do that, but it's exciting. For a while there, I thought I wouldn't live long enough to be a grandpa. I still might not with all this pneumonia.

I'm hoping that this clears up. I've been on antibiotics eight days and still have the rumble in the left lung. Horatious. That scheme is announced in these words, he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Thus God is just and the justifier of the unjust. Here are two special points. The sinless one made sin for the sinful. The unrighteous becoming the righteousness of God in the righteous one. So here we have what Luther called the great exchange, the wonderful beneficial exchange, the sweet exchange where God, the son, gets our sin in his account, logizimae, crediting, imputing, and we get his righteousness.

That's the exchange. What we might call double imputation. One of the most famous Bible teachers in all the world, I wrote them a letter and I talked about this double imputation and they kind of corrected me on it, but they weren't right.

This isn't right doctrine. One, the sinful one made sin for the sinful. Jesus was without sin, Hebrews 4, 15. He knew no sin, 2 Corinthians 5, 21. Not the shadow of evil was to be found in him. Isn't that a good way to put it?

Not any evil found in Jesus, obviously, not any wickedness, not any iniquity, but not even a shadow of it, not even a mention of it, right? He was the righteous one, the holy one, the lamb without blemish and without spot, Acts 3, 1 Peter 1, although, excuse me, altogether perfect yet partaker of our very flesh, our true humanity, very man, the substance of the virgin, partaker of the dust of the earth, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, still sinless in the entire sense of the word, in its entirety is what he means, loving righteousness and hating iniquity.

This sinless one was made sin, made sin by God, he hath made him sin. The connection between him and sin, between him and the sinner was made, constituted by God. It was the Lord that laid our iniquity upon him, Isaiah 53, that bruised him and put him to grief, that made his soul an offering for sin, Isaiah 53 again, that made him a curse for us, Galatians 3.

Our guilt was transferred to him by God and he was treated as if he were really the doer of it all. God spared him not, but delivered him up, Romans 8. In the Psalms, he confesses our sin as if it were his own, Psalm 38, 40, 69.

During his life, he acted as one shut out because of guilt. At his trial, he was dumb and answered not a word on the cross. He cried out, my God, my God, why have thou forsaken me, Matthew 27. It is not merely that he was made a sin offering, but he was made sin as if no words could fully express the closeness of his connection with our transgressions.

He was treated as a sinner from his cradle to the cross. He was a vicarious, his was a vicarious life and vicarious death. It was this that made him the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, Isaiah 53.

No other ground, on no other ground can we account for his profound and lifelong sorrow, save that all his lifelong, he was bearing sin for us. He was being led as a lamb to slaughter, and this leading to the slaughter was the real meaning of his sorrowful and burdened life.

He was moving to the altar with the sins of his church upon him. He was going to the cross laden all through with this infinite burden, which was laid upon him when he took flesh by the power of the Holy Ghost.

As sacrifice, burnt offering, sin offering, trespass offering, substitute, surety, sin bearer, we find Jesus here on earth till he had finished the work which was given him to do, till he had by himself purged our sins, Hebrews 1 .3.

Men call this a fiction or a make-believe. It is the truth of God. With which the whole Bible is full, the transference of our human guilt to our divine substitute, that he might bear it all for us. The transference of legal condemnation and divine displeasure from us to him, that only acquittal and pardon and favor and love might belong to us.

So lots of times we talk about the exchange and we talk about imputation, and those are good words to use. Additionally, Horatius is using the word transference, transferred, not bad. I am afflicted and ready to die, sorrowful unto death, for my youth up, Psalm 88 .15.

The sinless one made sin for the sinful is a pervading doctrine of both Testaments. Such books are Leviticus and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and they are otherwise unintelligible. It is this that so strongly and awfully establishes the doctrine of eternal recompense for sin.

If sin deserves no eternal wrath, what an unmeaning thing is this divine sin bearing? What a gratuitous expenditure of labor and suffering and death. Gratuitous, what reason would they want to do that?

It'd be uncalled for, there'd be no reason if sin didn't deserve eternal wrath. Number two, the unrighteous becoming the righteousness of God in the righteous one. So our sins dealt with, but we still need obedience, right?

We still need to do this and live. It's not simply a matter when it comes to law to somehow have our lawbreaking paid for, but we also need to keep that law. This is the positive. At first we looked at the penalty of lawbreaking, now the positive element of lawkeeping.

The name of our substitute is Jehovah, or Yahweh, our righteousness, Jeremiah 23. And the just divine righteousness is called by the apostle, the righteousness of him who is God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 1 .1.

Thus the righteousness of God and the righteousness of Christ are declared to be the same. And our common use of the expression, the righteousness of Christ, is amply vindicated from the cavils, objections, of Sosinians and others of like mind.

Sosinians ultimately deny the deity of Christ. Luther exhorted the brethren to learn as their constant song of praise, Lord Jesus, thou art my righteousness and I thy sin. Somebody I just was talking to the other day said that's their favorite Luther quote and they want it tattooed.

Tattoo you. When was the last time you listened to that album? Not suggesting you do. I think the Stones were ahead of the tattoo craze when they came out with Tattoo You, Tatooine. That a man is justified by faith and that he is to know that he is justified.

We are unrighteous, there is unrighteous, there is no question as to that. Yet the apostle says, we become not merely righteous but the righteousness of God. In this righteous one, what is ours passes over to him, what is his passes over to us.

We become righteousness. As if from the moment that we believe God's testimony to the righteous one in his work, we and righteousness become one in the same thing. So completely are we justified and lifted up into the same righteous level or standing which the righteous one himself occupies in the sight of God.

Thus we are complete in him, found in him, Colossians 2, Philippians 3, recognized as one with him in righteousness and entitled to possess all he possesses. Horacious. What a transference and how simply affected.

Receive the Father's testimony to the righteousness of the beloved Son and all that righteousness becomes yours. And I'm talking to you, dear listeners. Bethlehem Bible Church, No Compromise Radio, it becomes yours.

It Is Finished: The Ministry of Righteousness and the Believer’s Gratitude

Oh man, can you refuse an exchange like this? A salvation so complete, so perfect, so divine. Yes, it is finished, Jesus said, John 19. On the cross it was finished. Then the blood was shed with which the sinner is sprinkled and purged in conscience.

And all that followed, both resurrection and ascension, assumed the completion of the great sacrifice on Golgotha. Then the righteousness was finished also in virtue of which we are accepted in the beloved Ephesians chapter one.

During all the preceding ages, the voice of each sacrifice laid on the altar morning and evening was, it is not finished. But then the one voice of the one sacrifice proclaimed before earth and heaven, it is finished.

Nothing was from that moment to be added to it or taken from it. All was done. It is the ministry of this righteousness that is now preached to the unrighteous. There are many ministries. There's a ministry of the word, Acts 6, the ministry of grace, Acts 20, the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5, the ministration of the spirit, 2 Corinthians 3.

There's also the ministration of righteousness, 2 Corinthians 3. Righteousness for the unrighteous is God's message to the world. Righteousness for those whose only qualification is that they need it.

Righteousness to the most unrighteous of the sons of men. For it is to be given to the wretched prodigal, the wanderer in the far country. Father says, bring forth the best robe and put it on him, Luke 15.

Conclusion, the perfection of our substitute, Horatius Bonar. In Jesus, the sub-sinner substitute, we have the perfect one. God sees perfection in him. But this perfection, while it detects and condemns our imperfection, provides also for its forgiveness.

It is by means of this perfection that God is enabled to deal in love with our imperfection, however great and manifold it may be. The good swallows up the evil, and yet it is not tainted thereby. The sinner hands over his sins to the perfect one.

The perfect one hands over his perfection to the sinner. Thus, by reason of this blessed transference or exchange, the imperfect one becomes as the perfect one in the sight of God, and is dealt with as such in regard to all favor and blessing.

Perfection covers imperfection, and the believing sinner stands complete in the perfect one, accepted in the beloved, Ephesians 1. Crediting God's testimony to the perfect one and his perfect sacrifice, we stand before God on a new footing as men who have become the righteousness of God in him, and who get now life and peace and pardon and blessing, simply because the perfect one has deserved it for them.

We have all in him. And that's the end of the tract. Dear Christian, what does that make you think? How does that make you feel? We think and we feel. What's the difference? Well, what does that make you think, and how does that make you feel?

I think two appropriate questions. That is so good. Every sacrifice proclaimed, it is not finished. It is not finished. It is not finished. And we have a great message now. We preach that the righteous one for the unrighteous.

And it says in this little tract, the only qualification is that they need righteousness. See, that's why we continue to harp on No Compromise Radio, about the Merrill Controversy and what it exposed.

It exposed a precondition that people have to do things in order to believe, that they have to have some type of preparation. They have to be sorry enough and cry enough and weep enough. I'm not saying people should not cry over their sins or weep over their sins.

I'm saying, sola fide. I'm saying that there's nothing antecedent to faith. I'm saying that faith is the response to the good news of the eternal Son who assumes human nature is sent by the Father to do that very thing, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that we believe.

And we're given the gift of faith. And the fruit of faith, of course, is repentance. Obviously, when it comes to our lives, we say no to sin, mortification, and yes to righteousness. That's what we do.

But there are no qualifications. You don't have to do anything in order to believe. This should make us motivated, right? When you think of guilt, grace, and gratitude, we are motivated in this, to do what we ought to do, right?

This is of good works in the Westminster Confession. These good works, done in obedience to God's commands, why do we obey as Christians? To obey because God told us to. Are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith.

They're not the ground. You stand before God on the righteousness of Christ Jesus. That's this whole tract. And then Westminster Confession, chapter 16, goes on to say, and by them believers manifest their thankfulness.

So, since Jesus took all our sin and we get all his righteousness, we want to do good works to show our thankfulness, to strengthen our assurance. It's hard to have great assurance when you're doing stupid things, right?

Sinful things. Edify your brethren. Your brethren needs good works. God doesn't need good works, but your neighbor does. Adorn the profession of the gospel. Stop the mouths of adversaries and glorify God.

That's why. The top of the list, though, is gratitude. Guilt, grace, and gratitude. So, aren't you, dear Christian, happy and joyful that you have a perfect substitute who perfectly took on all your sins and said, it is finished, and then who lived a perfect life so that you could have a perfect righteousness, the righteousness of God in him?

Aren't you glad for that? And we know it's all true because Jesus Christ isn't in the grave. He's alive. And his humanity is at the right hand of the Father. His deity, of course, is holding up the world and is omnipresent.

And we rejoice in that. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. Get online. You can order these for free. You can read them for free. Horatious Bone are the exchange between the sinful and the sinless.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.