THE GREAT EXCHANGE…Romans 8:1 - by ROBIN SELF

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Since the author never quotes the verse, we shall remedy the problem:

Ro. 8:1-4 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

It is important that we have the passage before us as we consider the author's explanation.

We cover in detail the false teaching that the Father punished Jesus here. We refute the idea that the Father turned away from Jesus here. We cover Penal Substitutionary Atonement here.

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NOT GUILTY.

These are words that we probably hear often while watching our favorite courtroom drama.

But these are the most precious words ever for anyone who has put faith in Christ. The words “no condemnation” mean just that. (This is incorrect. "No condemnation" does not mean "not guilty." "Not guilty" is a legal determination that not enough evidence has been presented to convict:

...the prosecution has not proved the defendant guilty of crime.

The Bible says we have been justified, not found "not guilty:"

Ro. 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ...

"Justified" is 

dikaioó, to judge, declare, pronounce, righteous and therefore acceptable...

There is no trial, no evidence presented, no presumption of innocence, no right to confront one's accuser.  There is nothing in the idea of justification that indicates we have been put on trial and found "not guilty," because our justification is not a legal process. There's no process at all. This idea of a legal process descends from Calvin, who trained to be a lawyer. It did not exist before Calvin. 

Nowhere in the Bible will you find God pronouncing sinners "guilty" or the saved as "not guilty." However, we have been pronounced "justified," that is, righteous, by the declaration of God [Ro. 4:24]. The lost are "condemned already," [Jn. 3:18] so they are not pronounced "guilty."

Because justification is not a legal process, it is a sacrificial process. This is Paul's thrust throughout Romans, the nature of the Hebrew law in the context of Jesus' work on the cross. 

Let's examine the context of the condemnation referred to in Romans 8, beginning back in chapter 2. Paul writes:

Ro. 2:12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.

His topic is the Hebrew law, which will be his theme for several chapters. Sin under the law is death. The entire discussion revolves around the nature of the law and how righteousness is attained. He continues:

Ro. 3:20 Therefore no-one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

The law has value, in that it makes us aware of our sin. 

At the moment the law was given, our death was pronounced:

Ro. 5:16 Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

From the judgment [krima, especially, the sentence of God as judge] according to the dictates of the Hebrew law comes our condemnation [katakrima, an adverse sentence], but the gift justifies us. 

Paul continues on to discuss the effect of the law and the just condemnation that comes from it:

Ro. 6:23 For the wages of sin is death...

The lost have already earned this wage, the krima has been rendered. Their status is dead. Sinners do not face katakrima, death is their current status; they are already katakrima. Jn. 3:18:

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 

So the krima was rendered long ago, and every sinner is already katakrima to death from this krima because of sin entering the world. Jesus' purpose is to lift that condemnation and save us, to rescue us from death [Ro. 7:24-25, Col. 1:13] and into life [1Jn. 3:14]. 

He did this by His death and resurrection. We must share in this:

Ph. 3:10-11 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Paul tells the Roman church this same thing:

Ro. 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Note the key statement: We have been released from the law. Death is the only remedy for the constraints and requirements of the Hebrew law. But if we share in the death of Christ we share in His resurrection. Death cancels the condemnation of the law.

This is not a legal process, it is a sacrificial process. 

So, we have taken this excursion to in order to understand Ro. 8:1:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...

That condemnation came from the law. People are not in a courtroom awaiting krima. The righteous law is already death. And the "no condemnation" is that we are not dead under the law anymore. We are alive in Christ via His death and resurrection.)

Christ has taken our guilty verdict upon Himself. (This is incorrect. Jesus did not take our guilty verdict on Himself , He died for our sins as the perfect lamb of God. The OT sacrificial animals were not punished, their spilled blood covered over the sins of Israel. Jesus' spilled blood similarly washed us from our sin.

In order to understand Jesus' work to save us, we need to stop seeing it through the legal lens imposed by Calvin. We should instead turn to the Bible, and understand the typology of the Hebrew temple sacrifices, the scapegoat, the spilling of sacrificial blood, and what those mean in connection with Jesus as the Lamb of God.)

Anyone who is familiar with Ray Comfort’s YouTube videos has heard him tell people on the street that we are all like people standing in a courtroom, guilty of a crime, but if someone came and paid our fine we would be free to go. What Jesus did for us was to set us free by paying our fine. (With all due respect to Mr. Comfort, this may be an effective evangelism tool, but it inaccurately reflects what Jesus did. There is no system of jurisprudence anywhere that allows an innocent party to insert themselves into the process of justice and take another's place for punishment. 

And Jesus did not do this. The Bible nowhere describes this. 

We as sinners are not in a courtroom, and Jesus does not take our death sentence. The courtroom analogy is inaccurate. 

By the way,  if someone pays my fine, I am still guilty. And, if someone takes my death sentence, I am still guilty.)  

Our sin renders all of us a “guilty” verdict. (This is vaguely true, but again, the scene is not a courtroom, it is an altar. God does not consider the evidence against us and pronounce sentence. Rather, it was blood on the altar that changed our status and justified us. His proclamation is, "righteous.")

But God had a plan.

John MacArthur’s commentary says of the word “condemnation”:

“Only occurring three times in the New Testament, all in Romans, “condemnation” is used exclusively in judicial settings as the opposite of justification. It refers to a verdict of guilty and the penalty that verdict demands. No sin a believer can commit– past, present, or future–, can be held against him, since the penalty was paid by Christ and righteousness was imputed to the believer. And no sin will ever reverse this divine legal decision.”

When we put faith in Jesus, He takes our punishment so that we can go free. And He DID take our punishment. On a cross. (No, He did not. The Father never punished Jesus.)

Brutally, but beautifully. This was the great exchange. Our sin for His righteousness. Some of the most beautiful words ever written that describe what Christ did in this mysterious reciprocation come from an epistle from one of the early church fathers, known simply as “The Epistle to Diognetus”, an ancient writing, not discovered until the 15th century. Pastor Timothy Mikenzie says of the letter, “Although the author and its intended recipient are unknown, modern scholarship sets the possible date of its writing from 150 to 225.” Here is what it says,

“And when the time had come which God had before appointed for manifesting His own kindness and power, how the one love of God, through exceeding regard for men, did not regard us with hatred,
nor thrust us away, nor remember our iniquity against us,
but showed great long-suffering, and bore with us,
He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities,
He gave His own Son as a ransom for us,
the holy One for transgressors,
the blameless One for the wicked,
the righteous One for the unrighteous,
the incorruptible One for the corruptible,
the immortal One for them that are mortal.
For what other thing was capable of covering our sins than His righteousness?
By what other one was it possible that we, the wicked and ungodly, could be justified, than by the only Son of God?
O sweet exchange!
O unsearchable operation!
O benefits surpassing all expectation!
that the wickedness of many should be hid in a single righteous One,
and that the righteousness of One should justify many transgressors!“

Outside of scripture, this is possibly the most beautiful and impactful thing I have ever read! (Indeed. But notice the phraseology of the above statements, which predate Calvinism and should not be interpreted though Calvinism: 

*He Himself took on Him the burden of our iniquities - Calvinists would think this means Jesus was punished for our sin. However, Jesus is the burden-bearer, who carried our sin as a load:

Col. 2:13b-14 He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

The condemnation of the law was taken away like a burden, and nailed to the cross.

*He gave His own Son as a ransom for us... - Calvinists would impose some sort of legal transaction on this statement, but the ransom is not the legal penalty paid:

Ransom: From luo; something to loosen with, i.e. A redemption price (figuratively, atonement) -- ransom. 

That is, Jesus' death loosed us from the condemnation of the law:

He. 9:15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

When we remove the filter of Calvin's courtroom, and acknowledge that the Father did not punish Jesus in our place, we begin to see the truth emerge, that of the perfect Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, dying and beckoning us to die with Him.)

I had not heard of this early church writing until I saw Heather Payne live in concert once, and she told the audience the story. Then she sang this song that she wrote after her husband, a pastor, had told her about this moving second century epistle. Listen here:

https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/2GTBVYHth9yb4BBDdwJgka?utm_source=generator

This marvelous plan of God to purchase our righteousness through His Son taking our penalty should drive us all to our knees. That HE, the perfect sinless Lamb of God, would lower Himself to die for WE who are so completely wretched and undeserving of such kindness. Such mercy. 1 John 3:1 tells us, “Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!”

“This is one of the most beautiful texts in Scripture for the assurance of salvation. The threat of condemnation is removed forever if we are in Christ Jesus.”

–R.C. Sproul. Romans – An Expositional Commentary (Kindle Locations 4177-4178). Ligonier Ministries, Inc. – USA.

Let those of us who have been beneficiaries of this great exchange never take the price paid for granted. It was the most costly purchase in history.