The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness

by Jerry Bridges

Believers often take for granted the great act of salvation provided to us by the work of Jesus Christ. Beginning with the Old Testament sacrifices and the prophecies that foreshadowed Christ, authors Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington guide believers through the biblical overview of Christ's atonement. The Great Exchange helps believers see how the Old Testament practices tie in with the New Testament discussion of Christ's great work of salvation. As believers work through these principles, they will begin to recognize that even though we deserve condemnation and punishment from a holy God, he has given us the opportunity to experience his great riches through his Son, Jesus Christ. The clear gospel message presented throughout the entire book offers a great appreciation of Christ for believers and an opportunity for salvation for unbelievers.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Christian Living, Nonfiction, Christianity, Discipleship

291 pages, Paperback

First published September 7, 2007

About the author

JERRY BRIDGES was an author and conference speaker. His most popular book, The Pursuit of Holiness, has sold over one million copies. Jerry was on the staff of The Navigators for over fifty years, and currently served in the Collegiate Mission where he was involved primarily in staff development, but also served as a speaker resource to the campus ministries.

Reviews

[Aubrey Swanson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided a great outline to understand Jesus choice to pay for our sins, and the imputed righteousness that resulted from his resurrection. The idea of imputed righteousness makes my mind spin. The main point is that- all is from God. Praise Him!

The book went through each NT book that focused on atonement and broke down specific sections of scripture. It was pretty repetitive, maybe cause God wants justification by his grace alone to be drilled into our hearts. Because of this, not complaining about the repetitive nature. :) HA.

This is great resource on understanding old/new covenant theology of atonement in Hebrews specifically!

This book did not include personal stories or anything, it said in the intro "There are no anecdotes to entertain the reader. None of this is needed, because a rightly understood view of the cross as the treasure of all time can never be boring." 👍🏼😂

[Jeremy Duffle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great tool for commentary type insights. This book explains and exposes redemption and atoning passages throughout OT and NT.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Great Exchange is a wonderful, wonderful book. It is a book that celebrates the atonement in each and every chapter. I loved this one cover to cover--from introduction to conclusion. Yes, I could see how some readers might feel it is a bit repetitive: the glorious, amazing truth is shared many times per chapter. But why would that ever be a bad thing--to hear "the old, old story" again and again? This book savors the truth--celebrates and glories in Christ: what he has done, what he is doing, what he will do.

So you may have heard the word atonement in the past, but might be a little fuzzy on what it is exactly, so, what is the atonement?

Simply stated, atonement is the price paid to reconcile enemies.
In the biblical context, we have the following:
*The offended party is God--the holy and omnipotent sovereign
*The offense is sin of any kind, as defined by the Bible
*The offending party consists of sinners, that is, all humanity
*The penalty is the full force of God's inconceivable eternal wrath
*The price paid on behalf of sinners is the atoning death of Christ.
Because Christ made atonement for our sins by suffering in our place as our substitute, we speak of the substitutionary atonement of Christ. A similar expression used to sum up the work of Christ is penal substitution, meaning that as our substitute, Christ paid the penalty for our sins. (23)

The book is appropriately titled The Great Exchange. So what is this great exchange?!

The Great Exchange that results from the death of the perfect sacrifice is a twofold substitution: the charging of the believer's sin to Christ results in God's forgiveness, and the crediting of Christ's righteousness to the believer results in his justification. More than being declared not guilty, in Christ believers are actually declared righteous. (41)

The more a nonfiction book relies on the Word of God, the more I love it. I expect my theology books to be grounded--well grounded--in the Bible, rich in Scripture, and focused on unpacking the meaning of Scripture. The Great Exchange is rich in Scripture. Verse after verse, passage after passage is explored in great detail. Did you notice that there are whole chapters of this one dedicated to exploring what New Testament books of the Bible have to say about Jesus? about the atonement? about the great exchange--that is imputation?
The gospel is something that believers never outgrow. Never. The gospel is something we need to be refreshed in every single day of our lives. Christ can not be treasured too much. This book does a marvelous job in keeping Christ at the center of our hearts and minds. It is an amazing book. It does explore big ideas and amazing doctrines, but, it does so clearly. By the end of the book, you will have learned something.

Favorite quotes:

All of our efforts toward spiritual growth should flow out of the realization of what he has already done to secure for us our perfect standing before God. (25)

All our blessings were blood bought. (43)

The personally sinless Christ perfectly obeyed all of God's moral will, and, as our representative, Christ fulfilled the law in our place. He loved for us when we hated God and man, he gave for us when we were selfish, and he was pure for us when we were polluted with sin. So, as we've noticed, Jesus not only died for us, he also lived for us. All that Christ did in both his life and his death, he did in our place as our substitute. (111)

God's gift of the crucified Christ becomes all the righteousness we will ever need, for in the Great Exchange, we are seen by God to be as sinless as Christ himself. This would be impossible for us sinners were it not for two essentials. First, a qualified sacrifice must be made on behalf of our sin, and second, a perfect and alien righteousness must be credited to us. Both of these requirements were met in Christ on the cross. In a mind-boggling twist of grace, God credits Christ's death as payment in full for our sin, and he credits us with the real, lived-out righteousness of Christ as if we had personally, perfectly fulfilled the law. The value of this transferred righteousness is also incalculable. (131-2)

[Derek Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Jerry Bridges for several years. I was first introduced to Bridges when I picked up 'Transforming Grace'--a warm and refreshing treatment of the grace of God and how we can practically apply the liberating truth of God's grace to our daily lives. Then I read The 'Pursuit of Holiness,' followed by 'Discipline of Grace' and then The 'Gospel for Real Life.' Needless to say, I quickly learned that Jerry Bridges is not only doctrinally in-tune with the truths of the gospel; he is relentlessly passionate about the gospel. When I heard that Bridges was teaming up with a close friend (Bevington) to write a thorough and accessible treatment of Christ's atonement, I was excited to devour the truths I knew would be clearly and practically expounded in their work. I was not disappointed.

'The Great Exchange' is, in simple terms, a book about the gospel. More specifically, it is a book that explains what the Bible teaches about Christ's substitutionary atonement, and how this atonement makes us right with God. The theme verse of the book is II Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." In chapter after chapter, Bridges and Bevington explain, from from many Old and New Testament passages, what it means that Christ became sin on our behalf so that we could become the righteousness of God. In a word it means that Christ, the sinless one, was charged with our sin, while we, in the Great Exchange, received Christ's perfect righteousness.

Bridges and Bevington also focus on the representative life of Christ, explaining that the fullness of Christ's atonement not only happened at the cross; it was occurring over the course of his whole life, while Christ was walking in perfect obedience to God's law on our behalf. Christ was our substitute, not only in his death, but also during his life--he lived a perfectly righteous life in our place and died the death we deserved. As a result, God can now justify those who trust in Christ because he credits Christ's righteousness to them, while transferring all their guilt to Christ; a guilt that has been fully paid for at the cross. God remains just and we receive pardon from sin and perfect righteousness.

Bridges and Bevington also emphasize the truth that the work of Christ's atonement is not a work that happens on the inside of us (although it is the grounds for God's work on our hearts), it is an external, finished, objective, historical work that has already fulfilled the law of God in our place. There is no work left to do; that is why faith is the instrument by which we receive the benefits of this great atonement.

In the latter two-thirds of the book, Bridges and Bevington take the reader through every major passage in the New Testament that speaks of Christ's work of representation and atonement, mining each text for precious truth. Major passages from the book of Acts, all of Paul's epistles (excluding Philemon), Hebrews, I Peter, I John and Revelation are examined and proclaimed. The final product is a Scripture saturated exposition of Christ's work for our salvation (there are over 1000 Scripture references in the book, and only five references from other sources). Well-written and throughly grounded in Scripture, this book is one that deserves to be read and reread.

I know how easy it is to be tempted to think that we, at some point in the Christian life, get beyond the gospel. When I oblige this temptation, I am usually led into paths of self-righteousness and spiritual frustration. On the other hand, when my mind is enraptured by the fullness of Christ's work on my behalf, I find what Christ calls, "rest for [our] souls" (Matthew 11:29) and power for obedience. For these and other blessings, I recommend this book to you.

[Wade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Must-read, material. This is somehow theological heavy-lifting, and yet it's low-weight/high-rep. Which is to say, pastors and theologians would benefit from this overview of the apostles' view of the atonement, and yet I would feel confident giving this book to a college student. Biblically rich, straightforward exegesis resulting in praise and gratitude for our gracious Lord and Redeemer.

[Josh Perez · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's nothing flashy or rhetorically stylish about Jerry Bridges. But this book was extremely clear, systematic and methodical. And I didn't mind it. Macleod had a gripping beginning but it started to taper off as the book progressed, while Bridges stayed consistent and slow and steady wins the race for this one. Jeffery, Ovey and Sach still keep slight edge because they deal with an organized list of objections to penal substitutionary atonement that mostly still lands today.

[Ben Montoya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Work on the Cross

Good yet thorough popular treatment of the atonement. Good focused explanations of propitiation and how that is relevant for the rest of theology and its application to believers.

[Larryo]

Now You Tell Me !

It's amazing that one can be a Christian for six decades and not be aware of the wonderful scriptural truths presented by Mr.Bridges and Bevington. The simplicity of their presentation of what the cross means to humanity is the book's greatest strength. No degrees necessary to understand Christianity, just an open heart willing to appreciate what God's love has accomplished through the work of Jesus on the cross. This book is especially for those who know their efforts will never be enough to make up for the sinfulness that lives in all of us. The Exchange, Him for us, is the story of salvation.

[Mark A Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains one of the most foundational principles of Scripture – the atonement -- in a detailed yet accessible manner. Our sin for Christ’s righteousness is the theme, and this book is very helpful in defining and emphasizing the centrality of Christ’s work. Anyone who reads it will discover a rich discussion that, even for all it says, still only begins to scratch the surface of God’s mercy and love expressed in His Son, Jesus Christ.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great topic; got repetitve

It was wonderful to find a book on the atonement of Christ, but once I got to the section on Hebrews, I had grown tired of reading what seemed like the same thing over and over. The first half of the book is fantastic, but you end up with a rehashing in the second half.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too easy to read, though easy to understand the theme of justification by faith alone. Not sure about the idea of Jesus sprinkling the altar in heaven with his shed blood. That doesn't seem to be taught in Scripture, but i can understand how from the OT analogy. But basically right-on book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biblical Christianity explained as "substitutionary", one dying for another. C. S. Lewis illustrated this, I believe, in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" when Aslan willingly lay down his own life for that of Edmund.

[John Dearing · Rating 3 out of 5]

Provides its reader with a basic, orthodox foundation to the doctrine of the atonement.

[Jelani Mcewen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. It really put Jesus death on the cross into perspective although it was a tad bit repetitive.

[Ryan Lunceford · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read on Jesus' work on the cross. Thorough, yet concise.