The Great Exchange

We were on the outside,
Your temple just a breath away;
Your throne—how great and magnificent was the scene—Oh, how beautiful.

Then I caught a glimpse of You; there You stood, O holy are You, Jesus—
Your righteousness shined, Your beauty sang, Your love on display in the holy of holies.

Standing on the outside of Your throne room, my filth never seemed so dirty, these rags I thought were enough just disgraced.
I wasn’t enough; I needed to hide myself, my shame, my pain, my dirt and filth, these rags and this disgrace from Your perfect and holy face.
Closing my eyes in avoidance of my own sin, I tried to cover it up, all in a false attempt at a breath of beauty.

But I knew, when I glanced into Your face, I would never be the same.
I’ve been an abandoned child in need of a father,
A victim in need of rescue,
A homeless beggar in need of shelter,
Cold in need of warmth
Hungry in need of Your food,
Searching to end the hurt,
Hunting for something to fill the hole,
I knew, O God, I knew, when I heard the name that the angels proclaim—I caught a glimpse of Your handwritten cursive on the heart of man
And I heard You call it grace

You opened my closed eyes; You touched me, and in that moment I saw
All my pain rush from me—and as it transferred from me to the nail-pierced hands of my Savior
Water rushed over and it disappeared.

You made an exchange:
My filth for Your purity,
My sin for Your grace,
My shame for Your name,
My disease for Your love,
My need and despair for Your righteousness,
My dusty, dry and lifeless bones for life abundantly loved

In an instant I was clean You welcomed me into Your feast,
You clothed me—a mirror of Your royalty—
Because You took the blame
To bear it on a cross for Your name
We were made new to give You praise,
To bring You fame through this Great Exchange.

We exchange our boat for a life in step with You,
We become the wheat among the weeds,
We are the smallest of seeds, giving You our leaven so You can become the yeast to rise above our iniquities
Because You complete our incompletion and call us good,
Enough for You to take upon perfected shoulders, the sins of the world,
And at the tear of a curtain and three days later;
You welcome us in and name us Beautiful… Child… Beloved.

Even when what we had was not ours;
We came down from our tree and exchanged our gold for a seat at Your feast
We sold the passions, the gold, the pain, the old, the dreams, the fear, the filth, the wear, the sin, the disease, the rags, the unclean
All in exchange for a single pearl in Your field
For a renewed, right spirit,
For Your gold and Your kingdom,
Your righteousness and perfection,
Your joy and Your mission

Because I’m the one who has been changed
In this Great Exchange
Therefore, I will proclaim it all for the praise of Your name.

So when you step through those doors,
It is not just the church porch
You are stepping lightly over
When you step over the threshold,
You are wandering through the designs of Him
And His hands are spread open, to take the filth and the sin
And replace it with His Son—the Righteous One

So, Father, here we stand, with hearts burning like a flame,
You took our place,
Like the sun rising to give the moon a break,
You shed light on our darkness, bringing us to life.

Now we need only to open our arms to reveal the change within
And then Your light will burn amid the darkest night sky
To replicate Your galaxies and reflect Your light—the light of the Brightest God,
The Hope of our souls, Alpha and Omega, The Lion of Judah, O Rock of Ages, El Elyon,
Yahweh, at the sound of Your name; under the shadow of the cross
Was this Great Exchange.

Amen.