THE GREAT EXCHANGE, AND COMPLETE REST!

What Christ did at the cross has been called the 'great exchange' or the 'divine exchange.'
Jesus took all our blame, shame and punishment, when He didn't deserve it; while we took His place and became the righteousness of God, and receive all that He is, when we didn't deserve it. Not only did Jesus take away from us the bad things, but he also gave us every good thing that He had in His position as the beloved Son of God.
Isaiah 53 outlines all that Christ suffered, so that we might have the very opposite.

At the cross ,Jesus became ugly; so that we might have His beauty.
He was rejected; so that we might be accepted.
He suffered pain and sorrow; so that we might have joy and be happy.
He was despised; so that we might be esteemed.
He carried all sicknesses and diseases; so that we might have healing and health.
He suffered anguish and despair; so that we might have peace and hope.
He was judged and punished; so that we might be forgiven and justified.
He had no one to speak on His behalf; so that we might forever have a perfect High Priest who speaks on our behalf in heaven.

What Jesus did on the cross was so perfect it pleased the Father. And to demonstrate that, God tore the veil in the temple that hid the Holy of Holies from top to bottom. The veil was there to separate sinful man from God, so by tearing it, God demonstrated that there was no longer anything to stop us from coming into His presence.

On the cross, Jesus exhausted God's wrath and justice. His body was broken and His blood was shed as our substitute and He settled the sin issue with God once and for all.

Our standing with God is perfect and complete, because of what Jesus did on the cross. What He did was perfect and complete. We come to God based on the complete work of Christ, and not what we have, or have not done.

When we become aware of this, and are conscious of it, we enter INTO THE REST. We no longer struggle. We become filled with all the fulness of God.(Ephesians 3:19)

Pleasures for evermore!

>"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore".

The Holy Spirit that dwells in us, will show us the path of life. He will guide us, and lead us into all truth. Jesus said this when he spoke of the Holy Spirit in John 14:16. He referred to the Holy Spirit as "another Comforter". Which means, another of the same kind. Jesus' ministry was a positive ministry. He came seeking the lost. He healed the sick, restored sight to the blind, and cast out tormenting spirits. He ministered comfort to the multitudes. He spoke of the love of the Father.

He was kind and gentle with the sinners; yet he was harsh with the religious, and those who taught works-righteousness. The Law is the ministration of death according (2 Cor 3). The Law speaks of man's efforts; "thou shall not this and that....thou shall do this and that....." The Pharisees were well meaning and were just doing their job following the Law. However, Jesus came as a man under the Law to fulfill the requirement of the Law. And then He reinstituted the "system of believe"; when we believe we are made righteous independent of our works. Thats the ony qualification.

So Jesus made sure he condemned religion and the legal mind-set of the pharisees. Yet on the other hand, he showed grace to the sinner. He did not condone sin. But he did not condemn the sinner either. His life was a manifestation of God's love.

As he was about to depart, he told the disciples he'll pray the Father to sent "another of the same kind", that is the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is still ministering and comforting us. And he leads us into all truths. He shows us the paths of life. He gives us the ability and power to do all things. When we listen to Him, He will guide us and tell us of things to come. In fact, he will live in us. So the life that we live, won't be ours, but by the faith of the son of God. God's own life will be flowing in us. Streams of life-giving waters will gush out of us. Proverb 4:18 says, "But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day".

We'll always be in God's presence, because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. And when we are conscious of Him and of the love of Christ, we become filled with all the fulness of God(Ephesians 3:19). Being Christ conscious is simply, allowing Him to live in us. This comes when we believe. When we acknowledge what He has done for us and receive His word. Ephesians 3:19 is a very powerful scripture! The fulness of God. We are filled with the fullness of God by simply knowing the love of God which is in Christ. We don't need to fast 40 days and night, or conduct a prayer chain across the nation; we don't need to pray and seek and turn from anything. Thats not the qualification. We simply need to KNOW the love of God. In His presence there is fulness of joy, peace, righteousness, love forever and ever.
In His presence are pleasures for evermore!

Above all things, get knowledge.

Many people are searching for truth; or enlightenment. They go about it searching after the material world. Some endeavor to search world religions, and philosophy. But all man's labor is vain. Jesus said, I am The Way, The Truth and The Life.
Thats so simple, yet so deep. Christianity is the only religion where God came searching for man. Yet, most christians don't really live 'life in abundance.' Its sad. I'm not here to debate philosophy or anything of that sort. I'm just attempting to express what I have experienced. And I'm not even claiming to have 'arrived', if there is such a thing. I have found 'the Truth' that Jesus spoke about. And it changed my life. I no longer live by bread alone. I live by the word of God. The word of God is active and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It produces what the word says.

The word of God concerning me is settled already in heaven. And as Jesus is right now, so am I in this world. (1 John 4:17) Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God. He is the word made flesh. In Him dwells all fullness of the Godhead bodily. And of His fullness i have received. That knowledge is so great, it changes lives. It changed my life. The word of God, lives in me. Jesus Christ lives in me. He said I will be with you till the ends of time. The Holy Spirit lives in me. That means God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit made their dwelling with me, in my spirit.
That makes me one spirit with God.(1 Cor 6:17) And if one spirit, then I'm a partaker of the divine nature.(2 Peter 1:4)
And if I partake in the divine nature, then I can speak things that are not as though they were; and it shall be so. Because, my sufficiency is not of me; Christ is my sufficiency.(2 Cor 3:5) And Christ has sent me; and of course, he whom God sents speaks the words of God.(John 3:34)

The Holy Spirit that dwells in me, has shed the love of God in my heart. And it is love that makes my faith works.(Galatians 5:6)
Because God is love, he gave of Himself to us. And now that I am filled with the love of God, I can't help but love others.
So faith comes by hearing; and hearing of the word of God. The word of God that is received produces faith. Faith is based on knowledge. Faith is not blind. If you base your faith in the word of God, faith becomes the substance; or the proof; the evidence of things not seen. While I can't see the things of the spirit with my natural eye, faith lays a hold of it, and the mouth starts declaring it.(1 Timothy 6:12)

The knowledge of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the kind of knowledge that will change your life; for it will bring the fullness of God in you. So, above all things, get the knowledge of the word of God!

Eternal life

Eternal life has been placed in our hearts Ecclessiastes 3:11. Thats the beauty of life with God. My life has been elevated to a new level. Its life that simply can't be fathomed by the natural man, or the man under the law.
1 Timothy 6:12 says; "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and has professed a good profession before many witnesses." The word of God is saying that through our confession, we lay hold of eternal life that we were called unto. Its already ours in Christ. We don't have to earn it by performance. The only requirement is for us to believe and agree with God by our confessions what He already did for us. We lay a hold by our confessions.
But the question arises; what is eternal life. Jesus said in John 17:3 "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. If we already believed with our hearts and confessed with our mouths the Lord Jesus(Rom 10:10), we have everlasting life. Knowing God is everlasting life. When we get a revelation of what Jesus Christ did, we are filled with the fulness of God(Ephesian 3:19) And the fulness of God here means, all that God is. The word of God says it better: 2 Cor 5:17 "Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." In other words, if you know the love of Christ which passes understanding, that knowledge will change you. It will make you a partaker of the divine nature(2 Peter 1:3-4).

The divine nature in which we partake is the life in abundance that Jesus spoke about in John 10:10. The life of God flows in us. We need to acknowledge that and start agreeing(confessing)with God. The word of God says that whosoever believes shall have everlasting life. And we lay a hold, or we make it real in our daily lives by our confessions. And of course, confessions are based on what God already did. We believe it. We speak it. We act upon it.

Colossians 2:9 says, "in Him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily". Its talking about Jesus of course. But of his fulness have all we received, grace heaped upon grace(John 1:16)

This life is for anybody that believes.