This description is the result of a decade-plus, of prayerful consideration and study. After
such a lengthy contemplation, Holy Spirit has taught me that the
Exchanged Life is truly God’s great salvation as He comes to live in the
Believer, express Himself through the Believer, and overflows the
surrendered Believer full of His grace and truth. This being a LIFE of intimacy with our Great Life Exchanger –Father God, through His Son
–Jesus Christ, in Spirit-filled expressions of godliness.
In a nutshell, the Exchanged Life is best described from Colossians 1:27; 3:1-4 as "Christ living His LIFE in, through, and instead of me. This LIFE can only be received as described in Luke 9:23-24, which reads from the Message:
‘Then he told them what they could expect for themselves:
"Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.
You're not in the driver's seat—I am.
Don't run from suffering; embrace it.
Follow me and I'll show you how.
Self-help is no help at all.
Self-sacrifice is the way,
My way, to finding yourself, your true self.
What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?
The only person who can live the Christ LIFE is Jesus! It is then the Believer’s privilege and honor to participate in Jesus’ divine LIFE, having been given everything needed for godly living (2 Peter 1:3-4).
An Eclectic History of the Exchanged Life
This descriptive cliché, the Exchanged Life, envelops every line of Scripture. The
Apostle Paul wrote his most definitive expression in His letter to the
Romans, from which he argues 4 major presentations of the Christian
Life:
1. Who needs salvation – and how to get it? (Romans 1-4)
2. How does the Believer live saved? …or… how is the Believer empowered to live with Christ as his/her LIFE, living in and through him/her? (Romans 5-8)
3. What
are the Believer’s perceptions of living saved? …and how does the
Believer’s perception of living saved change how he/she thinks, makes
choices, and feels? (Romans 9-12)
4. What does the Believer’s LIFE look like? What
does the Believer’s pattern of life (practice) look like when we choose
to live out of Jesus’ resources instead of our own? (Romans 13-16)
The Apostle John presents these same thoughts of grace to the 1st century Church, in his own words in the Gospel of John (how to get saved), his letters to the Churches – 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John (what the saved life looks like), and in the Bible’s finale –Revelation (the practice of the saved). These love-letters from God, penned by John, share the Beloved’s LIFE!
Almost
2000 years later, two millennia after the Apostles John and Paul,
Hudson Taylor coined the title "Exchanged Life” in 1906 when he
encountered Christ’s LIFE in great personal drama, while in China. Ian Thomas referred to these teachings as the ‘Saving LIFE of Christ’. Andrew Murray wrote of this exciting LIFE in the latter half of the 19th century. Oswald Chambers along with other inspirational writers,
wrote much about this New LIFE during the first half of the 20th century. Charles
Solomon coined the term Spirit-uo-therapy in the mid 60’s and early
70’s, which became known as Exchanged Life Counseling. Students
of Solomon, like LeFebre, Anderson, and Moore founded
their own personal ‘Exchanged Life’ type ministries. Then
around 1986 a group of five Exchanged Life ministry leaders and
families founded the Association of Exchanged Life Ministries (AELM).
Exchanged Lifers’ may try and corner a specific element of the Exchanged Life, yet enviably return to the LIFE in Christ truths as foundational and the Message of the Cross for its’ strategic power. As we have embarked upon the 21st century, Charles Stanley has spent the last decade teaching the
Exchanged Life from the pulpit; and has developed an Exchanged Life
counseling center at FSB Atlanta. Dr. Phil Jones has developed a curriculum for the Church he pastors, FSB of Powell Tennessee, entitled TELL (teaching exchanged life living).
All
this history is useless, until you take a look at the transformed lives
from teaching the Exchanged Life – Christ in me… not I but Christ… And we must consider that Exchanged Life thought is the empowered message of the Old Testament as well as the New. Consider
King David’s lyrics of the Psalm; my favorite being Psalm 119; most
often regarded as the chapter of law, but verse 32 (and others) captures
GRACE!
"I run in the path of your commands, for You have set my heart free...”
Showing how the law schools, all who believe, into GRACE!
Noah found grace (favor) with the Lord (Gn. 6:8). Jonah
is the one who seemed to have missed the GRACE! …like King Saul. Amos
found and preached GRACE; and cried God's heart, ‘seek Me and live’. Insane Ezekiel discovered, experienced, and secured GRACE, when he prophesied that God would give His children new hearts. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Malachi foretold of Jesus coming full of GRACE and Truth! (John 1:14) ...and GRACE is seen as having brought salvation in Titus 2:11-14. From Genesis to Revelation, every Truth, every storyline, every doctrinal thought begins and ends in GRACE!
My Statement of the Exchanged Life (God’s Grace and Truth)
What is GRACE? As best I understand it, GRACE is what God does, that I cannot!
Loyd Hohertz wrote, ‘True grace is an expression of godliness. The complete opposite of grace is ungodliness. Grace and truth define who God and Christ are! God’s word, which is truth, is a description of everything God believes. Everything God and Christ does demonstrates how to apply that truth and is grace. Christians are told to grow in grace and in knowledge (knowledge of God’s Word being the truth). So Christians are to grow in everything God believes and everything God does.
Grace and truth are the two foundational pillars of the (triune) God and (Jesus) Christ, (the image and radiance of God made human, the exact imprint of God's nature -Hebrews 1:3). Grace and truth are the two foundational pillars of the Bible. Grace and truth should be the two foundational pillars that all true Christians are (pursuing) in their lives!’
Love (Agape’) is a GRACE of God. Faith is a Grace of God. Righteousness is a Grace of God. Wisdom is a Grace of God. Creation is a Grace of God. The first and second comings of Jesus Christ are a Grace of God. From a practical and strategic
connecting-of-the-dots – from beginning to end – everything God does,
is, is about, and brings to completion is a GRACE. GRACE
is God in His sovereignty, reaching out to fallen man pleading,
drawing, and allowing the man who BELIEVES, to participate in His LIFE. God’s Creation intent…
The
Exchanged Life is a coined title encompassing Holy Spirit’s drawing of
the sinner to look upon Jesus and exchange their sin for His
righteousness through GRACE, in a choice by faith and be forgiven,
changing one’s Eternal Destiny from hell to heaven, from a state in sin
to a state of holiness, from ungodliness into godliness, from unrest to
REST, and finally from mortal to immortal… Hallelujah!!!
GRACE includes God’s mercy and His unconditional life-changing LOVE. This same compelling GRACE of love moves a forgiven saint, into the empowerment of Jesus’ victorious LIFE; which is identifying that Jesus is our real LIFE (Col. 3:1-4), and liberates the Believer who ‘gets it’, from habitual sin, carrying him/her into His abundant obedience. ‘From glory to glory and faith to faith…’ It is Jesus in me and me in Him, experiencing the Abundant and Eternal LIFE together. His LIFE! It is enjoying Jesus, Who is enough!
My Defense of the Exchanged Life
Most
of the time, though a Believer receives all spiritual blessings in
Christ at the moment of conversion, and there is NO second gift of
GRACE, the Believer will experience Jesus’ LIFE (through GRACE by faith) in stages throughout his/her life experiences.
It is the biblical intention for young Believer’s to move into his/her identification in Christ quickly. Therein
is the Believer’s power to live out the Christian life, instead of
being held captive to their self-life (flesh patterns). However, most newly converted will not. Why? The Church, for the most part, has increasingly neglected the preaching and teaching of the Cross over the last 60 years. Israel didn’t get it, because they had just spent 4 centuries in the polytheistic slavery of Egypt – a cultural brainwashing. Imagine America spending 400 years under the rule of an anti-Jesus government and culture?
For the purist of Exchanged Lifers, actual Exchanged Life thought notes three points: 1st) the Believer’s Desperation, 2nd) the Believer’s Identity and 3rd) the Believer’s Victory. For
some reason, just as Israel trudged through the Sinai Trail forty
years, the Believer tends to spend the majority of his/her life in many
wilderness experiences, never finding relief of their misery, or living
in ignorance of it. A few are crowded to the Cross out of desperation for a real ‘fix’. Jesus and His ever-working GRACE empowers Believer’s to live from Jesus’ LIFE as their Source for all of LIFE and godliness. Charles Solomon captures this idea in the following phrase – Jesus living in me, through me, and instead of me.
In
contrast, I personally believe the Exchanged Life can be captured in
this phraseology – exchanging your life for a new one – the NEW LIFE of Jesus Christ! Dr. Phil Jones coined this phrase. And
from these words, comes an all encompassing salvation: the pleading
draw of the sinner’s choice, the conversion experience of exchanging sin
and its destiny, for Eternal LIFE and its joyous reward. Onto identification and victory, for the Spirit-filled LIFE that expresses Jesus’ LIFE –in attitude and character. It is a paradigm shift from self helps to
the mind of Christ in our thinking, choosing, and feeling – i.e., for
‘doing life’.
However,
in our current church culture, a wandering wilderness is being
experienced. Holy Spirit, for millennia, has used this desperation to
crowd Father God’s adopted children to the Cross of His Son, Jesus. The
Gospel is the Message of the Cross, that brings salvation to all who
believe – not only for the Conversion experience, but to march every
Believer on into Identification, Emancipation, and the Spirit-filled
Life, always walking forward in Christ to our heavenly reward, with an
excited anticipation – the power of God to save!
My Methodology of the Exchanged Life
I disciple those who have been captured by what is considered ‘gross sin’. Thus, my ministry has become one of a clinical nature. A
few Exchanged Lifer(s) now use the term clinical discipleship when
dealing with those trapped in some sinful, chronic behavioral habit(s) –
better known as habitual sin. For example, MANY are diagnosed with PTSD (post traumatic syndrome (also known as chronic mental illness). Being
defined by our self centered behaviors and emotional responses, the
mental health community misses the real issue Scripture defines as flesh
or the self life; i.e., living out of my own resources. Granted,
some mental health counselors, direct a struggle® to look outside
themselves for change; but they tend to exploit the ‘God-factor’, or
ignore the Divine altogether.
Exchanged
Life counseling, also known as discipleship counseling or clinical
(remedial) discipleship has taken on a four tier progression:
Evangelism, Exchanged Life, Freedom Ministry, and the Disciplines of
Grace. However,
NewHeart Expressions has developed the following relationship tiers
(due to the influence of Dr. John Woodward, Executive Director at Grace
Fellowship International; and as Holy Spirit has given me wisdom). We believe in one salvation that begins at conversion and completes its joys in glorification. These relational tiers flow like a river’s current.
To my knowledge, a river’s current, flows only one direction. For sake of illustration, let’s consider this river to be one relationship –the Believer’s relationship with Jesus. Jesus’ LIFE (being the River) has one current flowing in one direction. At the same time, this River may have many depths of LIFE, intimacy, and experiences. In this River, GRACE is its current…
Remember GRACE is what Jesus is about, doing, and will bring to a finish. The River –
Jesus— flows in one
direction. His current of GRACE is a once saved, always persevering Believer on Salvation’s River of knowing
Christ Jesus as: personal Lord, Lamb, LIFE, Liberator, Leader, Light, and Lover.
When Church communities (both families and individuals) spend their energy moving against this current of GRACE –Jesus’ LIFE, they discover legalism and/or chaos. Failure, extreme fatigue, and an overwhelming sense of fear envelop their lives. They get tired or trying to measure up and discover that ‘doing LIFE’ is impossible! The current church culture is filled with Believers and Nonbelievers in this same desperate state of misery. Yet many don’t know it. Many even run from the Church for the lack of relief they find there. They
may know how to communicate as a Christian, they may look like Saved,
they may even be a true Believer, but their day to day, messed up,
overwhelmed lives are just as twisted and miserable as the church
culture they are a part of. They lack intimacy with Jesus and fellow Believers. Few find real and lasting LIFE in Christ. Few are really FREE, knowing Jesus as LIFE!
The Exchanged LIFE
God’s Salvation Journey for His Children
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Relationship
[Knowing Jesus as My:]
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Biblical Type
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A Description of Making Disciples
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Lord
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in Conversion
exchanging sin and death for
righteousness and LIFE
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Essential LIFE - The Gospel
Jesus used the Law to crowd people to the Cross;
where upon repentance and saving faith
and upon the confession of Jesus as LORD, Eternal LIFE is received
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Lamb
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in Atonement
exchanging
doubt for security
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Eternal LIFE / ‘Behold the Lamb of God’
discovering the Assurance of... and the Eternal Security found in... Jesus' LIFE
-forgiven and learning to live forgiven-
Conversion and Atonement may overlap somewhat in the layout and experience of Scripture
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LIFE
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in Identification
exchanging my resources for
Christ LIFE as my ALL
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Exchanged LIFE
Receiving my new Identity in Christ
Who I Am?
What has Happened to Me?
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Liberator
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in Emancipation
exchanging habitual sin for freedom in Christ
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Explosive Encounters in LIFE
Freedom in Christ Truths
Setting Captives Free from Life-shattering Addictions & Identities
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Leader
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in the
Spirit-filled Life
Exchanging my thoughts, choices, & desires for God’s
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Excellent Strategies of Grace for doin' LIFE
The Believer who lives under the control of & from the promptings of Holy Spirit
Jesus' LIFE, My Wisdom, My Right Living, My Disciplines of Grace
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Light
|
in Revelation
exchanging my inability
to see, for
God’s illuminating vision
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Expanding LIFE
Jesus' LIFE, my Vision / my Direction and Purpose / my Continuous Illumination
The Disciplines of Grace
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Lover
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in the
Satisfied LIFE
exchanging empty lusts for fulfilling passions;
RESTING
at Jesus' feet
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Energized LIFE
Intimate Interaction and Reliance upon Jesus' as LIFE, who is My Perfect Lover
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