A Union With Christ, Not An Exchange
Do Christians exchange places with God where He becomes sin for us and we become righteous? No.
Instead of an exchange, there is a union (2 Cor. 5.21). Yes, Jesus died in our stead, but No, His life is not exchanged for our life. Let us be clear on this.
Nowhere in the Scriptures are we told that Christians and Christ exchange positions. When we say, Christ died for me, we are referring to our personal welfare or personal gain in His death on the cross for us to save us from our sins.
Never should we think that Jesus became unrighteous for the unrighteous. Rather, we come into a union with God where we become His children, and He our Father.
When God becomes sin on our behalf, He made Jesus sin for us, not unrighteous. Jesus bore our sins, carried them and punished those sins as God punished Him.
God and me is my relationship with God. God for me is the accomplished work God achieved for me. God in me is what God works out in what He has accomplished in me. Without God and me, there could never be God for me or God in me. God and me was accomplished when Jesus was clothed on earth with the flesh. If Jesus never came in the flesh there could never be God and us, only God. There could be no union of God and men and women. Jesus was clothed with the flesh and now dwelling in us today clothed with the Spirit. Hence some say that the Holy Spirit is the second Self of the Lord Jesus Christ. If Jesus did not enter the flesh, He could not die in the flesh. And if He did not die in the flesh, we could not have the indwelling Holy Spirit, the life of the Father and the Son.
What is the consequence of Jesus being made sin on our behalf (not exchanged)? Not that we become righteous, but "that we might become the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5.21).
When Jesus died for us, we do not become sinners no more or change to be righteous, but we become the righteousness of God in himself (the Son).
The righteousness of God saved us, so that in judging the Lord Jesus, all sin is judged as are we. He reckons us as righteous not because we are righteous, but are objectively righteous in His eyes in the righteousness of God.
We are made to be righteousness of God in Christ, not the righteous in Christ, so that it is the righteousness of God that saves and not the righteousness of Christ. Isn't that interesting? Our righteousness is of God in Him, not of Christ, so that the flow of our righteousness is from God to Christ, not from Christ to God. We could never be exchanged for the righteousness of Christ, but we can be saved to have the righteousness of God in Christ.
The point being, we have a union, and not an exchange.
