The Greatest Exchange: Beyond Restoration

By Mannie Samuelsen Azenda

The Greatest Exchange is written by a man who understands God’s love for humanity and the tremendous sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us and the benefits we are blessed with as a result.
The book is well written, well organized, easy to read and understand, for Christians, Non-Christians and New Christians alike. The prayers at the end of each Chapter, are so appropriate they bear repeating or confessing during one’s daily prayer time. Excellent Book!
—Ed Huculak, Springs Church, Calgary

The Greatest Exchange takes readers on a journey that helps us to more clearly understand the implications of Christ’s death on the cross as far as the human condition is concerned. Using both insightful biblical interpretation and pertinent real world examples, the text shows us in detail the progression of God’s plan for the Redemption of humanity following the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden. It poses very intriguing questions in ways previously not considered. And the book also leaves one with a renewed feeling of joy and hope as far as the God’s real intentions toward mankind.
—Anne Carson, Founder and President of Scribe Assist

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973643777

Mannie Samuelsen Azenda

Mannie is a second-generation minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He's the founding pastor at Kings' Christian Center (aka Royal Gateway Church) Calgary. He loves the Word, which he communicates with infectious passionand conviction.Mannie has been happily married to Dr. Chino for over 25 years. He's a marriage counselor, Bible teacher, author, and intercessor. He's widely known for his love for family and the institution of marriage. Mannie's burning desire is to see Kings' Christian Center become a destination of choice for strengthening marriages.

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Copyright © 2018 Mannie Samuelsen Azenda.

Interior Image Credit: Dante Art

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Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4378-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4379-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-4377-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018912880

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/19/2019

Dedication

I dedicate this book to the loving memory of my dad, Samuel Azenda Abiagi, who mentored me into the person I am today. You taught me the value of hard work, uncommon moral values and humility. I also learned how to be a dad just by watching you. You truly were an epitome of who a father should be like!

I also dedicate this book to the evergreen memory of my mom, Hannah K. Azenda. Your insight, foresight, and wisdom were unparalleled. I am grateful for your prayers that only a very special mom like you could have prayed. You were simply the best!

Finally, I dedicate this book to my grandma Ruth Ashide Abiagi who was the linchpin that held the family together. You worked tirelessly and sacrificially for the wellbeing of our family. Your entrepreneurial spirit and energy were second to none.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to my wife and friend, Dr. Chino Azenda for her dedication and relentless support in life and ministry.

I also extend a debt of gratitude to my children, Dr. Lisa Ejenavi, Terdoo, David and Olly whose unalloyed support has continued to be a great inspiration for me.

I am deeply grateful to all those below whom in one way or another, through prayer, encouragement, support, or otherwise, contributed to bringing this book to the publishing stage. Ed and Carol Huculak, Rev. Andrew and Evelyn Picklyk, Irene Bryant, Rosmond Adair and Anne Carson.

Contents

Understanding Exchange

1.0   Understanding the Fall of Man

2.0   God Exchanged His forgiveness for Our Sin

2.1   How God Exchanged His forgiveness with Our Sin

2.2   Let Us Pray

3.0   Christ Exchanged His Life with Our Death

3.2   Let Us Pray

4.0   Christ Exchanged His Acceptance with Our Rejection

4.1   How Christ Exchanged Our Rejection with His Acceptance.

4.2   Let Us Pray

5.0   Christ Exchanged His Blessings with Our Curses

5.1   How Christ Exchanged His Blessings with Our Curses

5.2   Let Us Pray

6.0   God Exchanged His Adoption with Our Slavery

6.1   How God Adopted Us In Exchange for Our Slavery

6.2   Let Us Pray

7.0   Christ Exchanged His Health with Our Ill-Health

7.1   How Christ Exchanged His Health with

Our Ill Health.

7.2   Let Us Pray

8.0   Christ Exchanged His Wealth with Our Poverty

8.1   How Christ Exchanged His Wealth with Our Poverty

8.2   Let Us Pray

List of Figures

Understanding Exchange

Exchange is a very important word. Exchange signifies the act of giving something to someone as they in turn give something to you. It’s having to part with an item that may be meaningful, something potentially dear to you, and then receiving that which also has value. Whether or not we realize it, exchange happens daily. From time to time, individuals, business partners, colleagues, friends and families will exchange things such as ideas and other types of valuable assets. It’s a fundamental part of how we interact with one another and how we engage as individuals living in a society.

On a larger scale, we see displays of high profile exchanges that make news around the world; those between nations for example, or even more consequentially those exchanges in which life is involved. In May of 2014, five Taliban fighters were released from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who was being held hostage by the Talibans in Afghanistan for nearly five years. Or, on the night of April 15, 2014, when Boko Haram kidnapped 276 female students from a Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, a town in North Eastern Nigeria, three years later, in May of 2017, according to the lead negotiator, the Nigerian government exchanged five Boko Haram militants for 82 of those kidnapped schoolgirls.

Looking back at ancient cultures, we see evidence of a variety of exchanges which took place and which in fact represented cultural markers. For example, tradition has it that approximately one hundred years ago, Tiv people who call the Benue valley home in contemporary Nigeria, were known for this unique way of getting married. The family of the groom would take their daughter and exchange her for the daughter of the family of the would-be bride. The traditional interpretation of such a practice is that if the family that initiated the relationship was so intent to get a wife for their son, they should consequently demonstrate their seriousness by giving their own daughter in exchange. This arrangement normally saw two marriages between the two families take place simultaneously; that is, a bride for a bride.

In the scriptures, one of the first negotiated exchanges took place between the well-known twin brothers Esau and Jacob. This account is recorded in Genesis 25: 27 – 33 [New King James Version (NKJV)]:

So the boys grew. And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Now Jacob cooked a stew; and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, ‘Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.’ Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, ‘Sell me your birthright as of this day.’ And Esau said, ‘Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?’ Then Jacob said, ‘Swear to me as of this day.’ So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.

Though the example here makes use of the word sell, it is quite clear that in fact what occurred was an exchange or a swap. Esau was older than Jacob, thus he had a birthright. Jacob on the other hand had a ready-made mouth-watering food. Esau desperately wanted something to eat in order to save himself from hunger-induced death. Curiously, Jacob being a very cunning young man, thought only of his brother’s birthright in terms of what might be a suitable exchange for the food. It may be fair to suspect that perhaps Jacob must have been envious of Esau’s birthright long before this. And obviously, given Esau’s hasty and flawed judgement, it is easy to conclude that he lacked the ability to see the big picture.

Looking deeper into Esau’s character, it can be said that Esau was apparently a man of the here and now. Review his unfortunate and shallow thought process: See, I am about to die. So what good is my birthright to me? He proceeded to swear to Jacob that he would exchange his birthright for a single plate of food, thus forfeiting that birthright for good. Verse 34 of the same passage concludes: Then Jacob gave Esau bread and vegetables, and Esau ate and drank. Then Esau stood up and went on his way… Just a single meal and Esau is now in essence stripped of his birthright; he then casually walks away.

Given how the text reads, he only physically walked away from the spot where he sat, ate, and drank. But we need to look at the larger, spiritual implications of the moment. Forever abandoning his birthright, he is making an irreversible and life-changing decision. Here is my personal interpretation of Esau’s walking away, it is as if he is proclaiming: I don’t care, and my birthright is inconsequential to me. Therefore, I have given it away forever just as I have finished this plate of food for which I have exchanged it!

The Exchange at Calvary

Of all the exchanges that have ever taken place in history and those that will ever take place in the future, the one that resulted in the redemption of humanity is by far the greatest. I feel absolutely comfortable calling it The Greatest Exchange or the Exchange of All Exchanges. Apostle Paul captured this perfectly in 2 Corinthians 8:9 (NKJV): For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.

Looking closely at this particular verse, we see perhaps one of the most intriguing passages regarding what happened at Calvary about two thousand years ago. Of course, the context of the entire chapter was about financial and material possessions. However, I have spent many hours studying and meditating on the passage, and in the process of doing so, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to what I had never before seen throughout my many years of making reference to this passage in my numerous messages. What was revealed to me was that, truly, the Lord Jesus exchanged his unquantifiable wealth with our soul-crushing poverty, so that in turn we would become rich.

Two compelling facts were made manifest to me beyond a doubt: First, the Lord Jesus did not give his life only for our financial and material well-being. As the Holy Spirit has helped me to clearly demonstrate in the pages of this book, the scriptures have fully precluded any ambiguity that Christ’s death was to address all of the unfortunate consequences of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden.

Second, Christ did not die several deaths for each of the consequences of the fall of man. He died only once. His death was the same and only event that resulted in doing away with all of the unfortunate consequences of the fall of man. The Holy Spirit further revealed to me that to fully appreciate the essence of Christ’s work of redemption, it is very important to look at it holistically. Therefore, it is the goal of this book to narrate the implications of God’s work, that which redeemed man from the consequences of his fall in the Garden of Eden.

In the first chapter of his Epistle to the Colossians, Apostle Paul penned these words: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities, or powers All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. Colossians 1:15 – 17 (NKJV)

Taking consideration of all that I have read and studied in terms of the scriptures, not to mention the specific textual evidence that I’ve come across, as well of course as my own experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit in thinking about this idea, I present below four compelling reasons which led me to conclude that what happened at Calvary indisputably resulted in what can only be termed The Greatest Exchange.

Christ’s death involves the highest price that has ever been paid for any transaction.

The life of the Son of God was used in exchange for our redemption. In the few examples I have provided above, human beings were involved, but not their lives. In the exchange that resulted in the redemption of humanity, Jesus gave away everything including his very life. He suffered and died the most painful and cruel death imaginable, on the Cross. Apostle Paul alludes to this fact in the second chapter of his epistle to the Philippians: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Philippians 2:5 – 8 (NKJV)

Christ’s finished work of redemption is a complete package.

As was discussed regarding the definition of exchange, most typical exchanges involve a one for one transaction; meaning, you give up something you have and in return receive something belonging to another. However, the exchange that happened at Calvary was unparalleled in that there has never been any other exchange so comprehensive, complete, and sufficient for every need and situation. It was the exchange that was necessary to take away all the attendant devastation that accompanied the fall of man. It was the exchange that was required to restore man back to his original state, such that God had created him to be.

This fact was enunciated in Jesus’ last words on the Cross when he declared that it is finished. The implication of this three-letter phrase is that every word of prophecy about his mission on earth had been accomplished—everything that needed to be done in order to perfect the work that was necessary for man’s redemption and consequent reconciliation with God. It was a declaration so significant in scope and effect that it will not need to be repeated by anyone in all of human history!

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst! Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:28 – 30 (NKJV)

This inestimable package of redemption contained everything: redemption from sin, death, rejection, curses, slavery, sickness and disease, poverty, etc. When you thoroughly understand the real implications of the fall of man, you will see that mankind is left completely abhorrent and undesirable. Therefore, when the Lord declared with his dying breath that it is finished, he in essence, completed the exchange of the deplorable state of humanity for his perfection. The picture below illustrates what happened at the Cross.

TheExchangeatCalvaryImage1.jpg

Figure I: The Exchange at Calvary

There could be no greater exchange; the Lord took away sin, death, rejection, curses, slavery, sickness and disease, poverty, etc. and in turn, he gave us forgiveness, life, health, acceptance, blessings, adoption, prosperity—the list of the good that he indeed gave us in place of our deplorable state is seemingly endless.

It is for all of humanity.

The universality of Jesus’ gift is unquestionable. All of humanity benefited regardless of ethnicity, race, nationality, skin colour, educational level, social status or parental background. … And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. John 2:1 – 2 (NKJV)

The Lord Jesus is humanity’s advocate! As many as received him, he