The Exchanged Life

by Authentic Christianity

Hudson Taylor received a letter from a fellow missionary named John McCarthy. The truth in the letter helped Mr. Taylor find what he referred to as “the exchanged life.” Part of that letter stated: “To let my loving Savior work in me His will… Abiding, not striving nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power; trusting Him to subdue all inward corruption; resting in the love of an almighty Savior, in the conscious joy of a complete salvation, a salvation ‘from all sin’…willing that His will should truly be supreme…”

This “rest of faith,” where the Lord becomes the source of our spiritual life, is what Hudson Taylor eventually found after years of struggling in Christian service. This exchanged life may have already taken place in some of you. But this subject has only recently been opened to my own heart. And I believe there may be others who need to hear this same truth. My desire in this sermon is to share an area of truth that the Holy Spirit has begun showing me. Rather than striving and struggling to live in the kind of holy love that God intends for us to manifest, we are to look to Him to do what He has promised to do. Christ has come to be the source of our “righteousness and peace and joy.”

The Scriptures reveal how we are to be “more than conquerors” by living through Christ. We also have witnesses like Hudson Taylor who have testified to finding a fullness of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” after many years of weary Christian service. Because the Lord has come to give us His “life to the full,” we can know that He has made provisions for us for more than an up and down Christian walk, a life of surging and then the inevitable sagging. Let us now look at how we can come to the place where we learn to abide in the Vine rather than going on wearing ourselves out as we strive and struggle in the inadequate strength of the flesh.


Let’s begin by reading Philippians 3:3-10:
3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit {are led by the Spirit}, rejoice in Christ Jesus {for what “He” is doing}, and have no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

1.) First, let us consider what the apostle Paul is implying when he says we are not to have any confidence in the flesh. As a Pharisee, he was one of the greatest men of religion of his day. He had gone to the top of his class when it came to serving God through one’s own efforts and pedigree. He had a godly heritage, the best schooling, and an unexcelled zeal for service. And when it came to obeying the laws of the Old Testament, he considered himself blameless. But there came a day when he began to understand what Jesus was referring to when He came preaching “the gospel of the kingdom of God.” The form of life that Jesus depicts in His Sermon on the Mount goes far beyond what anyone can work out in the strength of the flesh. To fulfill these righteous requirements, he would need something more than what he possessed from the natural plane of life. This realization, that God requires us to manifest a form of holy love that far exceeds human capacity, is what brought Paul to the place where he realized he must lose all confidence in the flesh. He had to count everything from the natural realm, “as loss,” so He could come to “know Him {Christ} and the power of His resurrection.” – (Phil. 3:10)

2.) In Romans 14:17 Paul says, “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking {a visible manifestation}, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” This is the Kingdom-life that Jesus came to establish within our hearts. There needs to be a constant flow of righteousness and peace and joy flowing out of our inner being through the power of the Holy Spirit if we are to fulfill all the righteous requirements taught to us in the New Testament. As Jesus reveals in His Sermon on the Mount, the royal law of the kingdom of God is much higher than what God expected from the Old Testament saints.

3.) This is what Paul was speaking about when he said, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things {from the self-life}, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ…not having my own righteousness, which is from the law {from trying to live by the letter of the law in the strength of the self-originated flesh}, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.” (Emphasis added) He counted everything as loss so as to come to the kind of dependent faith that would enable him to receive the very righteousness that exists in the life of God. He realized that he would need to continually live in the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit if he was to consistently reveal the “righteousness of God.” “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” (Eph. 5:9)


Now let’s read Galatians 2:19-21.
19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

1.) We have already learned how Paul lost all confidence in the flesh. He came to the place where he was no longer living “out from” himself in his own strength. He was permitting Christ to live through him. 1 John 4:9 and then 17 says, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him… Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.” When Paul no longer lived in the strength of his flesh, he was able to receive – through faith – this life of holy love that comes directly from God. Although Paul was required to fully surrender the vessel of his humanity to Christ, he then depended on the Lord to become the source of his life. He had died to the old way of living by his own fleshly strength. It was then that he could become a vessel of the supernatural righteousness that comes from God by faith. It perfects the heart in holy love and enables us to fulfill all the righteous requirements found in the written laws.

2.) We simply do not have the capacity in our human strength to develop the kind of righteousness that will reflect the teachings in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount in which He describes how people live in His kingdom. But Christ, who established this heavenly Kingdom-life in bodily form, is able to manifest this life of righteousness through our mortal body.

3.) Paul says in Romans 8:3-4 – “For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled {NIV – fully met} in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” – This righteousness that comes from God by faith can only be displayed through us after we have ceased from our own works and have begun to live under the control and power of the Holy Spirit.

4.) In Ephesians 3:19 Paul describes a love that “passes knowledge.” If we are to truly fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law, we will need to come to know the reality of this love by being filled with a fullness that comes from God’s life of holy love. “…to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Eph. 3:19) “…that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:21) And finally, “…by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust {self-seeking desires}. (2 Peter 1:4)


Now let’s go to Matthew 16:24-25.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

1.) The objective of the Christian faith is to find Christ’s resurrection life and share with Him in His “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” When Paul had to come to the place where he had no confidence in the flesh and counted everything from the natural plane “as loss” so he could come to know Christ in the power of His resurrection, he was simply following Christ’s instructions – “Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” If we are to be raised by the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit into Christ’s kingdom-life, we must choose to follow Him through the cross.

2.) In Romans 6:5 Paul says—“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” It was at the point where there was no strength left in the flesh that Christ could be raised by the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit to the highest place of usefulness. Abraham is another example of this principle. He tried to help God produce the life of promise. But all he produced in his own strength and by his own efforts was the carnal Ishmael. We are told that it was not until he was “as good as dead” that he could receive the life of promise by faith.

3.) We need to have a clear understanding of what prevents even earnest souls from living in the power of Christ’s resurrection. It goes back to the matter of still having confidence in the flesh. This is the lesson that everyone, including Hudson Taylor, generally finds so hard to learn. The “spirit of the world” teaches us to live in the strength of our flesh. The devil knows it will keep us separated from the power of the Spirit. We need to realize that God designed and created His children to live by the Spirit. The whole plan of salvation is designed and intended to turn us back to living under the control and power of the Spirit so we may manifest God’s life and glory in this world.


Now let’s read John 5:30.
{Jesus said} 30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

1.) The Son came into the world as the Second Adam to reestablish the way of life that the first Adam had lost. God intended His children to live through His Spirit so they could be a true reflection of God’s love in this world. The Son chose not to live by His own strength. He never stepped out into self-will, even when severely tempted to do so. He lived His whole life doing the will of the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. He literally said He did not do anything out from Himself. This is how God intended for man to live. Jesus, while living in a mortal body, was demonstrating how His followers were to walk. They were to make decisions and act only as they depended on and heard from the Spirit, just as He did. And because He only sought to do His Father’s will, everything He did was righteous. "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30) Jesus commands His disciples to follow Him in His way of life. And we are told in 1 John 2:6 that we must walk as Jesus did. The only way to do this is to walk in the power of the Spirit. As the Father lived through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, we too are expected to permit the Son to live through us. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” As we abide in the life of the Son through our responsive faith, He will produce the fruit of His Spirit through our lives. Again, “The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” And, “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” (Gal. 5:22-25)

2.) Jesus said of Satan, “He speaks from his own resources.” Satan chose to do things independent of God. In contrast to how Jesus lived by the Spirit, never doing anything on His own, the devil chose to do everything on his own, in other words, to live “out from” himself. If he were to have his own glory, he would need to live independently of God and do his own works. Here is the essence of the fallen way of life. It is to live independent of God. We are not fully saved from this fallen state until we are living back under the control and power of the Holy Spirit.


Next turn to Romans 6:10-11.
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1.) The real meaning of Christ’s way of the cross can be summed up in these simple words, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” Jesus walked in this way of the cross all of His life. Christ died to sin “once for all” at the cross. That was the last chance he had to turn to self-will. And having died to living for self-will once for all, He now lives to God. Paul tells us this great truth because this is the life that Jesus shares with us when we have permitted Him to establish His Kingdom-life within our heart.

2.) We too are to reckon ourselves as being dead to self-will and alive to God’s will alone. This is what makes us slaves of God. Romans 6:22 goes on to say, “But now having been set free from sin {which implies having died to self-will}, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

3.) 2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” We need to note that losing our own will to live for the will of God brings us to the place where we can be raised by the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Kingdom-life. The bliss of heaven is to permit God to be the source of everything we do.


Now let’s turn to John 12:24-26
24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

1.) Everyone who is truly born of God has the seed of divine life planted within their heart. But that seed will never bear the heavenly fruit of the kingdom of God until it is planted in the ground and dies. There is an old covering around it {the self-life} that needs to completely break down and disintegrate before the heavenly life can rise up.

2.) What is the life that we are told to hate? It is the old independent form of life that everyone inherits from Adam and the real source of our problem. Furthermore, we must realize that in order to have an independent life, we must live in our own or self-sufficiency. It implies “confidence in the flesh.” It is this old independent and self-sufficient spirit that we need to hate because it prevents us from living in the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. When we can begin to see just how strongly it is opposed to the meek and lowly Christ-life that never lived for itself, we will begin to hate it enough to thoroughly die to it.

3.) Jesus said that those who follow Him through the cross will be with Him. We know that He is sitting at the right hand of God on the throne of power. And that is where He wants us to live spiritually, even as we live out our days on earth. Colossians 3:1-3 says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” We need to be looking to Christ and expecting Him in faith to manifest His power, His life and His works through us.

4.) If we truly hope to be honored by God with the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit, we will need to die to our old independent and self-sufficient spirit. However, we cannot do this in our own strength. Although we can reckon ourselves as dead, choosing to die to our own will, we cannot crucify the strength of our flesh. Our responsibility is to go into our own Garden of Gethsemane and say with Jesus, “Not my will, but yours be done.” We can then expect the Spirit to take us through a “night” of trials, where there may be considerable “darkness” and soul suffering. It will be a painful time as God carries out His scourging work in us. He will be using His scourgings to break down our old self-sufficient spirit. He knows what trials are necessary to remove the hope we have in our flesh. But we can depend on Him to never put more on us than He has already prepared us to bear. And yet, He must go on until He has destroyed the old self-originated form of life. We will eventually find that God’s power is truly perfected in our weakness. It is then we will discover how our child-like {simple, pure and responsive} faith has brought us into a real participation with Christ in the “divine nature.” (2 Pet. 1:4)


Now let us quickly look at some Scriptures that reveal how we are brought into this promised “rest of faith” where we live by the Spirit alone.

Heb 12:6
6 For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives."

1.) Also, verse 10 reminds us that this scourging is for our profit so “that we may be partakers of His holiness.” It brings us to the place were we are prepared to live through Christ. The writer also says in verse 11, “Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

2.) Unfortunately, this divine work of God can be “in vain” if we do not submit to what it is intended to do. Paul had to address this problem in the Galatian church. They had turned away from depending on the Spirit to the old way of trying to live out the Christian life in their own strength, the strength of the flesh. In other words, they had turned back to self-sufficiency. Galatians 3:3-4 says, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?” We can go on trying to live in our own sufficiency, but it will only lead to more scourging. It makes it impossible to find the true rest of faith where there is a constant supply of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”


James 1:2-4
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

1.) The only way we will ever be “complete, lacking nothing” is when we have ceased from our own works and are living by the Spirit alone

2.) God uses difficult trials to bring us to the end of our self-sufficiency. Only then will we have the patience to wait on the Lord and expect Him to truly work His works through us as we walk by the leading of His Spirit. He is the One who has the power to work out all things according to His perfect will. It is then that we will “lack nothing.” He has obligated Himself to supply all the resources necessary to carry out His will. But keep in mind that He must be the source and originator of that will, and in all our service we are only to proceed as we are “acted upon” by His Spirit.

3.) 2 Cor 3:5-6 says, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”


1 Peter 5:6-11
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you {even in the dark night of suffering}. 8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

1.) God alone knows how much suffering is needed to bring us to the place where we have no confidence in the flesh. Only then can He lift us with the power of His Spirit into the fullness of His Kingdom-life of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” This is the Pearl of Great Price. We must be prepared to give up everything from our old self-originated form of life before we can truly walk in the power of Christ’s Spirit.

2.) When we still have a love for living an independent life and by our own sufficiency, the cost may appear to be too high. But we must remember that this is the fallen form of life that cannot enter into the heavenly realms. Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” Little children live by dependent faith, expecting everything from someone else. They do not direct their own steps. They are led everywhere. And until we come into this same kind of dependent and trusting faith in God, we cannot expect to be lifted into the fullness of Christ’s Kingdom-life.

3.) We really do not have a choice in this matter. We must either choose to enter into this Spirit-directed and Spirit-empowered way of life, or we are choosing to live by the flesh. Paul says in Romans 8:13—“For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” He is saying we need to die to all self-originated deeds of the body. Because he goes on to say in verse 14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” May we all choose to turn away from living by the flesh and learn to live by the Spirit so we may be included as one of the Spirit-led children of God.


Hudson Taylor eventually entered into the “rest of faith” where He learned to live through Christ’s Spirit. He referred to it as the “exchanged life.” He learned to abide in Christ and expect everything from Him. He came to realize that Jesus meant it literally when He said, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” It was after Mr. Taylor had come to the end of himself and had truly learned to abide in the Vine that he could say – “The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything…for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient.”

The goal of our faith is to enter this rest of faith where we trust in our Sovereign God to work out all things according to His perfect will. Then the world will be able to see what it is like to live in the eternal kingdom of God where He is the source of everything that takes place. The people of the world need to see this Pearl of “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” manifested through God’s children. Christ will share His resurrection-life with all who will abide in Him.