“More important than how you preach is what you preach,” HB Charles told attendees at the recent For the Church Conference at Midwestern Baptist Seminary. The greatest need for pastors proclaiming the truth of God’s Word is to preach about the Great Exchange. Charles is senior pastor of Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Florida.
Basing his message on 2 Corinthians 5:21, Charles used the words sovereignty, sinlessness, substitution and satisfaction to explain the concept of the Great Exchange and why it is imperative that church leaders preach it.
“Here essentially is everything for sinners to be made reconciled to God,” he said. “The message of this verse is that guilty sinners are reconciled to God through the Great Exchange, which was accomplished by God through Jesus Christ.”
The Great Exchange, Charles explained, is God’s solution to the fact that mankind has no way of reconciling their sinfulness in a way that satisfies His demand for holiness and righteousness. Because Jesus Christ lived a perfectly sinless life, He was able to serve as a substitution for the sinfulness of mankind, and that sacrifice satisfied the wrath of a just God.
“This is the glorious truth we should be declaring in these critical days…As it is said, we are just beggars telling other beggars where to find bread,” Charles said. “If you know what it is to be rescued by grace, may the Lord help you to be a faithful ambassador to proclaim the Great Exchange for the salvation of the world.” (Baptist Press, Sept. 11, 2015)