Hudson Taylor called it “the exchanged life.” It was his spiritual secret, his superpower. “If I had a thousand pounds, China could have them all. If I had a thousand lives, I’d give them all to China. No, not to China, but to Christ. Can we do too much for such a Savior?” The exchanged life is letting this life go for God’s eternal reward.
The exchanged life is the paradox that “whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). Jesus offers abundant life to anyone who lays down all the substitutes that this world has to offer.
The people of Haggai’s day were caught up in the deceitfulness of wealth, even though they had very little. Paneling their houses had begun to take priority over rebuilding the fallen temple of God (Haggai 1:4). They are exhibit A that you don’t have to be rich to be greedy. They lived in a ransacked homeland and they were still trying to find their lives in the rubble, rather than giving their lives to the work of the Lord. Can you relate?
The people of Haggai’s day demonstrate the futility of settling for this world’s substitutes. They proved that the substitutes don’t fulfill what they promise. “You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill…” (Haggai 1:6).
But the people responded to Haggai’s preaching when he pointed all these things out to them. They “obeyed the voice of the Lord their God…And the people feared the Lord.” From that moment when they exchanged the pursuit of decorated houses for the pursuit of God’s purposes on earth, everything fell into place. They even received by grace some of the very things they were willing to sacrifice! “Consider from this day onward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid, consider: Is the seed yet in the barn? Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing. But from this day on I will bless you” (Haggai 2:18-19).
The exchanged life is not a poverty vow. It is a willingness to enjoy poverty if that be the will of the Lord. It is a willingness to enjoy some, or perhaps even much, of this world’s goods, if that be the will of the Lord. The key is doing the will of the Lord.
And what is that will? Hudson Taylor reminded us, “The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be followed.” Jesus told us what He wants us to do, “And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).
Give your life to evangelism and discipleship and you will find abundant life in so doing. The exchanged life is a Great Commission life. It may be that God will call you to endure the privations of a missionary life in the interior of China. That was the life that Hudson Taylor enjoyed so much. He discovered how capable God is to provide everything a Christian needs for life and godliness; Hudson Taylor loved to say, “God alone is sufficient for God’s own work.”
Or perhaps God will give you much of the fruit of the vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree, right here in our prosperous land, as He did for the people of Haggai’s day. But only be willing to live for Christ, to take Him alone as your treasure, and you are sure to experience His abundant life. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
With Love in Christ,
Pastor Jeff
