Imagine your life is a book. Every time you do something wrong, say something hurtful, or even think a bad thought, a stain is left on a page in your book. This stain is sin.
You want your book to be clean, so you try to scrub out the stains. You promise yourself you’ll be a better person. You do good things to try and cover up the bad things. But no matter how hard you scrub, the stains are still there. You just can’t get rid of them completely.
Now, God looks at your book. He sees all the stains, and His perfect nature means He can’t be close to something that’s dirty with sin.
But here’s where the gift comes in.
Imagine Jesus comes to you. He has a perfect, spotless book. Every page is clean, pure, and without a single stain. He has lived a life without any sin.
He looks at you and sees you struggling with your stained book. So, in an incredible act of love, He makes a trade.
He takes your stained book—all of your sins, your past, your present, and even your future ones—and He puts them on His own account.
Then, He gives you His perfect, spotless book.
This is the “imputed righteousness” or “great exchange.” Your sins are put on Jesus’ account, and His perfect righteousness is put on your account.
When God looks at you now, He doesn’t see your stained book. He sees Jesus’ perfect book, because Jesus’ righteousness has been credited to you. You didn’t earn it; it was a free gift, and all you had to do was trust in the one who made the trade for you.
So, in the simplest human way, it works like this:
Your Sins: A record of all the wrong things you’ve done.
Jesus: The only one with a perfectly clean record.
The Exchange: Jesus takes your sins, and you get His perfect record.
It’s a gift. It’s not something you work for, but something you receive because someone else already did all the work.
