One of the distinctives of Exchanged Life Counseling is to discern two aspects of the Cross of Jesus Christ. In the Wheel digram we cover Christ’s death for us (the spiritual blessing of salvation) and Christ’s death unto sin to set us free from sin’s dominion relates to the Line digram teaching.

In his book, Milk and Honey Man (WinePress Publishing, 2010), William Troth presents this diagram:

Sample Scriptures for each aspect:

Jesus died for our sins: substitution
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring [f]us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18. cf. Rom. 5:1,8; Col. 1:14; 2:13,14).

Jesus died to sin: our sanctification
“knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with [rendered inoperative], that we should no longer be slaves of sin… For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:6, 10-11. cf. Rom. 6:3-11; 1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 2:20).

May we be discerning and wise in communicating the fuller message of the Cross in discipleship and counseling. For a full length study of this topic see The Cross of Christ, by Dr. John Best (in paperback or ebook from GFI).

JBW