If you could boil down the essence of what coin collecting and coin dealing is all about, what you would probably find is a single word: EXCHANGE. Sometimes it is an exchange of information, sometimes an exchange of ideas, sometimes an exchange of opinions of the future, sometimes just an exchange of friendly conversation. But most of the time, an exchange of something of value between two parties. It could be an exchange between two collectors, or between two dealers, or between a collector and a dealer. It could be an exchange of rare coins, or an exchange of silver for gold, or just an exchange of circulating currency for collectible coins, currency, or precious metals. It could involve cash, checks, credit cards or wire transfers. Just think of all the different types of exchanges that take place daily in coin shops, coin club meetings, coin shows and auctions. Then throw in all the exchanges that take place through the mail and over the internet. The concept of an exchange is really what coin collecting and coin dealing is all about.

      Jesus asked a question once when He was teaching a crowd that had gathered around Him and His disciples. He asked, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in EXCHANGE for his soul?" (Mark 8:36,37) Jesus was familiar with the teaching in the Psalms that answered that question: "No man can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for him - the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough - that he should live on forever and not see decay". (Psalm 49:7-9)

      A person can be very skilled at negotiating exchanges in the world of coin collecting, but when it comes to the spiritual world, we are all at a disadvantage. You see, the Scriptures teach that "the soul who sins is the one who will die" (Ezekiel 18:20). And, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). And, "all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). And, "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). A person who believes that they can go before God alone and unprepared, and somehow hope to negotiate some kind of exchange so they can avoid the punishment God has prepared for sinners, is like the coin collector who wants to exchange his common wheat penny for an 1804 silver dollar. We don't have anything that God is willing to accept in an exchange. What can a man give in exchange for his soul? No payment is ever enough.

      But there is some good news! Make that, the Greatest News!! God has already made an exchange on your (and my) behalf. In an unequaled act of mercy and grace, God took His only son, Jesus Christ, and placed all of my sins and all of your sins and all the sins of all the world on Jesus, and punished those sins when Jesus was crucified on the cross. "Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people" (Hebrews 9:28). God exchanged the punishment we deserved for the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. And to prove that this was the absolute truth, God raised Jesus from the dead.

      We have nothing to offer God in an exchange. But we can accept the exchange that God has provided for the salvation of our souls. That involves placing our faith in God to save us. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8,9). As the old hymn goes, "He wore a crown of thorns, that I might wear a crown of Glory". Now that is the ultimate exchange!