Tag Archives: redemption

Redemption Was Incredibly Costly. Were You Worth the Price?

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The definition of redemption is “the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt.” If you hocked an electric guitar or a watch to a pawn shop in exchange for a loan, then you can’t have it or use it anymore until you REDEEM it by paying back the loan. In the cosmic scheme of things, we have been kidnapped by sin and held for ransom, and we are in need of redemption. The Bible puts it like this:

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.” (Ephesians 1:7-10, NIV)

Bought Back

If you read these verses, this is a pretty good list. Paul says not only are we redeemed and forgiven, but that God has lavished grace upon us and revealed to us the mystery of his will. Those are all amazing things to think about, and all of them are connected to Christ’s sacrifice for us. Paul maintains that it is through the death of Jesus that we are forgiven, given grace, and brought into God’s family under Christ’s leadership. Stop and think for a minute about the first thing on the list, redemption. As Christians, we have been redeemed, and I bet we haven’t spent five minutes thinking about how important that is.

There are two things about redemption that stand out to me. The definition of redemption is “the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt.” If you traded your wedding ring or smart phone to a pawn shop in exchange for a loan, then you can’t have it or use it anymore until you REDEEM it by paying back the loan. In ancient times, prisoners taken in war would be held captive until someone paid a price for them and bought them back from slavery. They had to be REDEEMED by someone who loved them enough to buy them back.

Cosmic Redemption

The whole process is linked to something (or someone) being held as collateral for a price. In your case, YOU were taken hostage by Death, and only God cared enough to redeem you from Death’s captivity by paying its price. Sin and the Fall forced everyone in this world into captivity to Death; only by being redeemed can we escape Death’s penalty and experience a different quantity and quality of life. Being released from Death is awesome, but there is a second and more subtle result of redemption.

16 Aug 1957 — 8/16/1957-Levittown, Long Island, NY- Loaded down with premiums, a happy mother and daughter leave the King Korn Redemption Center (at 2841, Hempstead Turnpike) in Levittown, Long Island, NY, after exchanging their trading stamps for a variety of goods. Stamp savers can walk out of these stores with anything from baseballs to electric broilers. The firm has found that the average family fills one stamps-saver book of 1500 stamps a month. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS

Redeemed for What?

When I was little, my mom would get S & H Green stamps at the grocery store and paste them in a book. When she had enough books, we’d go to the redemption center, which was like a store full of things that you could buy with your stamps. There were things like toasters, lamps, and hair-dryers you could get for a few books of stamps; and there were washing machines, refrigerators and furniture for LOTS of books. But the merchandise would sit there, unclaimed and unused until someone wanted it and redeemed it.

Those toasters never toasted, the washers never washed, and the merchandise never fulfilled its purpose as long as it remained unredeemed. It sat there in the store just waiting for someone to claim it, take it home and use it. You see where I’m going with this, don’t you? WE were like that. We had been put on the shelf by death, set aside as unwanted and unclaimed. But God loved us enough to pay the price for us! He redeemed us! So here’s the question: now that you’ve been redeemed, have you been put to use? Are you glad that someone paid for you?

Justifying the Cost

In the movie “Saving Private Ryan” a platoon is sent across war-torn France to find the last survivor from among the four Ryan brothers who were killed serving in World War II. The War Department had a policy that was designed to keep a family from losing its last surviving son, so men were dispatched to located him and extract him from the field of battle. Ultimately he is found and rescued, but there is a great cost.

Later on, long after the war he visits the Normandy grave of the team leader who helped to save his own life, and reflects on D-Day and the horrible things men experienced in combat (things he himself went through). Team Leader John H. Miller was played by Tom Hanks, and most of his team was killed finding and saving Private James Francis Ryan.

There is a pivotal moment near the end of the film between Miller and Ryan. As he lay wounded amidst the ruins of battle, Miller wearily looks around at the sacrifices made on Ryan’s behalf, looks him in the eye and exhorts him to “Earn this!” Those are Miller’s last words, and they stay with James Francis Ryan the rest of his life.

Lasting Impact

The movie begins and ends at a cemetery in Normandy, where the older James Francis Ryan visits Miller’s grave as Ryan’s wife, children and grandchildren look on. In a very touching scene, while his family waits in the background, Ryan speaks to the grave, and affirms that he has tried to live up to Miller’s exhortation. In tears, he asks his somewhat confused wife, who has come up beside him, “Have I lived a good life? Have I been a good man?” He seeks affirmation that he was worthy of the sacrifice made for him.

Perhaps that is something all of us should do as we pray from time to time. Since Christ redeemed us, we don’t have to EARN it, but we can express it: “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:20) We can’t work our way into redemption, but perhaps, having been redeemed, we should remember the price, and strive to be WORTHY of it.

Redemption

Back when I was little, and my mom would save some stamps,
She’d take them down to S & H for toasters, or for lamps.
We’d go to the Redemption Store, where there was lots of stuff,
And you could buy a couch with stamps if you had saved enough!

Saving Private Ryan tells about the brutal cost
That’s paid to find John Francis Ryan, whose brothers had been lost;
The team who finds him has to fight their way through hell on earth,
And they exhort him to remember what his life is worth,
Reminding him of efforts made for him–that lives were lost–
Exhorting him to live his life remembering the cost…

If you’ve ever been redeemed, whatever you may do,
Do you ever count the cost of what God did for you?
If you ever think of Christ, it might just make you weep
To know redemption might be free, but it was never cheap…

To buy my latest book, Real People, Real Christmas: Thirty-one Days Discovering the Hidden Treasures of the Christmas Story, go here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1729034918/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For Slaying Giants: Thirty Days with David, go here: https://www.amazon.com/Slaying-Giants-Thirty-Devotions-Ordinary/dp/172568327X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535814431&sr=8-1&keywords=Slaying+Giants%3A+Thirty+Days+With+David
To buy my book, Beggar’s Bread, go here: https://www.amazon.com/Beggars-Bread-Devotions-Ordinary-Guy/dp/1535457392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473336800&sr=8-1&keywords=Beggar%27s+Bread

The Redeemer Who Could, For the People Who Couldn’t

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Redemption is defined as, “the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment.” We might think of redemption about stuff in a pawn shop, but not necessarily in terms involving people. It might come up if someone is kidnapped, but otherwise we probably don’t walk around thinking we need to be bought back. The fact is, however, that everyone needs redemption.

The Ancient Act of Redemption

In order for someone to be redeemed, they need a redeemer. In ancient times, a military prisoner needed someone to buy them back from slavery. It was such a common occurrence in Biblical days that everyone would have understood it. The story of redemption follows logic and makes perfect sense. Captives needed redemption, and there was a process about how to get it. But these days, unless they’re in a hostage situation, people don’t always relate to the fact that mankind needs a redeemer.

Maybe we are just fine without one, but the Bible says this about that: “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might be the redeemer of them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5 ASV)

You’ve Quit Preaching and Gone to Meddling

Here’s how it relates to us: We were condemned under the law and estranged from God because Adam and Eve questioned God’s plan and chose to follow their own will. No matter how much the Father loved us and wanted our good, He could not tolerate the presence of sin; when mankind became sinful, it separated them from a Holy God.

Under the logic of the law, all men lived under the law’s curse because of Adam and Eve’s choice. In effect, mankind was thrown out of the family because of sin, and could not be allowed back in until the sin problem was taken care of. Our will got us thrown out of HIS will…

No Other Options

So why couldn’t God just snap his fingers and provide restoration? I’m sure He would have if it were that easy, but redemption from sin is apparently a cosmic issue, a life or death matter, and not just anyone could rectify Adam and Eve’s fatal choice. Cosmic, irrevocable death had dire, irreversible consequences. Only a redeemer uniquely positioned to fulfill God’s law on our behalf could change our status.

Unique Qualifications

After The Fall, if there was to be redeemer, he would need to meet some very unique qualifications. Since Adam and Eve accepted the curse, he would need to be descended from them in order to reject it on their behalf. He would have to live a sinless life in a sinful world. Because sin was transmitted in the process of procreation and birth, he had to be born of a virgin and the circumstances of his birth would have to be supernatural. He couldn’t be tainted by the carnal, sinful nature that invariably wanted nothing more than to break the law.

Since the law was broken, he needed to be not only subject to the law but free from its penalty. He would need to suffer death at the hands of the law, since the only sentence for sin is death—but he had to live in such a way that he did not deserve that sentence.

Very Unique Qualifications…

A Redeemer would have to have not only the humility to live under the law, but the authority to countermand it. He would need to represent the Father as the righteous judge, and he would need to be an advocate for those who were standing trial. Such a Redeemer would have to be uniquely qualified to mediate a settlement between Heaven and earth. He had to be connected to Adam as part of the fallen human family. However, he also needed to be intimately connected in the Father’s family, since he was arranging the adoption of those who would be redeemed…

No Man Could Do It

Unfortunately, no man who had ever lived had satisfied the criteria for being a redeemer, so all men who ever lived were affected by the curse of sin. Paul puts it this way (Romans 5:18): “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”

The Redeemer had to be a sinless man, a man who satisfied the law, and who was not subject to the penalty for sin. In first-century Judea, there WAS such a man. Jesus was that one redeemer, and you can join God’s family, not by being “good enough”, but by being adopted.

When you consider the facts, it’s a logical progression that requires faith to accept; but if you evaluate the Redeemer’s qualifications and decide to accept his payment for your penalty, then there’s Great News! You’re back in the will!

One Consequence, One Redeemer

Mankind exercised his will, and ate an apple, or took a pill,
Or chased a thrill, said “I’m King of the Hill!”,
Ate more than his fill, made another kill,
Or stole from the till–you know the drill–
And ran up one hellacious bill…

The Lord said, “Man, what you’ve done today
Is left the family and gone astray,
And for that sin, you have to pay.”
And mankind said, “There’s just no way”.
So the Lord looked down, and He didn’t think twice,
He sent a redeemer to pay the price.
It couldn’t be just anyone, so He chose to send his only Son,
Uniquely suited to be the one to ensure redemption’s job was done.

The requirements had big shoes to fill,
Like a cross on top of a deadly hill;
But he carried that cross and He paid your bill,
And destroyed the sin that could only kill:
Great News! You’re adopted, and back in the will!

To buy my latest book, Real People, Real Christmas: Thirty-one Days Discovering the Hidden Treasures of the Christmas Story, go here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1729034918/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
For Slaying Giants: Thirty Days with David, go here: https://www.amazon.com/Slaying-Giants-Thirty-Devotions-Ordinary/dp/172568327X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535814431&sr=8-1&keywords=Slaying+Giants%3A+Thirty+Days+With+David
To buy my book, Beggar’s Bread, go here: https://www.amazon.com/Beggars-Bread-Devotions-Ordinary-Guy/dp/1535457392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473336800&sr=8-1&keywords=Beggar%27s+Bread