Blessed by Being Redeemed Pt 1

My grandma on my dad’s side was the middle of three girls. When my grandma was young, her parents decided they couldn’t afford to take care of all three girls, so they took my grandma and her older sister to an orphanage. They raised the youngest daughter. My grandma’s aunt and uncle could not bear the thought of the two girls being in an orphanage, so at great sacrifice, they took my grandma and her sister in and raised both girls as their own.

Many years later when my grandma’s mother died, my grandma asked her younger sister if she could have their mother’s wedding ring. The ring had sentimental value to my grandma. The younger sister didn’t want the ring, but she wouldn’t give it to my grandma. The younger sister wanted new, fancy furniture. She told my grandma that she could have the ring if she paid for it. My grandma paid the price for the ring to her younger sister. My grandpa had a new ring made for my grandma, combining my grandma’s original wedding ring with her mother’s wedding ring.

I am like my Grandma. I treasure family history, and sentimental value is more important to me than monetary value. Growing up, I would repeatedly ask my grandma to retell the story. In my early twenties, she gave me a simple silver ring she had made, and told me I could have her wedding ring when she died. My grandma never put it in writing. It was just between her, my parents, and I.

She died shortly after I was married. My dad’s oldest brother, having no knowledge of my grandma’s intention for the ring, put the ring in a safe deposit box. It remained there for several years until I asked my husband if I could offer to buy the ring from my two uncles. Following in my grandma’s footsteps, I paid to have my grandma’s ring which was then combined with the ring my husband had given me.

Both the story of my grandma and her older sister being sacrificially raised by their uncle and aunt and the story of my grandma’s wedding ring are stories of redemption, but there is a redemption story that surpasses any other. It is a story that began before there was time and stretches through eternity.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.[1]

Ephesians 3:3-14 (emphasis added)

Two weeks ago, we examined how God the Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Last week, we looked at the first spiritual blessing Paul shared – being chosen by the Father before time, predestined for adoption as His children. Today we will consider the first of two parts of blessing through redemption.

In Jesus, the Beloved (vs 6) we have redemption. Jesus is our Redeemer.  The word Paul uses for redemptionrefers to buying back someone who is in bondage or enslaved. A ransom or price is paid for deliverance. We are the ones blessed by redemption.

Before we can truly understand and appreciate redemption, we first need to grasp that apart from Jesus, we were in slavery. Paul wrote in chapter 2: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (vs 1-3). We were following the world and Satan. In Romans, Paul describes us as enemies of God (Romans 5:10). We were slaves to sin. There was nothing we could do to deliver ourselves from this bondage. We needed a Redeemer. We needed Jesus.

Redemption requires a price to be paid. Paul tells us that the price for our redemption was through Jesus’ blood (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). The perfect, sinless Lamb of God was slain in our place. He willingly sacrificed His own life to redeem us.

Blood in the Bible represents life, and the shedding of blood represents death. Death is the penalty for sin. Death is what we deserve for our sin.

Throughout the Old Testament God gave pictures of His plan of redemption. God’s chosen people, the Israelites, were enslaved in Egypt. Per God’s instruction, Moses asked Pharoah to release the Israelites. Pharaoh refused. God sent nine plagues. Still, Pharoah would not release the Israelites. The final plague was the death of the firstborn son (including livestock) throughout Egypt, but God made one provision. He instructed Moses that those who took the blood of an unblemished lamb and put it on the two doorpost and the lintel of their homes would be passed over and spared the death of the firstborn (Exodus 11-12:32). The Israelites ate the meat of the lamb with unleavened bread.  This first Passover became an annual celebrating and remembering how God delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians.

Jesus is the unblemished Lamb who was slain. Jesus celebrated Passover with His disciples the night before His crucifixion saying: “‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant of my blood.’” Now, believers celebrate and remember Jesus atoning death and resurrection through partaking in the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:24).

Later in the wilderness, God through Moses established sacrifices for the atonement of sin. John MacArthur shares: “Israel’s greatest holy day was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On that day the high priest selected two unblemished sacrificial goats. One goat was killed, and his blood was sprinkled on the altar as a sacrifice. The high priest placed his hands on the head of the other goat, symbolically laying the sins of the people on the animal. The goat was then taken out deep into the wilderness, so far that it could never find its way back. In symbol the sins of the people went with the goat, never to return to them again (Lev. 16:7–10).[2]

God in His mercy and grace provided this sacrificial system for sins, but it was temporary and incomplete. “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Only Jesus’ atonement on the cross could pay the price God demanded for our sin. “And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all… For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10, 14).

If you have read the book of Ruth, you are familiar with the concept of a kinsman redeemer. Old Testament laws gave male relatives the responsibility of acting to help a relative who was in trouble, danger, or need of being defended. He had to be related, able to pay, and willing to pay the price. Boaz redeemed Ruth and Naomi by buying Elimelech’s[3] land and marrying Ruth. Thus, Elimelech’s line was preserved, and Ruth and Naomi were provided for. He was a picture of the perfect kinsman redeemer Jesus.

“11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption”[4] (Hebrews 9:11-12).

The first result of our redemption in Christ is “the forgiveness of our trespasses” (the second result is next week in verse 8). Forgiveness signifies there is transgression, sin, or offense that requires just punishment. As we noted earlier, the just punishment is death. Instead, God, through Jesus’ atonement, grants forgiveness. On the Day of Atonement, the goat sent into the wilderness symbolized the peoples’ sins being removed. God through David promised: “as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). God’s forgiveness is infinite and eternal.

Our position or standing in Christ before God is one who is forgiven. God sees us with Jesus’ righteousness We are justified – just as if we had never sinned and just as if we had always obeyed. However, we continue to sin this side of glory. God will complete the work He has begun in us (Philippians 1:6), but we are not yet perfected (practically). Again, God encourages us through His promise: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Confessing our sin daily reminds us of the Gospel – our sin against a holy God, our need for a Redeemer, and our position in Christ.

“They [our sins] have a profound effect on our growth, joy, peace, usefulness, and ability to have intimate and rich communion with the Father. Thus the believer is called on to ask for forgiveness daily so that he may enjoy not just the general forgiveness of redemption, but the specific forgiveness of daily cleansing, which brings fellowship and usefulness to their maximum.”[5]

Some believers live in guilt. They don’t believe that God has forgiven them. They live defeated and weighed down by their sin. Some believers go to the other extreme. They view their sin as insignificant or not at all. We need balance.  We need to recognize the seriousness of any and all sin no matter how small or acceptable we may consider it. God is holy and all sin is abhorrent before Him. But we don’t remain under the weight of sin. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Amazing grace! We have a Redeemer. We have been forgiven. We have been given Jesus’ righteousness. We respond with thankfulness, praise, and joyful obedience.

There are two quotes that capture this balance. “My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior!” (John Newton)

From Milton Vincent: “As long as I am stricken with the guilt of my sins, I will be captive to them, and will often find myself re-committing the very sins about which I feel most guilty. The Devil is well aware of this fact; he knows that if he can keep me tormented by sin’s guilt, he can dominate me with sin’s power.

The gospel, however, stays sin at this root point and thereby nullifies sin’s power over me. The forgiveness of God, made known to me through the gospel, liberates me from sin’s power because it liberates me first from its guilt; and preaching such forgiveness to myself is a practical way of putting the gospel into operation as a nullifier of sin’s power in my life.”[6] 

And from the Valley of Vision – The Dark Guest:

“Yet thou hast not left me here without grace;

The cross still stands and meets my needs

In the deepest straits of the soul.

…The memory of my great sins, my many temptations, my falls,

Bring afresh into my mind the remembrance of thy great help,

of they support from heaven,

of the great grace that saved such a wretch as I am.” (pp 126-127)

The blessing of redemption is already infinitely more than we deserve, but Paul adds that our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins is “according to the riches of his grace.” Abundant grace. Extravagant grace. Glorious grace (vs 6). Lavish grace (vs 8). God doesn’t parcel out meager measures of grace, and His grace never runs out. He gives abundant grace out of the abundance of His grace.

Reflection

1.        How do the Old Testament pictures of redemption help you better understand redemption in Jesus?

2.        How does meditating on who you were apart from Christ help you appreciate and respond to the blessing of being redeemed?

3.        How does meditating on the price Jesus paid change how you respond to your daily sin?

4.        How do you typically respond to the riches of God’s grace in redemption and forgiveness? Are you weighed down by your sin? Dismissive or ignoring your sin? Balanced in a right understanding of the Gospel? Explain. How has today’s study helped you grow in responding to the riches of God’s grace in forgiveness?

[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Eph 1:3–14.

[2] John F. MacArthur Jr., Ephesians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 22.

[3] Naomi’s deceased husband and Ruth’s father-in-law.

[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Heb 9:11–12.

[5] John F. MacArthur Jr., Ephesians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 23–24.

[6] Vincent, Milton. Gospel Primer For Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God’s Love. (Minnesota: Focus Publishing, 2008).