Rescued by The Christ
We have been redeemed through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. We hear this word but most of us have no idea what it means.
Jesus paid an infinite price for our salvation. The price of redemption is the ignominious, humiliating, painful death of Jesus Christ hanging where the worst of criminals would be punished. Worse, at the end of it all before he breathed his last, covered with sticky blood, his eyes glued shut from it, covered with flies and other bugs, thirsty, hot, looked upon in this embarrassing condition by those who knew and revered him, in that worst of conditions he had yet one more terrible punishment. This one, who was the SON of God, The Living Word of God, who spent millions of years face to face with God cried out, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken ME?” He was the final scapegoat, the final sacrificial lamb, the final sacrifice to make right before God’s law what could never be made right in any other way.
You can’t buy your redemption by works or gifts, money, penance, — from the Protestant point of view, the only way to salvation is through admitting you have broken God’s law (probably more than 1,000 times) and beg forgiveness and salvation by the power of the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ.
The entire sacrifice ceremony began at the time of Abraham and it represented an absolute, unbreakable promise between Almighty God and totally fallible human-kind. That is the inescapable fact in the Old and New Testament.
The idea of redemption comes from the ancient Greek marketplace. The word agorazo means “to buy,” or “to buy in the marketplace.” “Agora” IS the marketplace. In the New Testament the word places the emphasis on the price Jesus paid to redeem us.
In our modern time you might imagine you walked into a Pawn Shop and left your diamond ring in exchange for a $500 loan. To “redeem” your ring you have to pay $550. You present your “redemption receipt” and the money and the ring is yours again. If you never redeem the ring, the Pawnshop owner is free to sell it for whatever he can get. You’ve lost the ring.
In the Old Testament, the Jews used the word gaal, “to redeem.” The word goel was the kinsman-redeemer who as the nearest of kin had the power, ability, freedom and willingness to redeem his kinsman from difficulty. This is like someone paying bail to get you out of jail.
In fact when someone was let out of Roman debtor’s prison the record showed words to the effect, “Paid In Full.” When Jesus said, “It is Finished” (as translated in English,) it really in Hebrew meant the same as “The Debt Is Paid In Full.”
The Jews also used the word kofer meaning “the ransom price,” or the price of redemption.
These words suggesting redemption by payment may be strange in our day, but were clearly ingrained in the Jewish and Greek culture of the first century Christianity.
The great Gospel of Jesus Christ not only redeems us by the payment, the exchange of his life for His death, but it goes much further. Jesus purchased us out of the slave market and permanently set us free to never return to its bondage. The redeemed person has come under new ownership and management.
The apostle Paul wrote, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us” (Eph. 1:7-8; cf. Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19;Matthew 20:28).
The word exagorazo means, “to buy out of the marketplace” with the idea that the person so purchased might never return to such a state of slavery again.
To what extent has God redeemed us? It is an effective and permanent redemption. The promise is we never will be sold under the power of sin again. Our salvation is so great that Jesus said, we are now owned by The Heavenly Father and nothing from Hell can steal us out of HIS hands!
No one can purchase us away from the LORD God. We were purchased at the infinite cost of the blood of the Son of God. Nothing is more precious than the infinite value of that blood.
We have been delivered. The word “luo” is used meaning, “to set free, to loose, or deliver” by the payment of a price. Because Jesus Christ purchased us from sin at the infinite price of His own precious blood, He has also set us free never to return to our slavery again.
The emphasis is on freedom. We are free to love and serve Him who redeemed us, and now this is why we worship Him.
Pity it is that so many people imagine if they give their life to Christ they will be enslaved by God forever. Quite to the contrary! As I understand this, in the Heavenly kingdom you will have your opportunity to choose to be an independent “do nothing” sort of personage, or you may choose to serve God and learn and develop and grow and learn more eternally. [Service is my choice and this website is my application for a teaching position.]
Have you paused and thanked God for His Son who actually shed His blood, risked losing His eternity, took the biggest risk imaginable, to ransom you?
Have you ever considered the exceptional price that was paid for your salvation? It is the most expensive gift you will ever receive. Its value is greater than anything money or works can buy. Therefore, because it is a gift from Jesus to you, don’t considerate it was “cheap.” It was never valueless!
Your gift of redemption has been paid in full. All that you can possibly do is come with open hands to receive it. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).
The next time your life is frustrated and you are stung by fiery darts sent by Satan’s minions, and think it would be so much easier to just “go with the flow” live the worldly life for what money can buy, more sex, drugs, rock-n-roll….remind Satan and his “friends” (he really has no friends) you are not, and never will be for sale, to him or anyone else, never, ever again.
I hope it is clear to you now you should never doubt your salvation. Your salvation did not and does not depend upon you, but upon the permanent, completed transaction by God through the Lord Jesus, Your Savior, our Redeemer. Published 2/26/18 Dr. Stephen Newdell
From inspired notes at http://www.abideinchrist.com
see also: Have You Accepted Salvation?
and “Salvation Prayer”
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