How many here today know what S&H Green Stamps are? If you are under 40 years old you might not remember saving up green stamps. Certain stores give you so many trading stamps for each dollar you spend at their store. You save up the stamps, paste them into a collection book. When you have enough, you can go to a redemption center and trade in stamps for something you want.
This transaction has two parts: purchasing the right of redemption and then claiming your merchandise. You buy the right of redemption when you make your original purchase and the store gives you the stamps as a token. Later you take the stamps to the redemption center and use them to claim something you want. Those items you redeem are not free, because in reality you already paid the price for them when you made your original purchases.
Green Stamps is one of the clearest contemporary examples of what redemption means. In the same way, God—by Christ’s blood—has already purchased us from the power of sin, and we are redeemed. Yet God does not come for his merchandise immediately. Instead, he has given us a token of our redemption, the Holy Spirit. So we have redemption and the forgiveness of sin.[1]
Redemption is a major central theme in Christianity. The very act of Jesus dying on the cross, shedding His blood for us was the very act of redemption.
Ephesians 1:7 (NKJV) In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
The key word here is “redemption.” This word is used 10 times in the NT; 7 times in the writings of Paul; 3 time in Ephesians – 2 of those times are in first and last verses of our focal passage today: verses 7 & 14.
To redeem means “to purchase and set free by paying a price.” There were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire, and often they were bought and sold like pieces of furniture. But a man could purchase a slave and set him free, and this is what Jesus did for us. The price was His own blood. This means that we are free from the Law, free from slavery to sin, as well as free from the power of Satan and the world. [2]
Through His blood the ransom paid was the very blood of Christ. We need to understand how grievous sin is to God. From the very beginning, in the garden, the requirement for shed blood to cover sin was made when God took the skins of animals to make clothing for Adam and Eve.
Hebrews 9:22 (NKJV) And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
The whole human race stands condemned before God because of sin. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We owed a debt that we cannot pay.
Hebrews 9:12 (NKJV) Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
It was not with gold or silver. It was none other than the blood of Jesus shed on that Roman Cross some 2000 years ago.
1 Peter 1:18–19 (NKJV) knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
Jesus paid that price, that debt of blood, that price we could not pay.
Mark 10:45 (NKJV) For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
And by the shed blood of Jesus, we have the forgiveness of sins. Redemption and forgiveness is not the same thing, Forgiveness is a fruit and outcome of redemption. Because God cannot look upon sin, our sin has been taken away and we are able to stand before the throne forgiven. Cleansed from all sin.
How much forgiveness do we get? "according to the riches of His grace." How rich is God’s grace? Infinite, How much forgiveness will God’s grace cover? All our sins, past, present and future. There is no sin too grievous, except the unforgivable sin of rejection of the Holy Spirit. Through the paid price of Jesus’ blood for our redemption, we are reconciled to God. And God desire to reveal to us all things.
Ephesians 1:8–9 (NKJV) which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
The Greek word for prudence means to give insight or understanding. God gives us understanding of His word, but as we grow in the Lord and in His word, God reveals to us the very mysteries of His will. Things that have been hidden since time began.
Mystery does not mean something eerie and mysterious, but a sacred secret, once hidden, now revealed to God’s people. God’s saving purposes, planned from eternity, had as their final goal the uniting of all things in heaven and earth in Christ, the details of which are spelled out in what follows.[3]
Ephesians 1:10 (NKJV) that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (in Jesus)
Jesus shed blood on that cross is the part of redeeming not only us but all of creation. Christ is the one in whom God chooses to sum up the cosmos, the one in whom he restores harmony to the universe. He is the focal point, not simply the means, the instrument, or the functionary through whom all this occurs. [4]
It is all about Jesus! The key words here, which Paul uses throughout his writings is: “in Christ” and ”in Him” Colossians 1:16-17 tells us all thing where created by Him Through Him, and for Him, and in Him all thing consist – or have their existence. Now In Christ, all the universe will be brought back into perfect order before sin marred it all. This is a future event and will happen after His return.
Romans 8:19–22 (NKJV) For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
God has revealed the mysteries of His will to His people. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:10-12 that The Prophets of old inquired to these things and into these things the angels desire to look into, and God has revealed all these things to us, His redeemed people. Not only that, our redemption through His blood we are joint heir with Jesus to all things:
Ephesians 1:11–12 (NKJV) In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
As true believers in Christ, we will co-inherit all things.
Revelation 21:7 (NKJV) He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
Oh the riches of being redeemed! And how does that work? In these next two verses we have the whole process of salvation:
Ephesians 1:13–14 (NKJV) In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Trust, or the belief in in Jesus came only after the Word was heard. "after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation;"
How was that Word of truth heard? Someone had to tell them. We worry about being a witness and saying the words oh so rightly. As we discussed in in our study of 1 Corinthians 2, Paul was not an elegant preacher, the power was not in the speaking but in the message.
When the word of truth is spoken, whether by you or by me, the Holy Spirit intervenes and the one hearing the word is will know the truth is being told and the Holy Spirit will enable the hearer to come into belief.
Romans 10:17 (NKJV) So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
At that moment of trust, at that moment of belief, where God reaches in and changes the heart, salvation comes, It is at that point the Holy Spirit indwells the true believer, there is no second baptism of the Spirit. All the Holy Spirit anyone receives is received at that moment of belief.
"having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise," (Eph 1:13-14) That word sealed, signifies two things: A finished transaction, your very soul was saved, now and forever. And seal of ownership placed on you by God. You are now officially a child of God, for you have His seal on you. And the Holy Spirit is a deposit, a guarantee of the riches to come.
"who is the guarantee of our inheritance" Our inheritance of all things with Jesus. And when will that be?
"until the redemption of the purchased possession"
The Holy Spirit is God’s Green Stamps. Jesus has already paid the price, we have the forgiveness of sin and our very soul are secure in Him. But God has yet to take procession of our mortal bodies. I know my body has not yet been redeemed because it is growing old and subjected to breakdowns. I still battle with the lusts of the flesh, and i will continue to battle with aches and pains until I am called home to be with the Lord or until that Day, the day of Jesus return.
1 Corinthians 15:52 (NKJV) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
You see there is a past, a present and a future component to our redemption.
In the past, in verse 7, we looked at what Jesus did on the cross. He paid for our redemption with His shed blood.
And in the present, when we came to faith in Jesus and trusted in His redemptive work on the cross we received the seal and guarantee of the Holy Spirit, God’s Green Stamps.
And that future Day, that Day of Christ’s return and my dead body is raise incorruptible or my mortal body is changed to incorruptible in a in the twinkling of an eye, when God claims His purchased possession.
There is one thing missing from this message today. There is a question unanswered. Why would God go to all this trouble to do all this? Why would he redeem me? Paul is very careful to point this out in verses 12 and 14.
Ephesians 1:12b to the praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1:14b to the praise of His glory.
It is all about bring glory to God through Jesus. For God so loved the world, so loved you and me, that He gave us Jesus to pay the ransom for souls. And to God be the glory through Jesus Christ His Son.
Next week I will go more into detail as to what we have been redeemed from and on Palm Sunday, I will discuss the problem of rejecting this redemption. The question this morning for us is whether we have accepted the redeeming work of Jesus. Have we trusted in Him?
Have you trusted in His redemptive work on the cross, to save you from an eternity of separation from God? Have you been redeemed to be an inheriter of untold riches.
Pslam 107:2a Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
[1] Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 299.
[2] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 11–12.
[3] Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 108–109.
[4] Ibid., 111–112.
