"Redemption" means deliverance from bondage by means of a price paid. The price paid is called a ransom.
Another word for "redeemed" is "liberated."
Illustration: Sometimes when a child is kidnaped, the kidnaper will demand a ransom payment in exchange for the child’s freedom.
In New Testament times, the word "redemption" usually had to do with slavery. In that day the Roman Empire had as many as six million slaves, and the buying and selling of them was a major business. If a person wanted to free a loved one or friend who was a slave, he would buy that slave for himself and then grant him freedom.
Did you know that every person born into this world is born a slave?
Jesus declared, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" (John 8:34).
We know from God’s Word that "All have sinned" (Romans 3:23).
"There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10).
No human being is free of sin or free of its consequences, the ultimate consequence for which is death.
"The soul that sinneth, it shall die" (Ezekiel 18:4).
"The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
Sin is man’s slave owner, and it demands a price for his release. Death is the price that had to be paid for man’s redemption from sin. Biblical redemption therefore refers to the act of God by which He Himself paid as a ransom the price for sin.
Jesus once proclaimed, "The Son of man came . . . to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28).
I. JESUS CHRIST IS THE PURCHASER OF OUR REDEMPTION.
"IN WHOM we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."
"Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30).
"Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus 2:14).
"The Son of God . . . loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
Someone has said, "It is curious that people who are filled with horrified indignation whenever a cat kills a sparrow can hear the story of the killing of God told Sunday after Sunday and not experience any shock at all" (Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion, p. 55).
At the heart and center of the Gospel stands the truth that there is no salvation at all apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. WE ARE THE OBJECTS OF REDEMPTION.
"In whom WE HAVE REDEMPTION through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."
Read Ephesians 2:1-3, 12b.
Here was your condition before you were redeemed:
1) You were "dead in trespasses and sins";
2) You were walking "according to the course of this world";
3) You were a child of wrath;
4) You were without hope;
5) You were "without God."
Little Tom carried his new boat to the edge of the river. He carefully placed it in the water and slowly let out the string. How smoothly the boat sailed! Tom sat in the warm sunshine, admiring the little boat that he had built. Suddenly a strong current caught the boat. Tom tried to pull it back to shore, but the string broke. The little boat raced downstream.
Tom ran along the sandy shore as fast as he could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight. All afternoon he searched for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, Tom sadly went home.
A few days later, on the way home from school, Tom spotted a boat just like his in a store window. When he got closer, he could see—sure enough—it was his!
Tom hurried to the store manager: "Sir, that’s my boat in your window! I made it!"
"Sorry, son, but someone brought it in this morning. If you want it, you’ll have to buy it for one dollar."
Tom ran home and counted all his money. Exactly one dollar! When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. "Here’s my money for the boat." As he left the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, "Now you’re twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you" (SermonIllustrations.com).
III. THE BLOOD OF CHRIST IS THE PRICE OF REDEMPTION.
"In whom we have redemptions THROUGH HIS BLOOD, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."
We "were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . .but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19).
"The life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11).
Thirty-five hundred years ago, God told us, "The life is in the blood."
And when Jesus Christ died, the life-giving blood drained from His body, purchasing redemption for all who believe.
Read Hebrews 9:12-14, 22b.
Paul said to the elders at Ephesus, "Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28).
John describes Christ as "him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood" (Revelation 1:5).
In the book of Revelation a new song is sung in heaven which says, in part, ". . . thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" (Revelation 5:9).
A recent Reader’s Digest article told of a 67-year-old man named Bill who had donated over one hundred pints of blood over the years. No doubt many people owe their lives to this man’s kindness. How do you think this man’s good deeds go over in heaven?
Here’s what Bill thinks: "When that final whistle blows, and St. Peter asks, ‘What did you do?’ I’ll just say, ‘Well, I gave one hundred pints of blood,’" [Bill] says with a laugh. "That ought to get me in."
Bill might have been joking. But if he was serious, if he truly is counting on the giving of one hundred pints of blood to get him to heaven—he is trusting in the wrong blood (Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion, p. 88).
IV. THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS A RESULT OF REDEMPTION.
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, according to the riches of his grace."
"This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins" (Matthew 26:28).
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 of 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 (Leviticus 16:7-10).
But that enactment, beautiful and meaningful as it was, did not actually remove people’s sins, as they well knew. It was but a picture of what only God Himself in Christ could do. Through the shedding of His own blood, Jesus Christ actually took the sins of the world upon His own head, as it were, and carried them an infinite distance away from where they could never return. That is the extent of the forgiveness of our sins.
Forgiveness through Christ is . . .
1) Free,
2) Full,
3) Final.
Jesus paid it all;
All to Him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stain;
He washed it white as snow.
V. GRACE IS THE SOURCE OF REDEMPTION.
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE."
Richard Baxter wrote, "Let ‘Deserved’ be written on the floor of heaven but on the door of heaven and life, ‘The Free Gift’."
"God, who is RICH IN MERCY. . . ." (2:4).
"That in the ages to come he might shew THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (2:7).
"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST" (3:8).
That Paul, of all men, should be the object of God’s grace was something that always amazed him.
"By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Corinthians 15:10).
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, "One of the most delicate and sensitive tests of our Christian profession is the extent to which we are amazed by the riches of God’s grace" (p. 175).
Upon that cross of Jesus
Mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One
Who suffered there for me;
And from my smitten heart with tears
Two wonders I confess—
The wonders of redeeming love
And my unworthiness.
An orphaned boy was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. The grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, perished in the flames. The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drainpipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck.
Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen all gave the reasons they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a home. But as they talked, the lad’s eyes remained focused on the floor. Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing severe scars on them. As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. With a leap the boy threw his arms around the man’s neck and held on for dear life. The other men silently walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone. Those marred hands had settle the issue.
Many voices are calling for our attention. Among them is the One whose nail-pierced hands remind us He has rescued us from sin and its deadly consequences. To Him belongs our love and devotion (bible.org).
"Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s" (1 Corinthians 6:20).
CONCLUSION
A wealthy English family once invited friends to spend some time at their beautiful estate. The happy gathering was almost plunged into a terrible tragedy on the first day. When the children went swimming, one of them got into deep water and was drowning. Fortunately, the gardener heard the others screaming and plunged into the pool to rescue the helpless victim. That youngster was Winston Churchill. His parents, deeply grateful to the gardener, asked what they could do to reward him. He hesitated, then said, "I wish my son could go to college someday and become a doctor." "We’ll pay his way," replied Churchill’s parents.
Years later when Sir Winston Churchill was prime minister of England, he was stricken with pneumonia. Greatly concerned, the king summoned the best physician who could be found to the bedside of the ailing leader. That doctor was Sir Alexander Fleming, the developer of penicillin. He was also the son of that gardener who had saved Winston from drowning as a body! Later Churchill said, "Rarely has one man owed his life twice to the same person" (bible.org).
Go to the Cross; stand there and look at it. "Survey" it with the hymn-writer Isaac Watts:
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Stay there until you see that you are fully aware of your own unworthiness. See your sins laid upon Him, and see Him paying the price for your redemption. Fall at His feet, worship Him and praise Him, and give yourself to Him saying—
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
