The Able Kinsman Redeemer

HoHum:

This is one of my favorite jeans. Even though it is one of my favorites, I don't wear it as much as my other jeans. Know why? Evidently I sat on the ground in these jeans and it got this stain.

Well, Crystal has washed these jeans many times and the stain is still there. She has probably used “Shout” but the stain just will not go away.

People are a lot like these jeans. Our lives become stained and dirty by sin and we aren't very pretty to look at. Some people try a lot of things to clean up their lives. Some think that if they will just go to church, they will get clean, but the stain is still there. Some try to do benevolent work to get the stain out like giving food or gifts to the poor, but the stain is still there.

Might never get the stain out of these jeans. Perhaps it is hopeless, but it is not hopeless to get the stain out of our lives. The blood of Jesus can wash away even the worst stains in our lives. The Bible says, "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7). Perhaps some of us here have tried everything to get the stain out of our lives, but have we tried the only thing that works? Have we tried Jesus?

WBTU:

Been talking about Ruth and the concept of the kinsman redeemer. Boaz is Ruth’s kinsman redeemer. For Boaz to be Ruth’s kinsman redeemer he must be fit, willing and able.

Talked about how he is fit, he is near of kin. Not the nearest of kin but Boaz has the nearest of kin give up his obligations so that Boaz can redeem Ruth and Naomi.

Talked about how he is willing. Several times Boaz said, “I do,” to marrying Ruth and redeeming Elimelech’s, Naomi’s husband’s, land and taking care of Naomi. Boaz did not have to do these things but he wanted to do them, he voluntarily did them, he was willing.

Now we come to the able part. Was Boaz able to do these things? Even though he is fit as near of kin and willing, this does not mean that he is able?

“A man of standing, whose name was Boaz.” Ruth 2:1, NIV. “A man of great wealth...whose name was Boaz.” Ruth 2:1, NAS95. Boaz is a man of wealth and standing in the community. See this throughout the book of Ruth. The main point is that Boaz had to be a person of wealth to buy them out of their poverty. The other kinsman redeemer had 2 out of the 3. He was a man of wealth, he was closer in kin than even Boaz, but not willing.

We need to be redeemed, saved, liberated, from our bondage to sin. We need someone to come and be our kinsman redeemer. Jesus Christ is our kinsman redeemer.

Jesus Christ is fit as our redeemer because he is kin to us. Hebrews 2 says that we are kin. Notice how many times brothers is used in this passage:

Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers (vs. 11)

I will declare your name to my brothers (Vs. 12)

He had to be made like his brothers in every way (Vs. 17)

Jesus is our elder brother, the firstborn. How can we say that? Because we “are of the same family” (vs. 11). He is fit to be our kinsman redeemer because we are “kin.” Jesus left the glories of heaven to be born in a barn to poor parents in an insignificant country. This is what we celebrate at Christmas time. No analogies are sufficient. If Donald Trump were to leave his New York Penthouse and moved into a cardboard shack in the slums of Haiti that still would not be enough to describe what Christ did. One man said it is like a person becoming a slug. Still not enough to describe what Christ did for us.

Jesus Christ is also willing. Jesus Christ was not forced by God the Father or the authorities of earth to give up his life, he freely and willingly gave it for us to redeem us. “The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again. No-one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”” John 10:17, 18, NIV.

Even though Jesus Christ is fit and willing to be our redeemer, is he able? Is he able to redeem all humanity from sin, Satan and the world? “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Hebrews 7:25, NIV.