What Christ Has Done For Us Series

Tonight at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, The Discovery Channel will show The Lost Tomb of Jesus. This program, directed by James Cameron of Titanic fame, purports to reveal the actual tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.

How significant would such a discovery be:

1 Corinthians 15:13-19 [13]But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. [14]And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. [15]We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. [16]For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. [17]And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. [18]Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. [19]If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

If the Lost Tomb of Jesus has been found then I am waisting my time, your faith is a joke and we are misrepresenting God to the world, there is no salvation, all those who have died do not exist and we are the most pitiful people on earth.

The Talpiot tombs discovery in Jerusalem, a.k.a., �the Jesus Family Tomb� story is just the latest in the long-running media attack on the historical Jesus. I’ve listed a few responses to the attacks in the bulletin. More detailed examination is on the blog. The program has raised questions around the essential nature of Salvation. We can find answers to these questions.

As if to reemphasize the greatness of God�s salvation presented in 1 Pt.1:1-12, vs. 18-21 provide believers with a theology of redemption by answering four crucial questions: 1) What did God redeem believers from? 2) What did He redeem them with? 3) By whom did He redeem them? 4) And, for what did He redeem them?

1) WHAT DID GOD REDEEM BELIEVERS FROM?

1Pe 1:18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

Scripture makes clear the truth that all believers were once in bondage to sin and wrath, and that only Christ’s redemption broke that bondage.

Romans 6:6 [6]We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin

Redemption is a term that describes one of the essential features of salvation. It deals specifically with the cost of salvation and the means by which God received payment. Because all people are helpless slaves to sin and condemned by the law, if they are to be forgiven and reconciled to God, He has to purchase them back from their condition. Only then can He release them from sin’s bondage and curse.

Please turn to Exodus 12

Redeemed is the key word in this passage. This term means "to purchase release by paying a ransom", or "to deliver by the payment of a price". To the Greeks the word was also a technical term for paying money to buy back a prisoner of war.

Rather than the typical Greek sense of the word, referring to slaves and prisoners, the apostle Peter’s imagery describing redemption derives from several Old Testament passages. Undoubtedly a primary one was the narrative of the first Passover:

Exodus 12:1-13 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, [2]"This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. [3]Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their father’ houses, a lamb for a household. [4]And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. [5]Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, [6]and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. [7]"Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. [8]They shall eat the flesh that night, roasted on the fire, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. [9]Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its legs and its inner parts. [10]And you shall let none of it remain until the morning, anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. [11]In this manner you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD’s Passover. [12]For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. [13]The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. (ESV)