Conversion ix / Redemption
For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
(I Pet.1:18-19)
He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
(Heb.9:12)
For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.
(I Tim.2:5-6)
The idea of Christ as our Redeemer is one of the most ancient in the Bible. Job – in likely the oldest book in the Scriptures – speaks of his hope that his Redeemer will one day stand on the earth, and that when Job is resurrected he will look on Him with his own eyes (Job 19:25-27). It is a title that seems particularly precious to Isaiah, who routinely speaks of Christ in terms of His being the Church’s Redeemer, and occasionally in a way that harks back to decisions made within the life of the Trinity, prior even to creation (e.g. Is.44:6; 44:24; 49:1-9; 63:15-17 etc.). Isaiah isn’t the only one who hints at a ‘covenant of redemption’ forged in the eternal counsel of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (e.g. I Cor.2:7; Eph.1:4; Titus 1:2; II Tim.1:9; I Pet.1:20; also, Jn.17:1-6). But our focus in this study is our experience of redemption.
‘Redemption’ is a rich and graphic idea that we find established throughout the Old Testament as it anticipates the work of Jesus. The earliest model of redemption is the Exodus. The basic structure is laid out in Ex.6:6, ‘I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment’ (see also Deut.7:8). The mechanism through which this redemption will occur is the death of the Passover Lamb, which is the ransom price for ‘every firstborn male’ (Ex.13:1-2). Given it’s being written into the DNA of the Ancient Church in this way, we shouldn’t be surprised that ‘redemption’ finds expression throughout the Law and culture of the people of Israel. The ‘buying back’ of a life forfeited is a recurring theme (e.g. Ex.21:28-32). The figure of the Kinsman-Redeemer powerfully foreshadows the coming Christ (Lev.25:47-55, famously enacted in the Book of Ruth). Another beautiful example of redemption is found in Hosea’s buying back his bride, Gomer (Hos.3:1-3, see also Is.54:5). Again and again we see this matrix of ideas: slavery, ransom, release, which give us the contours of our own experience of redemption. We were in bondage to sin and Satan, and needed to be delivered. Scripture draws out a range of aspects of that deliverance. We are delivered from His coming wrath (I Thess.1:10); from this body of death (Rom.7:24); from the spiritual forces arrayed against us (Col.1:13; I Jn.5:19; Heb.2:14-15); from the curse of the Law (Gal.3:13, 4:5); and from sin (John 8:34; Col.1:14). All of this is done through Christ, our Deliverer (Rom.11:26-27), and our (Kinsman-)Redeemer (Ps.19:14; Ps.78:35; Is.44:6).
All this is achieved through the paying of a Ransom (Mk.10:45; I Pet.1:18-19). Not to sin or Satan, but paid within the life of the Trinity, by the Son through the Spirit to the Father. Our sin is indebtedness to God, the failure to ‘pay’ a loving obedience owed to Him. But Christ, our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us (I Cor.5:7). That is the necessary transaction that makes forgiveness possible – see Study 3 in this series. In the cross Christ purchased everything necessary for the deliverance of the Church, so that for us salvation might be free.
Hence we find commercial language used of the Church. We are those who have been bought with the blood of God (Acts.20:28). Likewise, the grounds of worship in Rev.5:9 is that ‘you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation’. It is also the ground of an appeal for holiness. ‘You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your bodies’ (I Cor.6:19-20). Again we read, ‘Jesus Christ, … gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good (Titus 2:13-14, see also Gal.5:1). Deliverance is a lived experience. The power of sin is in principle broken in all those who are united to Jesus. Grace paves the way for purity. Those for whom Christ died also died in Christ, and are raised with Him (Rom.6:11-14).
Questions
To what extent do you think Christians should make observable progress toward Christ-likeness? Does this idea of the power of sin being broken in our redemption resonate with your experience? …or do you find yourself still living as though enslaved?
Would you say you have a clear vision of what it would mean to live like Jesus? To what extent does this idea of living like Jesus feature in your thinking about being a Christian (see e.g. II Cor.3:18; I Jn.4:17)?
How can MIE help in this? Do you find Services and Home Groups supportive in your battle against temptation, and towards holiness?
Read Eph.1:3-14
What does Paul means when he talks of our being blessed ‘in the heavenly realms’ and ‘with every spiritual blessing in Christ’ (1:4)? Does this sort of thing feature in your experience of being a Christian? What would it look like if it did?
How do you feel about the language of having been ‘chosen’ and ‘predestined’ (1:4, 5, and especially v.11)? What do you think it means? What would you say to someone who struggled to take on board with what the Bible teaches here? What would they be missing out on if they decided not to believe this?
Why does Paul stress the love and grace of God when he is talking about our ‘redemption through His blood’ (1:5-8)? How does this affect you?
How does knowing ‘the mystery of His will’ affect your thinking about life and relationships (1:9-10)? How does our ‘redemption’ help us to be a part of that will and purpose of God?
If we already have redemption (1:7), in what sense do we still have to look forward to it (1:14)? How do you feel about the idea that redemption means you are God’s possession (1:14)? How is God glorified in this? Does it inspire you to worship, as Paul seems to anticipate?
Memory Passage:
He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption … the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, [will] cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
…taken from Heb.9:12-15
For further reflection:
Like other aspects of our experience of new birth, redemption has a future orientation built into it. Exodus pictures the Lord’s redeeming of the Church as the first stage of an ongoing pilgrimage that culminates in their coming to the ‘mountain of [His] inheritance’ (Ex.15:13-17). ‘In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling’. We’ll see in our next study that our conversion is not, and cannot be a ‘stand-alone’ event, but that it launches us into a dynamic process of transformation that will not be complete until the Day of Resurrection.
This is why Paul speaks of our Day of Redemption as remaining – in its fullest sense – a future reality: ‘…do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption’ (Eph.4:30). This focussed anticipation of resurrection features likewise in Paul’s phrase, ‘the redemption of our bodies’ (Rom.8:23). As always Paul is following His Master, who also located the experience of redemption at the end of the Age (Lk.21:28). This far into the series we should be anticipating the logic: If redemption is about our deliverance from sin and Satan, and our liberation for holiness, then it can only be fully realised when we are resurrected into the New Creation, when we are delivered from bodies in which sin dwells (Rom.7:21-25), and from the world that is under the control of the evil one (I Jn.5:19). The joy that we feel in our incremental progression toward holiness will in that day be eclipsed by a life in which there is nothing to hinder our full enjoyment of, and fellowship with, God.
