Work of Redemption

Christmas Series: God’s Work at Christmas

Work of Redemption

I Peter 1:18-19

Theme: God shows the meaning of redemption in this passage that points to Jesus coming to earth.

Welcome to Mountain View Baptist Church! What a blessing to be in church with God’s people today. We are very grateful you are in attendance today. May God bless you during this special time of the year.

We are a current series entitled: God’s Work at Christmas. The miracle of Christmas is only possible because God is doing His work during this time of the year. There was the work of adoration, the work of incarnation, and last week was the work of surrender.

This week: Work of redemption.

Janet went one day to the store to cash on some super savings. She had gotten the cart full of her purchases and when she went to check out her new found savings merchandise, they asked her for her redemption coupon. She did not bring it with her so she had to pay full price for something that had redemption. This idea of redemption is found in the spiritual world. Jesus’s coming to this world is about is so He can redeem mankind. He came to the manger as the Great Redeemer for all of mankind.

As we celebrate His coming this year, we recognize Jesus as our Great Redeemer. What does this mean to me?

God shows us in these two verses the meaning of redemption.

1. Redemption means deliverance from sin.

The world in which Peter was recording these words was a world of slavery. There were probably around 60 million slaves in the first century and they could not be free without payment. A slave did not have sufficient funds to pay for his freedom and only his owner would be able to pay the price to set him free. This payment was called a redemption.

Here Peter is using a familiar reality in the first century to teach a spiritual truth. Mankind is born a servant unto sin.

“For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” (Titus 3:3)

Moses urged Israel to remember that they had been slaves in Egypt and God brought them out of this bondage by His power. Mankind is born into this slavery of sin. This condition is not remedied by ourselves or by our ability.

A young family had a baby that was born with a major health problem. She was a beautiful baby with some unknown problem where she would have several seizures in one day. The doctors gave her a one-month chance of living but she outlived the diagnosis. She still has the problem but it is being controlled by medicines. Mankind is born with a sin nature and often mankind will try to overcome this problem on his own.

Because we are born with a sin nature, the Bible says that this will sin nature will cause us to die. Sin brings death and the Bible speaks of two kinds of death. There is a physical death in which all of us will die one day physically. The bible also speaks of spiritual death where mankind will be separated from God in the place the Bible calls hell. The Bible refers to this place as the penalty for sin and Peter is telling us how we can be delivered from this penalty.

Not only is this life of slavery sin leading us to an unwanted end, it is also a life empty of meaning, of purpose and of a future without God.

Several years ago, I met a man who was totally enslaved to alcohol. He lost his job. He lost his family. He lost his dignity. He lost his meaning in life because the only thing he lived for was alcohol. He was about to lose his home and would soon live on the streets living only for the next drink of alcohol until someone told him about Jesus. When he accepted Christ, God removed his addiction. God gave him a new life, a new purpose. God rebuilt his life and delivered him from sin. God gave him a brand-new life.

You may not be a enslaved like him to an addiction, but sin can have an enslaving effect on you. What is your life enslaved to? So often, we can be enslaved to something that is more respectable sin by others. It may be lying or it may be stealing or lusting or worry. God came to deliver us from the penalty and what we would call the power of sin.

2. Redemption means a payment for sin

The reason Jesus came is because the price is too high for mankind to pay for his sin because he doesn’t have the ability or resource to pay for it.

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, And he that hath no money; Come ye, buy, and eat; Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” (Isaiah 55:1)

Notice here in I Peter, he uses what we consider as very costly to us. Silver which is worth today $23.08 per troy ounce and gold is worth 1999.05 an ounce. 16 ounces of gold $31,984.80.

This payment here is of corruptible things that will not last will not to pay for an eternal soul. It will not pay for the forgiveness of sin or a home in heaven.

Some corruptible things people will try to pay for their sin such as good behavior or money or giving possessions or church attendance or being kind to others. While these are admirable qualities, they will not pay for our sin.

These were inventions and decrees or dogmas that spiritual fathers gave. In the first century many of Jewish people paid great respect to these made up oral laws which they believed came from Moses. Following the tradition of a church or a religious group is not what brings redemption and forgiveness.

There is only one acceptable and clear payment for sin. It is the blood of Jesus Christ. The word precious means costly and nothing is more valuable than the blood of Jesus Christ. Just as blood is invaluable for earthly life;

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11)

Christ’s blood is invaluable for eternal life.

The prerequisite of the blood is found in the Old Testament where the sacrifices emphasized the need of the blood to atone for man’s sin. But the blood of animals was not sufficient to take away the sins of men and the only acceptable payment is the blood of Jesus Christ

“Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12)

Please note here this price of Jesus’s blood is “without blemish and without spot.” If the blood is to cleanse from sin, it must be pure. The blood of Jesus Christ is untainted. His blood is God’s blood without sin, without impurities, and without corruption. When Jesus came two thousand years ago, He came through a virgin birth without the corruptible blood.

When Jesus died on the cross, He was not strangled, or asphyxiated, or stabbed. He willingly died on the cross for us, shedding His blood to pay the payment for our sins.

3. Redemption means a substitution

Peter is reminding his readers that redemption provides a substitution. This is the innocent victim giving his life for the guilty. This found in the Garden of Eden found in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned, an innocent animal was sacrificed to cover their nakedness. In Genesis 22:13 where a ram died for Isaac and in Exodus 12 where a Passover lamb was slain for the Jewish household.

Forgiveness of sin and a relationship with the Lord comes at the expense of an innocent Lamb who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

This principle of substitution is a powerful truth taught in the Bible.

We celebrate during this time of the year the coming the Lamb of God. In John 1:35-36, John the Baptist declares

“Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!” (John 1:35–36)

As the death of Passover lamb liberated Israel from physical bondage to Egypt, so the death of Jesus Christ frees us from the spiritual bondage and penalty of sin.

What about your life today? Have you received the forgiveness of Jesus Christ by accepting Him as your ONLY Savior? By that I don’t mean you just believe Jesus came to earth or that He died on the cross. But you believe on Him that He is your substitute payment for sin by dying on the cross and shedding His blood. He paid a price we could not pay.

Will you accept Him today?

If you are a Christian, will you align your life up with His will? What is your relationship with Him like today? If He died for us, will you live for Him?

The story has been told of an orphaned boy who was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. The grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, died in the flames. The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drain pipe and came 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. 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 scars on them. As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life and whose 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 settled the issue.1117[1]

[1]Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 298.