14. Understanding our Redemption Pt 2

Understanding our Redemption pt 2

1Pe 1:13-19 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; (14) as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; (15) but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, (16) because it is written, "BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY." (17) And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; (18) knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, (19) but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

By way of reminder we are focusing on walking in holiness and the means used in accomplishing that. Holy means to be sanctified and set apart, to be wholly other. We are to be in the world but not of it. These verses are full of contrasts, as light is to darkness. Not conforming ourselves to former lusts but to be holy in all our conduct. Not redeemed with corruptible things but by implication the incorruptible.

There were three points:

I. Knowing what we have not been redeemed with.

II. Knowing what we have been redeemed from

1. Redeemed from slavery to sin

2. Redeemed from the coming judgement.

III. Knowing what we have been redeemed with

Last time we looked at what knowing meant from the Greek. It means a self-evident or intuitive knowledge and after looking at the subject of that knowledge - redemption, from Scripture arrived at the conclusion, that man in his natural state can not and will not acquire this knowledge on his own. It is God given through the 3rd person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. It is He who regenerates and renews the mind from it’s natural state of dead in our trespasses and sins and breathes life and brings light of the knowledge of Christ. The worldly means of purchase is of no value in redeeming the soul. Because it is not with physical chains that keep us enslaved but our bondage in and to sin. There is no redemption with silver and gold from our aimless conduct (futile way of life) inherited from our forefathers. We could never work long enough or hard enough to acquire the purchase price of our redemption. Apart from Christ this is a depressing state.

Redemption or ransom, we also saw, was not a new concept at this time. Rome was an empire full of slaves and the buying and selling of them were common. A friend or family member could redeem the slaves freedom by paying the agreed price. But in verse 18 it is made clear that corruptible/perishable gold and silver cannot redeem and verse 19 makes it clear that a substitution of a life has taken place to redeem. We must visit again the question of ‘from what have we been redeemed?’.

V18 says from your aimless conduct, the NASB and ESV translate it as futile way of life. This word, again, means vain, empty, devoid of force. The adjective form used here describes an ineffectual attempt to do something or an unsuccessful attempt to attain something. Example: It is the futility of using a household water house to put out a forest fire. There is simply no way the hose could ever supply enough water at a high rate to douse the flames.

We have been redeemed from our bondage to sin and we have been redeemed from the curse of the Law. There are two aspects of the curse of the Law. One is that we are required to keep it perfectly. The second is that we are now liable for breaking it. It requires punishment. So while we are outside of Christ all mankind, in their innermost being, understands the pressure and penalty of the law. Carnal man is endued with the spirit of slavery to the law which can only ever lead to fear and never hope.

Gal 3:10  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT CONTINUE IN ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO DO THEM."

You, who do not know Christ, know in your soul this truth. Rom 2:14-16  for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves,  (15)  who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)  (16)  in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

What this means is by virtue of your being created in the image of God, fallen as you are in Adam, enemies and haters of God that you are, you have the imprint of the moral law in your heart and stands to condemn you in your conscience.

But Peter lays out exactly what the life of the worldly minded is.

1:13 conformed to former lusts

2:1 a life of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander

2:11 fleshly lusts

2:13 rebelliousness

3:9 returning evil for evil and insult for insult

4:4 living a life of lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and detestable idolatries.

The futility and the anxiety it brings cannot be measured. Have you ever been in a job that has been stressful for so long you no longer the stress but it weighs upon the soul. It is exhausting. It is a leech that sucks the joy and life out of you and sometimes we don’t even know it until it’s removed and then one day you feel like a completely different person.

There is no hope for holiness and no hope to escape the wrath to come until we see what we have been redeemed with. There is that beautiful word of contrast beginning in verse 19 switching from the negative you have not to the positive you have. You have been redeemed is implied and bring us to our third point

III. Knowing what we have been redeemed with

Redeem or ransom means to purchase for an agreed upon price to secure the freedom of another. We have looked at what we were redeemed from – the bondage to sin and the curse of the law. But we see in this text that the purchase price was not based upon a monetary exchange, but it was an act of substitution. There are three things to see in this verse.

The value of the Substitution – precious blood

The virtue of the Substitution – of Christ

The validity of the Substitution – as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot

1. The Value of the Substitution – precious blood

Precious mean that which has exceedingly high value, prized, desirable, prized, as a costly stone. We have many things that are precious to us. Our families are precious to us, husbands and wives, our sons and daughters, our grandchildren. There are many references in the Bible to that which is precious. The marriage bed is to be considered precious. Heb 13:4. The psalmist proclaims – how precious is Your lovingkindness Ps 36:7. Precious in the sight of God is the death of His saints (Ps 116:15) Christ is shown as precious to those that believe. But the pinnacle of all that is precious is here shown as the blood of Christ.

Blood spoken of 450x in the Bible. Leviticus speaks of life being in the blood. It is that which sustains life and such was the value in God’s eyes that the Israelites were prohibited from eating it. God could not be approached in the temple without blood. It was in the shedding of blood that Adam and Eve were given clothing by God as a covering. It was Able who offered the sacrifice of blood which was accepted while Cain’s offering of his field was rejected. When Noah stepped off the ark he sacrificed animals in worship. The Abrahamic covenant was ratified in blood and the animals were cut in two and the smoking oven and flaming torch passed between the pieces. The Old Covenant given to Moses was ratified in blood.

Heb_9:7  But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance;

Where for thousands of years, thousands upon thousands of animals were sacrificed but even if all the animals on the planet had been given in sacrifice it would never be enough to cleanse the one offering of their sin.

Heb 10:4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. The blood of animals was sufficient for the cleansing of the outside but would never be adequate to remove the stain of sin in the inward man. But in the precious blood, Jesus cleanses once and for all from sin.

Heb 9:22-28  And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.  (23)  Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.  (24)  For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;  (25)  not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another—  (26)  He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.  (27)  And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,  (28)  so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

In this we see that the blood is precious because it is Christ Jesus’s blood and it is precious because of the effectiveness of it. It does once and for all time what the blood of animal sacrifices could not so. And speaking to the verb redeemed in verse 18. The tense of the verb indicates that it is a single, successful, effective action. Once and for all. There is no need for a High Priest to enter the holy of holies to continually bringing the sacrifice of blood every year. Christ has done it once for all. The verb is passive, meaning it is the action taken by another for your benefit.

Christ is the perpetual High Priest always before the mercy seat in heave as both the Offerer and Offering. And as a result of His resurrection stands as the eternal reminder of His once and for all offering od Himself for sin.

Implied in this verse is the cost of redemption. If the price is blood then the price was the life. It was not only in the giving up of His life but it was also in the living of His life. The cost was not only in the crucifixion but also in Christ’s suffering day to day. He is the God-Man. He was clothed with flesh and walked among us. He fulfilled every requirement of the Law. Rom 5:19  For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous. All through His earthly ministry He carried the knowledge that with His every step He was one step closer to the cross. One step closer to His scourging and the crown of thorns, one step closer to the nails driven into His hands and Feet. One step closer to the mocking and derision he would hear while on the Cross. And just as He entered into the suffering of Martha and Mary when Lazarus died, even though Jesus knew He was raise Lazarus from the dead, it can only be imagined as what He felt to see Mary, His mother and His disciples at the foot of the cross. Just as we take on His righteousness, He took on our unrighteousness, For God said.

2Co 5:21  For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

1Pe 2:24  who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

1Pe 3:18  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

Application:

How do we conduct ourselves in fear while on the earth? Live in fear as though Christ’s life is not important to us. How do we do that? Remember the sacrifice of the righteous life for an unrighteous one. The stroke of judgement fell on Him who deserved it least to spare us who deserve judgement most. How can we not walk in holiness? How can we not walk in the compassion He has shown us, or the mercy, or the grace? Do we think so little of Him that it does not affect how we live for Him?May God cause our hearts to well up in thanksgiving and praise. To be so overwhelmed with our Lord Jesus Christ that our mouths break for in doxology.

Rom 5:6-9  For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  (7)  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  (8)  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  (9)  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.