15. Understanding our Redemption Pt 3

Defining Purpose of Obedience is Holiness

Understanding our Redemption Pt 3

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.

As we continue looking at God’s Word concerning our Redemption it is important to remember the context. Beginning in verse 13 there is a move from the theological to the practical. Considering God’s great salvation, how then should we live? We are to be holy, to walk in holiness. Not only are we to put off the old, but we are to clothe ourselves with the new. Holiness is not passive, it is not neutral, but it is active. It stands in contrast with the old way life. Eph 4:20-32  But you have not so learned Christ,  (21)  if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:  (22)  that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,  (23)  and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,  (24)  and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.  (25)  Therefore, putting away lying, "LET EACH ONE OF YOU SPEAK TRUTH WITH HIS NEIGHBOR," for we are members of one another.  (26)  "BE ANGRY, AND DO NOT SIN": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, (27) nor give place to the devil.  (28)  Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.  (29)  Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.  (30)  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.  (31)  Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.  (32)  And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Each sin we are to put off is contrasted with the holy behavior we are to put on.

Peter’s command and exhortation to be holy is based on knowing God is holy and knowing, understanding that we have been redeemed from our former way of life inherited from our forefathers. What have we inherited from our forefathers? We inherited sin. As a result of the fall of Adam all his posterity after him are sinners. It is our nature. So we are in bondage to sin, sold into slavery. We have also inherited the futility of the false religions that say we can attain heaven by our good works. Or that if our good outweighs our bad then we are ok. But the standard is the Law and the demand of the Law is perfect obedience. Therefore is we break one we are a transgressor of the all. This means that we cannot redeem ourselves. There is no work we can do and no price we can pay. In and of ourselves we are helpless and hopeless. But we have been redeemed. It means Someone loved us enough to pay the cost for us that we could never pay.

Ex. Bekah was diagnosed in March 2002 with AML which is a rare blood cancer for children to have. She spent 4 days at Blair Bateson before we moved her to St Jude. Those 4 days totaled over 20,000 dollars that our insurance did not cover. But we did not pay a dime of it. The company that I had been working for less than two years covered all those costs. They treated us like I have been there 20 years when I was thee less than two. I was and still am overwhelmed at their gracious generosity. Even at St Jude we paid for nothing. That does not mean it was free. It means that someone else paid the price for us. A price that we could work for our entire lives and never repay.

We are not only redeemed from the sickness of sin but we have been redeemed also from it’s penalty. Since we are redeemed, it means there has been a substitution that has taken place. A life for lives. The last time we were in 1 Peter we saw the value of the substitution in the precious blood. There are particular qualities about this blood by which we have been redeemed that sets it apart. It and not gold and silver is only suitable for our redemption. Why? Because we had committed a crime and perfect justice demands punishment for wrong doing. Nothing else could have satisfied justice. It is precious because it did what nothing else could do.

III. Knowing what we have been redeemed with

The NKJV states verse 19 as - but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. The NASB states it 1Pe 1:19  but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. The NASB is closer to the original Greek. The verse builds it’s not just precious blood, but as a lamb unblemished and without spot. Why does Peter mention a lamb unblemished and without spot? As we have seen the fist point the value of the substitution. We will look at the validity of the Substitution

2. The validity of the Substitution – as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. Christ was the sacrificial offering for our sin.

What is the significance of this terminology? To put this in context we need look back to the Old Testament. It is there the theme of substitution begins. Shortly after the fall God makes Adam and Eve covering from animal skins. Abel offers the firstlings from his flock to the Lord. Noah offers a sacrifice after leaving the Ark. Abraham (Gen 22), Isaac, Jacob all offer sacrifices from their flock to the Lord. Job offered sacrifices. Although Job’s sacrifices (1:5) are not precisely defined we are told that they were offered to God because of sin. Likewise it was because of the sins of Job’s friends and God’s consequent anger against them that they were commanded to offer sacrifice (42:7-8). Here it is rather explicit that sacrifice is for the purpose of appeasing divine wrath against sinners. But all of this comes in much clearer perspective in Exodus.

In the command to sacrifice the Lamb of Passover the notion of sin is presumed, and the ideas of substitution (v.3, 13), rescue from divine judgment (v.12, 23), the necessity of blood (v.13, 22) become prominent. By the sacrifice of a qualified lamb whose blood was properly applied each Israelite household escaped the death of God’s judgment.

Verse 5) Your lamb shall be without blemish. And such was the stipulation for the sacrificial system of the Mosaic covenant. The sacrificial system in the Mosaic Covenant is even more descriptive. There is the symbolism of laying hands on the sacrificial animal, confessing sin, and then the ritual slaughter of the animal therefore conveys the idea of deliverance by substitution. Forgiveness is secured by substitutional sacrifice. Finally, the repeated assurance that the sacrifice was a “pleasing aroma to the Lord” symbolizes God’s satisfaction with the sacrifice and acceptance of the sinner. These sacrifices were a type or a shadow. It was a picture in part of what would be.

Word Picture? Dianne’s paintings?

Christ is the fulfillment of all the imagery of the OT sacrificial system. All this provides the background for the New Testament’s frequent description of the death of Christ in sacrificial terms; indeed, it cannot be understood otherwise. When Jesus himself and the New Testament writers employ language such as “give my life a ransom,” “ransom in his blood,” “by his blood,” “the blood of his cross,” “my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins,” “reconciled by his blood,” “justified by his blood,” “propitiation by his blood,” “through the death of his cross,” “made peace through the blood of his cross,” “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed,” “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God,” “him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,” “the lamb which takes away sin,” “he bore our sin,” “was made sin for us,” “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having been made a curse for us,” and so on, they direct us to understand our Lord’s death in sacrificial categories. Peter continues this theme.

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,

It is clear to see He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He is also the Lamb without spot or blemish.

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.

Rom 8:3-4  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,  (4)  that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

This is the why of Christ’s once and for all time sacrifice. He fulfilled all the requirements of the Law perfectly for us. The two requirements of the Law that Christ fulfills for us is keeping the 10 Commandments perfectly and suffering our judgement for not keeping it.

Rom 5:6-7  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.

How is this all relevant? How do we apply this?

How would we feel toward someone who saved your life? How would you feel toward someone who died saving your life? Gratitude, awe, wonder, obligation? With Christ we feel all of these but also more. We feel freedom. Freedom from the fear of having to earn what we could never attain.

I have to admit I love movies. So many times they portray the acts and attributes of God many of their makers deny. The movie Saving Private Ryan is the story of a squad of soldiers during WWII that were sent to bring the soul surviving son out of combat in Europe. The movie wrestled with the value of life and sacrifice. After suffering the loss of two in their squad Pvt Ryan was found. There was the last battle fought and Capt Miller who led the squad was shot. His last words were ‘Earn this’. What a burden. The movie closes with a much much older Ryan surrounded by his wife, his children and grand children standing before the grave of Capt Miller. He turns to his wife and asks her, in a pleading tone to tell him he is a good man.

How grateful should we all should be that Christ’s last words on the cross were not ‘Earn this’, but that ‘It is finished’. He fulfilled our obligation in His body on the cross as the Lamb, spotless and without blemish. And stands forever in heaven as the Passover Lamb.

Rev 5:6-9  And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.  (7)  Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.  (8)  Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.  (9)  And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,