The Source of Redemption

All I have planned for us tonight is about one and a half verses, Ephesians 1:7-8 is what we are going to focus on. And what I think is so incredible about the Bible is that it can say a whole lot in a whole little. I think that one of the reasons that I love the Puritans so much is that they are able to draw so much out of the well of Biblical richness. Like they don’t reach the bottom of the well but they get deeper down than any that I can think of. Originally I was going to have us go through verse 10 tonight but then I came across a book by a Puritan named Thomas Goodwin and it really reminded me why I love verse by verse teaching so much. In verse 7 Goodwin pulls out 5 essential Gospel truths just from this one verse and that’s what we are going to follow tonight. So what does Ephesians 1:7-8 say? Paul writes:

Ephesians 1:7–8 NASB95

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight

What are the 5 things that we are going to look at tonight? 1. Redemption. 2. The Redeemer. 3. The price of redemption. 4. A fruit of redemption. 5. The source of redemption.

Redemption

The first thing that Goodwin notes is the act of redemption itself. What do you think of when you think about redemption? In Paul’s day, the Greek word for redemption or ransom was typically connected to an economic transaction. What Paul envisions and his readers probably thought of was the concept of a man or woman who sold themselves into slavery because they had a debt that they needed to pay off. Back then, you could sell yourself as a temporary servant and pretty much like any job, you could leave that position whenever you wanted. Of course their were slaves that didn’t have that option but Paul is thinking about being an indentured servant. Paul is acknowledging a debt that needs to be paid in order for freedom to come. When we think about redemption, one of the best stories in the Old Testament that paints a picture of what Paul is describing is found in the life of the prophet Hosea. In Hosea 1-3, we see Hosea who is married to an unfaithful wife and this wife, as unfaithful and disloyal as she is, God tells Hosea, “Go and buy her back and when you buy her back, she will be yours forever.” Now Hosea already had her and now he needs to take what is his, probably bear the shame of the community, and in love purchase her and bring her back to him and he does it! Redemption is more than just the forgiveness of sins, though we are gonna get to that. Redemption is an act of grace that brings us to a position, really brings us back to a position, that we have no right to be in had it not been for the grace and mercy of God.

Redeemer

The second thing that Goodwin notes is the Redeemer himself. Who is it that redeems lost sinners? Christ alone is the redeemer. And what we see in verse 7 is that redemption is not a universal redemption. Though Christ is Lord and Savior whether people follow Him or not, He is only the redeemer of the elect. Notice Paul says, “In Him WE have redemption.” He doesn’t say that the entire world is redeemed. And we know this because of everything that Paul has said up to this point in verses 1-6. In order for their to be redemption, there has to be a redeemer. If look at the book of Ruth, you see this concept of the kinsmen redeemer. Remember Ruth comes back to Bethlehem with her mother in law Naomi after both of their husbands die and we get introduced to Boaz. What does Boaz do? He’s what is known as the kinsmen redeemer, he purchases Ruth and by extension all that belongs to Naomi’s dead husband and also Ruth’s dead husband. He redeems her and everything that once belonged to her family. There is a physical redeemer and an actual redemption that we see taking place. Ruth doesn’t and cannot redeem herself. There had to be a redeemer and the redeemer had to be someone who could actually redeem. Man had to pay the debt but only God could cover the cost. How much is the cost of redemption?

The Price of Redemption

Paul says that the cost was through the blood of the redeemer. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” I think sometimes we underestimate the cost of redemption. We sometimes think that God just snaps His fingers and it happens but we know that isn’t what happens. We know that Jesus Christ, really and truly suffered and died to pay the cost of our redemption. Who receives that payment? I don’t mean who receives the redemption, who is the debt resolved to? You see there was a common theological thought, really in the early church between the 4th and 11th century that when Jesus died on the cross, it paid a ransom to Satan. The thought was that Jesus ransomed or redeemed those that Satan held captive and the cost was paid to Satan. This was known as the ransom theory of the atonement. But does it make sense that Jesus is giving a payment to Satan to release x amount of people? Not really. We don’t sin against the devil, we sin against the Lord. If Satan holds our souls, in a way, he is a lesser sovereign creature. No, when we look through Scripture we see that man has sinned against the Lord, that it is against Him only that we have sinned and that God is the offended party. Satan cannot forgive a debt that was never against him. If I sin against Brandon and he is the offended party and he is the only one that can forgive and restore the relationship, I can’t pay off Tabby and say ok me and Brandon are good now. The cost of redemption is the blood of Jesus Christ and God is the only one that can erase the debt. He is the one that takes on the debt and he is the only one that can resolve the debt. Now if we have time, we could talk about what the substitutionary atonement theory is but that’s up to you guys. Or we can save it for next time. If you want 3 great books on the atonement by 3 different authors named John, I recommend John Murray’s Redemption Applied and Accomplished, John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, and John Stott’s the Cross of Christ. I think it is also sort of worth mentioning that God didn’t force Christ to be the Savior of sinners. The work of redemption is a work that was planned in eternity past by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus willingly goes to the cross, He is not forced to go to the cross. God saves us because He loves us. In Christ’s redemption, we really do possess something of eternal value. Charles Spurgeon said, “Whether others have it or not, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. We do not hope for it, but we have it. We do not merely think so, but we know that we have it. We are redeemed; we are free from bondage; we are forgiven, and are no longer under condemnation.” In our redemption, we see that we are more than just redeemed, we are forgiven.

A Fruit of Redemption

The forgiveness of our sins or trespasses is what Goodwin refers to as a fruit of redemption. We need both forgiveness and we need redemption. It is one thing to say that the debt is forgiven, it is another thing for the payment to be made to pay the cost. When Jesus forgives us of our sins, He forgives every sin that we have ever or will ever commit. Past, present, and future sins are all covered by the redemption of Christ. Paul says in Colossians 2:13 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions.” Jesus doesn’t forgive most of our transgressions and then leave it up to us to handle the rest of them. You might have heard me mention this before but my Christian background, on my dad’s mom’s side grew up in a denomination where it was taught that you could become a Christian as a teenager, live 80 years as a Christian and do so faithfully, but then at the ripe old age of 99 or whatever, you have one bad thought, one sinful thought, and then boom salvation is gone. For years my Nana struggled with that, I don’t think she necessarily worries about that anymore since me and my dad and my uncle that is more reformed have helped her understand Scripture a little bit better, but that is a common concern for quite a few Christians in the world. But if you look at Colossians 2:13 and verses like John 5:24 where Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgement, but has passed out of death into life.” Jesus never says that there is a chance that judgement will happen again to those that have already had their sins atoned for. I’ve often said that eternal life isn’t very eternal if God can just take it back at any moment. I think that 1 John 5:13 is one of the most encouraging verses in all of Scripture. John says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” People all the time wonder if they are saved, it is entirely possible to know! John says that we should know that we have eternal life. We shouldn’t spend our whole lives speculating and wondering if we are the real deal or not. Adrian Rogers used to say, “Never doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light.” We know that we have eternal life and part of having eternal life is having peace with God. So, what are some ways that we can know that we have peace with God?

The Source of Redemption

Last thing, it’s sort of a recap of the first 6 verses, pretty much the theme of the entire book of Ephesians: What is the source of our redemption? The source is the riches of God’s grace which He has lavished on us. Paul says in Romans 3:24–25 “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;” Our salvation, our justification is purely a gift of God. As we’ll see eventually in chapter 2, it is a gift of grace so that we cannot boast as our own savior. Notice that Paul says it is according to the riches of His grace. It isn’t due to whatever was left over for us. Thomas Goodwin said, and I’ll try to modernize it a little, “Why riches of grace? It is to help your unbelief. When you come and see your sins told out before you, set in order before you, and piled up as high as heaven, and as low as hell, you might think to yourself, ‘where is the wealth? Where are the riches? where is that which shall forgive all these sins?’ Here it is: here is riches of grace poured out before you; here is the blood of Jesus Christ manifested for you. You need not bring one penny. God is rich enough.” So this verse is a great reminder. We didn’t do it, we couldn’t do it, we would fail if we tried to do it, yet God who is rich in grace and mercy freely lavishes the gift of salvation on us. To go back to what Paul said in verse 3, we really see that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places. So I’ve got some questions that we could discuss but what thoughts or questions do you guys have?

What does it mean to say that forgiveness is a fruit of redemption?

How does the concept of grace relate to our understanding of redemption?

What role does the blood of Christ play in the process of redemption?

How does Paul’s message in Ephesians illustrate the theme of God’s grace throughout the book?