Jesus Paid It All

Intro: In the Spring of 1865, just as the Civil War was coming to an end, Elvina Hall sat in the Choir Loft of a Methodist Church in Baltimore Maryland. While the preacher preached the Word of God, she reflected upon her Salvation, and this truth gripped her heart… It had been completely accomplished by Jesus Christ.

Her heart burst forth in wonderful praise. Having no paper she opened her hymnal and wrote these words on the blank flyleaf. “I hear the Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small; Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in Me thine all in all.”

After church she handed the poem to her pastor who then gave it to the church organist John Grape, who had recently composed a melody that had no lyrics. When Hall's words were paired with Grape's music, they fit together beautifully, giving the church this timeless hymn of praise:

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

Nearly two thousand years before anyone sang, 'Jesus paid it all,' the Apostle Paul wrote a hymn praising God for our Salvation, This text is a part of that blessed ancient hymn and in it we find this message, Jesus has paid it all through His precious life blood and has forgiveness us of all our sin according to the riches of His great great grace! This is certainly a reason for us to praise God today and forevermore!

Today let us shake loose the bonds of sorrow, sin, selfishness, and staunchness, all the things that keep us from praising Him, and praise God! I have never met a person who has been ruined by excessive praise but there are people dying inside for lack of it. Let’s praise the Lord for our:

I. Redemption (7a)

Praise God we have been redeemed. As Big Daddy Weave sang  “I am redeemed, You set me free, So I'll shake off these heavy chains, Wipe away every stain, now I'm not who I used to be I am redeemed” For just a moment, lets forget that we are in a Baptist Church, throw up our hands and joyfully shout “I am redeemed. Lord, you set me free!”

That’s what redemption (apolytrōsis) means, to be set free, to be delivered, to be released. You see sin had us in shackles and chains, before you were saved you were a slave to your sin and your master the devil had a tight grip on you but the perfect lamb of God, Jesus, paid your ransom, that's the sum demanded for the release of a captive.

We find the perfect illustration of redemption in God’s deliverance of Isreal from slavery in Egypt, with a strong and mighty hand, God freed the captives through the shedding of blood. In an instant God freed 2,500,000 Israelites. In the ancient Roman empire there was over 60,000,000 slaves, and they were often bought and sold like pieces of furniture. The going price for an average slave was 500 denarii, that’s the wages for 500 days of work, some sold for more than 50,000 denirii (roughly 137 years of wages), a slave wasn't cheap, and neither were you!

Jesus bought us from the slave market of sin, not with money, but with the most precious currency of all, His perfectly innocent life’s blood! On Calvary’s Cross, Jesus He paid for every believer past, present, and future. He paid it all when He died for us while yet we were still sinners, His own testimony is, “It is finished” (John 19:30) and by grace through faith in Him, we have redemption.

Have (echō) is the main verb of this text, it means to possess and retain. It is in the present tense and is active indictive, meaning that we possess and will continue to possess our redemption forevermore. And, we experience the blessings of our redemption here and now, we don't have to wait until we get to heaven, redemption is our today. When a man bought a slave He could set Him free if He so desired, that was Jesus’ desire, He paid for us in full then set us free!

Free from the Bondage of of the Law (Rom. 7:6a) the idea of having to work to please God is put to rest in our redemption because we know that one pleases God only through faith (Heb. 11:1-2,6a) , Free from the impossible task of the Law to a tee (Gal. 5:1). We are free from the bondage of sin (Rom. 6:6b), sin no longer has a hold on us, we have liberty from the power that compels disobedience and we an now obey God because we love Him! And, We are free from the power of Satan and the world (Gal.1:4, Col. 1:13-14), evil has no hold on us… Praise God, praise God for our redemption! WE ARE REEDEMED BY THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST!

II. Remission

Praise God for the remission of sin! He has forgiven us! Forgiveness is a divine act of mercy and grace! We all like sheep have gone astray. we have sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard. We sin unintentionally, that’s disobeying God out of ignorance, negligence, or simply making a mistake. Yet, we are without excuse.

We sin deliberately, we don’t honor and thank God as He deserves! We don’t worship and serve Him as He desires! By nature we are unrighteous, selfish, wicked, greedy, boastful, deceitful, lustful, unmerciful etc etc etc..… We do the things that we know are wrong and don’t do the things we know are right and the wrath of God is reserved for us (Ro. 1:18). But God being rich in mercy, because of the His great love for us (Eph. 2:4) forgives us!

Forgiveness (aphesis) means to be released or to be sent away. Christ carried our sin to Calvary which gives us remission of our. The Bible teaches without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Heb. 9:27). Forgiveness of sin is pictured by the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement, (2 goats, one slain and blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat and the other {Scapegoat}taken into the wilderness (Lev. 16:20-21).) Just as the sins of Israel was removed from them through the scapegoat Christ removed our sin from us, sent it away as far as the east is to the west! Isn’t that worthy of praise! That’s eternal remission, east and west never meet again therefore the guilt of our sin never seen or heard from again!

Forgiveness is an ongoing reality that urges us to live in God’s grace! And He He rich in Grace! Friends God loves you and paid an enormous price for us. His love is so great that He spared no expense! You see, there is a difference between out of riches and according to riches. Out of riches is to say someone wrote a check to the church, but according to His riches is to say someone gave a blank check signed over to the church.

There is no price to great for the Lord to pay, He demonstrated that upon the Cross of Calvary, where Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.