The Response to Ransom

Scripture Introduction:

There is a story tucked away in your Old Testament in a little read book called Hosea. This story is one of the greatest and most amazing love stories ever. And I love to tell this story—so forgive me if you’ve heard me tell it before.

Let me give you a little bit of historical context here. Hosea was a prophet during the reign of a couple of very shrewd kings. You see Israel was tucked in between the two super-powers of the world. Assyria and Egypt. They developed this great plan. They’d go to Assyria and talk smack against Egypt and promise their allegiance to Assyria. Then they’d go to Egypt and do the same. The land was incredibly prosperous during the time. Things were looking great. The kings looked like geniuses.

BUT the Lord considered it unfaithfulness. It wasn’t just money and goods they were bringing back from these other lands it was also their gods, their worship practices, and their ways of thinking. And so God inspires a prophet Hosea to do the unthinkable—marry an unfaithful woman. Marry a harlot—because that’s exactly what is going on with me, says God. Israel is an unfaithful bride.

Where is the love story? It’s in Hosea 2. But let me modernize our story just a little bit so that we can feel what is happening here.

To really get a feel for this, imagine a husband that decides to lavish gifts upon his wife. He buys her flowers; and not just those rinky-dink five dollar flowers from the grocery store. He actually drops a fifty at the local flower shop. He is not finished. He stops by the mall and buys the expensive perfume that his wife always makes a habit of “trying out” when she is shopping, but could never bring herself to actually make such an exquisite purchase. He is still not finished. This doting husband has kept his eyes open and noticed the sparkle in his wife’s eye when she gazed upon that beautiful dress—the one that is probably better suited for a teenager’s first prom and not an aging mother of three (at least that is what she tells herself as she dreams with one hand and places the dress back on the rack with the other).

This husband is pulling out all of the stops. Not only is he going to get her flowers, perfume, and a new dress but he is also going to buy her an expensive line of makeup and then top off the whole occasion with a luxurious piece of jewelry. He wants his dear wife to know how deeply he loves and values her; she is truly the apple of his eye.

The wife is ecstatic when she opens all of the gifts and she quickly tries everything on. Whilst trying out her gifts she has this little glimmer in her eye that says, “I can’t wait to try these on for my lover”. The husband is unable to mask his smile as he derives great joy from seeing his wife treated like the princess he envisions her to be.

On the next Friday the husband comes home from a rough day at work. His energy is quickly rejuvenated by what he eyes in his bedroom. His wife is putting on all of her new things. She is getting herself all gussied up as if she is going to a ball celebrating the coronation of a new Queen.

The husband takes the cue and gets himself ready. He puts on his best clothes, shaves the stubble from his beard, and puts on a little of that cologne his wife seems to love. With anticipation and excitement in his voice he asks the wife where she would like to go to dinner. Then to his dismay she informs him that she cannot go out to dinner with him because she already has a date with some other dude.

Now as the story progresses we see that her unfaithfulness carries with it several consequences. Her little fling has massive implications. In the story of Hosea and his wife Gomer she ends up on the slave market. You can read about it Hosea 3.

But I want you to picture this for a moment. Here is his unfaithful wife. She’s hurt him a million times over. The sting of that first night when she left still resonates in his mind and heart. He still tastes the pain. And here she is on the slave market—she has hit the lowest of the lows. All of her foolish choices have come back upon her. The text doesn’t say if she’s emotionally broken or not. She might even still be proudly displaying herself on the market. Or she might be absolutely broken and sorrowful.

But the text would have use to believe that there is nothing in her left to desire. Where she was once the envy of the nations, now she has nothing within her that would turn the eye of a passerby. Sure, she’s naked. But she is now such a broken shell of herself that the only emotion she evokes is either pity or disdain. She is desperate and ready for the taking—problem is, nobody wants her anymore.

That’s the picture at the end of Hosea 2. Will anybody buy this filthy wretch of a woman back? Will anyone ransom her? Redeem her? Is she worthy any kind of payment? Or will she be like a barrel of oil in our day—where somebody will pay you to take it off their hands.

“So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley”. Hosea bought back his own wife.

But the story is even more beautiful if you go back up to Hosea 2:14. It starts with the word “therefore” and it’s coming after seeing his wife absolutely destitute—having broken his heart a million times over—what do you expect there?

The response of the husband is shocking. The romance of Hosea 2:14 seldom fails to bring me to tears. This is the same husband whose wife prostituted his gifts and used them on another lover. Now when she has nothing to be desired, the husband pursues her. He goes to his closet and picks out his best suit. Then he buys expensive cologne from an actual store that sells cologne and not just the best that Wal-Mart has to offer. He shaves the beard that sprang from his sorrow and finally cuts his unkempt hair. He goes to the store and buys a dozen roses and expensive chocolate.

It seems beneath Him, but the picture here is of the Lord of the Universe acting like a junior high boy trying to attract the cute girl from science class. He’s going to win back His wife. The entire force of the Godhead is going to allure her.

And there he finds her in the wilderness. Broken. Ashamed. Naked.

Did he run toward her? Was it a slow walk? We do not know. But we do know that when he reaches his broken bride, He positions his lips toward her ear. And here he whispers those tender words that only husbands and wives know. She has nothing left to desire and the husband whispers to her, “I still want you. You’re still mine. I know what you’ve done. I know you have nothing to offer, but I still want you”.

We do not know her response on that day in the wilderness.

Did she try to hide? Did she run away? Did she try to put makeup on her tattered face? Or did she just sit there awestruck that after all she had done He still loved her?

This romance always stirs my heart; probably because it is also my story. I am not Hosea in the story, either. I am Gomer. I am the harlot. And time and time again the Lord has called me back into the wilderness. Fundamentally, this is a picture of what happens in the gospel.

Let this picture serve as the backdrop to 1 Peter 1:13-21. Peter has essentially said---all of this has happened to you. Now how do you live in response to that? Not a day after this romance happens—but months later. When the newness and such start to wear off. When persecution starts to happen. When the world starts to seem appealing again. And the remaining adultery in our hearts starts to scream out. What do you do?

READ 1 PETER 1:13-21

Did you hear that word in verse 18, “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers”—that word ransomed takes us back to our story in Hosea. That’s what Hosea had to do with his wife—buy her back. And it’s what Peter is saying God has done with us. He has bought us back. He has paid the penalty for our sin. He has made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

But there is something else that happens in that Hosea story. Both in Hosea 2 and in Hosea 3. And it’s that this redemption—this rescue in the wilderness absolutely must change her heart. She cannot stay with her other lovers and say “I’ve been redeemed”. No there must be a heart change. There must be a renewed ethics. And that’s what Peter is saying here. There is a certain way that redeemed people live.

Remember last week when we got all nerdy and talked about grammar. The imperative is grounded in the indicative. That’s what’s happening here still. The imperatives (do this)—be holy, live in fear---comes out of what God has already done. And so “God has ransomed you, God has redeemed you, God has forgiven you, God has adopted you, God has lifted you up out of the pit, God has done all of this....” now therefore be holy.

That’s essentially what is happening in verses 14-16. Verses 14-16 are fairly easy to understand. You have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Christ. As such you have a different Father. You have different passions. So now live that way.

In verse 15 Peter tells them to not be conformed to the passions of their former ignorance. For one, that tells us that he is likely writing to a Gentile audience. That’s not something you’d probably say to the Jewish people. That was the way you spoke about Gentiles—non-Jews. But what are these passions of our former ignorance?

What would it mean to be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance? First, what is the former ignorance. Well think of a small child. If you have a really skinny glass that is tall and let’s say it holds 8 oz, then a big glass that’s short but it holds 16oz if you ask a kid which one will hold the most soda they are going to say, “the tall one”. Because their way of thinking whatever is taller is more—it’s bigger—it’s going to hold more. They aren’t yet able to think of volume—their minds can’t yet stretch out that stubby cup and say—wait that’s actually more than the bigger one. To them more and taller are synonyms and so whichever one is taller is going to have the most liquid in it.

In the same way before we come to have a relationship with God our worldview is faulty. We view things primarily through our passions. What feels good? Well then do it. Obey your thirst. It is wrong and self-destroying to go against your feelings. Don’t ever go against your heart. And so we conform our lives around how we feel. We are predominately self-centered…we are man-centered. And this impacts our entire worldview. This is true of someone who just “has to be right all the time” and someone who is pursuing every bit of worldly pleasure. That’s what Peter is talking about. There was an ignorant way that you once viewed the world.

Gomer once viewed her husband as confining and mean and not loving and not giving of freedom and all sorts of things. And so she steps out on him thinking this is where pleasure is going to be found. Adam and Eve are tricked into thinking that God is holding out on them and so they step out on him, take a bite of the fruit and then end up hiding in a bush. There is a worldview that is always pulling at us to get us to conform to it. That’s what Peter is saying.

And he’s saying—you’ve been redeemed to another way of living. You have been adopted into a new family. You know how families have certain rules. They are probably even unspoken. But there are rules that you’ve learned about your family. What Peter is saying is that your old family used to run everything through the grid of, “what do you feel? Does it feel right? Does it feel good? Then do that”. But your new family has a different grid. A different worldview. What does the Father say? What is holy? What does God say about this thing.

And so—verse 14 as obedient children---be holy in all your conduct. Put away those old desires and embrace the new ones of your new family. This isn’t saying things like joy and pleasure were part of your old way of life and now stale and boring and no fun holiness is part of your new family. No, it’s saying that your old family gave you empty and fleeting pleasures but your new one gives you real pleasure. Your old family called Salisbury steak—a steak—your new family is feasting on prime rib.

Out of love for you he calls you to a new life giving. Simple to understand a little harder to live out. Thankfully we have the Spirit of God working in our lives as well to help us to become more and more obedient children. But there are I believe some things in Scripture were we are simply told “Stop It”. This isn’t divorced from the gospel. It’s saying, “Because Christ has done all of these other things you need to stop it”. You need to be holy. You can be holy because He has given you the Holy Spirit. Now get after it. Not with your own strength or your own power but because of what He has done you go and you get after it.

You have a new Father.

That hopefully brings with it warm and grand feelings. New Father who loves you and cares for you and redeems you. This one that we saw who rescued the undesirable in the wilderness. That’s our Father…but then the text takes a bit of a strange turn.

III. Since you are now a selected sojourner you must live in fear.

And I think you can find places in Scripture that say things similar to that. It is for freedom that we have been set free so live free.

So what does Peter mean when he says “conduct yourselves with fear”. You could say, “reverence” but lets be really honest—that’s a little cold and a little distant. Yeah I think reverence may have something to do with it here. But I think that may not be a strong enough word for the one used here. And so this is a little bit of a difficult verse.

I think if we really understood what God is calling us to, who God is, what He is doing, and what it really means that this world is not our home we might not be quite so shocked by this text.

Some of it I think is this. Father is the King. The King is our Father. I get this idea here from Ed Welch—super helpful book on anxiety and fear.

Our father is the king, the king is our father. If we forget that our father is the king then we will approach him without reverence. We will rejoice in his tenderness but question his ability. Yeah, he wants to change things, we are on the same side in this battle, but are things really going to change? If we forget that the king is our father then we will approach him with reverence but we will have sinful fear. We will question his goodness we know he can change things but we question whether he really wants to. So we must keep these two truths in balance: Our father is the king, the king is our father. He is both willing and able to make all things new. He is both willing and able to give us a firm grip on his love and a holy confidence that He is here to stay.

So I think that is at least part of it. But I think there is one more thing to be said about this. And that is that when we live in a way that doesn’t reflect a hope set on God we ought to rightly fear. We’ve muddied grace so much that it’s become cheap.

And so I find great help in what John Piper has said from this text.

In proportion to the value of the gift we ought to conduct ourselves in fear.

"Fear conducting yourself as though the ransom were not precious"?

The aim and purpose and design of the ransom in this verse is not forgiveness but transformation. The aim in this verse is victory over the power of sin in your everyday life, not forgiveness from the guilt of sin (as true as that is). The reason Jesus shed his infinitely precious blood was to change our conduct

Let me put it finally in a systematic way: God's purpose in the blood of Jesus is our justification and our sanctification. Our pardon and our purity. They cannot be separated (Peter stresses the purity in verse 18).

Therefore, if in our conduct we are tempted to act as though the preciousness and the permanence of the blood of Jesus were impotent to hold us back from sin, then we should fear. Because if our lives bear constant witness to the powerlessness of the blood of Jesus, then Jesus is not really our hope and joy. And we do not belong to him. And that is a fearful prospect.

The sum of the matter is this; hope in the grace of God! And fear not hoping in the grace of God! Fear the behavior that would show you don't trust in the all-satisfying preciousness of the love of Jesus.

What Christ has done is very precious. That is what Peter is saying in this verse. Let us live in such a way that we fear making that gift look as something of little value. Let us fear portraying with the way that we live that Christ is not quite worthy of going “all in”. Let us fear living in such a way that we shore up our bets and keep a few chips to ourselves or placed in other things just in case.

But there is one more question we need to ask of this text. Why does Peter mention what he does in verse 20 and 21? And can I just say as well that this is such an important question to ask in your Bible study. So often we are concerned with “what” or the “how”—what does this text say, what does it mean, how do I apply it. But a really important—to really get at the text—is to ask “why”. Why is this here? Why is God saying to us what he is saying here? What purpose is this serving?

What should verse 20 be doing in your heart? Peter is saying this to remind them that God planned to make that payment for their ransom before the foundation of the world. Before he even created us—he purposed to redeem us.

He appeared—really truly appeared—in history for our sake. He came for you. His life was a rescue mission. And the fact that this text says that he God “raised him from the dead” means not only that his payment for our sin was fully applied—so that, in Chris, we no longer have debt before God—but it also means that our hope is a living hope. It is not a futile one. Notice how often in this first chapter Peter uses words like “living hope” or “imperishable” in contrast to that which is “perishable”. That’s huge for Peter.

So what Peter is doing is that he is calling them to set their hope fully, to be holy, to live in this reverent awe and fear—to hold the gospel as precious and not want to do anything to diminish it’s value. But all of this is grounded in and flows out of what Christ has accomplished for us. He secures our hope, he redeems in such a way that our hearts are changed and our desires are changed and we want what is holy.

God is in the process of slaying our adulterous hearts. In Hosea we read

Hosea 2:14–20 ESV

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

This is ultimately fulfilled in what Christ has accomplished. The Valley of Achor was the place where Achan was cursed in Joshua 7. And Christ fulfills this. He was cursed in our place.

Galatians 3:13 ESV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

And this has opened up the door of hope. The new covenant actually changes our hearts and desires and everything about us. And so what Peter is saying is—live that out. Your faith and hope are in God because your faith and your hope are firmly fixed in Christ.

So, has redemption happened for you? Christ has come. Does his blood apply to you? We’re Gomer in that story—we’re the unfaithful bride. How do we respond? Do we try to clean up? Nope. We come running.

Come running.