The Cost of Redemption

1 Peter 1:18-19 18knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. | The Cost of Redemption!

The high cost of redemption—the only begotten Son’s precious blood—demands that believers live in reverent fear before God. Living holy (the purpose of this entire section vs. 13-25) Peter says, should motivate believers to live a holy life and not take The Cost of Redemption lightly.

Verses 17-21 points us to the fact that we who are obedient children know God is holy and just in character and that He judges without partiality. Our right to call God “Father” should lead us to fear Him reverently. It means we are not living as strangers to this worlds’ shifting situations, but we live according to God’s absolute standards. We demonstrate a tender conscience, a watchfulness against temptation, and avoiding all things that would displease God. Since we have been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, those of us who live as obedience children of God are to be strangers to our former empty way of life (1 Peter 1:14). The Cost of Redemption. The Bible has something to say about this redemption.

Psalm 111:9 “He sent redemption to his people”

Psalm 130:7 “with Him is plentiful redemption”

Isaiah 44:22 “return to me, for I have redeemed you”

Lamentations 3:58 “O Lord; you have redeemed my life.”

Romans 3:24 “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”

From the marketplace of sin, our redemption was purchased. Yes, it is a ransom not paid with silver or gold, which perishes, but with the precious blood of a perfect Lamb. Christ was sinless, uniquely qualified to take away the sin of the world and is able to cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

It was a payment for sin planned before the foundation of the world and revealed for our sake through the Incarnation of this Lamb of God: Jesus the Christ. Only through Christ, whom God raised from the dead (cf. v. 3) and glorified in His Ascension (John 17:5; Heb. 1:3), can we come to know and trust in the living God.

2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.” We do not live in this world as vagabonds. We have a mission to accomplish for the Lord Jesus Christ.

We worship heaven’s King | We obey heaven’s laws | We seek heaven’s pleasure | We pursue heaven’s agenda | We declare heaven’s message

In his book The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer criticizes “cheap grace.” Cheap grace, he says, pursues forgiveness without repentance. Grace is free, but it is not cheap. The Cost of Redemption was that the Father gave His Son and His Son gave His life.

Peter, in our text, does not stop talking about salvation and The Cost of Redemption. He shares with us how God saved us in Christ. To have Godly fear, you cannot have a fuzzy faith. The call to holiness is based on redemption and that you know it right well. It is essential then, to know what you were redeemed FROM and what you were redeemed WITH.

Verse 18 says what we are redeemed FROM; “...your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.” This “aimless conduct” led us to sin. “Redeemed” is a synonym for salvation. Some translations use the word “ransom.”

We are saved “by grace, through faith” in Christ’s finished work of redemption. We are set free FROM the bondage of sin by Jesus paying the price. That’s what God did for us when Jesus died at Calvary.

We are redeemed, saved, ransomed FROM the bondage of sin. Look at how Peter describes it: “From the aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.”

Life without God is aimless, worthless, unfulfilling, and empty. A life of sin is bondage to the aimless ways of the world. John 8:24, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” The world will tell you to live free and as you wish. The world will keep you in bondage to sin. But John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” I’m talking about The Cost of Redemption. We were redeemed FROM sin, shame, aimless conduct.

Verse 19 records what we were redeemed WITH: “the precious blood of Jesus.”

This Precious Blood “as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” This is Christ’s death on the cross. We are on our way to heaven because of the blood. Christ’s blood alone paid the price for our redemption. That precious blood.

The blood of Christ is “precious.”

o Precious because it is the blood of God’s only begotten Son.

o Precious because it cost Jesus his life at Calvary.

o Precious because it is the only way of salvation.

o Precious because it has the power to heal.

o Precious because it reaches the highest mountain.

o Precious because it flows to the lowest valley.

o Precious because it gives me strength from day to day.

o Precious because it will never lose its power.

Look at the blood:

Judas said Matthew 27:4 “innocent blood.” | Acts 20:28 “purchasing blood” | Romans 5:9 “justifying blood”

Ephesians 1:7 “redeeming blood” | Col. 1:20 “peacemaking blood” | Hebrews 9:22 “shed blood” | Hebrews 10:19 “accessing blood”

Heb. 13:12 “sanctifying blood” | Heb. 13:20 “everlasting covenant blood” | 1 John 1:7 “cleansing blood”

Rev. 1:5 “washing blood” | Rev. 12:11 “overcoming blood”