REDEMPTION
BILL HOFKINS ©
We define redemption as — To Buy Back, or, To regain possession of any item deemed valuable in exchange for payment. Pawnshops operate this way: A customer exchanges a valuable personal item for a cash loan. In time, the individual goes back to the shop and pays off his loan with interest. Hence, he bought back or redeemed his valuables.
The need for Redemption
We were born into a fallen world. Sorry if this disappoints you but, you are not a monkey nor a descendant of monkeys. A loving Father-God created You. He created Adam and Eve first, who birthed the entire human race. Every single person throughout history originated with these two, our original parents.
Designed and created in perfect harmony and fellowship, God never intended for them to grow old, or even die. They had perfect, hyper-glorified bodies, and able to use one hundred percent of their brain function.
Think about it. Scientists estimate we use about ten to fifteen percent of our brain capacity. Even with limitations, we landed men on the moon. Einstein would have brain envy regarding Adams’ capacity to think and reason. That is the way it should have been from the beginning, even until our generation.
Unfortunately, Adam and Eve committed high treason and rebelled. Satan deceived them. They straightway broke fellowship with God and severed their eternal bond. Their beautiful, pure spirits became sullied, tainted, and broken.
That is why we were born in a fallen state. Adam and Eve were the ones who divorced humanity from God. We are descendants of two rebellious people with fallen natures, and so, we are born with THE SAME fallen nature.
You are a Spirit
Allow me to inform you, that you are a created spirit being. You only live in a body. It is the physical body that grows old, not the inward man. When your physical body dies, you will pop out of it but continue living for all eternity. You have a beginning, but you will never have an end.
Eternal life does not mean to live a long time. The quality of God’s character and the essence of who he is defines the quality of eternal life. His divine nature, wisdom, peace, joy, and gladness penetrate your spirit and transforms your inward sinful nature from death into the image of Jesus Christ. It is the quality of life, not the longevity.
Gods Dilemma
Thus, God found himself in a dilemma. He created a wonderful civilization to fellowship with and love, but they did not want Him. He needed to create a failsafe that would guarantee redemption to those who wanted eternal life, and judgment for those who rejected it.
The process God chose was a profoundly serious undertaking. Our redemption was not cheap! Consider the price Jesus paid. They beat him to a bloody pulp, crushed thorns upon his head, whipped until raw and nailed to a cross. He went to a devil’s hell, paying the ultimate price of death, to restore our fallen nature. The prophet Isaiah says of him:
But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man. Isaiah 52:14
But was it worth the effort of sacrificing his own life? Absolutely, because on the third day God raised him from the dead, never again to be subject to this world’s wicked vexations. He then went to heaven’s throne room, presented his shed blood, and took his place on the right hand of God.
Anyone and everyone who receives Christ as their Redeemer receives eternal life. There is nothing you can do to atone for your sin. No amount or quality of charitable deeds washes away our fallen nature.
Only his good deed could bring relief from condemnation. When you conscientiously understand this and receive him, he receives you and forgives all your sins.
Jesus the Conqueror
It is through this process of death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to heaven that Jesus purchased our Salvation. He bought you, but not from a polite shop owner. He had to conquer and violently overthrow this world’s system to defeat the gates of hell. That was the redemption price.
Let’s say you go into a store to buy a loaf of bread. Before you gave the clerk your money, the bread belonged to the store. Once you pay and get a receipt the store no longer owns it, you own it and may do with it as you please.
The spirit of this world and the curse of the law owned us at one time and did with us at it pleased. Everyone has suffered poverty, sickness, and death in one form or another. Injustice, loss of love, disappointment on so many levels.
The devil is the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Can you see the contrast between this world’s system and the Kingdom of God?
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10
This world is full of murder and mayhem, death, and destruction. It is the home of lying, stealing, cheating, and adultery. The Kingdom of God is just the opposite. Jesus came to give us life, not death.
He gives us the fruit of the Spirit. This is the fruit that every saint in heaven experiences 24/7. They are:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
Again, he did not purchase our salvation from a polite shopkeeper. He, the devil, deceived Adam and Eve and stole our relationship from God through sedition and high treason. Jesus had to rip it away from him. Redemption came at a high price, and it was worth every drop of blood.
God made him be a curse for us.
Our Substitute
Jesus became our substitute by taking our place. He became what we were, so we could be as he is. For example, this verse tells us he exchanged sin for righteousness:
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
You couldn’t become sin because you are born with a rebellious, sinful nature. Jesus was a sinless man and became the sacrificial lamb on your behalf. He substituted his life for yours. He became sin so we could be righteous.
Another verse that proves substitution is Galatians 3:13. It tells us that we have been redeemed from the curse of the law. Included in the curse of the law are poverty, sickness, and spiritual death.
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:13-14
What is the curse of the law? A curse is the opposite of a blessing. Jesus became the opposite of blessing so that we might receive the fullness of the blessing. And the blessing is the opposite of cursing.
The blessing consists of Grace and health, life and peace, power, and protection.
So, he redeems us from satan’s thefts, murders, and destruction; replaced by life and life more abundantly.
Notice verse 14 says that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles. If you are a member of the new covenant, then you have all the rights and privileges of anyone of Abraham’s children. The last verse of Galatians chapter 3 says this:
And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29
The New Testament is all about a pure and perfect person, taking the place of impure and imperfect people, so that they may become pure and perfect in God’s sight. He redeemed us from the curse! Therefore we receive the blessing of forgiveness and are free of condemnation.
Redeemed from Poverty
If he became sin, then we become righteous. Here is another stunning truth — He became poor, so we could become rich!
First, I’m not advocating a bunch of nonsense—that we can all be millionaires and own a jet plane and have five cars in the garage. Some promote such notions, and I disagree strongly with that teaching.
However…
The Bible is clear that Christ redeems us from poverty.
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
2 Corinthians 8:9
Yes! You read that right! If he is our substitute, and he became poor, then we should not have to be poor. Either the verse is true as stated, or it isn’t.
He became poor while hanging on the cross, not while he lived and ministered. Here is something to think about. Jesus had twelve full time Apostles on his staff, not counting the other support ministers in his contingency.
How were they fed? Didn’t Peter have a wife and house to support? If he was not fishing, how was his wife and any kids taken care of? Were there any other Apostles who had families? Wives, kids, and other bills to pay? Yet, the ministry of Jesus paid all of their bills.
Not only that, they had to be fed every day and at appropriate times housed, in hotel rooms and so forth. It was a big undertaking which demanded plenty of money for expenses. Therefore Jesus was not impoverished as some teach.
We define the word rich as; to have a full supply; and my purpose here is to prove redemption from poverty, not how to apply the principle.
Did you know that Abraham, Job, King David, and Solomon were very wealthy? Yes, Abraham, for example, was rich in silver and gold:
And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
Genesis 13:1-2
We often mistake men of humility and faith with being impoverished or in lack, as if it were a requirement, to be used by God. King David started as a poor shepherd but finished with great substance.
Why would Abraham for example have armed soldiers? Why would he need them?
And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
Genesis 14:14
We often think of Abraham and Sarah as simple country folks who lived in a tent. But little is taught that Abraham was a prominent business manager. The 318 trained servants were born in his house. If he owned 318 soldiers, they must have needed wives. If they had wives, they must have had children.
The servants and the wives make up approximately 600 people. So how many people did Abraham have in his house? At least 1000 going upward. He had servants who were skilled as shepherds, potters, carpenters, tent makers, and so forth. How many tents would it take to house 1000 to 2500 people? It was more like a town of tents. And Abraham owned it all.