To listen to the recording of Nancy’s answer recorded on Moody Radio click here.

 


As I read this question the song, “My Redeemer Lives” goes off in my head. The word redeem means “to buy out” or “to pay the price for something” and is also used interchangeably with the word ransom. Initially, in Exodus 21:8, redeemed was literally referring to paying the price for the freedom of a slave.

In the Old Testament, a blood sacrifice was required to pay the price for man’s disobedience to God temporarily. The law required an animal to be killed on an altar for the remission of sins over and over again. The hope for all humanity came in Genesis 15 when God made a covenant with Abraham and all of his descendants. He promised that He would pay the price for all sin of mankind by willingly shedding His own blood to death so would not have to suffer eternal separation from God. Some 3000 years later God fulfilled the covenant when Jesus died on the cross to once and forever, pay the price for our sin. Because God is holy, without sin, the only one who could qualify to pay such a price was His own sinless Son, Jesus.

Matthew 20:28, “…even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

1 Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

What does it mean to be redeemed?

  • You have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” John 3:16-17).

  • You are forgiven. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

  • You are righteous! “For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17).

  • You have been adopted into God’s family. “In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:5).

  • You are at peace with God. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

  • God, through the Holy Spirit, lives in you. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

When we are redeemed by faith, we are changed. Whether we “feel” it or not, we are forever secure in knowing that we are a child of God who no longer has to bear the weight of fear and guilt again. God has given us, through the power of the Holy Spirit to live life to the full by knowing that He will never condemn us both in this life and in the one to come. We are changed in that we are no longer identified with our past but now with the living God. Sin and death no longer can hold us captive.

God promised that in this life we will have trouble but that we can have peace because He has overcome the world. During the hard times today, we can know for sure that there will be a time when there will be no more pain or suffering, no death or regret. Why, because our Redeemer lives!