Bella Vista Church of Christ
LIFELINES
06/24/2020
Randall Caselman
Redeemed
O How I Love To Proclaim It!
The theme of redemption is a scarlet thread woven through Scripture from the fall in Genesis three until the close of the New Testament. I understand that the concept is found in more than a hundred and fifty different passages. Our redemption in Christ is foreshadowed in the Old Testament by a law which stated that a lost inheritance could be redeemed. This plan called for what was known as a Kinsman Redeemer: 1) A near relative 2) Who was willing 3) And one who had the resources to pay the debt. God is seen as the Old Testament Redeemer...
• Job said, speaking of God: “I know that my redeemer lives."
• In Psalms, we hear David declare: “O, Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.”
• In Isaiah: “Thus saith the Lord, the redeemer, the Holy one of Israel, I am the Lord thy God."
When we come to the New Testament, we see Jesus, God in the flesh, as our Redeemer. Paul says that in the fullness of time, God sent His son to redeem the Jews and make the Gentiles adopted sons.This places each of us within His Scheme of Redemption. Consider these familiar Scriptures that speak of Jesus and how He is, indeed, qualified to be Our Kinsman Redeemer:
He is a near Relative...
• “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us...”
• “God sent His Own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering...”
• “When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law...”
• “We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation...”
• “God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them...”
• “Being made in human likeness and found in appearance as a man...”
• “Wherefore in all things, it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren... To make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”
Jesus was Willing...
• “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant...”
• “Then He said, here I am, I have come to do Your will...”
• “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all...”
• “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.”
• “I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd gives His life for His sheep...” No man takes it from Me, I lay it down of Myself.”
Jesus had the Resources...
• “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth...”
• “For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross.”
• “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered once into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us...“
• “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him...”
• "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God..."
• “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver and gold that you were redeemed.... But with the precious blood of Christ...”
• “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace...”
Indeed, what grace, mercy, and lovingkindness we see in Jesus, God in the flesh, stepping from Heaven to be Our Kinsman Redeemer.
Consider a couple of Greek Words that might give us a deeper appreciation of His redemption:
Agorazo means to redeem, to purchase in a market. We've been bought with a price. We are no longer our own, but His property. The price? His own blood. “For you are bought (agorazo) with a price... "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased (agorazo) men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
Lutroo speaks of a release on receipt of a ransom, to liberate, to redeem, to deliver from bondage, to set at liberty. Christ paid the ransom, setting us free: Free from the bondage of sin, free from the sting of death, free from eternal separation from God. “Who gave Himself for us, that he might redeem (lutroo) from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people (a people that are His very own - NIV), zealous of good works...” “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed (lutroo) from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers...”
"Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb,
Redeemed thro’ His infinite mercy,
His child, and forever, I am."
—RANDALL CASELMAN
