Full Redemption has two parts...

If a thief was offered mercy and forgiven, then kept on stealing from others, that would be a mockery of both mercy and forgiveness. Any court that offered such leniency hopes for a changed life in response, but as the Bible says, leopards can’t change their spots. It takes more power than thieves, judges, courts, and good intentions to do that.

This is why biblical redemption is a two-fold thing involving the price for sin being paid and the power of sin being broken.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

The main OT story that illustrates the payment for sin is when God redeemed His children from Egypt. They were sealed and protected from judgment by the blood on their doors so the angel of death passed over them.Their part was to trust God and obey this strange request.

They were then given specific laws to obey and the promise of a Messiah to fully redeem them. Moses realized this but most did not. While they knew they were His, sadly, the laws only showed them their need for the Messiah. Then when Jesus came, they didn’t recognize He was the One who would deliver them. “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” (John 1:11)

Even so, as a man Jesus became subject to the will and law of God in every point, working out a perfect righteousness as our Representative. He did what we cannot do, what most do not even try to do. We witnessed that yesterday at a funeral. The only mention of the Lord was in one line of a song and in a story about skiing where the family were thankful to Him for making it down a hill safely.

However, acknowledging God is rarely evidence of redemption or faith. A person might realize Jesus died to pay the penalty of sin, but this is just part of what redemption includes. The power of sin also needs to be broken. When God sent Christ to die for us, it was so “those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:15–17)

This means a full release from the bondage of sin and no more trying to please God by being ‘good’ and doing good things. This new birth is the power of God living in my heart. It is redemption that gives new life. In other words, the thief no longer desires to steal — this sinner no longer wants to run her own life. To live in sin means I would deny the ownership of God, and think He has no right, power, or authority over me. It is believing the lie that I am wise enough and well equipped enough to do what is best for me without any input from my Creator.

Redemption therefore is not just believing Jesus lived and died, but it is realizing that He took my sin and gave me His righteousness so I can say no to sin and obey the One who created me and gave me Jesus, my Messiah. It is relying on Him to both forgive and cleanse, and that does a total remake of a life that was once only about ‘doing it my way’ and ignoring His way.
This is a sure and certain fact. I am redeemed by His death and empowered by His life. There is no redemption in just believing He lived and died. It must include the reality of His life living in me and making me a new person.

PRAY: Jesus, I begin another day trusting You, worshiping You, wanting to be filled with Your Spirit and thinking of You, talking about You, and doing what You desire for me. Because of You, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” (Psalm 31:5)

Long ago in Bethlehem . . .

There is a difference between a word from God and the Word of God, yet both of them are the means by which God makes Himself known. The first one tilts toward communication while the Word of God is about incarnation.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1–5) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

“Word” in these verses is “logos.” It started out as a technical philosophical term, then became a concept for the Stoics to describe principles that gave the world its character and coherence. Then Philo, a philosophical theologian of Judaism, tried to reconcile Greek philosophical theories about the universe with the biblical accounts of creation by God’s spoken word.

In the Bible, John and others choose this Word to designate Jesus, God the Son, who became flesh to mediate between God and us. The Logos is both God’s creative means and His revelation of Himself. He also holds the world together by “the Word of His power.”

When Jesus began His ministry, the people wanted signs to prove who He was. He calmed the storms, turned water into wine, healed the sick, and raised the dead, but that wasn’t enough. “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11).

While the Jews expected their Messiah to deliver them from Roman oppression, they did not expect God Himself to come. They looked at the divine things He did and the human body that He was in and said No, this is not possible. Our God is too holy, too transcendent, too almighty to be born in a stable, to become one of us. He must be blaspheming.

Yet our God did become human. We cannot see Him, so He accommodated our need to see. I could speculate about His birth, but instead accept that it was the first miracle — Jesus was not born of a father or any man, yet He was born in the flesh. This is not so strange when I remember that this Word who became flesh also made the first father and mother by speaking, so why could He not be virgin born? Nothing is impossible for God.

Jesus offered signs and wonders. He performed miracles. He never sinned, not once. But He also claimed to be God — and for that they rejected and killed Him.

As He suffered and died, the Logos asked His Father to forgive those who nailed Him there. In that suffering and death He paid the penalty for our sin and brought forgiveness and the offer of eternal life. As the Bible says, “To all who did receive him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

This Logos could not be held in death by a tomb or by the will of man. In the resurrection, He offered the final proof, the final miracle to show everyone who He is and why He came. If this does not show His deity; if this cannot be believed — then there is nothing left for those who ask for more proof.

To Live is Christ — knowing Who He is

Last year I found a book in the library in which the author personified character traits. For instance, envy, or slander, or grace, or integrity were described as persons. A few of these descriptions were so powerful that I felt like the personified trait was alive with two legs, standing in the room and looking at me.

I get a similar feeling when I read these verses from the New Testament, only they are not about an abstract emotion or quality, but a concrete person, one who is alive and actually is in this room beside me. These words describe how God personified Himself — in a man, in Jesus Christ. 

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell. (Colossians 1:15–19)

This passage says far more about Jesus, but the first and the last lines declare that this man is like no other man. He is God’s fullness in human form, fully man and fully God.

Our pastor talked about eternal life Sunday morning. He quoted a few prominent spiritual leaders whose ideas about eternity are far different from what the Bible describes. He also talked about God being invisible, eternal, immortal, far beyond the comprehension of human beings. Our finite minds cannot grasp the reality of God. He is so much more than we are or can imagine.

Although Jesus came to save us from our sin, He also came to reveal this high and holy God to us. God could have chosen visions, dreams, maybe even a You-tube video, but He had a better idea. He pulled on human flesh like we might pull on a pair of trousers, became a man, and walked among us so we could see and touch Him.

But we didn’t get it, at least not at first. John 1:11 says, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.” Those who saw Him thought He was a mad man, even a blasphemer because of His claims.

The miracles were not enough. Not many were convinced when He rose from the dead. They thought it was not true because, in their minds, God was not powerful enough to do that, nor would He humble Himself to become a man.  They claimed to be religious yet they rejected this One who came in all the fullness of God and revealed His perfections. Why were they so blind?

Jesus knew their hearts. Spiritual blindness was part of their problem but the root of their inability to see God standing before them in the person of Christ was more about their sin than any other reason. Jesus said, 

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (John 3:18–20)

In other words, sin was more important than even acknowledging that God was in their midst, never mind putting their lives in His hands by faith. For that reason, Jesus said to them, “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.” (John 8:24)

Today is no different. People will believe that Jesus was a good man, or a prophet, or a great teacher. However, the line is drawn at the Bible’s declaration that He is the image of the invisible God and that in Him dwells all the fullness of God. They might say that is too great a stretch for them to believe, but as Jesus said, this is not the real issue. Apart from grace, we human beings simply love our darkness and do not want Jesus to expose (or forgive) our sins.