Redemption

About this sermon

Introduction: Today we come to consider one of the most beautiful words in the Christian’s vocabulary; one of the most important words in all of scripture. And yet, sad to say, it is also a word that has often been neglected in the modern Christian conversation. When B.B. Warfield presented his study of this word, he noted what a prominent place it held in the earliest hymns. He noted how often the earliest Christians rejoiced in the Lord Jesus in this name — “Jesus our Redeemer”. Today we usually speak of Jesus as our Lord, or we speak of Jesus as our Savior, but should also remember that He is our redeemer, and it is only because of redemption that He can be our Lord and our Savior. The verse we concentrate on this morning tells us that we have been saved through His work as Redeemer. I. THE MEANING OF SALVATION Again, we are reminded here of what salvation is. There are experiential aspects to our salvation, and thank God that there are, but before we deal with people concerning their experience, we must address people concerning their guilt before God. And Salvation, from the standpoint of our guilt, is to have our sins forgiven and to have God’s own righteousness put to our account before God. Justification is a DECLARATION. It is a legal declaration. It is God, the judge Himself, who has declared the saved person to be right in His own sight. Justification is not about God MAKING a person righteous. That is the work of sanctification, and future glorification. And everyone whom the Lord justifies, He sanctifies and from the standpoint of the sureness of our final salvation, has already declared us glorified in Romans 8. But justification, considered alone, is a DECLARATION on the part of God. It is God the judge declaring you to have righteousness in His sight, to be acceptable in His sight. And we are told here that this justification is a GIFT. It is not a declaration that is made concerning us because we EARNED IT. It is not a declaration of righteousness made concerning us because we kept God’s law, or because of our own works. Indeed, it is a declaration concerning us because of God’s GRACE. It is God’s gift to us by His grace. It is unmerited favor. It is something that comes to us DESPITE who we are not BECAUSE of who we are. Apart from God’s grace not even one of us would ever be declared righteous in His sight. And it is a gift that every single person is EQUALLY in need of. He drives home again this truth in verse 23, when he reminds us that ALL HAVE SINNED AND COME SHORT OF GOD’S GLORY. We have all missed the mark, we all fall short of what man was intended to be in the very beginning, we have all transgressed God’s commands and stand guilty before His law so that from the standpoint of our person and our performance we are weighed in the scales and found lacking. THIS IS WHY SALVATION, JUSTIFICATION, HAS TO BE A GIFT THIS IS WHY SALVATION, HAS TO BE BY GRACE THIS IS WHY SALVATION IS GIVEN ON THE BASIS OF BELIEF NOT WORKS. II. THE MEANS OF SALVATION But that is not say that salvation came to us without a cost. It is to say that another paid the cost. Justification is a gift given to us, by the grace of God, THROUGH the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus. God has declared us righteous by means of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is our redeemer, we are the redeemed, and salvation has come to us through the redemption that is in Him. What does that mean? What is redemption? A. REDEMPTION CONSIDERED AS A PAYMENT Apolutrosis is the word, and it means, “a release effected by payment of a ransom.” There is the idea of deliverance in it, but the thing we are not to miss is that it is a deliverance that required a payment. The Bible is clear about this; that our salvation was purchased by Jesus. He paid for us. ESV 1 Corinthians 6:19 Or ado you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? bYou are not your own, 20 afor you were bought with a price. bSo glorify God in your body. ESV Acts 20:28 aPay careful attention to yourselves and to all bthe flock, in which cthe Holy Spirit has made you doverseers, eto care for fthe church of God,1 which he gobtained hwith his own blood.2 ESV 1 Corinthians 7:23 aYou were bought with a price; bdo not become bondservants of men. ESV 1 Peter 1:18 knowing that you awere ransomed from bthe futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but awith the precious blood of Christ, like that of ba lamb cwithout blemish or spot. B. REDEMPTION CONSIDERED AS A DELIVERANCE He paid for us because that is what our deliverance required. 1. DELIVERANCE FROM THE GUILT OF OUR SINS

Topics

• Salvation