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Word of the Week: Redemption

We have been redeemed. We often use this phrase with reference to our salvation. To be redeemed means that we have been bought or ransomed.

The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary defines redemption as follows: To pay a price in order to secure the release of something or someone. It connotes the idea of paying what is required in order to liberate from oppression, enslavement, or another type of binding obligation.

It is a term used in both the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament God redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt, from Canaanites during the time of the judges, and from the exile in Babylon. In the New Testament, God redeemed sinners from their slavery to sin, buying them from their spiritual death by the blood of Jesus.

Two passages of Scripture below highlight the theological concept of redemption.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 

Romans 3:21-25

In 1 Peter, below, the word ransomed is the idea of redemption.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action,[a] and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 

1 Peter 1:13-19
  • Redemption means we’ve been bought. Think about this. God wanted you enough to buy you from your slavery to sin and exile under the enemy’s power. We should be amazed at the love God has to redeem sinners.
  • Redemption means we’ve been bought by Someone precious. God did not redeem us with money or something perishable. Rather, Jesus’ blood, his precious and perfect and imperishable blood is the means of our redemption. Jesus gave his life and shed his blood for our redemption.
  • Redemption is why God demands everything of us. Experiencing salvation and redemption is more than just praying a sinner’s prayer; it is following Jesus with our lives. Following Jesus means that Christ demands everything of us. He demands everything because our redemption cost him everything.

What do we do with such glorious truths?

  1. Pause and thank God for redeeming you.
  2. Worship God in this moment because he wanted you enough to redeem you with his blood.
  3. Meditate on these verses and the wonder of our redemption.
  4. Share with someone today that Jesus died to redeem them.

Anchored in the Word

This Monday (2/1/2021) begins a four part series of blogposts about being anchored in relationship with God. I recently finished reading through the book of Acts. In Acts 27, Paul and his companions were shipwrecked. During one particular night of a storm they faced, they let down the anchors because they knew they were near shore.

And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.

Acts 27:29

I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life that I’ve prayed for daylight. There have been times that I’ve prayed just to make it through the storm. There have been times that I’ve prayed to get by to the next day.

It is instructive that the sailors let the anchors out when they wanted to slow the drift of the ship in the storm. That’s what an anchor is for. In some cases an anchor keeps a ship in place in a body of water. In other cases (like the one above) an anchor isn’t strong enough to keep a ship in place, but it is strong enough to slow the ship down in a storm.

As I considered this story God reminded me that in the storms and trials of life, I needed to be anchored. I need to be anchored in my relationship to God.

Now, ultimately it matters far more that God has a hold on us than it matters that we have a hold on God. God is the One keeping us (1 Peter 1:4-5), God is the One saving us (Eph. 2:8-9), God is the One giving us rest (Matt. 11:28-30, and God is the One caring for us (1 Peter 5:7).

But with that said, we are responsible for seeking God, for trusting God, and for depending on God. We cannot expect to experience God’s strength, peace, and hope if we neglect the spiritual disciplines that God has provided for us to know him.

In these four blogposts I’m going to reflect on one spiritual anchor each week that keeps us in right fellowship with the Father. Today’s post reminds us to be anchored in God’s Word.

There is nothing more important for your spiritual life than spending time in God’s Word. God’s Word is vitally important as an anchor for our souls.

We need the anchor of God’s Word because when we read God’s Word, we are privileged to experience God’s own thoughts.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-10

With his Word, God spoke creation into existence. With his Word, God spoke life into man. With his Word, God became flesh (Jesus is the Logos, Word of God).

When we read, hear, study, memorize, and meditate on God’s Word we are thinking God’s thoughts. That very act serves as an anchor for our souls to the One True God who alone is Lord and King. It is God speaking to us that leads us to worship and know him.

God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him. He must disclose to us who he is before we can offer him what we are in acceptable worship. The worship of God is always a response to the Word of God. Scripture wonderfully directs and enriches our worship.

John Stott, The Contemporary Christian, 174.
We need the anchor of God’s thoughts because his Word is guaranteed to last.

The grass withers, the flower fades,
    but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:8

Peter quotes this passage in his first epistle. Peter was reflecting on believers who are facing trials to grow and be strengthened in the Word of God.

There are many things in this world to distract us, disrupt us, or defeat us. But remember this. All those trials, difficulties, challenges, and circumstances have a shelf life. One day they will not be. For that matter, one day your job will not be, your cell phone will not be, the internet will not be, etc.

But the Word of the Lord will last forever.

When we read, hear, study, memorize, and meditate on God’s Word we are thinking thoughts that will stand forever. Being anchored in the Word of God is being anchored to something that is guaranteed to be around for eternity.

According to research, there is nothing better for your spiritual maturity than God’s Word.

Our study of churchgoers included the measurement of more than sixty factors characteristic of biblical spiritual development… Our statistician applied sophisticated procedures to our data to produce a rank-ordered list of correlations. The number one factor, or characteristic, most correlated to the highest maturity scores is the practice of “reading the Bible.” I almost had to laugh when I saw this. Sometimes we complicate things. The simple discipline of reading the Bible has a major impact on Christians.

Brad Waggoner, The Shape of Faith to Come, 68.

So if you want to find an anchor for your soul that will stabilize you anytime (but especially in trying times), read the Word of God.

Here are some recommendations for being anchored in the Word of God:

  • Read the Bible daily. If you aren’t reading the Bible regularly, start today. Read a chapter a day. Or pick a Bible reading plan. I use the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan on my ESV Bible app.
  • Study the Bible regularly. Take some time at least once a week to dive deeper into God’s Word. Maybe take the passage of Scripture your pastor preached and read it over again. Think on it. Look up the passage in a commentary, and study the Bible.
  • Memorize the Bible consistently. We have challenged our church to memorize at least one verse of Scripture each month. For January 2021, our verse is Psalm 90:12. For February 2021, our verse is 1 Peter 2:24. You can see both verses below. I challenge you right now. Memorize them.
  • Pray the Bible intentionally. One of the most spiritually helpful books I’ve read is Don Whitney’s Praying the Bible. I would commend it to you. But you don’t have to read it to pray the Bible. As you read Scripture, use the stories, commands, convictions, insights, and lessons that you read to guide how you pray for those on your prayer list. We’ll spend more time on the subject of prayer in a couple of weeks.

Here are two verses I challenge you to memorize. If you do, you will be glad you did because you are memorizing words and truths that will never, ever, not even in a million years, go away.

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 

1 Peter 2:24

Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash