Redemption: March 28, 2014

TODAYS WORD FOR FRIDAY MARCH 28, 2014.

REDEMPTION

DEFINITION:

The act of buying back by paying a ransom; restoration; to free from the consequences of sin.

SCRIPTURE:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:23-24.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Many people not only do not understand what redemption is, but do not know why they need redemption. So the question that we want to answer is, “Why do we need redemption?”

The theme of the Bible is redemption. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible teaches that the law of God has condemned us all, without exception, because as we read in Romans 3:23 (above) we have all sinned. By sinning we separate ourselves from God and miss the beauty of God’s plan for our life. Because of our sinful nature we stand condemned and we need redemption. Because of the grace of God, He stands ready to rescue us from our sins and redeem us.

In the book of Romans the apostle Paul speaks of three phases of redemption. They are justification, sanctification and glorification.

Paul illustrates the meaning of justification by saying that justification means that God gives us a right to stand before Him on the basis of the work of Christ, not because of anything that we have done. Justification is God’s act of declaring us not guilty. He wipes our record clean and God no longer sees our sin. We stand before Him just as if we had never sinned because Jesus, God’s own Son, died on the cross in our place to pay the penalty for all of our sins.

In ourselves, we are incapable of pleasing God in our own strength with our own shabby ideas of righteousness. Righteousness is not something we earn but comes to us by faith when we accept the gift that God gave us to pay our penalty for our sins, His Son Jesus Christ.

Redemption also must include sanctification. Many believers stop with justification feeling that all they need is an escape from going to hell. But Paul reminds us in Romans four the necessity for all believers to be set apart for God and God’s purpose to deliver our soul, our mind, our emotions and our will from the control of our sinful nature. Being sanctified simply means that we as believers need to be dedicated to God or set apart for God. Sanctification comes by the working of the Holy Spirit within us (I Peter 1: 2).

The ultimate state for every believer is glorification. “Those who He justified He also glorified” (Romans 8:30). When Jesus returns to rapture His church, believers will receive new glorified bodies which will be like Christ’s after His resurrection (Philippians 3:21). What a glorious day that will be! Believers will spend eternity in Christ’s glory (Romans 8:17) and giving glory and honor to our Lord and God (Revelation 4:9-11).

And finally when we are redeemed it is the plan of God for us to glorify God through all of our words and actions. Nothing is more important for us today then to be certain that we understand that we all are born sinners and because we are sinners we must pay the penalty for our sins. But God in His great mercy provided His Son to pay the penalty for our sins and for this we should glorify His name.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse this week is the first of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20:3:

You shall have no other gods before Me.

PRAYER:

I am so grateful that You sent Your Son to this earth to pay the penalty for my sins. Thank You for the glory that is waiting for me in heaven. Help me to completely set apart my life to You so that all that I do and say will glorify Your name.