Henderson Hills Baptist Church

Due to a busy Christmas schedule, I am reposting a previous post.  May His Word continue to bless, encourage, and challenge you in your daily walk with Him.

Ephesians 1:5-10

"In Him...He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth." Eph 1:5-10 (ESV)

Yesterday we talked about the biblical doctrine of adoption and we discovered that when we receive Christ, God adopts us into His own family. That is an amazing thought isn’t it! We are adopted children of the Creator. Now, let’s go on to see another term that describes our salvation.

Paul says that “in Him (Christ) we have redemption through His blood….” These are strange ideas to us today because we are so far removed from the culture of first century Israel. However, when we take the time to view the passage through the lens of history and apply it today we find that the meaning is really very remarkable. Take for example, the frequent discussion of blood in the New Testament. For some, that is a fairly grotesque subject. Why is the New Testament so bloody? The simple answer is that the New Testament is bloody because the Old Testament was bloody. Yet, the simple answer may not suffice in this case. What is this blood-talk all about?

You will remember that God established a sacrificial system in the Old Testament. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the Jews would bring a lamb to be slaughtered and its blood would be sacrificed for the covering over of sins (atonement). Why would God have them do such a thing? I think that there may be a number of reasons why including the fact that to that early society, the shedding of the blood of a sacrificial animal showed the seriousness of sin. They were required to use their faith and believe that this sacrifice was used by God to atone for their sins.

God, however, had more in mind with this plan. You see, the blood of the lamb was just a foreshadow, an example of God’s full and final plan, which was to sacrifice his own son to permanently remove sin. So, here in Ephesians, Paul says that we have “redemption through His (Christ’s) blood.” To fully appreciate what is being said, we need to understand another concept, redemption.

When you were saved, you were redeemed by the blood of Christ. What does that mean? Well redemption was the price that was paid to free a slave (Leviticus 25:47-54). You and I were in slavery before we were saved. This was not a physical slavery; it was spiritual in nature, slavery to sin. We couldn’t get out of it and we couldn’t stop it. We were eternally captive to the presence, power, and penalty of sin, which is separation from God. There was simply no way out for us. But when Christ died on the cross, He did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves, namely, pay the price to remove us from our captivity. This would end up to be the most costly transaction in all of history. The redemption price was the blood of Christ. Remember, this was God’s plan from the very beginning. That’s why He established the Old Testament sacrificial system. His plan was always to do for us what was beyond our reach. We would never have had the resources to pay the price, but the sinless Son of God did.

William Cowper wrote a song in the 18th century that I loved to sing when I was a child. No, I did not know Cowper personally! Yet, I still love his song. Here are the lyrics. Perhaps you will understand it a bit better because you understand the bloody redemption that is ours.

There is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel's veins;
and sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day;
and there may I, though vile as he,
wash all my sins away.

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood
shall never lose its power
till all the ransomed church of God
be saved, to sin no more.

E'er since, by faith, I saw the stream
thy flowing wounds supply,
redeeming love has been my theme,
and shall be till I die.

Pause today and thank God once again for saving you. Reflect on His work in redeeming you. Praise Him for His plan to rescue you eternally from the consequences of sin. Live today like you remember His great love and plan in your life.

2 Peter 3:18

Dennis

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