We'll turn to 1 Peter chapter 1 and we will look at, I guess, an expansion of what we've been looking at as I'm trying to do some preliminary reading and getting ready to preach through the Old Testament prophet of Zephaniah, but I'm not there yet. But I have a two-part message called perfect redemption.
Perfect redemption. Look at 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 18 and 19. We'll not just do an exposition of this, but we will draw from it and do something of a systematic overview of this topic of Christian redemption. 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 18 and 19. Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from a futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers.
Now let me stop right there for a moment. Redemption, our being redeemed with silver and gold, was very common in this day. Slavery was everywhere. About half of the Roman Empire were slaves, in the early days at least, and so it was common for somebody to be sold into slavery, maybe for a debt or maybe they were just born into slavery, and then a relative, our friend, or someone take their silver and gold and pay the slave owner and purchase their freedom. So they were no longer under the dominion, the ownership, the enslavement of their former master. So that was very common. So when Peter writes this, they knew exactly what he was talking about.
It's kind of weird to us, but very, very common in the ancient world, really up until 150, 200 years ago. So knowing that you are not redeemed, there's the word, with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers. Verse 19, but with precious blood, as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. He uses verse 19 to note the superiority, the infinite greater worthiness of what it took to redeem our souls, purchase us from the dominion of Satan, purchase us out of the bondage of sin, if you will, to be a true child of God. Now in professing Christendom, maybe you could say there's been two major streams of understanding of redemption.
I think one is the true stream and one is a weak, if not totally false, stream. The first one would be those who say that when Jesus died, he made redemption possible. There is the potential for redemption through the cross. The second stream, which is my stream and our stream, is that it is a particular redemption.
Not just potential, but particular. But to sum it all up in the best way, I think you need to use the phrase, it is a perfect redemption. A perfect redemption. Now it's got to be perfect, of course, because it's ordained of the Godhead. God the Father authored it. God the Son accomplished it.
God the Holy Spirit applies it to our lives. Now I have two main points in this first half of this message on perfect redemption. Romans 1 will be the perfect man and the perfect plan.
The perfect man and the perfect plan. Then Romans 2 is going to be the perfect execution of the perfect plan, alright? Locked in Satan's dungeon, prisoners of sin, our future prospects, death, hell, and the grave. We were sinners from the heart, transgressors of God's law. Divine justice was against us and holy wrath was upon us.
Guilt and condemnation was our banner. Romans 5, 10 reminds us we were the enemies of God. Yes, we were God's enemies naturally speaking, but most shocking of all, He was our enemy. But out of an all-consuming passion for His own glory and in great invincible love, God made the bold choice to cast divine favor on us.
Man who is in such a state before God that if left to himself, he was in the irreparable condition. Yet in this invincible love, in this bold choice, God elected some before the world began to be saved to be His children. The Bible uses the words for those who He would save as, quote, the called, or those He foreknew or who were foreknown, or those who were chosen, those who were predestined, those who were given to the Son by the Father, those who are His people, those who are the elect. These were to be the subjects of a special divine love and a sovereign grace.
Remember grace means to cast favor or to do good toward those who had no wise could possibly earn it or deserve it. So God in this divine love said, I'm going to cast this favor on those. But had God only elected some and stopped there, we would have never been saved. Those who are elected or chosen by the Father were given therefore to the care of the Son, for they must be redeemed.
The law of God is immutable and it stands as long as God stands. And the elect children were in a guilty condemned state before a holy God. They were in bondage to the slave market of sin.
Exiled citizens bound in Satan's kingdom. But God provided the redemption. Now let's define the word redemption. Now again this is one of those sermons where you're gonna have to worship by working hard at thinking, alright?
Don't just go through the doldrums and hope that I can keep your attention, but purpose to work hard at thinking about the glories of all that God has done. Redemption very simply means to pay the ransom price or the debt that is owed to release someone from their present state. To pay the ransom price or the debt that is owed to a master to release someone out of that state of slavery. And what a present state we were in. Let's remind ourselves of this by thinking afresh on Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 where Paul is writing to the church at Ephesus and he summarizes our basic condition before this triune holy God. He said, And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. And among them too we all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest. So he says first of all you were dead, you were dead in trespasses and sins. Then he says you were deviant when you walked according the course of this world.
You were demonized because you walked according to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan. You were disobedient because you were one of the sons of disobedience, that's verse 2 Ephesians chapter 2. You were deranged because you lived in the lust of your flesh and indulged in the desires of your flesh, verse 3. And you were damned because you were by nature a child of wrath.
The idea is your very genetic composition, your very being in the womb of your mom cried for God to crush you in wrath. That's the state that we were in before we are redeemed. Now if there was going to be a redemption for us, a bringing us out from under that, there has to be a Redeemer.
It can't just happen. God would be unjust if he was to say I'm just going to forget it. No, there had to be an actual redemption so there has to be an actual Redeemer and there was a necessity for this. God had decreed the redemption of his children. Ephesians 1 for just as he chose us in him, the Redeemer, that's him, Jesus, before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. So because God decided, God also decreed that those whom he chose would one day be before him holy and blameless.
Now how is he going to work that out? He's going to have to have someone competent to be a Redeemer to bring us to that place because we certainly couldn't lift ourselves there. The actual redemption must be performed. The divine justice that was against the elect children must be satisfied. That is why the Bible speaks even of the necessity of Christ's death.
Now think about that. Now often when as a young Christian when I heard a preacher talk about the necessity of Christ's death, I thought that's because I deserve a fair shake. That's because I'm important enough that I ought to have a pattern or a path or a way somewhere to get out from under the sin and sin's curse and judgment and get to heaven one day.
But that's wrong thinking. The Bible speaks of the necessity of Christ's death not because God owes man any redemption and any forgiveness. He absolutely does not owe us anything. He could have left all of us just as he left the fallen angels when they sinned. He left them under condemnation. But for his own glory and out of his own great love he initiated a plan of action. His plan, this perfect plan, that's what we're talking about now, required one to fill the office of Messiah. That's the Hebrew word for the anointed one. Or you go over to the Greek language, the New Testament text, he called one, he appointed one to fulfill the office of the Christ. That's the Greek correspondent to the Hebrew Messiah.
Sometimes we can even use the word Savior. So God's plan was I need one to fill this office and the execution of the duties of the office of the Christ or the Messiah. To bring and perform the redemption of Saviorhood, if you will. Jesus, second person of the Godhead, the Son of God, assumed this office, this position. And so since he assumed that responsibility to be the Father's Messiah, to be the Father's Christ, to take on this office of responsibility of redemption for the children, then it was fitting and it was necessary that he suffer to pay the price to redeem the children. Luke 24 26, powerful phrases here. Luke 24 26, was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory.
Now again, necessary. Not necessary because you deserve it, not necessary because you're special, but necessary because God decreed the children would one day be before him in love, in holiness, and in purity. See it all starts with God, it all continues with God, and it all ends with God. It was necessary since God ordained the redemption of the children for the one who would fulfill this office as Redeemer, Savior, Christ, Messiah. Whoever fulfilled that office, it was necessary that he suffer that the redemption would be completed.
The purpose of the office would be fulfilled. Hebrews 2 10 says it this way, for it was fitting for him, proper and right for him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. So again, same thing, it's fitting, it's right and proper that Jesus, since he stepped into fully and wholly willfully, saying, I will Father take on the responsibility, the duties, the work of the office of the Christ, the Savior, to redeem the children. And so it's fitting then that he suffer to complete redemption's price, to release us from sin and Satan's bondage. Now the text went on in Hebrews 2 10, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. Now Jesus needed no perfecting, but the work need to be brought to its proper complete end.
So for Jesus to take on the role of the Christ, for Jesus to take on the role of the Messiah, the Savior, he must suffer in the right way and in a full way and in a just way on behalf of the children so that he would fulfill that office and the children would be redeemed. So a bold plan which extended to the elect, this special favor of God was initiated by God the Father and taken on willfully by God the Son. God the Father, you see, was not about to allow the plan to fail.
So he put his best man on it. That's why I call it the perfect man and the perfect plan. Jesus is the only true God-man. 100% God as if he were not man at all and 100% God our man as if he were not God at all. He's fully God and fully man at the same time. He had to become man to enter into our place, if you will, and redeem us, but he never ceased to be God. Jesus gladly accepted the charge and the commission and the Father gave the care of the elect children over to the Son Jesus. It will require Christ's perfect obedience, perfect suffering, perfect death, bearing the children's sins, enduring divine wrath in their place. The question would be, could he fail? Can he fail? Absolutely not.
Not a chance. John 3 39 reminds us of all that he has given me I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. So about 2,000 years ago Jesus came, born of the Virgin Mary, born in an obscure village called Bethlehem, born in a livestock shelter and laid in a livestock feed trough, and there in that livestock feed trough was the Son of God, the Redeemer, the one who came in the office of the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior.
This was not as we would have expected, not to come in such a lowly way, in such a way of meekness, humility, but this was just as the Prophet had foretold. Now it was established in the counsel of the Godhead that Jesus would come and purchase our redemption, and he was born. He stepped in that first Christmas morning out of eternity and into time, and soon the great climactic work, the greatest work of all eternity and all time would be accomplished. Just before his birth the angel announced to Joseph the divine plan of which he and Mary were to play a part.
As the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 1 21, she will bear a son and he will save his people from their sins, and he would. He will go to the cross, purchase his people, pay the ransom price, satisfying the demands of divine justice which were against his people, and complete their redemption. He's born now, he's here now, now it was only a matter of time because he was the perfect man fulfilling the Father's perfect plan to redeem their children. So that's Roman numeral one, the perfect man, the perfect plan. Now Roman numeral two, the perfect execution of the plan by the perfect man, the perfect execution of the plan by the perfect man. Jesus assumed an unlimited liability for the children. He walked into this earth just as he walked into the office of Messiah and basically his conviction was this, whatever it takes to secure these precious souls for time and for all eternity is what I will do.
What a devotion, what a commitment, what a love, what a selflessness, what a humility. Sin removed, let's remind ourselves of this, sin removed is not the ultimate goal of the plan. To be redeemed from sin is not the ultimate goal. To be redeemed is not the end, the end of redemption, the end of sin removed is reconciliation. It's so that we might come to be with God. When Jesus died he didn't purchase heaven, he purchased you. You get to heaven because you're his.
When Jesus died he purchased your precious soul and he just happens to dwell in heaven and that's where you're gonna be, where he is. So reconciliation is the end of all of these glorious things and theologians and Bible writers have used various things from the historical context of their day, like the word redemption comes from the slave market of the day and the word propitiation, of course, from the Old Testament sacrifice, the mercy seat, and on and on we go, the great day of atonement. All of these gives us pictures and glimpses of the multifaceted gem of what is our full redemption, our full reconciliation, if you will. So to have reconciliation, sin stood in the way so redemption's price must be paid so that we the children might be reconciled to God. Romans 5 10 says, if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God.
What a glorious thought. While we were, he's the God, remember last week, he's the God who justifies the ungodly. Now while we were sinners we reconciled to God. It means he does it all. Jesus paid it all.
All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain and he washed it white as snow. Now some of the words again that theologians and come from Scripture, come from the culture of the day, that I just want us to look at. In our redemption he provided propitiation, which is the idea of the mercy seat. They'd sprinkle the blood, the priesthood on the mercy seat and it was a sense of covering of sin and covering of guilt. Jesus did provide that.
There's a, in order for the reconciliation, if you and another person are at odds with each other and there's a debt owed or an offense caused, you have to do something to cover that, that the two parties might come back together in agreement. And that's the picture of propitiation. Covering of our guilt, covering of our sin, that man in God might be brought back together. And then a similar and certainly related, and these just dovetail and overlap each other, expiation of our sin. That means the removing or the taking away of all that was offensive between man and God. He's the propitiation he covers. He provides the expiation, the removal or the taking away of our sin. And he has satisfied in his death the offended party, which wasn't us. We were not offended with God.
God was offended by us. These are truths which we are using, the Bible uses and theologians use, to try to describe the glorious biblical truths of Christ's redemption. Jesus provided the propitiation, he provided the expiation, and then we use the word atonement. Atonement. The idea of atonement is the bringing together in agreement. I think you could argue that the word atonement, our different theologians are going to massage this different ways, but generally speaking propitiation, covering, expiation, taken away, are all a part of the atonement which brings us together with God in agreement.
What a price was paid to cause that to happen. Now one of the things that I think we need to remember that when we think about the atonement is that we do not receive the atonement, God receives the effects of the atonement. They were his children, he had marked them out. They're his chosen, his elect, but he can't bring them to himself because their sin prevents it. They are not holy and they are not blameless before him, so God provided the atonement to his son Jesus Christ that we might be brought to him and he and his holy character is no longer offended by us being in his presence.
What a gift that is. You just think on that for a moment. With all the sin that we are, with all the gift that we bear, with all the failure and the shortcomings and the unholiness we have, listen, God is no longer offended for you to come boldly into his presence. Sometimes our Church across friends and others who would teach that salvation includes our works and that if you teach people that it's full of grace and it's fully free like I'm preaching today, then people won't come to church and they won't give their tithes and what they won't serve the Lord. They will if God's gotten a hold of their hearts and made them grateful, grateful and humbled and joyous that they as sinners can now come boldly. You didn't clean yourself up, but you can come boldly. You didn't make yourself holy, but you can become boldly. You didn't make yourself clean, but you can come boldly. Why?
How? Because the Redeemer, the one who walked into the office of the Christ, the one who walked into the office of the Messiah, he said, I'll take the responsibility, Father, for bringing the children home. He has caused you to be one who can walk into God's presence just like you are, but with no longer an offense to God.
My, my, my, my, that's good news. Theology shouldn't be cold and of the letter. It should warm our hearts with gratitude and thanksgiving and joy. So we do not receive the effects of the atonement. In effect, God receives the effects.
He is no longer offended. Jesus took our place. 1 Peter 2 24 reminds us, he bore our sins in his body on the cross.
He's borne them and therefore fully redeemed us. Jesus perfectly pays the ransom price and then from the cross he rises again and he sins to the Holy of Holies in heaven. And there when he enters into heaven, Jesus doesn't bring an offering. He is the offering. Jesus doesn't bring the sacrifice. He is the sacrifice. It's as if Jesus walks to the Father and says, Father, I have obeyed your will.
I've executed your plan. I've fulfilled the office of Messiah or Christ and these wounds and this blood is to appease your holy nature that was against them. These wounds and this blood is to satisfy your holy law that condemned them. These wounds and this blood is to cover their sin and their guilt. These wounds and this blood are for the removal of the breach that was between you and the children. These wounds, Father, and this blood is for the Holy Reconciliation of you with your children. And it's as if the Father looks at the Son and says to Jesus, now this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. You got the whole job done.
Here's my word perfectly. That's why I get quite frustrated when I see the Roman Catholic system or any other system of religion that somehow teaches that there's a part of man to play, to add on to, to contribute to, to complete the worth of Christ. It's as if the Father would say to the Son when he got up into heaven, you did good, Son, but it's not quite far enough to get the children home.
They hold the power in their hands to finish this whole contract, to execute this whole redemption thing. What a blasphemous undermining of Jesus' work and fulfillment of his office of Christ and Messiah. So Jesus walks up to God the Father. God the Father says, now this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased and from now on and throughout all eternity I will be equally pleased in all of the children on whose behalf you've died. So now if the Father sits in heaven and says, I am fully satisfied in Jesus and because of what he's done on behalf of the children in redemption, I am also equally fully satisfied in all my children.
From the human perspective, all who repent and believe on Jesus. You couldn't be more saved. You couldn't be more secure.
You couldn't be more treasured. You couldn't be more one with God than Jesus could make you be because he is one with God and you are in him. The Father looks at Jesus and says, of all that I entrusted to your care, you have through your obedience and death brought them safely home.
The perfect execution of my perfect plan. 2nd Corinthians 5 21 reminds us, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Galatians 4, 4 and 5, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that he might redeem those who were under the law and we, limited number by the way, might receive the adoption as sons. Isaiah 53 6, God has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.
That was the redemption price. It all fell on him. Romans 9 26, I read the Hebrews 9 26, once at the consummation of the ages he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. John 1 29, behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. So the Lord Jesus fulfilled all the legal responsibilities for those he came to save. Though he himself had no personal criminality, he stood in our place and he stood for us. The Father gave the elect children into the care of Jesus our elder brother and Jesus performed all that was required by law to free us from Satan's house and sin bondage.
The redemption price was paid. We are now adopted in God's family with all the privileges and rights of a legal heir. Galatians 4 5, again, in order that he might redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. Romans 3 26 reminds us that he is the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Wow, so so pregnant with meaning. God did not find a way around the law manipulate or bend the corners of law that would be unjust but he remained fully just as Jesus fully and righteously took our place before the bar of law and took the requirements of law's punishment so that we might be fully redeemed. So God is fully just but can now justify all of us the ungodly.
Again, we could have been left as we were. There was no obligation on God's part to do this. We could have been left like the sinful angels who are still under condemnation but God didn't do that. I mean God could have remained the just and the condimmer of all men but instead through Jesus Christ he becomes just and the justifier of the children. It wasn't his plan to leave us as the angels in our condemned state.
Again, the father's plan for his own great glory and in his own invincible love for the elect children made the bold choice to show them this unique and divine favor and in this favor he sent Jesus to be the Redeemer. Isaiah 41 14 reminds us do not fear you worm Jacob. Strong language isn't it? Do not fear you worm Jacob. You men of Israel. Do not fear you worm Jacob. You men of Israel. Well God what do you mean? I'm so wretched that I'm a worm.
Yeah, but he doesn't end there. Do not fear you worm Jacob. You men of Israel. I will help you.
I will help you. Wait a minute God, you're the one we've grossly sinned against. You're the one who deserves every thought of our day to be honoring, respectful, obedient, and pleasing to you and sometimes I can go most of the day and never think about you. That's what worms do. You're a worm compared to the holiness of God and before this holy God, but God I can't wrap my brain around this guys. God says to these holy undeserving, deserving worms, don't fear.
Nothing in you compels me, but something in me compels me, so I will help you. When you go to God and ask for forgiveness, when you go to God and plead for mercy, you do not go on the merits of you tried hard last week. You do not go on the merits of I'll try to do better. You do not go to God on the merits of I've done better than most of those people. God should crush you into oblivion for such a thought. You go and say, God I beg for mercy on one basis and one basis only. You're very character, but you have a mercy I know not of. You have a grace and a goodness I can't contemplate or comprehend, and based on the perfections of your very being in this love and grace and goodness, I ask for forgiveness. Isaiah 41 14, do not fear you worm, Jacob, you men of Israel. I will help you, declares the Lord, and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. I need to get to heaven so that I can have a perfect mind to better grasp the infinite glories of those statements.
You're a worm, but I'm gonna help you, and I'm just not gonna help you with another guy or lady or person or angels. I'm gonna bring the Holy One, Jesus, and He'll redeem you, He'll help you. Titus 2 14 reminds us, He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself, it's all about Him, a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Fanny Crosby wrote a lot of good songs, she was a simple hymn writer, but a brilliant hymn writer. Some rich theology in a lot of her songs, listen to the words of this one, just part of it, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, oh what a foretaste of glory divine, heir of salvation, purchase of God. That's redemption. Now notice you're the heir already, and since you're the heir, you're a child, you're chosen, you're elect one, Jesus comes as redeemer and purchases you by going to the cross and paying the ransom price. Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. Brothers and sisters, what I preach to you, this is my story, this is my song. The Bible says when you get saved, you get a new song, and we might chat along and hum along, sing along to some of the songs of this world, but that's not our real song. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest, I and my Savior am happy and blessed, watching and waiting, looking above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long, this is my story. Somebody asked you, what do y'all believe down there at Grace Life Church? You need to get just sermon, that's my story, that's what we believe, that's our song. Praising my Savior, praising my Christ, praising my Messiah, praising my Redeemer. He cannot fail, he cannot fail as the cross, so you cannot lose your salvation.
Do you get that? The Father gave him the office and the duties of securing the children, the only way you can lose your salvation if he fails in his duties. Of all that the Father gives me, I lose not one. This is my story, I'm kind of hung on that, have you noticed? And this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long.
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