Redeemed

You may be seated. Thank you. Great job, worship team. Wonderful job leading us this morning. If you're our guest, my name is Brian.

I'm the lead pastor here. We've been studying the book of Ephesians last week. We took a week away with our annual Mission Sunday, and it was awesome. I think it was my favorite Mission Sunday we've ever had here. And if you get a chance and you weren't here, just go online and check it out.

I'd encourage you to do that. Chris Crosswhite, Director of the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake City, gave a great message, and we really appreciated his ministry. We're going to jump back into Ephesians.

So take your Bibles. There are Bibles in front of you. If you don't have one, grab one. If it's on your phone, just don't. Go on Facebook or play Candy Crush or anything like that.

Do people even play Candy Crush anymore? I don't know. They used to. They used to play it during the service sometimes.

So don't do that. Um But you get to Ephesians 1. That's where we're going to be. We have been talking About the spiritual benefits that come to us in Christ out of verse 3. And I mentioned to you that we would have a sequence of these benefits, the first of which was the benefit of election.

We called that message freely chosen. Second benefit. We talked about two weeks ago your highest privilege, and that is that you've been adopted in Christ. And that you are God's child, He's your father, and that's the highest privilege that comes to you as a Christian. And this morning we're going to look at verses 7 through 10, and we're going to think about this idea of redemption.

A number of weeks ago, a couple of months ago, we had a series where we kind of took a big picture view called the story. And we talked about creation and fall and redemption and recreation. And when we looked at redemption there, we looked at it as a large theological idea in the big scope, the big steps. Of how God has written the metanarrative that we plug our own stories into. And this morning we're going to sort of micro it a little bit because we're going to kind of dig down deep into this text and see what this text in particular tells us about redemption.

And what I'd like to do is just kind of dive in at the beginning. We've got seven, because I've got seven different insights that I want to pull out for you from these four verses: seven, eight, nine, and ten. Mm-hmm. The first one. Is what we'll call the relationship of redemption.

In its the thing that is being repeated Every message basically so far in Ephesians. And if you're tired of hearing it, that's okay. You're supposed to not be tired of it, but you're supposed to rhythmically come back again and again and again and again and again to it. And that's the intentionality of the text. That's something Paul's actually trying to do: he's trying to soak in their minds, verse 7, these two initial words, in him.

He wants them to understand the only way they have any spiritual blessing is in him in Christ.

So let me tell you a story. When I moved up here to plant lifeline now um Almost in the end of February, it'll be 20 years ago, before I moved up, we flew up and we at that time was myself and two friends to sort of look things over. I needed to look for a house and a place to live and so forth. And we ended up sitting down with a woman, young student at a local university who was of the predominant faith here in Utah. And we began talking with her.

And the conversation ended up drifting into sort of theology, and we started asking her what her perception of Jesus was and who she thought Jesus was. And as she articulated, she was very intelligent. She was actually a law student, super sharp. And she was pretty well versed. In her own theology, and she was articulating who she thought Jesus was.

And an astute friend of mine, who pastors up in the Chicago area, who was with me. He looked at her after she gave her explanation of who Jesus was, and he said. You know, based upon what you've said, Jesus doesn't sound all that different from me. And I remember my baptism into Utah when she looked at us and said. Yeah, I'm not really sure he is.

It's he's just done everything perfectly. But I'm not sure he's that different from you. What I want you to know is that in one sense, Jesus is much like you in that he was fully man. And yet at the same time, He was, in the same person, entirely different from you, being fully God.

So when we look at Christ, if you're here and you have this idea that Jesus functions as a kind of paradigmatic example of the kind of life you ought to live, and then your thoughts of Jesus largely are a full stop. I want you to know Jesus is an awful lot more than that.

So much more than that that Without Christ, what Paul is trying to say, if you come away from Ephesians 1:1 through 14, with no other lesson, it is this: that without Christ, you ain't got jack diddy squat. That's what the Greek says. Nothing. Nothing. It is all completely In him top.

To bottom.

So when he starts here in verse 7 and he says, In him we have, Paul can say that about everything. Everything. All he's doing is basically saying the spiritual blessings that you have in entirety, if they're a suitcase, here they are, and it's all you close it up, and on the luggage tag, it says Jesus. And you open it up and go, well, looky there. Look here.

Look here. And so he's just, the bag's too heavy. He's at the airport. He's got a repack, and he's just pulling it out in front of everybody. Oh, you're chosen.

Oh, you're adopted. Oh. Good. You're redeemed.

So what we got to do is think about what that means. Right? We've got to think of it nuanced, zeroed in because he's going to talk about this and he's going to kind of show the outflow of redemption a little bit for us.

So, first, you've got to establish the relationship of redemption is rooted in Christ. Christ, it is only always and forever in Him that we have. What? Redemption.

So let's talk. We got to think about. What what is That thing we call redemption.

So let's go ahead and we'll just kind of define the term a little bit. The term has a lot of related terms, by the way. In the Greek, there's all kinds of spin-outs from the root term lutrao. But at bottom, redemption means to release. By a payment, to release by a payment.

Now that shows up in a couple with kind of two nuances. With two aspects to it that are sort of logical, but they're emphasized in the text in different ways. And so the first aspect is the idea that you have a freedom that has been purchased, you've been bought. And in that purchasing, you're leaving something behind. What is it that you're leaving behind?

Well, you're leaving behind enslavement. But the question, and it was a question in church history: was you're enslaved to what?

So the church father origin Took like Mark 10:45 and thought, Well, he's a ransom for sin, but he's a ransom for us. And what's that ransom? Who's it paid to? And Origin thought, Well, it's paid to the devil. You were of your father, the devil, Jesus said, and so forth.

So the devil somehow had ownership over you. But that doesn't seem to be the emphasis of redemption in the text at all. Instead, this buying this this Purchasing a freedom There's two things the text emphasizes when it uses the words slave or enslaved to. Let me illustrate it for you and just give you a couple of scriptures. The first one is sin.

Romans 6, 6 reads this way. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved. To sin. First, you and I were enslaved to sin in the sense. that left to our own devices, we're never going to do things that match up to the glory of God.

As I said before when we talked about the doctrine of election, we're not as bad as we could be. We're not as bad as we could be. There's common grace in that way for all of us, but every part of us. Is fallen. That is, every part is darkened.

Every part is permeated. And we mentioned that we don't have to teach people to do wrong. You've never had to do that with your children. Instead, by nature, you're bent a different way. And you were enslaved if left to your own devices.

There's entropy. You're going to digress. You're going to regress. You're not going to progress, right? You're going to go a different direction.

That's not the only thing, though, the text tells us you're enslaved to. Galatians 4:3. Reads this way: in the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to what? And it gives a Greek term that you'd have to go back a few messages when we were in Colossians 2 and Colossians 3, but Colossians 2 in particular. And it was the message on redemption in that big story.

The same language was highlighted to the elementary principles of the world. It's the word stokia in Greek. And it's what are the elementary principles? It's a word that seems to have some kind of flexibility a little bit. The word literally means like the ABCs, the 123s.

But the idea that how Paul uses it seems to be some of the basic fallen elements, it includes your flesh. It includes evil forces. It includes the pull of the world, the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem. Those who were under the law.

So that we might receive adoption as sons. You're under the law in terms of the economy of the law, and yet you are enslaved to these basic elementary principles that pull on your flesh. That exacerbates the realities of sin and pull you away.

So you were purchased in freedom, is the idea in redemption. Those things, but it's not just that, it's that you had a destination. You went from something to something, and you shifted to having a new... Master, it's why Paul in 1 Corinthians 6, even in speaking of our bodies, says it does matter what you do with your body because you were. bought at a price.

Therefore honor God. With your members.

So the language of the text is not just freedom from, but it is freedom from servant. Two, and redemption sits in the space pulling you from one to the other. That's the idea of what redemption in Scripture means. 1 Peter 1:18 through 19, knowing that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your forefathers. What's that?

Well,. You could say that sort of sin and stakia turned up together. The zeitgeist that kept pulling you down. 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.

The inherited way of your forefathers is probably mapping on pretty close to what Galatians was talking about. You got the law. Tradition, you're buying into that. And now he's saying the evil one stirs that up and says, You can do this, you can figure it out yourself. And you're enslaved to an enterprise of turning your wheels in sin in the mud over and over and over again, but you've been delivered from the futility.

of that The text says, and you have been redeemed. with the precious blood of Christ.

Now, this language of blood leads us right next to the next point, which is the resource for your redemption. Look back at your text in Ephesians. In him we have redemption, and then you have the vehicle, right? You have the means, you have the resource, and it is through. His Blood.

This idea of Blood sometimes makes people, especially liberal theologians, nervous. Um back in 2013. The Presbyterian Church USA.

So years ago, there was a split in the Presbyterian Church. PCUSA went one direction, PCA Presbyterian Church of America went a different direction. Um the PCUSA we're putting together in 2013 a new hymnal. For their denomination, it was called Glory to God. That sounds great.

Well The good news ends there. Yeah. Stuart Townsend and Keith Getty. had written or town they had he had they had written a a song Is it kind of like a modern hymn called In Christ Alone?

Okay, familiar with that. Here's a line from that. In the Presbyterian Church USA wanted to include in Christ alone in their Glory to God hymno. And here's the line that was in the hymn. It said, Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.

So I'm going to come back to that idea in a moment because it does connect to this idea of redemption because of the way the text plays itself out, and you'll see that.

So that's what the hymn says.

So the Presbyterian Church USA said, we want to include the hymn in our hymn, but we need you to change something in the hymn. Would you be willing? And they went to Getty and Townsend and said, would you guys change one line? Could you change it to read this for us so we can put it in the hymn? Till on that cross as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified.

Was the love of God magnified upon the cross? The answer is yeah, sure it was. Service. What was the intent of the authors in writing instead of the love of God being magnified, which is true? that instead the wrath of God would be satisfied.

Well, there's a deep... theological truth that they were trying to get at. And what the PCUSA said is, could we just kind of swap it out? And to their credit, the author said, no. We're not going to do that.

And so they didn't include the hymn.

Now here's what I want you to see. Why? If I could say to you, the love of God be magnified in the cross, and everybody goes, I hope you would go, Amen, that's a wonderful thing. That's good news, and that's true. And if I said to you, in that same event, the wrath of God was satisfied, I hope you'd say, amen, that's wonderful, that's true.

How come the Presbyterian Church USA could not say amen to both? And they could only say amen. To the love of God be magnified. Beware of people when they only tell you half the truth. Beware.

We need the whole kitten caboodle.

Now every hymn doesn't say everything. But every hymn says things that are true. The request was born from an embarrassment. At one level, but a second part that has to do with the nature of how another term is used in Scripture, which is called propitiation. Propitiation.

So we're going to just, I want to think a little bit about that for just a second with you. Redemption in his blood. In his blood. Leviticus 17, 11 reads, For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I've given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

So atonement, you go through the Old Testament, you see sacrifice upon sacrifice upon sacrifice upon sacrifice. Is it just because God loves the smell of dead animals? Yeah. It's not. It's because Life is in the blood, and there's this symbolic notion of the very giving of life.

for God the giver of life in the sacrifice. And so, blood has a rich history that walks from the Old Testament all the way into the New Testament. And so, the idea that Christ gave His blood for you maps onto an entire theological scheme going back into the Old Testament of significance that He gave His very life for you so that you could have life because the life of all flesh is in the blood.

So, Romans 3, famous text. For all sin and fall short of the glory of God and are justified or are being justified in the Greek by his grace as a gift through what are you being, how are you being declared to be right?

Well, you're being declared to be right. It says, and this is how you put the theology together, right? Through the redemption.

So you're declared to be right because you were bought. From Given to as a servant, and in that place now, that place of service to him, you are rendered in a right standing, declared to be right before God because he purchased you, that is, in Christ Jesus. whom God put forward as, well, how did you get purchased? How'd you get purchased? As a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

Christ. Propitiation was the sacrifice of atonement, the payment of atonement, if you will, so that you could be redeemed, so that you could be justified. Yeah. So to say he was propitiated. Doesn't mean that your sin was sort of done away with.

While that's true, that's a word in theology called expiate. That's not what propitiate means. Propitiate means that God's justice toward you because of your sin was satisfied.

So, if you're telling and sharing the gospel with somebody, you weren't acquitted of your sin. To be acquitted means that the judge throws out the charges. And everybody leaves happy. No, no, no, somebody paid the penalty. The charges weren't thrown out.

Somebody paid the price, and the somebody was Christ. And he did that through the sacrifice of atonement to satisfy the wrath of God.

Now, that just sounds Halloween-ish and grisly to the liberal church. It's not. God would have to take time off from being just. To have it any other way, he'd have to turn a blind eye. At that point, what else might he turn a blind eye to?

I think you're glad for justice.

So am I, unless it falls on you. We're all glad for it. But it does fall on you. It does fall on me.

So, what are we to do? And the answer is nothing, because we can't.

So, he did.

So he did for you.

So propitiation. Is the heartbeat, if you will. It's the first. Pete of the gospel. And you want to get rid of that?

You're crazy. That's the heartbeat of it. That's not God's morbidity. That's God's mercy. to give you something.

to satisfy his justice that is just Part of his nature and his character, an essential part of his nature, and an essential part of his character. In propitiation, the justice of God is satisfied in redemption. We're brought to him. were brought to him. Listen to 1 John 4.10.

In this is love. Not that... We loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to what? Be the propitiation. For our sense.

The blood.

So we'll sing about the blood. We'll revel in the blood. In him, we have redemption through his blood, and then you get this. result that flows from it, right? The forgiveness of our trespasses.

The word trespass there, when you think, there's a bunch of different words in Greek, in the New Testament, for sin. Most predominantly probably is the word hamartia, which typically means like an archery. You miss the mark and you hit another mark. You miss the mark of God's character, his holiness, his glory, and you hit another mark.

So but you have terms that overlap. Think of them like concentric circles, right? Where they have different little nuances, and that's why it's translated trespass here. But this term means in is sort of synonymous with that idea when you look at the collective whole and the use of the terms. It's not a kind of mistake or hoop-de-doo or a stumble or a struggle.

It's a willful act on the part of the one who does it. And yet you're forgiven. You're forgiven for that, and the idea in biblical theology, in other texts outside of this, this doesn't get fully there. the forgiveness of our trespasses, we might ask, but how many We might ask, but what trespasses? And what we find in other texts of Scripture is that we're forgiven past, we're forgiven presently.

Present and we're forgiven future. And we find that forgiveness is a total kind of result. For us, let me just give you two texts, and I'm keen to move on to the next point because I want to spend a little time on it. But for now, Colossians Two, thirteen. Oop, let me go back.

Colossians 2:13. And you. who were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.

So we learn forgiveness is the basis of having life in Christ. He has delivered us, Colossians 1:13 and 14, earlier in that same letter, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. in whom we have redemption. The forgiveness. of sins.

It's a way of explaining The result of redemption.

So I am. Released by payment, and in that transition, in that transaction, I receive forgiveness for past. That's good news. But if that's The end of it, what happened is I'm sort of given a standing today, and now it's on me, baby. And I better get going and I better figure it out moving forward.

Instead, I receive forgiveness for what's happening now in my present life. Sin runs very deep, by the way. Lots of ways probably this week we sinned that we may not even fully identified even with our attitudes and dispositions. And I'm forgiven in my future. And so I can go into the future not going, hey, it's easy straight.

Right, you'll see that in the next point. Not that it's easy, Street, but I can go. Go forward, and I don't have to live in a kind of tenuous tyranny of insecurity about my spiritual state before God. It allows you, because of the truth that you're forgiven, past, present, and future. Not to live by a kind of licentiousness, but to live by a life-giving liberty in Christ that allows you not to walk.

Can you imagine having to walk, wondering where you're stepping every single step? I mean, my goodness, wondering if I'm gonna somehow sin my way out of this gift. that somehow I'll disqualify myself from the prize. It would be a tyranny. Over you.

But instead His atoning propitiation speaks in totality. Purchasing you.

Well, that's one of the languages, one of the reasons why we get the next language, according to the Riches. It's it's the wealth. The wonder the magnificence of this grace that he gives us. That is that which Redeems. Look at your text.

Start again at the beginning of verse 7. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to... On the basis of The riches of his grace, and then he begins to say something else about them, which he, and I just love this language, and I want you to think a little bit about it, which he lavished upon us. Which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.

Now, one of the things that can trick you a little bit, the way the English is worded here. That I want you to see through a little bit is he lavished upon us in all wisdom insight, might lead you initially to read that and think, so God being wise and insightful. lavished his grace upon us. I don't think that is what's happening in in the Greek text here. I think instead the wisdom and insight isn't that Which drives his lavishing, but it actually seems like it's what's included in the lavishing.

And here's what I mean. It's actually something. that he gives to you. He gives to you. Namely, because of what's about to come, where he's going to unveil a mystery, he's giving you wisdom.

and insight. To be able to see the implications of what redemption means for you and what His grace constitutes in your life.

So, it'd be helpful for us just to take a minute and think about this idea. This word lavishing means like. Think overabundant or unsparing. would be a way to think about it. Overabundant or unsparing.

That is, that there's nothing left. In the reservoirs of grace that are not emptied out for you. It's all poured out for you.

So the idea, this is why my grace is sufficient. For you. It's not some iterative. Kind of notion that in the moment God's grace will somehow show up in the moment and grease the gears of the difficult life. It's rather that through the cross of Christ, he poured it all out.

It's all there on the shop floor for you. It's all available. But what does an awareness of His lavish grace. Do for us. Understanding that superabundance and that wealth.

So I wanted to give you five different things and just mention them for you. The first is it reframes our desire to not disappoint, despise, or defame him. It moves and shifts it. It's not anymore that I have to walk right so I don't step off some spiritual path and blow it for myself. It's not that.

It's that He having bestowed upon me. The whole kitten caboodle. having given me Everything. in that way. Why Why would I want to disappoint him?

Why would I want to defame him? Why would I want to despise him? That is, my steps aren't measured because I feel insecure. Rather, they're measured by gratitude. They're measured by wonder.

They're measured by being awestruck. They're measured by the appreciation of the grace of God.

So when somebody says to me, ooh, you think salvation is all by grace, I mean, so you can just go do whatever you want, I know immediately they have no idea what grace is. They just categorically do not understand the nature of grace. Because they think grace is license. They think grace is acquittal. They don't see grace connected to propitiation.

They don't see grace tied to redemption. They don't see the movement from being a slave to sin to a slave to righteousness, to quote Paul in Romans 6. They're missing it. Instead, Understanding, it reframes our desire in that way. Second, it reminds us that we don't deserve it.

If you keep getting, keep getting, you ever had somebody serve you in your life and it's like they can't turn the water of service off, they just keep. And you almost start feeling awkward about it. Can I do this? I feel really bad that you're doing all these things for me, and I wonder if I could. You can't.

You have a hard time receiving. Living in un Mitigated. Grace.

Well Understanding the lavish nature of it reminds us on a regular basis that you don't deserve it. Let me ask you a question. When you sin against God, My guess is your initial existential impulse is to feel out of place with him. It's to feel like something is wrong. That's not all bad.

But there's a half step towards shame that happens real fast. And you live in that identity, and you're tempted to stay in that because you haven't been reminding yourself. That he's always, not just at the cross, but he's always, because that forgiveness speaks forever, he's always applying that to you, always applying that to your account. You're never outrunning it. You're always the recipient of something you don't deserve, but you need to live in that in joy.

In gladness. Third, it restores us from swimming in guilt and self-pity. Where you think, I'm just such a horrible person. If you knew how bad I was, I did so bad, I just don't understand.

Well, he understands, and that's why he gave you his grace. 'Cause you knew you'd never be able to clean your crap up. You knew that. He knew you'd never be able to fix it. He knew that you'd try, try, try, try, try, try, try, and you'd finally go, this ain't working.

I tried so hard. Get all worked up. And sometimes you do that as a believer. What's that show? Diagnostic, you don't understand grace.

You're not grasping that. Right? You're not grasping it yet. It revoices, very importantly, the internal track of shame that would play in our minds otherwise. It revoices it.

Any of you ever use the app Dwell? Anybody here use the app Dwell?

Sometimes I'll use the App Dwell. It's this great app that has It reads scripture with like little background music to it, and you can choose your tracks and all this stuff. And if you want, you can pick Rosie. That's one of the voices, and she talks like this, and she's from Britain, and it's wonderful as you listen to her chit-chat over you and read about the love of God. And I just thought Rosie.

It's just soothing, right? The track just goes over. Set your mind at ease, relax, meditate as Rosie, the British woman, just speaks grace over you, right? You can do all different kinds of stuff with that. The point is this.

Theologically, understanding grace. All of you have, I got one, I got an internal track. I got stuff that goes in my mind when I sin. I got stuff that goes in my mind when I'm hurt. I got stuff that goes in my mind when I know that I've done something I shouldn't.

And immediately, shame, hiding, frustration, anger. Lashing. Understanding the lavish grace of God revoices the track. It reminds you that you're still safe. You're still safe with him.

It reboots us. To not be defined by our sin or another sin against us. That's a really good one. What does that mean? That means that more often than not in relationships, my sin.

ends up Legitimately? Or illegitimately being tied off in my mind and in my communication to someone else. Think of a marriage. When you do that, it makes me so angry.

Now all of a sudden they're responsible because you're a jerk. Because if they weren't in your life You wouldn't have been made. Angry. They're the causative principle now for your own iniquity. Right?

Well, that that's just a way of absolving yourself of responsibility. Here's the good news. The good news is grace has freed you. from being coerced by the sin of another to sin in return. Grace has freed you.

From being moved by the sin of another to live in shame. Because of their sin. Maybe you were abused and you felt shame your whole life and you've never been able to get out from under it. There's only one way you can get out from under it. I mean, it may constitute sitting down and talking through trauma with somebody.

Those are important things for psychological reasons that are deeply valuable. Don't misunderstand me. But the only way you're going to ultimately get past it is by the experience of the lavish grace of God that says to you, the sin of another doesn't define you. They don't get the say in your life because only one has the say and it is in him that we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to his grace which he lavished. On us.

is poured it out of the Storehouse. of his own resources. We get this lavish grace in all wisdom and insight. We're given into what?

Well, that's the next point, verse 9. All wisdom and insight. making known to us.

Well, we need the wisdom and insight so that we can understand what he's going to make known, what he's going to reveal to us, the mystery of his Will, 28 times in the New Testament, this idea of mystery is used. 21 of them are Paul, six of them, almost a third of them are right here in Ephesians. Between Ephesians and Colossians, that have parallel ideas, 10 of the 21 are mentioned. This mystery of his will. That is that he's revealing something.

To us. Yeah. Then it was waiting. It was waiting. for us.

But it's revealed and it's revealed according to look at the text It's revealed according to his purpose. Which, if you were here when we talked through verse 5, you'll remember that the word purpose there, and the word purpose here is the same, and the word is best rendered good. Pleasure. His you dochia. Good you.

His pleasure, Dokia, his good pleasure. He wanted to do it. He wanted to lay it all out in Christ, which he set forth in Christ, it says.

So you have this revelation that comes, little hints of it along the way. You ever remember the old 80s show, Murder She Wrote? Anybody watch that? The great theologian Angela Lansberry. Right?

We used to watch it when I was a kid. My parents and I would watch it. And my father would always, and it was frustrating because it'd be like six minutes into the show, he'd be like, he did it. He did it. I'm like, how do you know he doesn't know?

Sure enough, you did it. You're watching for the clues, and then if it's a really good episode, they do a good job concealing it, and then Angela deliberates and tells the whole story. First of all, you should never be her friend because everybody around the woman dies.

So I have no idea how somebody gets in contact with that much death in their life, but she did. But it's fascinating how it would be revealed at the end. That's the idea. The Bible has these hints along the way, right? You read Isaiah, oh, wait.

Restitution of all things. Yeah. You get this sense that something, some servant suffers, comes. You go even before then, there'll be a future prophet. That will come, Deuteronomy 18.

You get this sense all along through the text in, I mean, thousands of ways where it just points something future. And then what Paul does is he says, that all. Cashes itself out in Christ. It's like a mystery. You get to the end.

And Paul is Angela Lansbury. And he goes, Here's how it all ties together, friend. All the Old Testament sacrificial system, blood, forgiveness, I've given it to you. The life of all flesh is in the blood. He's working a huge plan for you, and it's going to cash out this mystery.

According to his purpose, we set forth in Christ. a revelation of it as a plan for the fullness of time. Greek fullness. of times It's plural. Fullness of times.

Why is that important?

Well, it's important because what's being talked about here is the end of all things. That he cashes it out in Jesus with a view to how it all will finish. What it all means when the one who redeemed you is enthroned. The one who redeemed you has brought everything in subjection to himself in a new civilization where the purchase, having now been fully actualized, has brought a whole people into a whole new kind of life as a plan for the fullness of times to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Now, I love the ESV. Love the translation. It's great. Didn't do awesome here, and I'm going to show you.

So the reach of redemption. First, Revelation 11:15. This is the culmination of all things. Seventh trumpet, the angel blew his trumpet, seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.

So right now we're in this battle of kingdoms, right? We're in this peace where it shades one direction sometimes. It's true of almost everything you're involved in in life. Where God's glory is more on display in certain things and becomes less on display because of the defamation of sin in regard to his nature and character. And so we're constantly in this place of shaded kings, but one day, One day the kingdom of the world become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.

Okay. And it says to unite all things. And here's what we need to think about with this. Oh, the Greek didn't translate. I actually had the Greek text up there, but I think we don't have the Greek font on our computer back there, and I just found it out.

There you go.

Now it looks like a Ugandan word.

Now it looks like a Ugandan word.

Oh well, now it's not really gonna work, but I'll do it anyway.

So If I had the Greek text up here, Kefale. See that middle part? Kefale? Kephale is the Greek word for head.

Okay, it's the Greek word for head. In what the term is actually saying is not so much just to unite all things in him. But it is to bring them together. And the Greek term is also a middle voice, which means to bring them together in himself. This is what the Father is doing.

He's bringing them together in himself under the head. That's what it's saying. It's not just about union in Christ. It's about the headship. of Christ, His rulership.

Over all things.

So it's not just a gathering, but it's a gathering beneath. The enthroned Christ. To unite them together in that way, to bring together for himself under the head. But the magic kind of went with the font.

Sorry.

So it is sometimes in a fallen world. But one day, if I was doing this in glory, the Greek would be up there.

Okay. But the devil fell in the system. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory. of God. the father. All things in heaven and on earth. What does that mean?

It it means everything. Here's what you need to understand. It means, you see that end under the earth? What what does that mean? And under the earth?

Like what happens when you go under the ear like It means But even In Alienated spaces like eternal hell. People are subject. to the glory of Christ. There is no place where the glory of Christ's authority, that's why they're there. They rejected that authority in principle, but they'll never be able to outrun the practical power of that authority.

He is ruler. Over. But this is tied in context here as a plan for the fullness time to unite all things in him, things in heaven, and things on earth, with this idea of redemption. He redeems According to his grace.

So that he can do all of this. Colossians 1:19 through 20. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself. All things whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And I want to hold a thought.

I'm going to come back to it, but I want to read you one other text in closing. This is Romans 8, 19 through 23. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

Now I want you to pay attention to this text. What's waiting? for your redemption. Creation. Was that me?

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. This is speaking about, listen, the redemption of the created order. Purchased. Freedom.

Okay. For God from bondage. For we know that the whole creation. Has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons.

And then comma, and it explains. What triggers the adoption of sons? The redemption of our bodies. Or rather, what is the culmination, in a sense as well, of that, the redemption of our bodies? Here's what I want you to see.

In Colossians 1, And in Romans 8. Redemption.

The death of Christ on your behalf. is actually Bigger. than just saving you. All right.

So when you talk about what what's the purpose of the atonement, You have to ask the question the right way. The text is driving us to say, What are the purposes? Of the atonement, it's not just one. Because one of the purposes of the atonement is so that All creation is brought into subjection. to him.

That includes heavenly beings. and earthly beings. That they're all brought In subjection. to him. So that everything gets reordered.

And what's it all waiting for? It's waiting.

Now For the Lord to finish his plan and his purpose, which includes your Redemption. You're being redeemed. Years ago, Yeah. The blind hymn writer Fanny Crosby wrote a famous hymn. You some of you know it.

But you got to listen. I'm just going to read the four verses. I'm not going to read the chorus, but the four verses. Because I want you to think about a blind woman. A blind woman sitting and writing this.

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, exclamation point. is how it begins. I just love to talk about it. She said. Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed through his infinite mercy, his child, and forever, because that abiding grace, forever I am.

This is a rich theology of redemption in this song. Verse 2, redeemed and so happy in Jesus. Is that you? I mean, when's the last time you woke up and said Riddle! Fanny did.

And then in archaic language, no language my rapture can tell. What's that mean? She's saying I am so awestruck. I'm so enraptured by the thought of redemption. I don't know what to say.

I know that the light of his presence with me doth continually dwell. How you doing today? Mm mm, I was all right. You know. It's hard, I mean, his life's hard and it's hard, and I feel it's hard, and it's It's just kinda hard.

What about the light of his presence? Does it continually dwell with you? I think of my blessed Redeemer. I think of him all the day long. I sing, for I cannot be silent.

His love is the theme of my song. That's the track. That's running. Final verse, I know I shall see his beauty, the king in whose law I delight. Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps.

And then I think about this blind woman. Who giveth me songs in the night? You knew the song in the night? And guess what? It's already been played.

It's already echoing off the halls of eternity. And it will forever. You are redeemed. You are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Who, according to his grace, has lavished upon you so much to unfold the mystery before you and to be the one who unites all things under the Lordship of Christ.

that forever you celebrate in the security of a never-ending joy.

So Maybe we all start living like it. Lord, help us. We need you. to apply this In the crevices of our daily experience.

so that we don't know it in theory, but we know it in practice. And I ask that you would come alongside us and help us to this end. You and you alone are the one who can help us with this. You and you alone are the one that can remind us of the light of your goodness. of the wonder of your grace.

So I pray that you do it, Lord. Thank you that we are redeemed. In Jesus' name, Amen.