God created man and gave him a choice: obey and be blessed or disobey and be condemned. Man chose poorly. And from the first sin, all the way to now, and for as long as sin exists, there is only one way for sinful man to be restored to a right relationship with his sinless Creator – REDEMPTION.
Because God is holy, just, righteous, perfect…, our sin separates us from Him. To be separate from God is spiritual death. The problem with spiritual death is, our souls are eternal. If you are spiritually dead when your physical body dies, you will spend eternity in Hell. Hell is not a fairy tale or a lie. It is a real place created for Satan and the angels who joined him in rebelling against God. Hell is a place of eternal torment.
That’s the bad news. The good news is there is a way to spend eternity in Heaven with God. Heaven is a place of eternal blessings. For this to happen, you must be spiritually reborn. But to be reborn, your sin debt to God must be paid in full – it has always been that way.
Biblical redemption is the ransoming or rescuing of a person from the eternal condemnation of sin. God provided a way for the redemption of sinners by sending His only Son Jesus Christ to earth to live a sinless life, to die on a cross to pay our sin debt, and to defeat death by rising from the grave and securing the eternal future of those who are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ.
Let’s turn to the Bible, the Word of God, and look at some of what God has to say about this. Here are a few verses from the Book of Psalms that tell the Unchanging Story of Redemption.
- Psalm 116:8-11 For You have delivered my soul from death, My eyes from tears, And my feet from falling. 9 I will walk before the Lord In the land of the living. 10 I believed, therefore I spoke, “I am greatly afflicted.” 11 I said in my haste, “All men are liars.”
For You have delivered
Deliverance comes from one source only, the Lord God Almighty!
- Isaiah 43:11 I, even I, am the Lord, And besides Me there is no savior.
- 1 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,
My soul from death,
In His love, God raises our unworthy souls from spiritual death!
- Psalm 33:18-19 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, 19 To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine.
- Ephesians 2:4-5 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
My eyes from tears,
With Jesus, there is joy now and forever!
Now
- Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.
- Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!
Forever
- Isaiah 65:17-19 “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18 But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem, And joy in My people; The voice of weeping shall no longer be heard in her, Nor the voice of crying.
- Revelation 21:4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
And my feet from falling.
Redemption in Christ means never being separated from God again!
- Psalm 17:5 Uphold my steps in Your paths, That my footsteps may not slip.
- Jude 1:24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
I will walk before the Lord In the land of the living.
The life of a follower of Jesus brings glory to God!
- Psalm 128:1 Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, Who walks in His ways.
- 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
I believed, therefore I spoke, “I am greatly afflicted.”
To be saved from our sin, we must recognize it and confess it!
- Isaiah 6:5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”
- Luke 5:8 When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
- Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
I said in my haste, “All men are liars.”
Every single person is a sinner – everyone needs Jesus!
- Psalm 14:2-3 The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. 3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.
- Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Jesus is the one and only way to God.
Through a system of animal sacrifices, the Old Testament promises of redemption foreshadowed the one and only, final and complete sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the sin debt of the world. In the New Testament, the promise of redemption was fulfilled and the good news about eternal life in Jesus began to spread beyond the Nation of Israel to all nations. For all time, in all places, redemption comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.
- Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
- 1 Peter 1:18-19 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
- Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
Prayer
Lord and Savior, the story of redemption never changes because You never change. Please reveal the truth of Your Word according to Your will, ways and timing. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen
