Friday, September 30, 2011

October 1, 2011

Redemption means:

HE SOUGHT US

Jesus came seeking us, we didn't go seeking Him. As Romans says, "God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."  And Luke tells us that Jesus came "to seek and to save that which was lost".

HE BOUGHT US, Vv. 6-7

"to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace"

Lou Johnson was a 1965 World Series hero for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He tried for 30 years to recover the championship ring he lost to drug dealers in 1971. Drug and alcohol abuse cost him everything from that magical season, including his uniform, glove, and the bat he used to hit the winning home run in the deciding game. When the Dodgers president, Bob Graziano, learned that Johnson’s World Series ring was about to be auctioned on the Internet, he immediately wrote a check for $3,457.00 and bought the ring before any bids were posted. He did for Johnson what the former Dodger outfielder had been unable to do for himself. The RING was BOUGHT BACK or REDEEMED – like you!

A story told by Paul Lee Tan illustrates the meaning of redemption. He said that when A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?" The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field." "What are you going to do with them?" "I’m going to play with them, and then I guess 'll just feed them to an old cat we have at home." When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, "Mister, you don't want them, they're just little old wild birds and can't sing very well." Gordon replied, "I'll give you $2 for the cage and the birds." "Okay, it's a deal, but you're making a bad bargain."

The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue.

The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ's coming to seek and to save the lost paying for them with His own precious blood. "That boy told me the birds were not songsters," said Gordon, "but when I released ‘em and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"

REDEEMED! What a wonderful sounding word! And even more so, it is a marvelous truth! It means you have been bought out of slavery and into marvelous freedom! It means that there has been a price paid to bail you out of the prison of your sins!

That someone who has redeemed you is Jesus! And the price of your freedom was His blood shed on a cruel cross.

You have been redeemed! He bought your freedom!




 

No comments:

Post a Comment