October 2, 2011

"that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ." Ephesians 1:8-10

Redemption is one of the great terms of endearment that is associcated with salvation. What it means is that He Sought Us! It was God's idea to send Jesus to redeem us. As sinners, we didn't even know we needed salvation but Jesus came to redeem us.

Not only did He Sought Us but He Bought Us. As the sinless Lamb, Jesus was the Only One Who could redeem us by shedding His blood to atone for our sins.

He Sought Us and He Bought Us, but also HE BROUGHT US.

Let's look at verses 8-10.

What Jesus brought us was:

Grace

By His grace He “chose”  us . That literally means God “ picked us out Himself”. That is what grace means.

Furthermore, He “lavished” His goodness and mercy on us. He gave us “forgiveness”  and “adopted” us as His children.

As His children He gave us “wisdom & understanding” of His will. You could say “He let us in on it”.

The blessings of God’s grace were especially evident in John Newton’s life. He was raised in a Christian home for several years until his parents died. Orphaned and living with relatives he was mistreated, abused, and ridiculed. Unable to bear the abuse he, though still a boy, fled and joined the Royal Navy. From there his life went downhill as he became a drunkard and a brawler. Deserting the Royal Navy he joined up with a slave trader. His life continued to disintegrate and spiral out of control.

One day he stole the ships whisky and got so inebriated he fell overboard. He was so close to drowning that one of his shipmates literally harpooned him and brought him back on board. Consequently he had a huge scar in his side for the rest of his life. Finally, one day during a storm he began to reflect upon some Bible verses his parents had taught him before they died. He reached out to Jesus and his life was redeemed; he was forgiven. But God’s grace didn’t end with his salvation. John Newton the philandering, wandering, brawling man drastically changed as he experienced victory over the power of sin. He became, as scripture says, “a new creation in Christ.” When the grace of God entered his life and he matured in Christ, he enjoyed a marriage that was an example to all. When we yield to Christ and experience God’s grace, we begin to enjoy the restoration of what our life should have been like. God’s grace changes us for the better.

Redemption means that Jesus brought us God's grace. In addition to His grace, He brought us:

Great Purpose

 

The prupose He brought us is to be “holy”  and “blameless” Holy refers to the spiritual and moral purity He can give us through the blood of Jesus. Blameless means that every thought and action is guided by love for God and for others.

God redeemed us through Christ to be agents of redemption in the grand eternal purpose of ushering in the Kingdom of God and the Lordship of Christ! - To Bring Everyone Together Under Lordship Of Christ.

CONCLUSION:

In 1927, in West Africa, a blood specimen was taken from a native man named Asibi, who was sick with yellow fever. A vaccine was made from the original strain of virus obtained from this man. In fact, all the vaccine manufactured since 1927 by the Rockefeller Foundation and health agencies, derives from the

original strain of virus obtained from this one man. Carried down to the present day from one laboratory to another, through repeated cultures and by enormous multiplication, it has offered immunity to yellow fever to millions of people in many countries. Through the creative imagination of science, the blood of this one man in the West Africa has been made available to serve the whole human race.

It was almost 1:00 in the morning when the phone rang. Dr. Leo Winters, the highly acclaimed Chicago surgeon, was abruptly awakened. There had been an accident and his skill hands were needed for immediate surgery. The quickest route happened to be through a rather tough area, but with time being a critical factor, it was worth the risk. At one of the stoplights his door was yanked open by a man with a gray hat and a dirty flannel shirt. “I got to have your car!” the man screamed, pulling him from his seat. Winters tried to explain the gravity of the situation but the man would not listen. When the doctor was finally able to get a taxi to the hospital over an hour had elapsed and it was to late as the patient had passed away 30 minutes earlier. The nurse told him that the father of the victim had gone to the chapel wondering why the doctor never came. Dr. Winters walked hurriedly to get to the chapel and when he entered he saw the father… he was wearing a gray hat and dirty flannel shirt. Tragically, he had pushed from his life the one who could save his son.

God sent Jesus to bring redemption - His grace and His great purpose. Will you receive it - or will you push it away?

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!




 

September 30, 2011

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 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 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.  And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.  Ephesians 1:1-10

Paul, the Great Apostle begins his greeting to the Ephesian church by reminding them of the great redemption they have in God through His Son, Jesus. That sounds like something good but what IS redemption and what does t means?

REDEMPTION MEANS:

HE SOUGHT US, Vv. 4-5

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will."

The well-known and somewhat controversial Tomy Campolo share this experience from one of his many out of the box outreach attempts:

I had to go to speak in Honolulu. Well, sometimes you get L.A. and sometimes you get Honolulu. If you go to Honolulu, because of the distance from the east coast where I live, there's a six-hour time difference. And I woke up at about three o'clock in the morning and I was hungry and I wanted to get something to eat. But, in a hustling city like Honolulu at three o'clock in the morning, it's hard to find anything that's open. Up a side street, I spotted this greasy spoon, and I went in. It was one of these dirty places and they didn't have any booths, just row of stools at the counter. I sat down a bit uneasy and I didn't touch the menu. It was one of those plastic menus and grease had piled up on it. I knew that if I opened it, something extraterrestrial would have crawled out. All of the sudden, this very heavy-set, unshaved man with a cigar came out of the back room, put down his cigar, and said, "What do you want?"

I said, "I'd like a cup of coffee and a donut."

He poured the coffee and then he scratched himself and, with the same hand, picked up the donut. I hate that. So, there I am, three-thirty in the morning, drinking my coffee, and eating this dirty donut. And into the place comes about eight or nine prostitutes. It's a small place, they sit on either side of me, and I tried to disappear. The woman on my immediate right was very boisterous and she said to her friend, "Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm going to be thirty-nine."

Her friend said, "So what do you want me to do? Do you want me to sing happy birthday? Should we have a cake a party? It's your birthday."

The first woman said, "Look, why do you have to put me down? I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. I don't expect to have one now."

That's all I needed. I waited until they left and I called Harry over and I asked, "Do they come in here every night?”

He said, "Yes."

I said, "The one right next to me..." "Agnes."

"Tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think about decorating the place? When she comes in tomorrow night, we'll throw a birthday party for her. What do you think?"

He said, "Mister, that is brilliant. That is brilliant!" He called his wife out of the back room. "Jan, come out here. I want you to meet this guy. He wants to throw a birthday party for Agnes."

She came out and took my hand and squeezed it tightly, and said, "You wouldn't understand this, mister, but Agnes is one of the good people, one of the kind people in this town. And nobody ever does anything for her, and this is a good thing. I said, "Can I decorate the place?"

She said, "To your heart's content."

I said, "I'm going to bring a birthday cake...

Harry said, "Oh no! The cake's my thing!"

So, I got there the next morning at about two-thirty. I had bought the streamers at the K-mart, strung them about the place. I had made a big poster – ""Happy Birthday Agnes" and put it behind the counter. I had the place spruced up. Everything was set. Everything was ready. Jan, who does the cooking, she had gotten the word out on the street. By three-fifteen, every prostitute was squeezed into this diner. People, it was wall-to-wall prostitutes and me!

Three-thirty in the morning, in come Agnes and her friends. I've got everybody set, everybody ready.

As they come through the door, we all yell, "Happy birthday Agnes!" In addition, we start cheering like mad. I've never seen anybody so stunned. Her knees buckled. They steadied her and sat her down on the stool. We all started singing, "Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to you!"

When they brought out the cake, she lost it and started to cry. Harry just stood there with the cake and said, "All right, knock it off Agnes. Blow out the candles. Come on, blow out the candles." She tried, but she couldn't, so he blew out the candles, gave her the knife, and said, "Cut the cake, Agnes."

She sat there for a long moment and then she said to me, "Mister, is it okay if I don't cut the cake? What I'd like to do, mister, is take the cake home and show it to my mother. Could I do that?"

I said, "It's your cake." She stood up, and I said, "Do you have to do it now?" She said, "I live two doors down. Let me take the cake home and show it to my mother. I promise you I'll bring it right back." And she moved toward the door carrying the cake as though it was the Holy Grail. As she pushed through the crowd and out the door, the door swung slowly shut and there was stunned silence. You talk about an awkward moment. Everyone was motionless. Everyone was still I didn't know what to say. So, I finally said, "What do you say, we pray?" It's weird looking back on it now. You know a sociologist leading a prayer meeting with a bunch of prostitutes at three-thirty in the morning in a diner. But, it was the right thing to do. I prayed that God would deliver her from what dirty filthy men had done to her. You know how these things start some ten, eleven, or twelve year old girl gets messed over and destroyed by some filthy man and then she goes downhill from there. And men use her and abuse her. I said, "God, deliver her and make her into a new creation because I've got a God who can make us new no matter where we've been or what we've been through." And I prayed that God would make her new.

When I finished my prayer, Harry leaned over the counter and he said, "Campolo, you told me you were a sociologist. You're no sociologist, you're a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?"

In one of those moments when you come up with just the right words, I said, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores at three-thirty in the morning."

I'll never forget his response. He looked back at me and he said, "No you don't, no you don't. I would join a church like that!"

Tony Campolo saw an opportunity to show redemptive love to a young lady who never experienced true love. She had only known lustful use and abuse which diminished her as a peson and made her an object. Agnes was trapped in a dead-end life with no way out. That is until someone with real love sought her.

Wow! That sounds a lot like you and me! We were lost in our trespasses and sins. We were trapped in the slavery of darkness and desire. But "God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8

Redemption is a wonderful thing! Redemption means that God sought you!

September 29, 2011

"And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Hebrews 9:10-14

The value of anything is a function of its demand and its availability.

Also, value is determined by the price someone is willing to pay.

This is why redemption is such a highly prized commodity. Everyone would love a second chance in life but those are hard to come by. In fact, it was impossible to have a second chance until Jesus purchased it through the shedding of His blood upon the cross of calvary. On that cross He bought back in blood what Adam had lost by his sinful rebellion against God.

Adam sold us out when he disobeyed God in Eden. God had created him especially to tend the garden and produce food to meet the needs of his family. When he allowed himself to be decieved by Satan he surrendered the power and authority given him by God. Jesus, born sinless and living without sin, He became the sacrifice tfor our sins to settle the debt for those sins.

Being redeemed means you have been bought back out of slavery and into God's glorious freedom. Through the shed blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, God paid the price to ransom you from slavery to sin and death and hell. As the song declares, "He paid a debt He didn't owe to release you from a debt you couldn't pay".

When God redeemed you from slavery He didn't take you as a slave but He adopted you as a child! As a child of God you are a joint-heir of all the riches and all the authority that belonged to Jesus. So, redemption means you were set free - you were bought back from abject poverty and absolute slavery into glorious freedom as God's child! You have gone from having nothing to having everything!

"Redemption" is a term of endearment! Now you understand why?!

September 28, 2011

"Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."  I Peter 1:17-19

There is an old story about a man by the name of John Griffith, who lived in Oklahoma in 1929. He had lost all he had in the stock market crash. He moved to Mississippi where he took a job as bridge operator for a railroad trestle. In 1937 he was involved in a horrible accident. One day his 8 year-old son, Greg, spent the day with his Dad at work. The boy poked around the office and asked dozens of questions - just like little boys do. The bridge was over a river and whenever a ship came John had to open the bridge to allow the ships to pass. The day the boy was there with his father a ship was coming so John opened up the draw bridge. After a moment or two he realized his son wasn’t in the office and as he looked around, to his horror, John saw his son climbing around on the gears of the draw bridge. He hurried outside to rescue his son but just then he heard a fast approaching passenger train, the Memphis Express, filled with 400 people. He yelled to his son, but the noise of the now clearing ship and the oncoming train made it impossible for the boy to hear him. All of a sudden John Griffith realized his horrible dilemma. If he took the time to rescue his son the train would crash killing all aboard, but if he closed the bridge, the boy we be crushed in the gears. John would sacrifice his son. He made the horrible decision, pulled the lever and closed the bridge. It is said, as the train went by John could see the faces of the passengers, some reading, some even waving, all of them oblivious to the sacrifice that had just been made for them.

Can you imagine being in that awful moment of having to decide between your son and a group of strangers?

I cannot.

God can. God did.

John Griffith sacrificed his son to rescue the lives on that train. God offered His Son to redeem every life on earth.

The term "redeem" is extremely significant. To be redeemed means to be "bought back". It denotes the payment of a ransom in order to release a captive. The original language paints the image of a slave who has been bought out of slavery and into freedom.

When God endured the horror of watching His only Son brutalized on a Roman cross He was paying the price to "redeem" you and me. We had been sold out by Adam's sin and held captive in the kingdom of darkness but Jesus, the Second Adam, offered His life's blood to pay our ransom! Jesus' shed blood was the price to buy us out of slavery!

John Griffith's son was crushed to save a few but God's Son was crushed to redeem all who will believe in Him.

You have been redeemed by the shed blood of Jesus on the cross of Calvary! You were bought out of the slavery of sin and into the glorious freedom of life - eternal life - through the Savior, Jesus Christ.

Through redemption you have:

Deliverance from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13; 4:46)

Total and complete forgiveness of sins (Isaiah 44:22; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:15)

Justification before God. (Romans 3:24)

Sanctification is possible through God's Spirit. (Ephesians 5:25-27

Basis for an eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15)

Basis for strategic victory in the spiritual realm. (Colossians 2:14-15; Hebrews 2:14-15)

Basis for adoption as His children. (Ephesians 1:5)

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;

Redeemed through His infinite mercy,

His child and forever I am.

Refrain:

Redeemed, redeemed,

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;

Redeemed, redeemed,

His child and forever I am!

Redeemed, and so happy in Jesus,

No language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His presence

With me doth continually dwell.

Refrain

Redeemed, redeemed,

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;

Redeemed, redeemed,

His child and forever I am!

September 27, 2011

”Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 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 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” Ephesians 1:1-10

It was almost 1:00 in the morning when the phone rang. Dr. Leo Winters, the highly acclaimed Chicago surgeon, was abruptly awakened. There had been an accident and his skill hands were needed for immediate surgery. The quickest route happened to be through a rather tough area, but with time being a critical factor, it was worth the risk. At one of the stoplights his door was yanked open by a man with a gray hat and a dirty flannel shirt. “I got to have your car!” the man screamed, pulling him from his seat. Winters tried to explain the gravity of the situation but the man would not listen. When the doctor was finally able to get a taxi to the hospital over an hour had elapsed and it was to late as the patient had passed away 30 minutes earlier. The nurse told him that the father of the victim had gone to the chapel wondering why the doctor never came. Dr. Winters walked hurriedly to get to the chapel and when he entered he saw the father… he was wearing a gray hat and dirty flannel shirt. Tragically, he had pushed from his life the one who could save his son.

Similarly, scores of people push from their lives the very One who can save them from the penalty and the power of their sin. Countless numbers turn away from the One who can save them from their emptiness, confusion, hopelessness, and enslavement to sinful ways. They are to busy for the One who can deliver them from a meaningless life. They can’t seem to find time for the One who can redeem their lives. It is so sad, so tragic because things could be different for so many if they could only find time for the Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth to save us. Christ is the Savior we all desperately need.

Christ Jesus came in to the world to save sinners. In announcing His birth, the angel of the Lord declared to Joseph that “MARY WILL GIVE BIRTH TO A SON, AND YOU ARE TO GIVE HIM THE NAME JESUS, BECAUSE HE WILL SAVE HIS PEOPLE FROM THEIR SINS.” (Matthew 1:21) Luke 19:11 says that Christ came “TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT WHICH WAS LOST.”

Our text uses another word for saved: redeemed. In verse 7 Paul declares that we have been redeemed through the blood of Christ. He begins his letter to the Ephesians rejoicing in the blessing of redemption. The word redemption is a commercial term borrowed from the marketplace where human beings were offered for sale to the highest bidder. Condemned to a miserable existence these slaves were powerless to escape. Their only hope was redemption, an uncommon process whereby they were purchased in order to be set free. Scripture uses the tragedy of slavery to illustrate our human predicament. Without God’s intervention, we are all hopelessly enslaved to self and sin. We are forced to live in bondage to sin and Satan. Enslaved by sin and guilt, we are unable to liberate ourselves. Jesus said, ‘…. EVERYONE WHO SINS IS A SLAVE TO SIN….” (John 8:34) Sin traps us and holds us, rendering us powerless to escape its clutches. Consequently, try as hard as we might, we are unable to overcome our sin. It might be lust, uncontrollable anger, drugs, pornography, envy, covetousness, lying, materialism, destructive behavior, harmful attitudes, or whatever. In our natural, unsaved state we are at the mercy of sin; powerless against it. In spite of the fact that sin ruins relationships, wrecks lives and brings untold pain, misery and regret we can’t seem to overcome it. Our only hope is Christ who can redeem us, setting us free from sin’s penalty and its power in our daily lives. Describing what God has done for us, Paul says in verse 7, “…IN CHRIST WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD.”

The Greek word translated redemption is a commercial term. To redeem something is to deliver it on payment of a ransom. Christ offers to set us free from bondage to sin through the ransom price of his blood.

Redemption is an amazing undeserved life-saving eternity preparing gift of God through the shed blood of Jesus on the cross! It is available to all who will repent of sin and prove it by making restitution wherever necessary.

Jesus paid it all,

All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain,

He washed it white as snow.

September 26, 2011

"Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect."  I Peter 1:17-19 

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!"

You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at liberty. When a person has this life-changing experience, he will want to sing, "Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"

Sin is the rusty cage and you are the bird. You are trapped in the cage and under the control of one who plans to torment you, use you and then do away with you. Such is the lot of every person born on this planet - born a prisoner to sin, condemned in life and doomed for eternity.

Is there no escape? Is there not hope? Is there any chance that anyone might purchase you and set you free?

Jesus did! He redeemed you! The price was His life's blood, but He paid it on the cross to purchase your salvation - your freedom - your pardon from guilt - so you can be set free! Through His painful death on the cross He paid a price for a debt He didn't and one you could not pay.

That is what redemption means! When you repent of your sins and when you prove that repentance by making restitution, you enter into relationship with Jesus through faith. The gift of salvation brings the blessing of redemption!

Do you know the joy of redemption? Would you like to? The price has been paid!