Redemption is Ours

 Welcome to Relentless Truth. I'm John Warren. It's good to be with you again. I hope you'll go to our website. It's new and improved a couple of times over. It isn't absolutely complete yet, but it, it is functional and, uh, it, it, uh, accomplishes what we're intending to accomplish. We've added some, uh, some new material, some new information. We, we talk in this website, we have a tab devoted to what we believe. The website is relentlesstruthministries.com. Relentlesstruthministries.com. If you go to the old website, you'll be forwarded, uh, to, to this one. Um, and so this is an exciting time in this, this ministry. This new website is up and running. One of the things I would ask you to do, if you would, and I don't often ask, but, uh, I, I, I would ask you to go and, uh, leave a review on the website. We have not really had that feature before. We've, we've had reviews on, on other, uh, website resources like, uh, Apple and Spotify and others, and we still have those out there. You'll see them on our website, but they're, they're a few years old now. And, and so I want to ask you to listen first and make sure you're comfortable leaving a review, and then, uh, leave a review, if you would. Uh, you can also, they tell me, uh, leave a voicemail for me somehow on that website, and you could also test our contact form there. I've tested it. It works. Uh, don't hesitate to, uh, to contact me. Uh, you can also send an email to me directly at john@relentlesstruthministries.com. John@relentlesstruthministries.com. Now, I've got one more exciting thing to, uh, tell you about. We have, uh, long had, as part of our website, my company, CFS Financial, which is an LLC that I started, oh, 13 years ago After a friend of mine and I, uh, left banking to, to do more meaningful work, to consult with, uh, primarily Christian organizations, but some others, primarily Christian organizations, primarily Christian schools, um, on, on matters related to debt, to board governance, to strategic, strategic planning, and those kinds of issues. All things financial, all things that you think a former banker would, would be involved in, uh, i- except focused on, on Christian ministry, uh, organizations. A- and so that organization, Christian Financial Solutions is the full name, we go by, uh, a DBA of, uh, CFS Financial. Um, that organization has had a tab on our website for a long time. Well, we're separating them now, and now it has its, its own, own website, cfsfinancial.net. That website was around years ago, if you've known me for a while. Back when we started the company, it was a separate website, and now we, we have our own website, CFS Financial. I hope you'll go there and take a look. The reason I'm talking about this is after prayer and deliberation, I have decided to start another podcast called The CFS Review, The CFS Review. It's out there now. There's one episode that I moved over from our existing library, and on that podcast, I'm gonna talk about the economy, financial matters, news items, politics, all of those things. So that leaves me to be able to focus on Relentless Truth with John Warren on... with that podcast, on theological matters, worldview, Christian worldview topics, Christian topics, topics that evangelical Christians are interested in. So we have two podcasts now, uh, one, Relentless Truth, and the other, The CFS Review. So I hope you'll listen. We, uh, we, we... nobody knows about this podcast yet. It's... the new one is on all the channels, uh, at least it's supposed to be. As we, uh, crank out more episodes down the road, we'll, we'll talk about them briefly here maybe a couple of times. And then from there forward, the, uh, the two podcasts and two websites are entirely separate. One of the things that is interesting about that work that I do through CFS Financial is, uh, I don't make money at that either. I don't intend to. Um, I donate, uh, any of the, uh, uh, proceeds that we collect in fees, and we don't collect many anyway. Um, and, uh, it is a joy to, to come alongside ministries and have really, uh, a positive impact from a business standpoint, a strategic standpoint, using all those years of banking experience to, to help, uh, Christian schools and other ministries, parachurch ministries, and some churches, um, uh, become, uh, uh, financially viable for the future. Uh, financial sustainability is, is what we're after. And, uh, as you know, in your town, you've seen the, uh, contraction among ministries, particularly churches and even Christian schools. Uh, you know about the, uh, competitive landscape and all the rest. So, uh, that work is, is valuable, and we plan to, uh, continue to do it as long as we're able. Well, this week we want to, uh, talk about, uh, an important topic in our series called Getting the Gospel Right. This week, we're gonna turn a corner after last week's episode where we talked about our, our captivity to sin, the plight of man, we called it. This week, we wanna talk about our redemption, the redemption that is ours, that is found in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and His atoning death So today the topic is simply redemption. It's too broad for one podcast episode, isn't it? If you're familiar with this, this topic, but I think it's important for us to focus on this as we make our way through these implications of, and a deeper understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The idea of redemption in scripture is not really all that complex. We'll talk about some of the words that are, that are, that are used for, uh, redemption or redeeming or redeemer in the New Testament. We'll talk about some, some Old Testament pointing to, uh, uh, redemption. Well, the, the Psalms are full of them, uh, tho- those references, as is, uh, the Book of Isaiah and others. But the idea in, of redemption in scripture, in the New Testament primarily, is to pay a ransom that frees a person from captivity. My mind immediately goes to, to emancipation, the emancipation of, of slaves. Um, and, and, and this, this notion of paying a ransom. Jesus Christ, and I'm gonna say this several times today, paid our ransom with the shedding of his blood, and we'll talk about exactly... Don't worry if you say, "Well, I've heard those things so many times, I don't know what that means." We're gonna talk today, God willing, about exactly what that means in clear terms. So there are four primary Greek word families in, in the Bible that have the idea, communicate the idea of redeem, redemption, and ransom. And, and there are some distinctions, and we're not gonna spend a lot of time talking about this. Uh, primary usage would be a, a release or redemption affected by a ransom. This is, this is a payment. Think of a hostage situation or a, or a... Think of, uh, better yet, the emancipation of slaves in, in antiquity was often done by the payment of a fee. And, and that's the idea really, uh, communicated here. We talked last week about our captivity to sin, and we'll talk a little more about that today. But, uh, think about that. It, it's, it's we are, we are released. A payment was made for our release. And you can, uh, it... We'll, we'll talk about some of these today, but look at Luke 21:28, Romans 3:24, we'll talk about at, at length. Um, a, a good bit of Romans chapter 8, 1 Corinthians 1:30, Ephesians 1:7 we'll talk about. Uh, Colossians 1:14, Ephesians 1:14, Hebrews 9:15, and Hebrews 11:35. And I know you're, you're driving and doing other things or doing other things, um, and, and, uh, probably didn't, uh, write those down. But if you do a word search on, uh, redeem or redemption, uh, you'll, you'll see all of, all of those reference, references. There's a, there's another word. So there, so there are 10 of those direct references with that meaning, and then there are a couple of other Greek words that are trans- uh, translated that way, uh, redeemed or redemption, um, that have the idea, uh, the first one of ransoming or redemption or deliverance, and then there's a- another word, uh, to, to ransom or redeem or, or, or be set free by ransoms. And then, uh, finally, there's w- a, a last one is to buy, uh, to buy out from or, or to, to redeem. But they all have the idea of, of to, to buy or, or purchase. And, uh, we'll, we'll look at some, um, specific references to e- e- exactly, uh, e- explain exactly what that means so we don't leave any, any, any doubt. You understand a small taste of the weight of this, and it's not a... This anal- these analogies are imperfect, uh, like most analogies with, with, uh, God, uh, with all of theology or, or biblical themes. They're, they come up perfect, and we, we try to do anthropomorphism and we, we, we, we use human terms to describe God or to describe theology or describe doctrine and, and, uh, describe something as beaut- to, to try to describe something as beautiful as our redemption is, is challenging. But you, you understand a small taste of this if you've ever... This is a weird one, but if you've ever been grounded as a child, and that might have happened to me a couple of times, um, or if you've ever, uh, been placed on probation at school, uh, or, or work, uh, or, or you, you've had some kind of, um, timeout imposed by others on, on you. You were restricted in, in some way from certain activities. That's why it's imperfect, because our, our sin, uh, gives us a, a death sentence, uh, and, and, uh, the, the rest of these are very temporal. But still, they give you a taste of, of this, this redemption. If you, if you had your penalty reduced Because of the kindness of a parent or a school administrator or, or, or a coach. Uh, say, say you were... You weren't allowed to play for a game or two, or, uh, you, you did something stupid, or, or you, you didn't work hard in practice, or you didn't show up for something, or, or, um, you, you, you, uh, you, you were late to work, um, a- and, and there, there's some penalty for that. Uh, if the penalty was lifted early, um, by... Just because of grace, just, just the kindness, not, not because you deserved it, um, but, but, uh, just because of the kindness of someone, then, then you have a, a, just a taste of this. I, I think of, uh, slave emancipation and some of the great stories of the emancipations, uh, uh, mes- emancipation of slaves in the United States. I, I think of, uh, some of, some of those, uh, stories where people made it their mission to, to, uh, uh, free slaves. There, there are some stories that, uh, my family has read, uh, some, some great books that, uh, e- explain how, how that worked, and that, that might be a little closer to what we're after when we think about God's redemption of us, uh, through Christ. But even that comes up short because that, that, that again, that redemption is, is temporal. I even think of Alice Johnson, who I mentioned a long time ago on this podcast. Um, her sentence for dealing drugs was commuted by President Trump, and, uh, she, she didn't really do anything to deserve this, this commutation, but he felt that her original sentence was too harsh. And I don't recall how long she had been in prison, but it was, it was quite some time. And, uh, she was, she was freed and is, uh, i- is just one of the sweetest, most, uh, grateful people, uh, for, for her, her release. That, that, that is, is, is redemption. Uh, that is redemptive, at least. Uh, and it does help us picture God's redemption through Christ Well, those analogies do break down, but we're, we're, we're captive, uh, to sin because Adam sinned and, and the, the ensuing curse included the imputation of sin to all of us. Uh, Genesis 3:15 is always a, a good, uh, go-to verse for the, the, these implications of, of the, the fall, the curse that followed, uh, the fall. You're familiar probably with Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." There's so much we could say about this, um, but in short, uh, we are born with a death sentence because of our sin. We're born sinners. We're born in sin. We have a sin nature. We are, we are adjudicated guilty when we draw our first breath, and we also actually participate in sin. And Paul says to the Romans that the wages of sin is death, this idea of separation from God, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is already... We, we're seeing already in this episode what redemption really is. It is this free gift of God that, that is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The beauty of our redemption should overwhelm us. The grace of God, the mercy of God, all of this and more are best understood when we understand the desperate plight of man that we talked about last week. This, this captivity that we experience. John 8:34 says it well. "Jesus answered them, 'Uh, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.'" We are in desperate need of emancipation, of redemption, of being freed, of having our ransom paid. Romans 6:17, "But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart." Romans 6:20, "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness." Romans 7:14, "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin." And then 2 Timothy 2:16, "And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will." We can go on and on through, through the scriptures. Well, we're so desperately enslaved to sin that this, this plight that we talked about last week is, is just oppressive. And, and no place is that more clear to me than in Romans chapter 3. And if you know me, you know that I like to go here a lot to Romans chapter 3. If you told me that I got to-- I had the opportunity to pastor a church and preach every week, it would be tempting for me to lead off with a, a year-long series on the attributes of God, followed by the exposition of Romans chapter 3 for months Here's what it says in verse 10. "None is righteous, no, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. To- together they've become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery." And the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." And then notice this, this slight change in tone. "Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in His sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin." And then Paul goes on and, and he explains our redemption. And listen to this Verse 21 of Romans chapter 3, "But now," so, so here's this, this pivot. Hold on a second. "But now," Paul's announcing the importance of this, the weight of this. "But now the righteousness of God," the, the moral rightness, the m- the justice, the moral right standing of God, "has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption," there's our word, "that is in Christ Jesus." Now this is the noun form of the word. The redemption, the buying back, the purchasing, the paying, payment of our, our ransom that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. That's more than expiation, but that, that has to do with both the, the removal of our sin, uh, in, in our account, in a sense, and, and the, the satisfaction of the wrath of God. The propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness. There he is again, kind of closing that loop. Because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. These passages are just so beautiful. The first section that we read, starting in verse 10 of Romans chapter 3, leaves me feeling so sinful and so desperate and so undeserving, and that's where we are. That's who we are. That is our plight that we talked about last week. But then this section that begins in verse 21 is all about God's grace and mercy to us. This is, this is redemption. This is this releasing affected by a payment of ransom. It's, it's redemption, it's deliverance. It's liberation procured by the payment of a ransom. We don't need to complicate it. And then my mind immediately goes to Romans chapter 8, and I'll just read just a few verses at the beginning of that chapter. "There is therefore now no condemnation." That, that word is confusing to some people, including some pastors, but it's not confusing. It, it has to do with, with the, uh, the, the punishment phase, the penal phase of, of a trial. So there's, there's no punishment. There, "There's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Paul has earlier explained the gospel. Because of Jesus Christ and His redemption, His shed blood on the cross, His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, where He sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, because of that, there's no punishment phase of the trial for those who are in Christ Jesus. How are we in Christ Jesus? By faith. Paul has made that clear back in chapter 3. And then he goes on, "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ, in Christ Jesus, from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do." There's so much theology in here, but we'll just stick, stick with our, our point today on redemption. "By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin," you see, he's explaining it, "He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death." This is that captivity that we've been talking about. "But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are of the flesh cannot please God." Then just quickly, uh, Galatians 3:13, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." Isn't this absolutely beautiful? Ephesians 1:7, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses." Titus 2:14, "Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness." Mark 10:45, Jesus expresses in, in his terms, "For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Christ liberates those who were enslaved to sin through the price of his own life. You know, as bad as slavery is, as, as bad as human trafficking is, our captivity in sin is far worse because it's eternal But by the grace of God, we are redeemed by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember Romans 3, where we read that this gift is to be received by faith. Praise God for the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our redemption is this purchase. It is to buy. It's a reference. It-- Most of its uses in the New Testament are references to a transaction a transaction that was initiated by God. This isn't something that we have to deserve. I have struggled over the years with something, and this, this goes in the way-too-personal category, but my own worthiness. I had a pastor friend who's still alive, but, uh, uh, has some difficulty after a, a massive heart attack, uh, 10 years or so ago. He has, he has some issues with his brain still, although he has recovered dramatically and, and does quite well, uh, and shares beautiful texts with me. Um, he's-- he and his family have moved to California, and, uh, he shares beautiful texts with me now focused on scripture and focused on topics like the one we're, we're, we're discussing today. But I had beautiful conversations with him back when he was a pastor, and he said his, his biggest struggle was not feeling worthy either the day before or when he stepped, uh, uh, onto the platform behind the pulpit. He didn't feel worthy to preach. And I, I believe, and our conversations were very sweet in this regard, I believe that is exactly where we should be. I am unworthy to share these beautiful truths with you, um, on this podcast. I, I am, I am thankful for you as listeners. I'm thankful for the opportunity. It's a blessing to me when you say that the episode was a blessing to you. Um, but, but I'm unworthy. It, it is only the worth of Jesus Christ that gives me value here and give you your value. It is His finished work that transforms us from the captivity of sin to the freedom that we enjoy in Him. It is His finished work alone. So when I get depressed over this, when I struggle with this, how, how could you forgive me, Lord, a, a wretched sinner? And, and Paul, the Apostle Paul talks about this even in, um, in Romans 7 and elsewhere. He calls himself a wretched sinner, "A wretched man that I am," he says. But when we, when we struggle with this, we have to realize that Christ, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is our sufficiency. And, and now we have a tool that we can go to, this, this redemption that is ours in Him. He has, He has purchased us. He has initiated through His, His own volition our, our redemption. His volition and our volition, our, our faith, our belief come together in, in this regard, in this, in, in, in this, uh, uh, this, this redemption that we enjoy according to Romans 6:23, this gift of God that is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. So be encouraged, uh, when, um, we, we talk so much about self-image, uh, we, we talk so much about, uh, this, this feeling good about ourselves, uh, when in fact, uh, we should feel horrible about our sin. We should rightly see ourselves i- in Romans chapter 3 in verses 10 through, uh, 20 or so. We, we, we should see ourselves clearly in that context as, as sinners. Uh, none, none is righteous, no, not one. Our throat is an open grave, and so on. But we don't stop there. We can't stop there. As, as, as we just look at that and know our plight, as we discussed it last week, we can rest in this freedom from cap- captivity provided for us in Christ through, uh, His redemptive work on the cross. Well, I hope this is encouraging. I-- My mind is wandering as I'm, uh, talking about these truths because the depth is so significant. We could, uh... There are rabbit trails available to us that we'll, uh, we'll pursue other times. But, uh, n- next week we're going to continue this theme of getting the gospel right, uh, unfolding, unearthing, uh, explaining the beauty of, of the gospel of Jesus Christ. May God bless you richly until then.