TOPIC:‌“This Fascinating Word - Redemption”

 

TEXT:‌I Peter 1:18-25

 

“Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold…But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1:18, 19).

 

‌Herbert Lockyer, writes in his book, All the Doctrines of the Bible, these words about redemption: “Among the cardinal truths of our Christian faith, none demands our prayerful and intelligent consideration as that of redemption.” I fully agree with him. He goes on to write: “Not only is it chief among the doctrines of grace - it permeates them all. It is from redemption that all the rivers of grace flow.”

 

‌In this message I want us to come to grips with this great doctrine of redemption by considering four different aspects of it - the conception of it, the character of it, the cost of it, and the consequences of it. Let's begin our study.

 

I.

 

‌Think, first of all, of the CONCEPTION of our redemption. The Apostle Peter writes in verse 18:   “Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed.”

 

‌We need to realize that redemption was conceived by God way back in the dateless past when in love He planned and designed a way for man to be delivered from sin. It was no accident, no afterthought in the mind of God to redeem man, but God had decided in His eternal council that His own Son would die in order for man's sin to be forgiven. We read in the Bible these words about Christ: “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Or as Peter earlier declared: “Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23).

 

‌To many people the Bible is merely a book to be read, but they fail to grasp the fact that the Bible is essentially a book with a central message and a major theme. The one dominant and dynamic theme which runs throughout the Bible is that of redemption. Right from the beginning of the Bible the drama of “redemption by blood” began to be unfolded. When Adam and Eve sinned against God the blood of an innocent beast was shed for them. God made coats of animal skins so He could clothe them in a divinely provided garment, thus making them fit for His presence.

 

‌Then there were those two brothers, Cain and Abel, who brought their sacrifices unto the Lord. Cain's offering was rejected because it was a bloodless lamb. Abel's offering was received because it was a bleeding lamb. It was the blood that made the difference. Or what about God's merciful intervention at Mt. Moriah when Abraham was about to slay Isaac, his son? Here again we have the substitution of a blood sacrifice in the place of Abraham's son. . . .