Redemption - Ephesians 1:7

In our study of the letter of Paul to the Ephesians, we have come now to Ephesians 1:7. Paul in this chapter, you will recall, is giving to us the blessings that we have as Christians. The key verse of the first half of Ephesians is Ephesians 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings." Now he's listed for us the blessings from God the Father. In Ephesians 1:4, the Father has chosen us. In Ephesians 1:5, He has adopted us, and in Ephesians 1:6, He has accepted us. He has made us accepted in the beloved. Then we have the blessings from God the Son. In Ephesians 1:7, He has redeemed us, and He has forgiven us. And Ephesians 1:8-11, He has made known God's will to us and made us an inheritance. We're going to see in Ephesians 1:13-14 the blessings from God the Holy Spirit. In that the Holy Spirit has sealed us, Ephesians 1:13, and the Holy Spirit is the earnest or the down payment of our inheritance, Ephesians 1:14.

Now we've examined the blessings from God the Father. Ephesians 1:7 begins the blessings from God the Son. Now of course, this does not mean that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit work against each other because this is impossible. The Trinity is a glorious truth revealed in the Word of God, and each person of the Godhead works together with the other persons of the Godhead in bringing about this wonderful work of redemption. Now of course, each person of the Godhead, each member of the Godhead, has his own particular work to do. The Father chooses us, the Son dies for us, and the Holy Spirit applies to our lives the blessings that have been purchased by the Son and planned by the Father.

Now we have in Ephesians 1:7 two wonderful blessings from God the Son: "in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." You see, God has to do all of these things because of sin. If there were no sin in the universe, there would be no Book of Ephesians written to tell us what God has done for sinners. Sin is a terrible thing. People laugh about sin, they joke about sin, but sin in the Word of God is no joke. Sin is so terrible that it required Jesus Christ to go to the cross to take away the stain, the power, yes, the very presence of sin one day when He returns to take His own to glory. We notice back in Ephesians 1:4 that God the Father chose us, but sin separated us from God. In Ephesians 1:5, God the Father adopted us into His family. Sin separated us from the family of God and made us not the children of God, but sin makes a person a child of wrath. So you see, the work of Almighty God through the Son and through the Holy Spirit is to undo the terrible damage done by sin.

Think for example, of the awful enmity that sin causes. Sin makes a person an enemy of God, and yet in Ephesians 1:6, we have been made accepted in the beloved. Think for example, of the awful slavery of sin. Ephesians 1:7, we have redemption. The word redemption means to purchase and set free. Now sin enslaves a man. Sin never makes a man free. One of the great lessons of the parable of the prodigal son is that sin always leads to slavery. The younger son came to his father and said, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me," and he divided unto him his living. And not many days after, the younger son took all and went into a far country and there wasted his substance in riotous living. Sin promises liberty, but it always brings slavery. For the Word of God says when that boy ran out of money, he lost his friends. And he had to go and sell himself as a servant. And he ends up out in the field feeding the pigs. He wanted, as someone has said, he wanted to live high on the hog and ended up living with the hogs. Because sin promises freedom, but it always brings bondage.

Have you ever considered the bondage of sin? A man's disobedience will bind his feet. He's unable to walk the way he ought to walk to please God. Sin will enslave a person's hands and he'll use those hands for things that ought not to be done. Sin gets a hold of a man's mind and he thinks dirty, sinful thoughts. Sin will get a hold of a man's tongue and he speaks those things which are not suitable and not godly. The unsaved man is a slave of sin. The tragedy is he thinks he's free. How many people there are who look at the Christians and say, "Oh my, I don't want to be a Christian. All these Christians are in bondage." No, quite the contrary is true. Jesus said, "If any man serves sin, if any man continues to commit sin, he's the slave of sin" John 8:34. And if I speak to someone right now who has never received Christ as his own Savior, I say to you from the Word of God, you are in bondage.

Now the Lord Jesus Christ came to set us free from the bondage of sin. "In whom we have redemption." Now the word redemption is a word that was used with slaves. Back in Paul's day, the Roman Empire had slavery. The slaves were sold. A man would go down to the slave market and he needed some slaves and he would purchase them. Now there were some people in the Roman Empire who were very loving and kind and sympathetic, and they would purchase a slave and then set him free. This was done by more than one person. Now Paul is telling us that all of us were in the slave market of sin. We were on the block. We were chained by the bondage of sin, and then Jesus Christ came. And he said, "I want to redeem that person." The word redeem means to set free by paying a price. Now what was the price that the Lord Jesus Christ paid? "In whom we have redemption through his blood." Now the price that the Lord Jesus Christ paid was not silver and gold. It's impossible to release a sinner who is in bondage by paying money, or by doing good works, or by joining some religious organization. 1 Peter 1:18-19 tells us over in 1 Peter 1:18-19 that we have experienced redemption not by silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Now when the Word of God talks about the blood, it is referring to the life of Jesus given for us. He shed His blood. He gave His life on the cross that we might be set free. I read recently that a great denomination has compiled a new hymn book, and the editors of the hymn book wanted to leave out the familiar hymn, I think the favorite hymn of Christians across America at least, "The Old Rugged Cross." Some years ago, a survey was made as to favorite hymns, and on top of the list was "The Old Rugged Cross." Now the words and the music of "The Old Rugged Cross" may not be as grand and as glorious as some great oratorio. But the words are scriptural, the music is beautiful, and the message of the song speaks to the heart of the Christian, because it was on the Old Rugged Cross that Jesus shed His blood. Now people don't want to talk about the blood. It's not the death of Christ that people talk about today, it's the life of Christ. They tell us to admire His life. They tell us to imitate His life, to follow and to do as Jesus did, to walk in His steps. I want to say very clearly that no unsaved person who is wrapped up in the bondage of sin could ever imitate Jesus Christ. The first step is to come to Him as Savior. Now Jesus is our example, but first He must be our Savior. Jesus is our teacher, but first He must be our Savior. And if you today who hear me are expecting to be set free from the bondage of sin by imitating Jesus or admiring Jesus or studying the teachings of Jesus Christ, you are doomed to failure. For the chains of sin are still around your soul, and the only way they can be dissolved is by the blood of Jesus Christ. He had to go to the cross and die. He had to be nailed in bondage on a tree that you and I might be set free. "In whom we have redemption."

It's a wonderful thing to be set free. Over in John 8:36, the Lord Jesus says, "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." There's more than one kind of bondage. Far worse than physical bondage is spiritual bondage. I know people who are in physical bondage, shut-ins who by their physical affliction are tied down to a bed or kept in a house. They can't get out, but they, they have spiritual liberty. The greatest liberty in the world is spiritual liberty, to be free from sin, to know that the debt has been paid, to know that the bondage of sin has been broken, that you are no longer a prisoner of sin. And this comes through trust in Christ as your Savior. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." Now these two things go together. The word forgive means to send away, to send away. It's as though sin is a burden upon us. It's a debt. It's a stain. We have sinned against God, and we can't look God in the face. You know, when a child has disobeyed, he has to ask for forgiveness. Until there is forgiveness, there can be no fellowship. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" [Amos 3:3] asked the Scripture. And Almighty God looks upon sinful men and He longs to have fellowship with them. He longs to be reconciled to them. Now God has been reconciled to men through the cross. But now men must be reconciled to God, and this comes through forgiveness.

Now someone says, "Well can't Almighty God just go ahead and forgive us the way we forgive one another?" No, He can't. There are those who have sinned against me for example, and I forgive them from my heart. I don't hold grudges against them. But unless they come and ask for forgiveness, they don't have any freedom or liberty in their own hearts. If Almighty God forgave every sinner without paying the price for sin, He would be violating His own nature. No, the price had to be paid. The blood. The blood of Jesus Christ had to be shed before there could be forgiveness. Somebody has to pay the price of sin. You'll recall the prodigal son again. When he woke up, it says he came to himself and realized what a fool he had been. He had wasted his money, now he was wasting his life. Back home his father's servants had more to eat than they needed, and here he was starving. He said to himself, "I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I'm no longer worthy to be your son, make me one of your hired servants." He wanted to work for his forgiveness. He said, he wanted to go home and say, "Father, I'm willing to work real hard if you'll just forgive me." Well when he got home, he started to make his speech and the father wouldn't let him finish. The father forgave him the instant he said, "I have sinned." You see, anyone who comes to Almighty God and says, "I have sinned. I know I'm a sinner, but I want to receive Christ as my Savior." Instantly God gives forgiveness.

Now, if you have your Bible in front of you, turn to Colossians 1:14. In Colossians 1:14, we find almost the very same words, "in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Twice in the Word of God, God makes it very clear that redemption and forgiveness come through the blood of Jesus Christ. I said that the word redeem means to set free by paying a price, and the word forgive means to send away. There are two beautiful Old Testament pictures of these truths that we have been considering today. Redemption means to set a slave free by paying a price. For over 400 years, the nation of Israel had been in Egypt. And for numbers of those years, they had been slaves. When you read the Book of [Exodus], the first eight or ten chapters, you read about a nation of slaves, working, toiling, being mistreated, not being paid, slaves. One day Almighty God said, "I'm going to deliver My people Israel from the nation of Egypt. I'm going to do it by the power of the blood." He told every Jewish family to get a lamb, a perfect lamb. This was Passover. On Passover night, they killed the lamb, took the blood, and applied the blood to the doorposts of their houses. That night the death angel came to Egypt, and that night Almighty God delivered or redeemed His people. Exodus is the book of redemption. The word Exodus, like the word exit, means to go out. And that night, that Passover night, the Jews were redeemed. They were set free from slavery by the shedding of blood.

Now God wants to do that with you and with me today. You and I are in bondage to the world, to the flesh, and to the devil until we know Christ as our Savior. Over in Ephesians 2:2, He describes the picture of the unsaved man, "wherein in time past, ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Slavery, spiritual slavery, slavery to sin. But God says, "Through the blood, you can be set free." Now the word forgiveness is beautifully pictured in the Day of Atonement. If you'll read the Book of Leviticus, you'll discover in Leviticus 16-17 some teaching concerning the blood and the Day of Atonement. Once a year, the high priest would lay aside his beautiful garments of gold and jewels and purple and red and white, scarlet, beautiful garments. He would lay these garments aside and dress himself in the simple linen clothes of a priest, of a Levite. And then he would take two goats out there in front of the tabernacle. One of the goats he would kill. He would take the blood of the goat and go back into the holy place behind the veil, into the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. And there in the Holy of Holies, the priest would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice. Then he would come back out to the front of the tabernacle where the other goat was standing, and the high priest would put his hands upon the head of that living goat. And the Word of God says in Leviticus 16:21 that he would confess the sins of the people of Israel, and then a man would take that living goat and lead it outside the camp, away off into the wilderness where it was never seen again. Now this was an object lesson. The goat that was slain pictured to the Jews, there can be no forgiveness apart from the blood. "Except there be the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin" Hebrews 9:22. So the goat that was slain is a picture of what the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross. He died that we might be forgiven. The goat that was set free, turned loose out into the wilderness, led away is a picture of what God does with our sins. "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us" Psalm 103:12. The word forgiveness means to carry away, to send away. The word remit means to send away. Jesus Christ gave His life on the cross that our sins might be taken from us and taken away, never to be seen again. You know, people have a hard time believing the simple statements of the Bible, that when God says, "Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more", Hebrews 8:12, He means it. That He would bury our iniquities in the depths of the sea, Micah 7:19, that He means it. That He would blot out our transgressions as a thick cloud, Isaiah 44:22, that He means it. God does mean it. God says to every one of us today, "The blood of Jesus Christ will take away your sin."

"In whom we have redemption," being set free, "through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace." This word grace is the important word. There can be no salvation apart from grace. In Ephesians 1, He talks about the riches of His grace. Over in Ephesians 2:7, He talks about the exceeding riches of His grace. In Ephesians 3:8, He talks about the unsearchable riches of His grace. The grace of God is unsearchable and vast. You see, God in His grace saves people. Now where there is grace, there is forgiveness. Where there's works, there's condemnation. Do I speak to someone just now who is trying to get forgiveness through good works? You say, "I'll go join a church. I'll start being kind to people." It's good to go to church, you ought to. It's good to be kind to people, but none of these things will set you free from the slavery of sin, or none of these things will take the burden of sin and carry it away. No, it's only by the riches of His grace, the grace of God, when He sent the Lord Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross.

Now, as we close our lesson today, we ask two simple questions. Number one, have you been set free? Have you been set free from the bondage of sin? Does the past bother you? Are there sins and mistakes in the past that worry you? Are you shackled by past mistakes and disobedience? Things that perhaps your family knows nothing about? Things that perhaps your friends know nothing about? I say to you on the authority of the Word of God that you can have freedom. The Son of God will make you free. And as He says in John 8:36, "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." There can be redemption today. You can be set free from the bondage of sin, and there can be forgiveness. Does your conscience bother you? Are there things you would like to forget, but your conscience won't let you forget it? Do you want to have forgiveness, to be able to look God in the face and your friends in the face and know that you've been washed clean? Then the only way to have this is through the blood of Jesus Christ. In Acts 13:38, Paul says, "Through this man, Jesus, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." He forgives your sins if you'll come to Him and trust Him as your Savior.

Our Father, we thank Thee that through Jesus Christ we have liberty. We thank Thee that through Him we have forgiveness. May there be those today who will open their hearts to the Savior and find that wonderful freedom and liberty and joy that comes through salvation through faith in Christ, for we pray in His name. Amen.