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1 Peter 1:17-23 (KJV) And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, 21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God. 22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

The Bible says two things of every believer in Christ. It says that we are redeemed, and that we are born again.

People in America do not understand these two concepts any more. When America was younger and most children learned the Bible either in school or at Church it was easier to explain these great Gospel truths. But in the past few years children have become adults without knowing the Ten Commandments, and without hearing the great truths of the Bible.

When I was a child I understood what “redemption” was because of my daily experiences. Growing up poor we had no ready cash. So if I wanted candy bars – a great treat – I and my brother had to explore the sides of the roads looking for soda bottles. America today is pushing “going green” or “environmental friendliness”. I heard that Kroger Stores are phasing out plastic bags by 2020. They have now outlaws plastic straws in several American cities to protect wildfowl and sealife. Incandescent bulbs can no longer be manufactured on U.S. soil.

“We’re going green!”

In reality we were green and are headed back toward this way of life. The world I grew up in was all biodegradable paper bags and deposit soda bottles. When you bought a soda – in the South a Coca-Cola and in the North a Pepsi-Cola – you paid a “deposit” on the bottle. This deposit was between 3-10 cents. If you found an unbroken bottle you could wash it out, take it to the local Piggly Wiggly, and get money for each clean bottle you turned in. If you turned in enough empty bottles you could buy a full bottle and a candy bar. Finding Coke bottles was like finding money.

There was another thing we did for redemption. When momma shopped at the local Piggly Wiggly she would collect S&H Green Stamps. You would get so many stamps for spending money at the store. Momma had a drawer in the kitchen where she collected stamps. When she got enough she’s say “Kid’s, let’s put the stamps in the books. If we get enough we’ll get you a toy!” I bet I licked a billion stamps to get the little metal Tonka dump truck that I and my brother played with, or the little steam shovel we shared. Redemption meant a sticky tongue and a dry mouth, but redemption brought to me and my brother and sister toys we otherwise would not have had.

I was taught that Redemption takes the empty and useless and replaces it with something of value. We need to understand redemption once more!

The Need For Redemption

1 Peter 1:18-19 …. ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ

How does “Redemption” fit into Christianity?

You “redeem” something that is empty or otherwise useless for a greater thing. We must be “redeemed” because of what the Bible says. The Bible tells us:

Romans 5:12 (KJV) Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

“By ONE MAN sin entered into the world”. The world teaches us that man evolved from some primordial ooze. That we came from single cell creatures that evolved over millions of years into fish, then reptiles that walked, then into monkeys, and finally into humans. Many people today have bought into what the world teaches about creation. Scientists calling themselves “Evolutionists” have taught that over millions and yes, even billions of years a blind nature accidentally created life. Our children are being taught this “evolutionary theory” as fact in Science classes in school. Though these claims have never been scientifically proven – this is a blind faith – yet the claims are pushed on our school children and on us.

Yet the Bible says differently. The Bible begins with:

Genesis 1:1 (KJV) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

God created the Heaven and the Earth. As you read through the Genesis account you see that God did not create our planet over billions of years, but created everything in six 24 hour days. This is clearly stated in the text. God uses the phrase:

…The evening and the morning were the FIRST DAY (Genesis 1:5)
…The evening and the morning were the SECOND DAY (Genesis 1:8)
…The evening and the morning were the THIRD DAY (Genesis 1:13)

These were 24 hour periods. When God got to the Sixth Day He had created a perfect earth, a Paradise God called “Eden”. It is in this “Eden” that God created and placed both man and wife. This couple was male and female, and the pinnacle of God’s creation. God said:

Genesis 1:26-28 (KJV) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Man was made from the dust of the ground, and his wife made from his own body. They were a beautiful and perfect union. Together they were to reproduce, to dominate the earth, and to guard the Garden that God placed them in. It was to Adam God gave the command:

Genesis 2:15-17 (KJV) … the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Adam was told to guard the Garden, to till the soil, to care for the earth. He was forbidden to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God promised Adam that “the day you eat of it, you will surely die”.

In time evil came into the Garden of Eden. Evil in the form of a serpent tempted Eve to eat the forbidden, and she ate of the fruit and gave it unto Adam. On that day sin entered the world, and death by sin. In our world today people do not understand what sin is. In fact, to hear it told, there is no sin in anything as long as we enjoy it. But this is not true.

Sin is to do anything that God says “Do not do it”.
Sin is to refuse to do anything that God says “Do it”.
God is the Definer of Sin, and Sin always brings death.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Adam rejected God’s rule and on that day
sin came into the world.
Mankind began to follow sin rather than God.
We became like empty Coke bottles.
The life without God is the empty and vain life.

Right after Adam sinned the Lord clothed them both.

Genesis 3:21 (KJV) Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

There was no death in the world until Adam sinned and departed from God. God in mercy clothed Adam and Eve in animal skins. The innocent had to die to cover man’s sin. From that time forth if a person would come to God they had to do so through the death of an innocent. Sin is no trifle. Sin is a slave master. Humanity became bound to sin. We needed to be redeemed.

Jesus Christ came to redeem us from the slave market of sin. He said:

John 8:34-36 … Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. (35) And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: [but] the Son abideth ever. (36) If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Adam’s sin brought sin into the world. And sin brought with it death. The Apostle said:

Romans 5:14 … death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Adam sold himself and all of creation into sin by following evil and not God. His children would all be born with a sin nature. What does the Scripture say:

Romans 3:23 (KJV) For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

We are all born with a propensity to sin. ALL have sinned. There are many who grow up morally sweet, but none who grow up devoid of sin. We are bound by sin. What does the Bible say?

1 Corinthians 15:21-22 For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead. (22) For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

The first Adam brought death on all creation.
He brought death on himself.
He brought death on his wife.
He brought death on his children.
Adam invited the devil into his house, and the devil took over.

The death and dying that you now see in creation is not of God’s doing, but it exists because the first Adam brought it on us all. We are born enslaved to sin.
We need to be REDEEMED.

God Provided A Temporary Covering For Sin In The Law

God provided a temporary covering for Adam by killing innocent animals to cover his sin. God provided a temporary covering for man’s sin in the Law of Moses. The Law covered sin temporarily – and we know it was temporary – because man had to bring sacrificial animals to God not just once, but over and over.

Man is corrupt because of sin.
Animals did not create the problem.
Animals cannot pay for the problem.

Sin is a violation of God’s standard. The Scripture declares:

1 Peter 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers;

You cannot be redeemed with corruptible things.
All of creation fell under the weight of Adam’s disobedience.
If the Head be tainted, the whole will be tainted!
Creation groans under the weight of sin.

Romans 8:20-21 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [the same] in hope, (21) Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Creation itself is bound under sin. The storms that destroy lives are proof of sin. The cancer in the little baby. The suffering child at St. Jude’s hospital. The baby chick eaten by the weasel. The frog or the insect struggling as another creature, the ant, eats it, literally eating it alive. The rains that often turn to floods, destroying rather than nourishing. The young one dying under terrible suffering, under tooth and claw? Look at the great Continent of Africa where man kills man under so called ethnic cleansing. See the children starving, their bellies swollen, while people fight rather than farm, hurt rather than heal.

We cannot be redeemed with sinful things. We cannot make ourselves better. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things. Sinful cannot make payment for sinful. Something from without of this sinful sphere must pay for sin.

1 Peter 1:18-19 (KJV) … ye were not redeemed with corruptible things …19 But with the precious blood of Christ,

What paid for our sin? What redeemed and redeems us? It is the Precious Blood of Christ. Jesus Christ entered this world to save us. Who is Jesus? He is eternal God. The Scripture declares:

John 1:1-3 (KJV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Jesus is the Son of God. He is the Co-Creator of all things. He was there when Adam fell, and there when Adam was covered by the blood of the innocent. Christ chose to enter this world for us. God became Man for us.

John 1:14 (KJV) And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

Jesus came to be our permanent covering for sin. He came to REDEEM US from that terrible thing that creeps and destroys. The Scripture declares:

Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed [is] every one that hangeth on a tree:

Jesus Christ came to this earth to represent us before the Father. He came to take our sins upon Himself. He died for us, and became a permanent shelter for us. As the Apostle said to the Pastors of Ephesus:

Acts 20:28 … feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

If you have repented – that is, surrendered your life to God – and have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ then God has applied the redemption price to your lives. Jesus Christ died once and for all for you. He died in your place so that you need never die. He was judged and His Blood shed to pay for you and I. Jesus Christ represents us before God the Father not with an animal sacrifice, but with His own Blood sacrificed.

Hebrews 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by {Christ’s} own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption [for us].

Jesus Christ died on Calvary, shedding His Blood for you. He entered into this sin soaked system, keeping Himself pure. He lived, walked among us, then went to Calvary willingly, shedding His Blood for you. If you have believed in Him, turning away from your former way of life and toward God, then you are forever saved. The payment made for you is not corruptible, does not wear out with time, lasts forever – blessed be the Name of God! How long does this redeeming payment last?

Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Like the old song goes:

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.
Redeemed, redeemed,
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed, redeemed,
His child and forever I am.¹

This Redemption Brings The Believer To New Birth

It is the Blood of Christ that redeems us. The Blood has always been that which was necessary for redemption.

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement {Covering} for the soul.

Hebrews 9:22 … without shedding of blood is no remission.

1 Peter 1:19, 23 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: … 23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Recognizing ourselves to be sinners – sons of Adam – we turn to Christ for redemption. Believing on Him the Spirit of God causes us to be “born again”. Our first birth was tainted with sin, but this second birth is covered of Christ. You cannot buy your way into the Family of God with millions of dollars. You cannot enter Heaven’s Kingdom with the most expensive of diamonds. No Beloved, you must receive Christ as your Redeemer. It must be His Blood that you receive. You must believe that He – the Son of God – died for you. If you are purchased with the Precious Blood of Christ – this makes you precious in the sight of God! You belong to GOD now, not to SIN! You belong to LOVE now, not to LUST. Love purchased you – you belong to Him. As it is written:

Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (39) Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Where is our faith and hope? It is in God, not in us.

1 Peter 1:21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

God pleads with you to run to Christ’s arms, to believe that He and He alone is the Source of your salvation. Jesus is the …

Hebrews 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things …

He has made a way for you and a way for me. The Blood of Christ pleads to you. What is required of you?

Repent, stop trying to save yourselves.
Trust in Him, turning away from your old way of life.
The Way of Sin is unprofitable, the Way of Satan leads to death.
The Way of Christ is trust in Him, give your lives to Him, obey Him.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: (15) And [that] he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

Have you believed on Him? He pleads for thee. If you have believed on Jesus, then you are saved. You are His, because He is in your lives. His Blood, a testimony of His Love, was shed for you. Your faith and hope must be in God, else you are undone. Trust Him, give yourselves to Him. He pleads for you, Beloved – will you not answer? May God touch your hearts with these words.