Recently, the customer in front of me at a drive-through paid the bill for my coffee. I was very blessed by that. But I am even more blessed to know that God has paid a bill for me and for you—a very big bill.
We are extremely blessed as children of God, and one of the spiritual blessings that every child of God has is redemption. Redemption means liberation procured by the payment of a ransom. A ransom is a consideration paid or demanded for the release of someone or something from captivity. We are blessed because God has paid the price to release us from the power of darkness—both in our life now and in the future.
Why is redemption such a blessing? Because we needed it!
Colossians 1:13,14:
Who [God] hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of [by] his dear Son:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
Why did we need to be redeemed? In order to understand how precious our redemption is, it is important to know how we became captives. Because of the sin of the first man, Adam, all mankind was born under the power of darkness. When Adam disobeyed God’s command in the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:16,17), he transferred that which God had given him to God’s archenemy, the Devil. Because of Adam’s disobedience, he lost his spiritual connection with God and all his offspring were born separated from God and under the power of darkness. The human race was plunged into spiritual captivity. But God never wanted it to be that way. So, because of His great love for us, God sent His only begotten Son to pay the very steep price for our release. God redeemed us.
Romans 3:24,25:
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation [payment] through faith [believing] in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.
We were under the power of darkness before we were born again. Once we confess Jesus as lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we are redeemed, bought back, from the adversary’s kingdom and power. God redeemed us and bought us back from the adversary through Jesus Christ, who shed his own life’s blood by freewill choice. The payment for our redemption has been fully made. Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins so that we could be reconciled with God, have the spirit of God in us, and so much more.
How does being redeemed benefit us? We have been released from the power of darkness—both in our life now and in the future. There are two tremendous aspects to our redemption: (1) we belong to God now and we can live free from sin spiritually, and (2) we look forward to the total fulfillment of our redemption in the future when we will be gathered together with Christ forevermore.
I Corinthians 6:20:
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
We now belong to God. We have been bought back from the adversary’s power so that we can serve God and bring glory to Him right now. Those who are born again are no longer bound to walk according to the course of this world but are free to choose to walk according to God’s rightly divided Word. We can live our lives according to His Word and glorify Him with our words and actions.
Ephesians 1:14:
Which [the gift of holy spirit] is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
God gives born-again believers the gift of holy spirit, which empowers and strengthens us to walk for God now, and it is an “earnest”—a down payment—for something more to be received in the future. Because we are redeemed, we have a wonderful future to look forward to. When Christ returns, we will be gathered together with the lord (I Thessalonians 4:17), and then God will show us “the exceeding riches of his grace” (Ephesians 2:7).
Because we are redeemed, we can enjoy the benefits of living for God today and forevermore. We are extremely blessed because God has paid the price for us. We have been bought back from the adversary’s kingdom and power. Let’s glorify God, because our bill has been paid!
For more information on this topic, see The Way Magazine excerpt “Our Sonship Right of Redemption.”