Day 15

Redemption - Your New Value

But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30 NKJV).

When we talk about redemption we are talking about an important doctrine of the Bible. Doctrines are important but doctrines cannot just remain as a piece of theological information. The doctrine of redemption is the biblical idea of Jesus' finished work on the cross.

The word redeem means “to buy out.” The term was used specifically in reference to the purchase of a slave’s freedom. If we are “redeemed,” then our prior condition was one of slavery. God has purchased our freedom, and we are no longer in bondage to sin or to the Old Testament law. " Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree )" (Galatians 3:13 NKJV).

To experience redemption is to understand what Christ has done for us when we were completely bound, enslaved and hopeless. Christ "bought us" from slavery to freedom. The act of buying us over shows:

a. Our Worth -- the Lord would want to invest in us when we were worthless and hopeless. When sin kept us in slavery we were not important but rather only a slave of sin. But our value and worth was changed by His redemption.

b. Our New Position - we are no longer slaves but new creation made to be sons. The old has gone and the new has come ( 2 Corinthians 5:17).

C. Our Victory -- we are no longer under the power of law but under grace. Now sin has no hold over us because of the power of grace that is at work in us (Romans 6:14). When we lived under the law, the law could not help us to be victorious over sin because the weakness of the law is our flesh (human effort) -- "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh," (Romans 8:3 NKJV). But grace is the empowerment of God for a victorious life!

Redemption is not just a good theological journal but it brings you and me to a powerful position of worth, life and dignity. God sees you differently than you were before. Because of your new found position of worth and honor before God, you are free from rejection, tainted self-worth and unforgiveness. Rejoice my friends, you are now precious and powerful because of the redemption you have in Christ!