3)
Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
4)
According as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love:
5)
Having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will,
6)
To the praise of the glory
of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
7)
In whom we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace;
8)
Wherein he hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
|
E |
ven
among nominal churches, this subject is of interest and popular, but largely
dealt with without understanding. The process of redemption is considered,
perhaps, archaic primarily because of a lack of understanding of how it works
for us. First of all, we must understand that redemption is needed when one is
being held for ransom. Under all such circumstances, by definition, a price for
freedom is set and must be paid.
Under
ordinary circumstances, anyone possessing the funds and who is willing to
sacrifice them would be welcome to pay the ransom. However, concerning Man, his
sin problem took him from the realm of the ordinary to the extraordinary. You
see, only an extraordinary effort expended by an extraordinary being would have
been able to liberate us from the depth and depravity of our sin. In our case,
only One held the price of our ransom. Only Jesus
could pay the price.
Prayerfully,
redemption has not become such a catch phrase that we forget why we have been
redeemed. Perhaps we would be more diligent and appreciative of our salvation
if we were to remember that the Lord could very easily have saved someone
else. We have been saved that He might realize a return on His investment,
and if we do not do the work for which we have been saved, then the shedding
of His blood for us is in vain.
Too
many, both saved and unsaved, recognize that scripture offers spiritual
blessings. Because of this, too many attempt to
rationalize that along with those blessings there must be blessings outside of
the spiritual realm. While it is true that the Lord has for us material as well
as spiritual blessings, the former are not to be sought after, but will be
rewarded (of sorts) for attending to “God’s business.”
Our
text scriptures, today, are considered somewhat controversial, for they are
often used as tools by those who propound the doctrine of “eternal security.”
However, when the Lord speaks of “predestination,” He wants us to understand
that we were predestined (or chosen) before the World began to be holy and
blameless before Him. He never meant to suggest that we, as an individual, were
seen in heavenly places before we were born and therefore cannot be lost. This
is a lie brought straight from Satan to entrap as many as possible.
The
holiness and blameless that God accepts and expects, is only accessible through
salvation. Our predestination to be adopted as children is that for which He
has devised a specific plan. With something so precious, He could leave nothing
to chance. His requirements for redemption are specific and clear—to all those
who sincerely want to hear.
Why
then do so many balk at the “simplicity that is in
Christ”? Perhaps you have heard if something being to
simple; or so simple that the hearer becomes convinced that there must be more
for the individual to do. We have a hard time accepting that One
would set up a program neither to confuse nor trick us, but rather, to help us.
You see, Man feels best about accepting something when he thinks that he has
merited it. This frees him from any sense of “owing” Someone. In error, we
believe that if we do not feel we have a debt, then we must not have one.
Whether
or not we want to accept this debt, it is one we owe and will never be able to
pay. We come closest by committing and submitting our lives to the Lord. Like
it or not, the uncontrolled (by God) life is the uncommitted life. If this is,
indeed, your state you can never hope to be used of God, for if you are
unwilling to be obedient to Him, how could you ever be used by Him?
Resistance
to the Lord, His ordinances, requirements and commandments, is at an all-time
high. This can be explained primarily by ignorance (concerning exactly what it
took for Him to redeem us). All of us need to realize that it was not easy for
the Lord to “shake us loose” from our degradation. Now, whereas once we were
bound and effectively, “gagged,” we are now free to worship the Creator of
Heaven and earth. Salvation alone granted to us by God makes Him worthy of our
praise and thanks.
Through
our “redemption from sin,” we have been given victory over all things—most of
them insurmountable without Him and His intervention. Recognizing this should
lead us more quickly to accept that absolutely nobody could have done for us
what Jesus did. He is the most powerful Man that we could ever know.
Without
the Lord, we would have no hope and no way out of the curse of certain death.
However, hope is not automatic to all men. Yes, Jesus died but every individual
man’s responsibility is to accept Him. Those who will not be saved still have
no hope.
Because
of the compassion, mercy and righteousness of the God we serve, not only have
we been redeemed but we have also been brought over into 1994. If God were only
a God of judgment, many would not have seen the New Year.
Perhaps
this year, we will successfully change our focus, turning it away from what
the devil intends to bring us down, and what we know will bring us down; turning
it away from what has caused us sorrow, and toward the “heavenly places” that
the redeemed already occupy.