November 21, 2021

This transcript has been electronically transcribed. Any grammatical or syntactical errors should be attributed to the electronic method of transcription. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus grace to you and peace from God, our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed to be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love. He predestined us to adoption as sons to himself through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace in which he has made us precious, in the beloved in him. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, and that's as far as we'll get today. You probably already recognize there that it's an awkward place to stop. Paul hasn't finished his thought. The thought is going to continue on in verse eight, but that's as far as we get from here. This is a. Extremely helpful and edifying passage of scripture, one that is so well worth your time to commit as much as possible of this book to memory. I promise you, you will be eternally glad for every single word of this passage of this book that you are able to commit to memory again, the goal, the blessing, the true value, is not reaching the end of the book and saying, look at what I memorized. The value is the work that has to be put into memorizing it and how much you've got to pour over the words and turn the words over and over in your mind. That is the true value of memorization of scripture, particularly memorizing longer portions. So this morning we'll take a look at verse seven, and you probably already noticed in just reading through that, that we're taking a shift. We're taking a change. There's a change in focus that happens between verse six and verse seven. All of this, as we've said before, is one sentence. And so Paul's not stopping a sentence and starting a new paragraph, but he is changing his stream of thought. We could almost think of it like smaller sub paragraphs within this longer sentence. And there's three. Each of these smaller sub paragraphs ends with the statement of praise. Verse six is the first one with this statement of praise that comes as Paul sort of finishes the first set of thoughts verse , 12 is going to be the second, , statement of praise, and then verse verse 14, those coinciding with the three sort of sub paragraphs that the, the passage falls into. So as we look at this transition from the first set of thoughts to the second set of thoughts, We think a little bit about how it is that we divide this up and how we make this separation. And there's a number of ways that we could do this. First of all, we could look first at, , verses three through six and we could see that front and center. There is the work of the father, the work of the father in his choosing and his electing and his predestining unto adoption, the love of the father that we, that we talked about, the grace that is the context for all of that, that's really centered upon the work of the father. Starting in verse seven, we, we sort of take a shift and we focus over. Onto the work of the sun. And so from verse seven, down through verse, , 10, even 11 and into 12, we're focusing on the work of the sun. And then verses , 13 and 14 is going to focus primarily on the work of the spirit. Those aren't really hard and fast separations. There's overlap that takes place in there. And you can even see that as we look at the work of the father in verses three through six. You can even see that when Paul was focused on the work of the father, even then, the entire passage has a Christological focus. So as he's talking about the work of the father, everything that the father does is said to be in Christ, in him, in the beloved, in Jesus. So the work of the Father is said to be the work of the Father that's done in Jesus. And so also the work of the spirit, because this is the pattern of scripture. Christ is the focus of all of our attention and all of our worship. The father does what the Father does, but we focus primarily upon Christ. And even what the Father does is said to be done in Christ. Likewise, the Spirit. Why is this? Because Jesus is the visible manifestation of the God that we cannot see. So this is by design. The Father is Spirit. Jesus says to Philip, no one's ever seen the father. The Holy Spirit obviously is spirit. No one's ever seen the spirit but Jesus, we've seen Jesus is the visible manifestation of the God that we can't see. Therefore, all of the activity of the Godhead is in a sense funneled to us through Christ. And so we see it through Christ. He is our central focus. The Scriptures themself focus entirely, or not entirely, but fo focus primarily upon Christ because he is the manifestation of God to us, the perfect complete manifestation of everything that it means to be God. So he talked about the work of the Father and verses three through six, but all of that was in the Son. And then we'll get to the work of the Spirit, so we could divide it up that way, the work of the Father, the work of the Son, the work of the Spirit, or we could also divide it up this way versus three through six is the work of God that happened before the creation of time. This all in verse three through six is said to be before the foundation of the world. Remember how we talked about this was in the mind of God, the purpose of God. God purposed, God intended to do these things before he created anything. Therefore, God purposed to have an elect people upon himself. He purposed to predestine those people unto adoption. And so these were the will of God, the in the mind of God before anything existed. Now we move in verse seven, to not what God has done before the creation of time, but what God is doing and has done in time. So beginning from verse seven, we are now going to think about God's work, God's activity within the context of time, both time passed and time present. And then we'll move from this onto focusing on God's work and God's activity that is to come in the eternal future. So that's the second way that we could divide all this up. A third way that we could divide all this up is that verse three through six, talk about the purpose of God. They talk about God's electing purpose, his predestining purpose, his purpose of adoption. All of these things took place in the mind of God, in the purpose of God. Beginning from verse seven, Paul begins to talk about how it is that God brings about those things that he purposed before he created anything. So we could look at it this way. We could divide it up into God's purpose before time began. God's intention, God's will. Now we move over to how it is in reality. God brings about the things that he intended before creating anything. And then we'll move finally to how God culminates all of that after the end of this epoch or this era, or this time is over. So those are at least three different ways that we could divide this up, and there's more, trust me. But those are three, I think, probably helpful ways for us to get our minds around all of this material, because God, , Paul says quite a lot in these verses, and it's helpful for us as finite humans to sort of break this down into more manageable chunks. So we move from the first chunk today into the second chunk, which is again, verse seven. In him, we have redemption in his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. And so that is going to be the focus of our time this morning. And even past this morning, we're going to have to spend some time thinking, well, about the idea of redemption. What does redemption mean? Redemption is probably the most often talked about, the most often thought about, the most often preached about aspect of our salvation. But Paul turns to this topic now, and even though we are very familiar and very well versed in talking about our redemption in Christ's blood, nevertheless, there are certainly some helpful points for us to look at from Paul's text to us this morning. So as we think about this, what, what really is happening as I see it in this passage, is Paul is worshiping the father and his worship of the Father is really driven by his contemplating or his pondering of different facets or aspects of our life in Christ. All of this passage is really talking about our life in Christ, the new life that we are given in Christ. But yet Paul is looking at this through a number of different facets. Think of a diamond, and you know, the beauty of a diamond. You ever see, you seen a picture of a raw diamond as it comes out of the ground? Not very impressive, right? The beauty of a diamond is its cut, right? The cut in the polish of the diamond. You, if you ladies have a diamond and you, you can relate to this, when you admire your diamond, what do you do? You always turn it, don't you? That is the beauty of a diamond in turning it. If you just look at a diamond, even a cut diamond lying on a table or on a, on a tablecloth or something that's just stationary, then it's not all that impressive. The diamond is impressive as you turn it in the light and the different angles of light show you all the brilliant colors that emanate from it, and the different, , glaring and gleaming that are, that come from the cut of the diamond. So a diamond is symbolic in this sense of our salvation of our life in Christ. It is not one dimensional. And if the modern church has made any error today, it is that we have gradually sort of fallen into the habit of thinking about our life in Christ, one dimensionally in the sense of repentance and forgiveness of sin that comes to us through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and the promise of eternal life afterwards. That is absolutely true. That is the most glorious truth that mankind has ever known. However, that is only one facet of the diamond. That is only one aspect of the diamond. And largely many Christians today, I believe, have now taken that to be the only facet of salvation and life in Christ. But Paul is showing us a different way. He's showing us a better way. He's showing us how to praise God with the full force of all of the beauty of that diamond as think of Paul in this passage as holding up the diamond of life in Christ and turning it. And saying, look at that election adoption. God's love redemption. And as he turns it, he sees these different beautiful, colorful aspects of our life in Christ. And that is what's driving his praise. Because God is honored and pleased with all praise. Is he not any, any genuine praise honors God. God is pleased by any genuine praise that we offer up to him. Even the most simplistic, even ignorant type of praise, God is still honored by that if it's genuine praise. Right? Think with me for just a moment about the blind man in John chapter nine. Who praises Jesus and how does he praise Jesus? He didn't even know Jesus' name. They say, who is this that, that healed you? They're coming and they're, they're accosting. This, this man that was born blind, but now he can see and they're accosting him and they say, who did? Who healed you? He said, I don't even know. I don't, I don't know what his name was, but here's what I do know. I was blind and now I see. So his praise of Jesus extends no further than that one experience of being given his sight. He doesn't even know Jesus' name. He says, I don't know whether he's a sinner or not. I don't know. You know? All I know is I was blind. Now I see. So his praise of Jesus is about his simplistic and as ignorant as it can get to not even know if Jesus is not a sinner or to not even know Jesus' name. I'm not sure how you could get more ignorant of Jesus, and I'm using that word in the classic sense, more ignorant of Jesus than that. However, we need to be careful to remind ourself that that man, when he spoke, those words of praise to Jesus had had new life in Christ for maybe a day or two, maybe a few hours, and so that was the extent of what he knew of the man who gave him sight at that point. The Bible is very sharp in its rebuke. Of those believers who should have progressed to a point that they understand their life in Christ much more fully and much more completely. And they understand the facets of the diamond. Remember what the writer to the Hebrews has to say to those believers. He says, you sh, you should have, by this point been teaching others about Jesus. But rather than that, you still need milk. You can't even digest meat. I still need to bring you milk. Or it says to the Corinthians, believe Corinthian believers, I, I didn't come to you with meat. I came to you with milk, because that's all you can digest, right? So the Bible is sharp in it's rebuke of those Christians who should have come to a point of greater understanding of their life in Christ and the character of God, but yet have not. Likewise, the Bible also affirms to us in places like Jeremiah nine, that God is delighted when his children know and understand him. So Paul's praise to the father throughout this section is a praise that is very mature and very informed and is praising God for his work of life in Christ from multiple different aspects and multiple different facets. And this is the praise which God delights in and honors God. Not that he's not delighted in the simplistic praise of those who have just come to know him, but for those who are mature in Christ, who understand their salvation, God is highly delighted that his children know him and understand some things about the life that he's given us in Christ. And we understand it because he's told us about them. I'm going to use an an analogy that I want to take from Albert Martin who used this analogy back in the 1960s, but it's still a good one. So follow along with this analogy. Imagine a man who is convicted and on death row. And he is awaiting his sentence to be carried out. He's a convicted serial killer and rapist, and he's awaiting execution, and you go into this man's cell to visit him and you don't know what to expect when you go there other than a man who's been convicted and sentenced to death for serial murder. And so you enter into his cell and until you're surprised, you find that not only is he a convicted serial killer, but he is also blind, can't see a thing. Not only is he also blind, but he is also deaf. Can't hear you well. Then to your further dismay, you also learned that not only is he a convicted serial killer who's blind in deaf, but he's also an extremely poor health. You can just tell just by looking at him that his body is ravaged with disease and sickness. There's not a healthy bone in his body. Not only that, he's severely malnourished. His bones are sticking out everywhere. He looks like a skeleton. He hasn't. He looks like someone who hasn't eaten a decent meal in months. Well, not only is he malnourished and, and his body is riddled with disease and sickness and is blind and deaf, but he also is wearing rags because he has no money. He doesn't even have a change of clothes. He has one set of rags that he can wear, and that's it. He has no resources for anything else. He doesn't have a home to go to. He's been homeless. He has no car. He has no, , furthermore, he has no job skills. There is nothing that this man has. Were he to be a free man. There's nothing that he has in terms of job skills that he could go somewhere and get a job. In addition to that, he's severely lacking in education. He can't read, he can't write. He has a second grade education. He cannot art articulate anything. Now, what if you went to visit this man in his cell? And your goal was to transform him into a helpful, useful, vibrant member of society, a contributing member of society, and you saw this man, you would immediately, immediately realize a lot of things have to happen in order for him to become this vibrant member of society, what would have to happen? He would need the work of, , well, first of all, a lawyer to look into his case and maybe see, well, maybe there's some evidence that was overlooked. Maybe there's this DNA evidence that could clear him. So you'd need a lawyer who is skilled in the law that would be willing to take that case. You would need a judge who would be willing to hear the case and declare him to be not guilty. But in addition to that, if he were declared not guilty and set free, he would still be the same man. So he would need, first of all, a doctor. To come and address the sicknesses in his body and to get his body healed from the sicknesses that are ravaging his body. He would need some kind of a healer, maybe, maybe a healing kind of eye doctor to restore sight to his, to his eyes. He would need a really good pair of, of, , hearing aids in order to be, to be fitted to him that he could hear properly. He would also need some education. He would need to be taught how to read and how to write. He would need some job skills, so he would need somebody who was, , some sort of what's it called? Occupational sort of person that would come and teach him a job skill that he could then go and actually have a chance of getting a job. In addition to that, he would also need some sort of a philanthropist that would come and give him some resources that he could have some changes of clothes and a place to live and maybe a car to get around in. Without those things, he's not really going to be that vibrant member of society that we hope he would be. So you see all the things that have to go into that man in order to transform him into the convicted serial killer that's blind, deaf, sick, malnourished, uneducated, and unskilled, awaiting his execution. A lot of things have to happen for him to be transformed. If he is only declared to be innocent, he's not transformed. He might be set free, but he's not transformed. That is an analogy of our salvation. That's an analogy of all, or at least some of the things that God does for us in our salvation. He doesn't just forgive us of our sins, but he transforms us in ways that are tantamount to the man that I just described. He takes away our sickness. He restores sight. He restores hearing. He nourishes us. He feeds us. He, he gives us education in him, education in the truth. So many different things that God comes together to do for his children. Now, what if that same man, what if that transformation that I just described happened to him and he then is now a, a vibrant, contributing, healthy member of society, and you who were the one that visited him in his cell on that dark night, and you sort of facilitated all this, you be, you begun this whole process. You said this would really be a good story for people to hear about. I'm going to write an op-ed and just tell people about what has happened to this man. And so you write this op-ed, and in the op-ed you mention all these people, the philanthropist, the occupational specialist, the the person, the educator that taught him to read and write the you, you talk, you mentioned all these people, the doctors and, and the person with the hearing aids, you mention all them by name, but you get it all jumbled up. You say, well, so and so this, this ear doctor, you say they did a wonderful job taking the case and researching and finding out that yes, there was some evidence that was overlooked. And then the judge, the judge was just so helpful. The judge was so helpful when he taught him how to read and write, oh, and this philanthropist that had all this money. He was just such a nice person that came along and taught him how to have this job skill that he could go and find a job. And then the people read that article and they say, what? Yeah, here's my name, but you got totally wrong what I did. That's kind of like, if you can follow the analogy, that's kind of like the modern church, when we praise God in a one-dimensional way for what he has done multi-dimensionally and Paul's purpose here is to show us the whole diamond. Of our salvation, of our life in Christ. And he started with the facet of God's choosing. He begins by saying, every blessing is ours in Christ. And as he names those blessings, he turns to the facet of God's choice. Then God's predestining, God's election, God's grace, God's love in love, he predestined us. Now he's turning to the next facet of redemption. And this is the facet. This is the side of the diamond, which God did in order to bring about those things that he willed or desired or decided upon before he created anything. And so now that sort of sets the stage for us to begin thinking and talking about this concept of redemption. Redemption is one of the most beautiful words in the English language, is it not? It is a word that the church loves and we use it a lot if you listen to the church's music. Then you hear that word redemption all the time, don't you? Sometimes it's used properly, sometimes it's not used properly. Sometimes redemption is used and what it's really meant is adoption or sometimes redemption is used and what's really meant is glorification or what's sometimes redemption is used and what's really meant is something totally different. And so we, in the church, we kind of have gotten, should I say, a little bit lazy in how we think about what God has done for us. And we oftentimes misuse words to mean different things than what God gave to us. And you know that words are extremely important to our faith. Um, our, our faith is built on words, right? Paul says to the Romans, hearing comes by faith and faith through the word of Christ. Right? Our faith is built upon words. It's built upon God's word to us. Jesus says, I have given them your words. And so if God's words are this fundamental and this important to our faith, then we as God's people should endeavor to not only know those words, but also guard those words. And we in the ministry, we sort of see this as, as, or at least I see, I'll speak for myself. I see this as kind of my role and many before me, and many of my, , contemporaries see this in the same way that our role is, is kind of like a protector of the truth that God has given to us. God has given to us truth, and some of that truth needs to be precisely analyzed and studied in order to understand it properly, in order to see that facet of the diamond. And if we don't do that, and we just let words sort of mean anything, you know that if you let a word mean whatever, whatever you want, then very soon it means nothing. And God's words are far too precious to us for us to allow them to mean nothing. So we'll do this morning as we've done in the, in the past, as we've been here in Ephesians, and I spent some time thinking about this doctrinal concept. We've talked about election, we've talked about predestination, we've talked about God's love. We've talked about God's grace. Now we'll begin this morning talking about redemption. This word that is so fundamentally important to us as believers, but not only to us. Do you know that every religious system in the world is based on redemption? Every belief system that has ever exists is based on redemption. Every belief system has some sort of understanding about a deity. Or Dees or some understanding about a life after this one. And all of those belief systems, whatever they may be, all of them have some kind of understanding that we stand in need of either appeasing the deity or we stand in need for what we need for the next life. Every belief system that has ever existed has that as its building block. There is either a deity or there is an a life after this one. And we stand in need of something in order to be appeased to the deity or to be right in the next life. And that concept is as we're going to see as we go through this, that concept is redemption. Every belief system in the world is based upon redemption. But here's the difference. Every belief system in the world believes. Redemption either comes by your efforts or your discovery, one of the two. Either your efforts can bring some sort of redemption for the next life or for the deity, or there's something that you need to discover that will appease the deity or prepare you for the next life. Every there. There's not a belief system that is not based on redemption. However, the true belief system, Christianity is the only thing that understands that redemption is not something that you achieve or discover. It's something that someone else has achieved and given to you. So with that introduction, I know it's a little bit of an in, in a lengthy introduction. With that introduction, let's kind of get started here in verse seven. In him we have, and there's that beautiful word, redemption. In his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. So let's just start out by thinking oftentimes these theological concepts we we're, we do well to begin where we should begin in the place that we should begin, which is the old covenant. What was the understanding of redemption under the old covenant? And how does that show us how the concept of redemption then came to its maturity in the new covenant and as it's presented to us in the church today? So in the Old Testament redemption, the idea of redemption, not only the word, but the concept is all over the place in the Old Testament. And it began with this idea that was presented in God's law of something that had achieved a status or a condition that one wanted to. Rescue that thing out of, or remove it out of, and that was called redeeming or redemption. Take a look with me in your notes at Exodus chapter 13, verses 12 and 13. Here we see one of many examples you shall set apart to the Lord. All the all that first opens the womb, the firstborn, not only the firstborn of your children, but the firstborn of your livestock. It goes on to say, all the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the lord's. Every firstborn of a donkey, you shall redeem with a lamb. Or if you will not redeem it, you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons, you shall redeem. So that's the concept in how it begins, is there's this firstborn donkey and God says, you shall redeem the firstborn donkey with a lamb. But if you choose not to redeem it with a lamb, if you don't have the lamb, then the donkey gets its neck broken. What's all that about? That is that, is that the firstborn donkey is in a state or a condition. In which it needs to be sacrificed. But God says, to avoid the sacrifice of the donkey, you pay the price of the lamb. There's a price that's paid, and that price secures or, , achieves the release of the donkey from the impending sacrifice that that occurs. If you don't pay the price of the lamb, then the donkey remains in its condition, which is as the firstborn, it must be sacrificed. So there's this idea that there's a donkey because he's the firstborn. He therefore is in line to be sacrificed. However, he can be redeemed out of that condition of being sacrificed by paying the price of a lamb. So that's kind of where the whole thing starts. Now take a look at Exodus 21. When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned. And if it's flesh and it's flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable, but. If the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past and its owner has been warned, but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and its owner shall be put to death. If a ransom is imposed on him, meaning the owner, then he shall give for the redemption of his life, whatever is imposed on him. So here we have the situation of a man who owns a ox, and that ox is a valuable piece of property to him. It does a lot of his agricultural type labor, but the ox is sort of, , , difficult to get along with. And so the ox has a habit of goring people of just not liking people. And if you get too close and the ox isn't tied up or fenced off or something, then it could gore you. And so people have noticed that this ox has this tendency to it. He's got a really nasty personality, and they've come and they've told the man, you know that ox of yours is really, he's dangerous. You need to keep him away from people. Well, the man doesn't pay any, he doesn't take that advice. And then sure enough, one day the ox kills a person. So God says, here's what happens. If the ox gored somebody and the owner didn't know anything about this, if that's the first time they've ever seen this ox behave that way, that's one thing. But if he knew about this, then the ox is put to death and the man is put to death unless a ransom is imposed. And the owner of the ox pays that ransom. He then ransoms himself out of the condition of having to be put to death in order to pay the penalty, the right, and just penalty for having this ox that his negligence ended up costing the life of someone. So, so you see the same sort of idea. The owner, because of his crime, because of his negligence, he then was put into the position that his life needed to be forfeited, but his life could be saved if a ransom was agreed upon, maybe by the family of the person that was killed. If they said, well, if he'll pay us 12 camels, then he doesn't have to be, had had to be put to death, and he agrees upon that and pays the ransom, then he then is taken out of the condition of needing to be put to death. So we see how it, it kind of develops there from the donkey. Now to the person who's committed this crime. Now take a look, a look at Leviticus 25, 25. And this is just a sampling of what the Old Testament has to say about redemption and, , sacrifice. I'm not sacrifice, but ransom. So levia, Leviticus 25, if your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer. So now we have the idea of not just redemption, but a redeemer your near his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold. So land ownership in the promised land was different than land ownership that we think of today. We value land ownership and probably a lot of us own land. And you can relate to the fact that that's a, that is a good thing. It's a good thing to own part of the earth. But still, we don't think of the land like. Old Testament, Israel was taught by God to think of the land. We think of it as a valuable possession. You know, they're not making any more land, that kind of thing. And it's just good to have some and to care for it. Old Testament Israel, they were taught that the land, this is God's inheritance to you, and so therefore it's not sold. It is not sold outside of your family, and it's not sold outside of your tribe. And so sometimes it would happen that land would end up, maybe somebody had to have it sold off to pay some debts or something like that, and the ownership of land would then fall into ownership of someone who was not in that clan or not in that tribe. God saw that as a highly undesirable thing because the land was divided up according to families, according to tribes, and for a piece of the land to then. Fall into ownership outside that tribe. God didn't want that, so he and he established this principle that if that ever happens, then the nearest kin of the one who sold the land, he's called the redeemer. He has the right to purchase that land back at a fair price. So he can then go to the new owner of the land, whoever it is, and say, here's a fair price for that land. And the new owner could do nothing. He could not say, no, I don't want to sell it back to you. He was forced to sell the land at the fair price back to the redeemer so that the ownership of the land stayed within the Klan and within the tribe. So now we see the, the concept of redeeming the land, and we also see the concept of a redeemer. We still see the same thing present. That there's something that falls under a condition, that you want to get it out of that condition. And there's a price to be paid to get it out of that condition. So now take a look at Ruth three, verse 13. This is, , related to that same idea of a redeemer, but we all know the story of Ruth, right? Ruth, who was a Moabite, she was a gentile foreigner, but her Jewish husband. Had died. And so here she is with her mother-in-law, Naomi, and they've come back into the promised Land, right? But you remember Naomi's land is not hers anymore because not only did her husband, , bile leave Israel and sort of abandon their land back in Bethlehem, but also he's now dead too. So here the widow returns and she doesn't have land, she doesn't have anything. They're sort of substituting you remember how they're going about collecting, , collecting, was it wheat on the edges of the crops and that sort of thing. Okay? So then there's this Boaz fellow that comes into the, into play. And this Boaz fellow had been nice to Ruth and was, and he told his people, you know, make sure you leave lots of food for her to collect. Well then as it turns out, there is a redeemer and you remember the story. There's another guy that's closer relational wise to Naomi than. Boaz and he has the first right to redeem the land. But with the land comes, this is quite a deal, right? With the land comes the widow and the widow's daughter-in-law, right? Not, not often. You buy land and get two people with it, but that was the deal. If you, you, if you redeem the land, then Naomi and Ruth came with the land. So the closest kinsman redeemer. Boaz wants to redeem the land because he wants to marry Ruth. So he goes to the closest redeemer and says, are you going to redeem that land? If not, I will. And that's what happens. Boaz redeems the land because he's akin. And he purchases the land. And then there's, you know, they live happily ever after into the ancestry of Jesus, right? So now we have this idea of not only redeeming something that maybe someone that's committed a crime and there's guilt involved and they can be redeemed out of that. But we also have the idea of redeeming the land. And now we have the idea of redeeming people. So let's follow the thread on through to, , to, to the new covenant, to the New Testament. Let's just see how this develops in the New Testament. In the New Testament, we find that not only does this idea of redemption and redeeming the land, redeeming the people, even redeeming animals, now we find that it's now being thought, this idea of redemption is now being thought of in terms of the nation. Now people are thinking and talking about redeeming Israel. Look at Luke chapter two. In coming up that very hour, she began to give thanks to God and to speak to him of all who are waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. That's Anna in the temple. And so she speaks, she mentions of these who are waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. The next passage is the passage about the, the disciples on the road to Emmaus and Luke 24, where they see, where they say, oh, we had hoped that this guy, Jesus was the one who was going to redeem Israel. Israel stands in need of redemption. Jerusalem stands in need of redemption. We had hoped Jesus was the one that was going to do that. Apparently, we were wrong because he's been dead three days now. So now we have this idea that Israel, Jerusalem needs to be redeemed. Redeemed from what? Political redemption. From the rule of Rome. Yes, but also it goes deeper than that redemption from. The condition, the sinful, decadent, depraved condition that Israel is in spiritually. Okay, so now this idea of redemption is becoming fuller and more complete. And then of course we see it come to its fullness, it's completion in Jesus who comes onto the scene saying things like the son of man, even the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many, the word redemption is not there, but the idea of ransom can't be separated from the idea of redemption because the ransom is what's paid in order to affect the redemption in order to redeem. The land or the animal or the criminal or , the widow out from the condition in which they are in. So that is kind of a background idea of, of how this idea of redemption came about. Redemption means at its roots to release by way of payment or to free by way of a ransom to pay a ransom that achieves freedom or to pay a payment that releases someone from the condition or the state which they don't want to be in. That's an undesirable state, and the release from that is acquired by the form of paying a ransom or paying a payment. Take a look with me at Colossians chapter two, verse 13 and 14, and you who were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh. That's our spiritual condition. Our natural condition outside of Christ, you, God made alive together with him. That's another way of Paul saying there all these things that he's saying in Ephesians one, that's another way of saying life in Christ. God made us alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses. How did God forgive us Our trespasses? By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. So the picture here is this, there's a debt and that debt is the worship and the love and the obedience that we all should have given to God, but we didn't. Because we haven't given that obedience and that love and that worship to God, there is now therefore a debt. And in Paul's way of writing here to the Colossians, he imagines that debt in the form of a, of a certificate of debt, a sheet of debt. And he says that certificate of debt has been set aside because it was nailed to the cross. So in my mind, I have the picture of this, the certificate of debt nailed to the cross and the nail, which nails it to the cross is the same one that went through Jesus's hand first. So there's this nail that goes through Jesus' hand and then goes through this record of our debt that we owe to God because we have not worshiped him properly, not loved him with all of our heart, and we have not obeyed him. And that certificate of debt is nailed through Jesus' hand to the cross. So there's this ransom pay. There's this debt paid. The debt that is the payment is in the form of Jesus's very life. Now take a look at Romans chapter eight, verse three. For God has done what? The law weakened by the flesh. Why is the law weakened by the flesh? Because it's our flesh that can't keep the law so weakened by the flesh. The law could not do this, but God's sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh whose flesh did God condemn sin with his sons. God condemned sin with the flesh of his son. Because his son on the cross was two Corinthians 5 21 May to be my sin. And so God condemned the guilt of us not following, not keeping the law. He condemned it with the flesh of his son. Or we see the same sort of thing portrayed again in Mark 10 45. That's, , again, a re restatement of what Jesus says in Matthew Son, Amanda not come, be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So this payment, this payment is as Paul says in the text, we have received redemption in him. We have received redemption in his blood, through his blood. The blood of Jesus is the sacrifice. It's the life of Jesus that's given as that ransom payment to ransom us out of the condition which God seeks to ransom us out of. So he lays down his life in John 15, verse 13. You remember that Jesus says, no greater love has anyone than this, than a man lays down his life for another. Didn't we just finish talking about the love of God in the adopting work before the foundation of the work of the world, the love of God. That was the context, the motivation by which God adopts us into His family. And here Jesus says, well, that is the greatest demonstration of love, the greatest act of love adopting us into our, into God's family. How are we brought into God's family by the redemption of the cross, which Jesus is, is the greatest demonstration of love. So we see all this sort of begin to formulate in our mind this idea of, of redemption and ransom. And again, these are concepts that are, if any aspect of our salvation is the most common for us to think about and talk about and hear about, it's this aspect. So these, all these things should be very, very much. Not new to us. There are many concepts that Paul is giving us here, many theological doctrines that, that maybe the way of thinking about these things is new to many of us, but not this one. Not in the sense of our redemption, because this is like we just sung Tell me the, this old, old story about a savior who came from glory, right? And so this is where we tend to focus the most often, the facet that we see most often, this payment that is given in order to ransom us, to redeem us from that condition, that state that we need to be redeemed out of. So now a question that we need to ask and answer before we move on to the next or to the rest of the text is this. This may or may not be a question that you've ever even thought about asking, but it is an, it is a question that's important to ask and important to answer. And it's a necessary question when we start talking about a payment that's made in order to redeem God's people. And the question is, who's the payment maker? So you may have contemplated that, you may have, that may have never crossed your mind, but it's helpful to think through if a payment has to be made for God's people, who is the payment made to? Now, many people will answer that with Satan because Satan is the one, he's the prince of the power of the air. He's the one who, who holds power over the, the sons of disobedience, right? The Sons of Wrath. He's the ruler of this age. And so in a sense, the natural answer might be Satan or the devil. In fact, my, , probably my favorite author, CS Lewis, and undoubtedly my favorite series of books is The Chronicles of Narnia. I've read them many times to our kids getting ready to read them again. Um, if you've read that, if you've read that series, then the most well-known book of the series is the Lion in which an wardrobe right. In that CS Lewis shows how he gets this dead wrong. Because if you follow the story, remember how the story goes. Edmund betrays his brother and sisters, he's the traitor. He, Joe goes over and joins the white witch who represents Satan, and the white witch owns him. And then Aslan, who is Jesus in the story, is going to redeem Edmund. And so Aslan is going to die on the stone table for for Edmund's treachery. But before Aslan dies on the stone table, Lewis has Aslan and the white witch go over to the side and talk to each other. And in that conversation, the white witch says to Aslan, you know, he's mine. I own him now. And then Aslan answers yes. But there is a law from the beginning of the world that if another gives themself in the place of the guilty one, then the guilty one is set free. And then the white witch says, well, you're, you're right. But who would do that? And then Aslan does that, right? And so all of that is portrayed as Aslan is paying off the white witch, who is the devil? That friends is blasphemy. We must never allow ourself to think that the cross was paying a debt to Satan. We must never allow ourself to think that God was ever beholden to Satan. The payment was not to Satan. We'll see in just a moment. We'll work through some text and we'll see who the payment is made too. But please never let yourself think that on the cross, Jesus has to go to the cross because Satan has some sort of power. Satan holds some sort of ownership over God's people, and the only way that God can get his people back from Satan is to pay Satan. So who is the payment then made to? Well take a look in your notes here and we'll sort of work through this in Romans chapter three. Look at Romans chapter three. Paul is dealing with this very same subject. He says this, for all of sin and fallor the glory of God. That's a pretty good generic definition of sin. There's the glory of God. We were created in the image of God with the glory of God, and we have fallen short of that glory. So all of sin then falls short of the glory of God, and we are justified by His grace as a gift. That's a familiar concept that Paul is driving home here in Ephesians one as well. We are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward. So the payment is made by God. God put forward the ransom. The ransom is Jesus, his blood, his life, God put him forward. God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. Now let's stop with that word, propitiation. We talked earlier about words. Propitiation is not one of those words. It's at the tip of our tongue, but it should be because propitiation is every bit of a, as a beautiful word, as redemption might not fit into songs as easily as redemption, but it, the concept is just as beautiful as the concept of redemption. What is propitiation? Propitiation is a payment that is made to assuage wrath. Or to remove wrath. That's specifically what propitiation is, is a payment that is made to take away, right, or just wrath. So as compared to a ransom, a ransom is paid in order to redeem a person or an animal or a, or the land out of the state, that that's undesirable by comparison. A propitiation is much more narrow than that. It's not, it's not paid to get somebody out of a state that's undesirable. It's paid to do away with wrath. It's a payment that removes right and justified wrath. So let's think about this in, in terms of examples, and I hesitate to even use this example with all the things that we're hearing about in the U in the news this week, but this is the best example to kind of work with. It's the example of a civil court. So imagine that someone has slandered you. And you know what slander is. Slander is not just lies, but it's lies about you that intentionally are spread in order to damage you. That's slander and liable. Okay? So you've been slandered, you go to court, you sue this person because their slander has cost your business money. It's cost your family status or position or whatever. It, it's had impact on you. And so you take this person to, to court and you sue them, and the judge finds that yes, they, they did slander you. And so he awards you a hundred thousand dollars damages. That $100,000 is propitiation because it's intended. It's the, the idea is this $100,000 payment takes away not only the damage, but also well, the wrath. The wrath that you might feel towards that person who slandered you. That's a propitiation. Or let's just bring it down to maybe a another level. Let's just say for example, that , this past Thursday was your wife's birthday, and right this moment was the first time you thought about that. So you have this situation, her birthday was three or four days ago. You just now realize this, this afternoon you sneak out of the house and you go and you go to her favorite hair and nail salon kind of thing. And you buy this a hundred dollars gift card and you take it and you say, honey, I'm sorry that I forgot your birthday here. That also is a propitiation. It is a payment that's intended to remove wrath. She's mad cuz you forgot her birthday, but the gift is intended to take that anger away. That is propitiation and that is a beautiful concept. We find it throughout the New Testament. We even find it in the Old Testament by, by the way, you know the arc of the covenant. And you know the part of the arc of the covenant that's called the mercy seat. The mercy seat was the place in between the two Cher, where God's presence was to be. Do you know that the actual literal word for the mercy seat was the propitiation seat? Isn't that beautiful? But that's the idea of a propitiation. It's a payment to remove wrath. So here, Paul says this, he says to the Romans, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, were justified through the redemption whom God himself put forward as a payment to remove wrath. Wrong wrath. Unjustified wrath. No right wrath, justified wrath. God put forth the penalty payment to remove his own wrath. By his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time. So what is all that about? Well, God forgave people of their sins prior to Jesus going to the cross and making the propitiation right? So if God goes around forgiving people without a propitiation, then what would we say about God? What would we rightly say about God? Well, that's unrighteous. He just forgives people just just because they believe in Jesus, right? And so the righteousness of God is done damage to, because God doesn't just go around forgiving people that believe in Jesus. Do you know that believing in Jesus does not forgive you of your sins? Jesus' propitiation on the cross. Forgives you of your sin. And so just to believe in Jesus or just to say We believe in Jesus and then God gives us forgiveness, then we would rightly say, what an unrighteous God. He just goes around sweeping sin under the rug when he wants to. You do not want to serve a God who sweeps sin under the rug. One reason is what happens when you are sinned against you do not want to serve a God who sweeps sin under the rug. You want to serve a God who makes propitiation for sin. So Paul says he would be called unrighteous, and rightly so, if he did not put forth the propitiation to remove his right and just wrath, which he did, which is why Paul says he might then be called just and the justifier. So God or, or. Specifically here, Jesus can be called both the just and the justifier. Why? Because he's both the payment and the recipient of the payment. God is both the one who pays and is paid. You see how that works? He's just, and Justifier. He's the one who declares you to be just, and he's the one that you're made just by the, the propitiation that's made to him. So he is both just and justifier. Take a look at some of the other passages, Hebrews chapter two, two in verse 17 or one, John chapter four in verse 10. Other passages that mention the propitiation of God, the propitiation that he puts forth for us. Or think about Hebrews chapter 10, verse four, where we're told it's impossible for the blood of, of bulls and goats to remove sin. That's impossible. How unrighteous would God be if he looked at some, some bull blood and said, okay, you're forgiven of your sins. That's everything's good to go now. No, our God is a righteous God that puts forth that propitiation himself. Galatians three, verse 13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse himself. So now we've kind of asked and answered that question, but there's one more question that we need to ask and answer, and then we're ready to move into sort of the meat of the text or at least begin the meat of the text. Um, world's longest introduction, right? So one other question that we need to ask is this, then this will help us to understand the propitiation that's made on our behalf, the redemption that Christ makes in his blood. And that question is this, what is the relationship between God's law and God? Again, that might be a question you've never really pondered. What is the relationship between God and God's law? Or in other words, which one is above the other? Is God above his law in the sense that God's law is just this system of right and wrong, that God, that that is right and wrong because God declares it to be. Take the ninth commandment, for example. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall be truth tellers, right? Is it right to tell the truth because God said it's right. Is the rightness of that in the fact that God declared that right? Or in other words, God's above his law, God creates his law and then he gives us his law and he determines, okay, in this world that I'm going to create, I'm going to deter determine that it's right to tell the truth and wrong to lie, is that the relationship between God and his law? Or is the other way around, is the law above God in the sense that God's law, God's moral law, is this eternal right and wrong that just has always been and always will be. And God creates a world that's, that is to be perfectly in accordance with that. And God himself is always in accordance with this eternal right and wrong. And it's right to tell the truth just because it's right to tell the truth. And God tells us of this law because he's the perfect law giver. He understands this law, and he perfectly tells us, listen, this world in which we all live in this world, it's right to tell the truth and it's wrong to lie. Right? Is that the way it is? Is God's law above him, so is God above his law and he creates his law and gives it to us, or is his law universal eternal truths that God kindly and lovingly tells us? The answer to that question determines whether or not Jesus can make propitiation for us. Because if the law is above God, if the law is just this eternal system of right and wrong and God just tells us what's right and wrong, then how is God going to propitiate for sinners who have offended the law that he himself is subject to? What good would Jesus' death do if the law is above God? Likewise, if God is above his law and the law is just right, because God says it's right, then God sent his son to the cross unnecessarily. Because if it's right to tell the truth, just because God said it's right, then that same God can forgive without the death of his son. So if the law is above God, there's no propitiation that can be made. If God is above the law, there's no propitiation that's necessary. See why this is helpful to think through. So the answer that the scriptures require us to come to is that neither is God above his law or is the law above God, but they are the same. God and His law are the same thing in the sense that. The law that God gives us is who He is. It is his character. The law is a description of how God is. And so when the law tells us to be people that tell the truth, the reason is because God is a God that tells the truth. Therefore, the propitiation payment must be made to the one who's offended, who is God, not Satan. That is the only way salvation can occur. The one who has been offended by our sins is the one who has right wrath towards us, and is also the one whose wrath is propitiated by the sacrifice of his son. Do you follow? So now we're really getting a hold, aren't we on this whole concept of redemption? God, his character, also known as His law, has been offended because those who are made in his image have disregarded his law. And so because we're not just created in any old image, we're created in God's image, and as image bearers, we have lived contrary to the image which we bear, then God is offended, rightly offended by our sin, putting us in the condition in the state that we need to be redeemed out of by means of a ransom payment. And. Propitiation payment. Both of them are the same thing that both Jesus did. Both of those on the cross, he paid a ransom to redeem us out from our condition, and he paid an a propitiation to pay or to appease, to remove God's rightful wrath towards us. So now with all that in place, let's just spend the last few minutes of our time. And again, we're not going to conclude this whole thinking about redemption today, but let's just spend the last few minutes of our time just to see just this redeemed from what, so I'm on the back page of your notes now. Redeemed from what? When Jesus redeems us, what does he redeem us from? The scriptures answered that with three things. Three things that we are redeemed from. One of those comes straight from our text today. And the other two come from elsewhere in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. But these three things I believe are helpful for us to understand that Christ redeems us from. And the first is the most common, the most, , often talked about that Christ redeems us from, he redeems us from the guilt of our sin. Paul says in that very passage, we have redemption in his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. So trespasses, we'll get to that, , probably next week. But trespasses speaks of the wrongness of being made in the image of God and not loving God or being made in the image of God and disobeying his word. Okay? So we have this guilt from sin, and that puts us in this condition of being, needing, of, of being, , in need. Of being redeemed out of that state or out of that condition. And that's the first thing, or that's one thing that Jesus redeems us from, from the guilt of our trespasses. , take a look at Hebrews chapter nine in verse 15. Therefore, Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. We can't receive our promised eternal inheritance until we're redeemed from the guilt that we're in now or outside of Christ, I should say outside of Christ. We're in this guilt that we cannot receive our eternal inheritance. We have been in the mind of God adopted. We are in the mind of God, in union with his son. In the mind of God. We are his people, but in reality, in life, we can't be his people. We can't be united with him. We can't receive our eternal inheritance until in time. Jesus redeems us from that state by his ransom and by his propitiation. So we, that we may receive the promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. So that's the first thing that we're redeemed from the second thing, and that's from pass guilt of past sins. The second thing is, we are redeemed from our present life of bondage to sin or our ongoing life of sinful bondage to sin. Okay? So we see this in places like, , later on in chapter two. It, it's in your notes, or if you want to just look down to chapter two verse one, and you are dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walk. Right? That's our condition. Even though in the mind of God, we are his people from before the foundation of the world. Nevertheless, in this life, we are dead in our trespasses and sins until. We are redeemed by Jesus' ransom. So you were dead in the trespasses and sins. And once you once walked following the course of this world, the idea there is that there, there's a course of this world and we can't get off it. It's like the, , you ever, when you're a kid, you know, you go to the playground and there's that, that, , instrument of torture from Satan or that, that they spin around, right? And what always happens, the kid gets on there and they get it going by four, 400 miles an hour, right? You can't get off and you're on there and you, and you, you know that your brain is just being leaking out of your ears, you know? But you can't get off. And that's like what Paul's saying here. There's a course of this world and you can't get off it because we were dead in our trespasses and sins following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. You know that word at work right there? Is the exact same word found in Philippians 12 verse or Philippians two, verse 12 and 13, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to both will and work for his good pleasure. Same exact words. So the same concept the sons of disobedience have at work in them, the prince of the power of this heir that's doing within them, the polar opposite of what the spirit of God is doing within us, the spirit of God, Philippians two 13, is at work in us causing us to will and to work for his good pleasure. Meanwhile, the spirit of the the age, the spirit of the prince of the power of this air is at work in the hearts of the sons of disobedience, causing them to do the opposite Now. Does that work with them In the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Or second Timothy two, verse 25 and 26, God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. You just get the image there of a slave, of a, of a, of a, , a prisoner of war that's captured and forced to be a slave against their will. So Christ redeems us from the past, guilt of our sins. He also redeems us from this ongoing life of being subject to the sins. Like Paul says in Roman seven, the things I don't want to do, I. I find myself doing them. So he frees us. He re he pay, he pays a payment to release us from that condition of being bound in a life of doing what is wrong, what what is not pleasing to God, to living in those certain ways. So we're freed from the guilt. We're freed from the necessity of being, , slaves to our own sin. But then the third thing that Christ redeems us from is the future, our future redemption from all that will make us physically or spiritually miserable. So this is probably the least thought about aspect of our redemption. Christ redeems us from our past guilt. He redeems us from our ongoing bondage to sin, but he also redeems us from a, from everything that makes us spiritually and physically miserable. Take a look at Romans chapter eight and verse 23, and not only the creation, but we ourselves. Who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption. As sons, we talked about that adoption as sons is tantamount to glorification and we, we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies, or you see in Ephesians four 30 later on in the letter, Paul's going to mention it as well, the redemption of our bodies. So there is a day of redemption. The day of redemption was the cross. The day of redemption was the day in which you received conversion and there's another day of redemption on that day. When our bodies will be redeemed and all the things that make us spiritually and physically and emotionally and mentally miserable, we will be redeemed out of that undesirable state and all of the cancer and the joint pain, and the arthritis and the headaches, and the common colds and the depressions, and, , the anxieties and the fears, and the worries, all of those things that make us miserable. The, the, the inability to forgive our neighbor, the inability to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, the inability to love our neighbor as ourself, the inability to even focus on God for more than 4, 5, 6 minutes, all those things will be removed in our final redemption and what scripture calls the day of redemption. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad that we have a redeemer? Aren't you glad that Jesus didn't just come and purchase our freedom from guilt and then say, I'll see you in heaven. But instead, he frees us not only from the guilt of our trespasses, but he then frees us from the inability to keep on trespassing, and then the day is coming, he promises in which he will free us from all the consequences of our past trespasses, and we will be glorified. We will be fully adopted. We will then experience the finality of our salvation when every tear is wiped away, every pain is gone. Everything that stands between us and the perfect happiness of the character of God is then removed and we enjoy eternal happiness in the presence of God. Aren't you glad that we've got a Redeemer?