To welcome, accept and appreciate the redemption in Jesus Christ, we must face the objective reality of about the human condition, our condition in captivity without the redemptive work of Jesus.
Consider the Israelites, their life in Egypt before God intervened in Exodus. When God met Moses at Horeb the mountain of God (Exodus 3:1), he revealed to Moses his reason for intervention. Read Exodus 3:7-10:
“I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So, I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey… And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”
The captivity of the Israelites illustrates the captivity of the humanity, our captivity apart from the Redeemer. Before the Israelites could turn to God, they had to realize that their lives were in shambles with misery, suffering and oppression needing redemption. Before you can welcome, accept and appreciate the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, there are two things you must do.
- You must believe in God’s objective assessment about your hopeless condition in bondage to sin and its terrible outcome to face God’s holy wrath and his judgment apart from Christ (Read Romans 1:29-32 & 2:5-8).
- You must believe Jesus Christ paid the ransom with his own blood, his suffering and death to break your bondage to sin and deliver you from the guilt and punishment of sin.
People who reject the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, do not realize they are in bondage to sin and that the terrible judgment awaits them. How about you?
How are you different from the majority of people who see no need for Jesus to redeem their lives?
Another aspect of redemption is its future orientation. Redemption began at the cross but it will be completed at the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:13-14). Considering this future orientation of redemption, to fully welcome, accept and appreciate the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, another thing must take place.
- You must let today’s failures and sins drive you to Jesus, your Redeemer. You must look at your current condition honestly without deceiving yourself by explaining away sin as something benign or acceptable or simply ignoring it as though it doesn’t exist; Be brutally honest about your sinful heart, conflicts, failures! But, don’t stay there with self-pity. You must let your failures and sins drive you to Jesus, the only one who can forgive you and perfect you. The complete redemption awaits you tomorrow in Jesus and you need to live today with the living hope and trust in God’s future plan to perfect you in his Son. Let today’s failures and sins drive you to Jesus, your Redeemer. Redemption means we can now approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
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