Paul had just described in v. 23 that all of creation is groaning for deliverance. Now he brings that down home: “And not only they, but ourselves also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).
Having received the “first fruits” [there will be many more to follow], we also are doing the same groaning in our inner selves as we struggle with our own deaths, failures, and unfairness. Life just isn’t fair.
Those of us who have the Spirit already have received the first stage of our redemption, having our sins and offenses washed away by Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross. I’m now free from my past!
The second stage of our redemption is when we were adopted into the family of God, where we become insiders with all the saints across all denominational lines. We’re in this journey together and we need each other.
But the third stage of our redemption is the redemption of our bodies, also called the resurrection. There is a day in the future when our souls will leave this life of vanity and enter the presence of the Lord. Or, hopefully, the rapture of the church occurs before that. But Revelation 20 describes a day when the righteous shall have new, glorified bodies. All tears shall be wiped away and all physical ailments will be gone.
In the meanwhile, we patiently wait with optimistic hope for that day.
Tags: hope, redemption, resurrection
Evangelist Dwight L. Moody used the following illustration to describe ‘Redemption’:
“Out in the Western country, in the autumn, when men go hunting, and there has not been any rain for months, sometimes the prairie grass catches fire, and there comes up a very strong wind, and the flames just roll along twenty feet high, and travel at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, consuming man and beast. When the hunters see it coming, what do they do? They know they cannot run as fast as the fire can run. Not the fleetest horse can escape. They just take a match and light the grass around them, and let the flames sweep, and then they get into the burnt district and stand safe. They hear the flames roar as they come along, they see death coming toward them, but they do not fear, they do not tremble, because the fire has swept over the place where they are, and there is no danger. There is nothing for the fire to burn.
“There is one mountain that the wrath of God has swept over – that is, Mount Calvary; and the fire spent its fury upon the bosom of the Son of God. Take your stand by the cross, and you will be safe for time and eternity.”
Tags: fire, judgment, Moody, redemption, rescue
A boy once worked hard to make a small wooden sailboat. He looked at his finished product and said, “It’s mine, I made it.” Then he took it to a nearby lake, attached a sting to the boat, and launched into the water. Wind kicked up some waves and, unexpectedly, the string came untied from the boat. Sadly the boat wandered further and further away until the boy made his way home – without his prized possession. It was lost.
Months later, the boy was walking past a garage sale and spied a familiar boat on a table. He examined it closely and it indeed was his lost boat. He went to the homeowner and said it really belonged to him. “I’m sorry,” the homeowner replied, “but it’s my boat now. If you want it, you’ll have to pay the price for it.”
Sad at heart, the boy was determined to get his boat back, even though it meant working and saving until he had enough money to pay for it. At last the day came. Clutching his money in his fist, he walked up to the house and handed his hard-earned money in the owner’s hand. “I’ve come back to buy my boat,” the boy said. The owner then placed the boat in the boy’s hands.
“You’re mine,” he said, “twice mine. Mine because I made you, and now, mine because I bought you.” Not only did God make you, but in Christ He paid the price to buy you back. Why? Because God believes you are worth loving.
Tags: lost, redemption, rescue
Fifteen years ago I remember waiting anxiously for the latest news…and praying. Captain Scott O’Grady’s F-16C had been shot down as he was flying over Serbia. Had he been killed or captured? Was he seriously injured? The hours ticked by. Five days passed. On the sixth day another pilot picked up a faint message from O’Grady’s radio. He was alive, managing somehow to hide from hostile soldiers, and surviving on leaves, grass and ants.
Immediately all the resources needed for a daring rescue operation were set in motion. O’Grady was snatched up to safety by a helicopter – and the US rejoiced. Newsweek magazine reported that the weapons and machinery used for the rescue of that one pilot were valued at $6 billion. Was it worth it?
We can’t estimate the value of one human soul – because we could never calculate the price God paid to rescue us. While you and I were still in our sins, Christ died for us. God spared no cost, including His own Son, to see us rescued from a destructive life of sin. God is good!
Tags: cost, redemption, rescue
Missionaries to other cultures must study the cultural background of the people to better find a way to communicate the gospel. A missionary in West Africa was trying to convey the meaning of the redeem in the Bambara language. So he asked his African assistant to express it in his native tongue. “We say,” the assistant replied, “that God took our heads out.” “But how does that explain redemption?” the missionary asked.
The man told him that many years ago some of his ancestors had been captured by slave-traders, chained together, and driven to the seacoast. Each of the prisoners had a heavy iron collar around his neck. As the slaves passed through a village, a chief might notice a friend of his among the captives and offer to pay the salve-traders in gold, ivory, silver, or brass. The prisoner would be redeemed by the payment. His head then would be taken out of his iron collar. That’s what these Africans understood by the phrase, “God took our heads out.”
Look for a way to describe redemption to your co-workers.
Tags: missions, redemption, rescue
Lee Everetts and I have just been exchanging a few emails back and forth regarding the good old days back when we in high school at Butler (now Eastside). Lee was a couple of years ahead of me but we identified some of the older teachers we both knew and recounted some of the humorous incidents we remembered. I think teenagers can be brutal to their teachers!
Sometimes as we look back over our past we can identify times when we were really abusive to someone. Perhaps we misunderstood them, perhaps they were the enemy, but we did not treat them as Christ would have us treat others. We cannot go back and undo the past, like the ‘Undo’ key on your computer. But, we can make a determination to undo our effect in this world.
Before I came to Christ, I caused a lot of hurt in other people’s lives. I would hope that after I came to Christ I have now brought far more help in people’s lives than the hurt of my past. That’s redeeming myself in this world. How are you doing undoing your past?
Tags: memories, past, redemption
A dignified lady who possessed a valuable diamond ring was once walking along the street in Paris, France. In pulling off her glove she dislodged her ring, which rolled along the ground and dropped through a grating into a drain. Greatly distressed, she peered down into the catch basin, which was full of black, watery mud. She tried to retrieve her treasure with the end of her umbrella, but her efforts simply pushed the ring deeper. In desperation, she finally rolled up her sleeve, plunged her arm deep in the black muck, and in a few seconds retrieved her ring.
Isn’t that a great illustration of God’s reaching down into our sinful lives to save our souls? He plunged Himself into the world of sin around us, took us out of the horrible pit of sin, positioned us in Christ, and set us among the princes in glory. As Jim Otis says, He saved us from the guttermost to the uttermost.
Tags: grace, lost, redemption