Redemption
Read Isaiah 55:1-3 and 6-9 Ephesians 2:8,9
This is the second of four reflections on the general theme “Coming Close to God”. (Check the ‘News’ section on the menu to see the June 16th summary of “Reconciliation” which was the first of this series.)
Reconciliation is the first step to resolving a conflicted relationship, one that is marked by estrangement. There can be no resolution unless the two parties that are estranged are willing to just come together in dialogue. Our human race, since Adam and Eve, has chosen a pathway that is self-directed and typified by an abdication from God and his ways. That is the essence of Sin which in turn leads to the myriads of sins that we witness in our world. All this has resulted in estrangement from God. But God, has been persistent in calling his created order back to himself. Isaiah 1:18 “Come let us now reason together…though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Redemption is the process of working out details to resolve the estrangement. In relationship to God, we are somewhat like the prodigal son. The son returns to reunite with the father but has zero balance in the bank account. The prodigal took half of his father’s estate money and squandered it. He returns debilitated and indebted with no way to repay! He can only humble himself in contrition. How we can pay the debt that we owe God having gone our own way as a human race?
God invites us to come to him to “reason together” to resolve our Sin. Once we are at the“negotiating table”, we need to clarify two things. First, what do we bring to the negotiation and second, what does God bring to the table?
What do we bring?
Several decades ago a well-known American psychiatrist wrote a book “Whatever Became of Sin?” He observed that within our society there no longer is a sense of sin before a holy God. Rather there has been a reduction of bad behaviour or misdemeanour to “crime” or “illness”. As a result, we end up being accountable to the courts or to physicians. On the other hand, the notion of “Sin” calls for accountability to our holy Creator God. Abraham Lincoln was the last president who ever called on the nation to acknowledge sin: “It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of
God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon.” Genesis 6:5 “
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” The final arbiter of what is right and wrong is God. He is absolutely holy and he, being the Creator, has the authority to say how life should work!
As humankind, we can only bring to God our brokenness and failures and dark motives. And our sins are not just those of commission but also those of omission! Oh dear, are we all that bad? Well, yes, we are. God judges our good works sometimes just as “filthy rags” (Is. 64:1-9).2
What does God bring?
Why in the world would God reach out to us at all? The answer is LOVE! God’s love is unfathomable and unfailing even for the broken and failed. “God loved the world so much….”As for attributes, God brings his holiness, justice, purity, creativity, infinite wisdom and his omnipotence among other attributes! Isaiah 57:15 “For this is what the high and exalted One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit.’”
So, there we are: candle against the sun, a mouse against a lion, a match against a lightning bolt!
How is the “negotiated settlement” achieved then?
Throughout history there has been an awareness of an awesome divinity. That has resulted in many forms of response: idolatry, sacrifice of animals, sacrifice of human beings, penance, pilgrimages, homage and gifts of atonement, self-flagellation, fasting and self-deprivation. But, the greater the crime, the greater the penalty. The greater the penalty, the less we can pay it! So, what does the Bible have to teach us about reconciliation and redemption? We find the answer in Psalm 51:17 “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit [repentant spirit]; a broken and
contrite heart, you God will not despise.” Also, look up Isaiah 1:11-20 where God essentially is saying that all our religious efforts are of no value to work our way into a right relationship with him.’
There is a challenging thing that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. He said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The Pharisees were meticulous in keeping the law. Before his conversion, the Apostle Paul was a Pharisee and as far as the law was concerned, he was faultless (Phil 3:6). How can it be that such apparent piety and religious zeal is considered inadequate by Jesus for us to enter into the kingdom of heaven?
How to understand this? First, it means that we, in our own strength and even zeal cannot achieve the standard of holiness that God sets before us. Second, it means that something more is needed. There has to be a deep inner change in our lives, in our very souls that swings our whole inner being toward God. That is where Jesus and his redemptive act on the Cross comes into play. We need a mediator at the negotiation and it is Jesus Christ! And going beyond that, it is only the righteousness of Jesus that we appropriate through repentance and
faith that is adequate to allow us to stand absolved before a holy God! millennia before Christ, Job recognized the need of a mediator for sin: Job 16:19-21 “Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God. On behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend.” Wow! Job19:25 “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
3 1 Timothy 2:5-6a “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.”
The new covenant of Christ perfected the old covenant that God had made with his people Christ made possible what could not be achieved by sacrifice and the law.. Hebrews 8:6 “But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises…..this is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Reconciliation! Redemption! Relationship with the living God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “if anyone be in Christ, they are a new creation, the old is gone, the new has come.”
We have nothing to bring to God except our brokenness and sin. But that is what God wants of us! Not our pride nor our good works but just a contrite, repentant heart willing to entrust ourselves to a loving God. 1 John 2:2 “We have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the
atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” All our efforts of sacrifice or good works are inadequate. Christ is the perfect and acceptable sacrifice on our behalf before a Holy God who will judge all at the end.
Conclusion:
Our human race has been estranged from God ever since Adam and Eve chose the pathway of self-determination apart from God. But God has never given up on us. In love and persistence and at great cost to himself, God has reached out to us. The means of Redemption was provided at the Cross of Christ. Jesus Christ payed our unpayable debt on the Cross and qualified to be our mediator before a Holy God. There will be judgement at the end of time when all of humanity, alive now or dead, will stand before the tribunal of God. Have we reconciled through faith in Jesus, who will be our mediator, or do we insist on our own way?
Goodness cannot buy redemption. It is the other way around: Redemption is able to achieve goodness. It is only through the redemptive act of Jesus on our behalf paying our unpayable debt for us on the Cross. Jesus died to give us life!
“To see the law by Christ fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice, transforms a slave into a child and duty into choice.”
Application
Titus 2:11-14 “The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say ‘no” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, 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.”
Our focus should be both upwards as well as horizontal! We look, upwards, to our God with grateful hearts and open hands to receive the salvation which was bought at great cost by Jesus on our behalf. And then, we are called to look horizontally to do what is good and extend our hands in redemptive acts and words toward others!
John K
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