BEAUTIFUL REDEMPTION

Eph.1:7,8 – In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.

1 Peter 1:18,19 – knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

To taste the beauty of redemption through the priceless and precious blood of Jesus is the greatest moment that we can experience this side of the coming kingdom. We were all once part of the ugliness of the kingdom of this world, enslaved and entombed in the world of sin without a chance of being free. Our very nature was intertwined with the very nature of sin. Faith in the blood of Jesus brought us out of one kingdom into another kingdom. The sins which once dominated our thoughts and actions lost their control over our lives in a moment, the redeeming power of the blood of Jesus is beyond anything we can think or imagine. To us who have tasted forgiveness through the power of His blood all we can say is this, “redemption through the blood of Jesus is beautiful”. The reformed Expository Commentary describes redemption like this.

“Christ wants me to know how vast is the mercy that covers matters small and large. Helpful translators rightly note that this forgiveness is “in accord with,” not out of the riches of, God’s grace. The One who possesses the riches of the universe does not reach into his penny purse to provide a little grace to cover my sin. No, his grace is in accord with his vast riches. The abundance of his heavenly goodness is raining down on me, immersing me, washing me, taking my sin away as far as the east is from the west, so that now, continually and forever, because I am united to Christ, I am clothed with the righteousness of God’s own Son.”

The stories of the beauty of redemption are endless. There is the famous story of Mary Magdalene who was redeemed from her life of immorality, and then there was the Apostle Paul who was literally breathing out profanity against the Christians and became the Apostle to the Gentiles, and who could forget the suicidal and homicidal demoniac in the cemetery of Gadara who told his story to the entire region after he had been freed. He loves to take the worst and most depraved, wash them in His forgiveness and love, and then make their lives a beautiful picture of redemption. If you have tasted His redeeming love all you can say is BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL.