Jesus Christ Our Passover: Part 2
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
God’s Plan of Redemption
Lyrics to the hymn I’ve Been Redeemed
We’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. God paid the highest price for our salvation. That is the overall theme of both the Old and the New Testaments.
Hebrew word: ga’al
Exodus 6:6–7 KJV:
6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem [ga’al] you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: 7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
This Hebrew word translated redeem is to take you out of something (out of bondage) and then to something (to being a people).
Ruth was redeemed out of widowhood without land, to having stature as the wife of a prominent man (Boaz) and having her land redeemed.
Hebrew word: koper
Psalm 49:7–8 KJV:
7 None of them [riches] can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom [koper] for him: 8 (For the redemption of their soul is precious [costly], and it ceaseth for ever [it would never be enough]:)
No amount of money could ever ransom someone from the grave.
Leviticus 17:11 KJV:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
Hebrews 9:22 KJV:
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
The idea of being purchased out of something to something, with a price, is found in the New Testament as well.
Greek word: apolutrosis
The noun, Apolutrosis is a releasing affected by payment of a ransom. “To buy back for the purpose of setting free.”1 The verb is luo means “to set free.”
1 Corinthians 7:23 KJV:
Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.
God’s plan of redemption included being delivered from and delivered unto.
Galatians 4:4– APNT:
4 But when the fulfillment of the time came, God sent his Son. And he was from a woman and was under the law,
5 so that he would redeem those who are under the law and [that] we would receive adoption.
6 And now that you are sons, God sent into your hearts the Spirit of his Son that calls, “Father, our Father.”
7 From now on, you are not servants, but sons, and if sons, [you are] also heirs of God by way of Jesus Christ.
We are redeemed from slavery to sonship.
Romans 6:23 APNT:
Now the wage of sin [singular] is death and the gift of God [is] eternal life in our Lord Jesus Christ.
You need to distinguish between sin and sins, particularly in the book of Romans. They are two separate concepts.
Romans 3:21–5:11 is talking about sins (plural).
Romans 5:12–8:39 is talking about sin (singular).
Sin
2 Corinthians 5:21 APNT:
For that one who had not known sin, he has made [to be] sin on your account, that we would become the justification of God in him.
We often describe sin as a sin nature but it is basically what we inherited from Adam.
Romans 5:12 APNT:
For as by way of one man sin entered the world and by way of sin, death, even so death passed on all men, in that all of them have sinned.
Something had to be done to deal with sin that had been passed down from generation to generation. What was done was justification, being made free from blame.
God could not go against His own legal requirements, and the requirement for sin, what Adam did, was death. God could not go against that law because He is a just God. He needed a way to bring man up to his just standard. He did that by giving Jesus Christ as a sin offering.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NIrV:
Christ didn’t have any sin. But God made him become sin for us. So we can be made right with God because of what Christ has done for us.
Romans 8:1 KJV:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
There’s no condemnation in justification.
Romans 5:12 APNT:
or as by way of one man sin entered the world and by way of sin, death, even so death passed on all men, in that all of them have sinned.
Romans 5:18:
(APNT) In like manner, therefore, because of the error of one, condemnation was to all men, so also because of the uprightness of one, the victory for life will be to all men.
(ESV) Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
Even when we are born again and made right with God, we continue to commit sins. So God had to make a way to deal with those, too.
Sins
Romans 3:21–25:
(APNT) 21 But now, without the law, the uprightness of God is revealed and the law and the prophets testify about it.
22 But the uprightness of God is by way of the faith of Jesus Christ to everyone, even on everyone who believes in him, (for there is no distinction,
23 because all have sinned and are deficient compared to the glory of God)
24 and they are freely [as a gift] justified by grace and by the redemption that is in Jesus Christ
25 (this [one] whom God determined beforehand [to be] a pardon by the faith of his blood because of our sins that we had previously sinned).
(ESV) 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation 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.
Remission is for the ongoing commission of sins, like purging. There are two things: you get righteousness, and you get (ongoing) remission.
Romans 5:9–11 APNT:
9 then how much more will we be justified now by his blood and be rescued from wrath by him?
10 For if when we were enemies God was reconciled with us by the death of his Son, then how much more will we by his reconciliation live by his life?
11 And not only so, but also we boast in God by way of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom we have now received reconciliation.
In the Old Testament, the only way to approach God was for the high priest, once a year, to approach through the blood of offerings.
Reconciliation is a restoration to favor. We were separated; we were enemies. Now, we get to be together and have anytime access to the holy of holies.
Colossians 1:19–22 APNT:
19 For in him, he desired all fullness to live
20 and by way of him to reconcile everything to him. And he made peace [he peaced you] by the blood of his cross by his hands, whether in earth or in heaven.
21 For you also, who previously were strangers and enemies in your minds because of your evil works, he has now made peace[he peaced you]
22 by the body of his flesh and by his death, so that he would establish you before him, holy, without blemish, and without blame.
We’ve been delivered from wrath to peace.
We were redeemed from guilt to sanctification.
1 Corinthians 6:11 APNT:
And these [things] have been in some of you, but you are washed and you are made holy [set apart, sanctified] and you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
The next part will happen in the future. Our corrupt body will be redeemed into a new spiritual body.
Romans 8:20–23 APNT:
20 For the creation was made subject to emptiness, not by its will, but because of him who subjected it, to the hope
21 that also the creation will be freed from the bondage of corruption to the freedoms of the glory of the sons of God.
22 For we know that all created [things] groan and labor in childbirth until today.
23 And they are not alone, but we also who have the first[fruit] of the Spirit groan within ourselves and we wait for the adoption and the redemption of our bodies,
Romans 8:31–39 APNT:
31 What then should we say about these [things]? If God [is] for us, who is against us?
32 And if he did not spare his Son, but delivered him up for all of us, how will he not give us everything with him?
33 Who can accuse the chosen [ones] of God? God justifies.
34 Who condemns? Christ died and rose and is at the right hand of God and makes petition on our behalf.
35 What will separate me from the love of Christ? [Is it] trial or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
36 As it is written: Because of you every day we are dying and we are counted as lambs to slaughter.
37 On the contrary, in all these [things] we are victorious by way of him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor authorities nor powers nor those [things] present nor future
39 nor height nor depth, neither any other created [thing] will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Scripture References:
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked (NIrV) The Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®. Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Footnote:
- Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, Holman New Testament Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 8:101. ↩︎
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