A Daily Walk

Guest (Male): Pastor John Randall on where freedom is found.

John Randall: In Mark chapter 10, verse 45, Jesus said this: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." That's why He came: to redeem mankind from the slavery and bondage of sin, to set us free. And whom the Son sets free is free indeed, the Bible says.

Guest (Male): Well, no doubt you've experienced someone picking up the tab for you at a restaurant or helping you settle a debt that you were having trouble paying for on your own. What a great feeling to be a recipient of such an act of kindness. But nothing can compare to what Jesus has done for us. Today on A Daily Walk, we'll pause to consider the enormous price of our redemption. We were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus, the Bible tells us. When you come to realize the true cost of our redemption, it not only leaves you with a deep sense of gratitude, but it serves as a motivation to live a holy life. Here's Pastor John Randall in 1 Peter chapter 1.

John Randall: Oh, what a passage today. Chapter one beginning in verse 17: "And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, 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. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God."

The Apostle Peter, in this epistle, was seeking to fuel the faith of the downtrodden and persecuted believers with the truth of the living hope that is found in the life, death, resurrection, and return of Jesus Christ. And this living hope would not only take away their fear, but it would also embolden them to live a godly life within the world.

Peter provides in this letter several incentives for living a holy life. First, he gave a command from the Lord in verse 16 when we read, "Be holy, for I am holy." It was not a suggestion, but it was a command from the Word of God. Holiness is not only a possibility for the Christian, but it's a requirement. For the Bible declares in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 14, that without holiness no one will see the Lord.

When you first trust in Christ for salvation, when you are, as Jesus said, born again, you have a positional holiness that you are given because of God's grace, set aside, set apart for the purposes of God. But there is also a practical holiness that we pursue wherein we yield to the work of the Spirit of God in our lives and we begin to bear fruit that glorifies God. On the other hand, if you suppress or resist the work of the Holy Spirit by rebelling against God's Word, you actually stifle the design of God; you grieve the Spirit. But as we seek to follow the Lord, we want to live a life that's pleasing to Him. He is working in us by His Holy Spirit, and we are yielding to that work and we are pursuing a life that is set apart, a holy life for the purposes of God.

Another incentive for living a life that is set apart for the purposes of God is the imminent return of Jesus Christ for His church. For in verse 17, Peter says, "If you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear."

As believers, we are children of God and, like those that Peter was writing to, we call upon Him: Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. And if we call upon Him and we see ourselves as children of God, then it's important that we live our days of our time spent here, and they are temporary, that we live our life, as Peter says here, with reverence, that is, a fear of God.

If you're a Christian this morning and have received salvation through Christ, one day you will stand before God and not be judged for your sins because our sins, thankfully, were judged at the cross. But we will be judged for the life that we have lived. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10, Paul put it this way: "Therefore, we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to Him." And why is that? "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad." Paul tells us that one day every believer is going to stand before the Lord, the Bema seat. That is a reference to the games where you would come and you would receive a reward for the race that you've run. You'd stand before that judgment seat and be awarded. We will have our moment before the Lord, and what we have done for the glory of God, we will receive reward.

In addition to the command of the Lord, in light of the return of the Lord and standing before Him, perhaps one of the greatest motivators for living a holy life is the awareness and appreciation and greater understanding of the cost of redemption. Perhaps this is why the Apostle Paul said that he made it his priority that when he preached, he determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Taking into consideration this morning, in light of the text, what it is that God has accomplished in order to redeem us, to purchase us, to make us His own. Peter says in verse 18, "Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your aimless conduct received by the traditions of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."

Redemption is a word that is used in scripture. It is a technical term often applied to the paying a sum of money or a price, either to set a prisoner free or to emancipate a slave, or to make someone your slave, or to set them free rather, who was a slave. The idea of redemption is that of being freed by a ransom being paid.

Under Roman law, slaves were not considered to be people but rather a thing. Not a person, but a possession. In fact, Aristotle, he said concerning slaves, "A slave is a living tool, just as a tool is an inanimate slave." You just belong to somebody. They could take you or they could throw you away. That's how Romans looked at it. In fact, Roman law was quite clear. In fact, one Roman lawyer wrote this: "We may note that it is universally accepted that the master possesses the power of life and death over the slave." And if the slave ran away, at best he was branded on the forehead with the letter F for fugitivus, which meant runaway. At worst, he was killed. So that's the way they looked at their slaves. And it was estimated that there were some 50 million slaves in the Roman Empire.

But in the Old Testament scriptures, you read that under Jewish law, no Hebrew was to be a permanent slave of another Hebrew. There were times when someone fell into difficult season, perhaps financially, and they could become an indentured servant and they could pay off their debt. And so they would be in a Hebrew home, but eventually they would be set free, unless they wanted to stay with their master forever. And the Bible made an opportunity for them to become a bondslave. That was a slave by choice of their own volition, as opposed to being forced. But under Jewish law, they could be set free. But for the Romans, if you were a slave, there really wasn't a way to be delivered. Maybe they would receive payment, but it was very rare.

But folks, there's another law, not the Jewish law, not the Roman law, where redemption was possible for a slave's freedom. There is a law in the Bible that is referred to as the law of sin and death. It's the law that the Apostle said in Romans that we are sold under sin. A governing system that makes all men and women slaves without hope of our own purchase of freedom. We are born in sin, the Bible says, and in bondage to sin. And we're all guilty. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. And therefore, because we are born slaves to sin, there needs to be a price that is paid.

Jesus said this in John chapter 8, in verse 34: "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin becomes a slave of sin." In writing to Titus in chapter 3, in verse 3, the Apostle Paul said, "For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our time in malice, envy, hateful and hating one another." This is the condition of somebody who is unredeemed. They might live in a free country and declare and exercise their freedom and liberty to do whatever they want, yet they're a slave of sin unless they have been redeemed.

Because we are under the bondage of sin and the penalty that sin demands, we need to be redeemed. But the only problem is we have no ability to redeem ourselves. There's not enough money to purchase our redemption. There's not enough good works to accomplish to secure our freedom from the slavery of sin. Why do I need to be redeemed? First and foremost, because of my helpless condition. For the Bible declares in Psalm 49: "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their souls is costly, and it shall cease forever." The redemption of our souls: you can't purchase that. I can't afford that. I'm helpless.

It also tells us in Romans 6 that we need to be redeemed, not only because of our condition, but again, let me emphasize the slavery of sin. Paul said, "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit did you have in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death." So as a slave to sin, basically, I'm in a helpless condition, I can't purchase my redemption, and the end result is death. The wages of sin is death.

But that is why Jesus came for the purpose of redemption, to redeem mankind. God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. In Mark chapter 10, verse 45, Jesus said this: "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." That's why He came: to redeem mankind from the slavery and bondage of sin, to set us free. And whom the Son sets free is free indeed, the Bible says.

Now, in the New Testament, there are three words that are used for redemption. The first, found in 1 Corinthians 6:20, is the word agorazo, and it means to buy a slave in the market. It says in 1 Corinthians 6:20, "You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." We were bought, agorazo. But then there's a second word that is used for redemption, and that is found in Galatians chapter 3. It's the word exagorazo, and that means to buy a slave out of the slave market. Paul uses this word in Galatians 3:13 when he said, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us."

But then there's a third word that is used for redemption, and Peter uses it here in 1 Peter chapter 1. It is the word lutroo, and it means set free by paying a price and set free, listen, set free and redeemed so that you never have to go back into the slave market again. It's one thing to buy a slave in that sense. It's one thing to buy out of. It's another thing to purchase out of and then set free so they never have to come back. That's what Christ has done. The redemption that we experience is Christ purchasing us, setting us free from the bondage of sin and death so that we don't have to come back to the slavery of sin ever again. We are free people in the truest sense of the word, if you've been redeemed.

Are you free today? Oh, I'm free. Make America great again, love it. How are you free? Are you free? Listen, you're only free if you're free in Christ from sin and bondage. Listen to what Thomas Watson said. Oh, this is a powerful quote. He said, "Great was the work of creation, but greater the work of redemption. It cost more to redeem us than to make us. In the one, there was but the speaking of a word. In the other, there was the shedding of blood. The creation was but the work of God's fingers, but redemption is the work of His arm." That is why Peter says here, "You weren't redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your aimless conduct." Again, there wasn't enough gold, there wasn't enough silver to redeem us. We couldn't redeem ourselves. Corruptible things could not redeem aimless conduct.

Let me just say to you this morning, if there's someone here who is misinformed, or you assume that you are the redeemer in your own life, that somehow you could earn the favor of Christ, the Bible says you are mistaken. If you could be free on your own in purchasing your redemption, then the cross was pointless. There was no need. But of course we could not redeem ourselves and that is why Jesus died in our place. Peter said you were redeemed.

But how were you redeemed? What was it? If it's not silver and gold, if it's not good works, what could actually be effective to pay the price for our sin and purchase us out of slavery and set us free? Verse 19, please: "With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Peter now looks back to an illustration of redemption that his readers were very familiar with when he likens the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to that of the lamb without spot and blemish.

In the Old Testament, before the cross of Christ, there was an old covenant, an agreement that the Lord made with His people. Because of man's sin, fellowship was restricted with God. It was limited. And therefore, God provided, under the old covenant, a way whereby man could approach Him or have his sins atoned for. It was the sacrificial system. It was temporary, but someone would offer a lamb or someone would offer some other sacrifice and it would atone for their sins. A price was paid.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis, initially they sought to cover themselves with fig leaves, the Bible says. But then it says that the Lord God made coverings of skin to cover them, meaning something had to die in the garden for them to be covered. Many scholars suggest that perhaps it was a lamb. Fast forward to Genesis chapter 22: Abraham and his only son, Isaac, the one son that he loved, were summoned to Mount Moriah, which is the back side of Mount Calvary. And they were to go up onto the top of this hill, and it was there that Abraham was told to sacrifice his son. He didn't tell Isaac initially. But as they were making their way up the hill, he had the knife, they had the fire, they had the wood. And Isaac said, "Dad, we're missing something here. Where's the sacrifice?" And Abraham prophetically declared, "God will provide himself a lamb, a sacrifice."

They get up to the top of the hill. Abraham's about to do what God asked him to do and God stopped him. It was a test of his faith. And then it says he looked and he found not a lamb, but a ram that was stuck in the bushes, and they offered that in its place. Genesis 22 is a powerful prophetic type of what would be fulfilled when God did provide a sacrifice on the same hill: a lamb. In the Book of Exodus, when the nation of Israel was finally to be delivered from their bondage in Egypt, as Moses came and ten plagues followed, you know this. The final plague was the death of the firstborn. The only way to escape it was to take a lamb, to sacrifice it, to eat it, to take the blood of that lamb and put it on the doorpost. And the Lord declared, "When I see the blood, I will," that is the blood of the lamb, "pass over you." Death passes over you because the lamb has been applied to you.

Peter uses that Old Testament imagery and he applies it to Jesus Christ. In the Tabernacle in the wilderness or in the temple in Jerusalem, when the priests would go in and atone for the sins of the nation, they would have to take the blood of a lamb and they would sprinkle it on the Mercy Seat, which was on top of the law. And their sins would be atoned for that year. Covered. Not removed, covered. That is why when you come to the New Testament in the Gospel of John, when Jesus came down to the Jordan there to be baptized, that when John saw Jesus, he declared, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." In the Old Testament, the question was, "Where is the lamb?" In the New Testament, John had answered the question, "Behold the lamb." And of course, in Revelation, we're all going to be there saying, "Worthy is the lamb." Because we weren't there when Jesus was crucified and resurrected, because we are not presently there in glory, I do believe that it's difficult for us to fully grasp the weight of the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf.

We are limited in what we can fully comprehend concerning what it meant for Jesus to leave heaven and come here. But in heaven, as we get a glimpse of it, everybody understands there. That's why they're all on their face saying, "Worthy is the lamb." That's why everybody's throwing down crowns. "You've redeemed us out of every tribe, out of every tongue, out of every nation. Worthy is the lamb." They get it there. We kind of understand it, but not the weight of it. We will. We will. Peter says you were redeemed with the precious blood of Jesus.

Guest (Male): You're listening to the weekend edition of A Daily Walk and part of a study in 1 Peter from Pastor John Randall. We house our recent programs at adailywalk.org, and you'll find them on our mobile app as well. Do a search for Calvary South OC and download it for free today. Look for us wherever you get your podcasts and at oneplace.com.

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One other thing worth mentioning here at the beginning of the year is the A Daily Walk devotional. Short enough to watch on your lunch break or as you're getting up to face another day, you'll find these encouraging video daily devos at adailywalk.org. We're reminded on a continuous basis that the Lord is doing great things through the radio today, and maybe He's doing something amazing in your life. We want to hear about it. Pastor John would be very encouraged by what you have to say. Write to us today by email at adailywalk@gmail.com. That's adailywalk@gmail.com. Our journey through 1 Peter resumes next weekend on A Daily Walk with John Randall. See you then.