Grace to You Weekend

John MacArthur: Everybody in the world is captive. Everybody that comes into the world is a captive, the Bible says. We are slaves. No man is free. Every person in the world is a slave in their sinful state.

And to whom are they slaves? Who is the captor? Who is the captor of every man? Sin. Sin.

Phil Johnson: Welcome to Grace to You Weekend, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson.

For over four decades, Melva Givens had an old nickel tucked away in her closet. She died assuming that the coin from 1913 was nothing more than a family heirloom. It wasn't until her children had it appraised that the truth was discovered. Only five of those 1913 Liberty Head Nickels were ever minted. Turns out that old coin was worth nearly $3.1 million.

Melva was sitting on a gold mine most of her life, and she didn't know it. Well, odds are, you don't have a hidden treasure like that in your home. But if you're a Christian, you have access to far greater wealth. Are you taking advantage of riches beyond your imagination, or are you missing out on your spiritual treasure? Find out as John MacArthur continues his study called Richer Than You Think. Now here's John with the lesson.

John MacArthur: Let's look together at Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. And we're looking at verses 6 to 10, discussing the theme of redemption as Paul speaks of it in this section.

I remember some years ago when my wife used to collect blue chip stamps and green stamps. And every once in a while she'd hand me a pile of books and say we were going to the Redemption Center. [Audience laughter] To redeem our stamps. And frequently she has coupons which she takes to be redeemed.

We talk a lot about redemption and the word redeemed is not an uncommon word in our vocabulary, but I'm quite confident that the mass of humanity that uses the word doesn't understand its theological implication. The word redeemed and the word redemption is is really a very, very vital part of the very core of Christianity. And so we look at the concept of redemption.

Now, let me give you a definition so that you'll understand its meaning, and then a comparison so that you can see its meaning in contrast to some other terms and then we'll look at the text itself. First of all, what is redemption? Here's a theological definition. Redemption is an act of God by which He Himself pays as a ransom the price for sin which has outraged His holiness. Okay?

Now, that's a theological definition. Hang on, I'll give it to you again. Redemption is an act of God by which He Himself pays as a ransom the price of human sin which has outraged His holiness. That's redemption.

Basically, it's simply this: deliverance by the payment of a price. It is simply deliverance by the payment of a price. Now, two words in the New Testament are used in the Greek language for the word redemption. The first one is Agorazo. Sometimes you have X-Agorazo. And the last part of the word, Agura, we have a little town out here called Agura. Simply means marketplace.

What X-Agorazo means, what Agorazo means is to buy out of the marketplace. To buy out of the marketplace. To purchase something, to buy something to make it yours. But there is another word and perhaps even a stronger word, and that is the word that is used here, and is the word Lutrao. And we also have the word Apolutrosis, which we translate redemption. Now, that means to pay a price to free somebody from bondage. Okay? Redemption then is the deliverance by the payment of a price.

Now, I want you to hang onto that. Now, let me tell you something further. I'll give you a little more theology. Everybody in the world is captive. Okay? Everybody that comes into the world is a captive, the Bible says. We are slaves. No man is free. Every person in the world is a slave in their sinful state.

And to whom are they slaves? Who is the captor? Who is the captor of every man? Listen to this. John 8:34 says, "Men are slaves to sin." Romans 6:17 says, "Men are servants to sin." Romans 7:14, "Sold under sin." Romans 8:21, "In bondage to corruption." Who then or what then is the captor of men? Sin. Sin.

So, sin is the captor that holds men. Now, sin demands a price to be paid to release its victim. What is that price? The price, or the wages of sin is what? Death. The price of sin is death. So, in order to purchase sinners from the grasp of sin, there must be death. Without, says Hebrews 9:22, the shedding of blood, which is simply a term for death, without death there is no remission of what? Sins.

The soul that sinneth, the Old Testament says, "It shall die." All right? The wages or the price of sin is death. But Jesus redeemed us. What does it mean? He paid the price of sin to free the slave, to set him free. That's the whole point of redemption. That is exactly what he did. He paid the price to set us free.

In Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1, it says, "For freedom Christ has set us free." Therefore, stand fast and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. For freedom Christ has set us free. In Galatians 1:4, "Who gave Himself," the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 3 says, "Who gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil age." In other words, Christ has delivered us from evil. Delivered us from the yoke of bondage. Delivered us, if you look at in the terms of Colossians 1:13, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. If you look at Romans chapter 6, essentially the very same thought is in verse 18. It says, "Being then made free from sin," you became the servants of righteousness.

Free from the evil age, free from corruption, free from the yoke of bondage, free from sin by paying the price that sin demanded. That's redemption. In Galatians again chapter 3 and verse 13, it says, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us."

In Hebrews, and this is a great word on this, 2:14, "For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself took part of the same," and that is Christ became a man, God became a man in Christ, "In order that He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Now watch, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." The bondage of sin and death holds men captive.

And Christ comes to buy us out by paying the price. That's redemption. That's what the term means. Now, to help you get a little better grip on it, let me compare it with some other terms. And by comparison you'll see its distinctiveness. There are five Greek words in the New Testament that come from the legal vocabulary. They have to do with legal things in the Roman world, a legal background. Let me share them with you and then I'll show you how they differ.

The first one is Dikaiosis. Dikaiosis is a word that means acquittal. It means acquittal in the court. When somebody was acquitted of a crime. We translate it in the Bible, justification. Justification. Somebody is justified, all right? There's a second word. Aphesis. That word means to cancel a debt, to cancel a debt. Sometime there would be a lawsuit or something would be wrangling in the court, and there would be a judgment that would say, "You don't owe that man anything. The debt is canceled," or whatever. Retribution has been made, the price is paid, there's the canceling of the debt. Aphesis in its legal sense means to cancel a debt. We translate it in the Bible, are you ready? Forgiveness. Forgiveness.

The third word is Huiothesia. And that is a word that means in legal ease, it means in the Greek world, adoption. Like a family would go to court to adopt a child. Now, the Bible really uses it to speak of sonship. Sonship, becoming a son of God. And then there is the word Katallasso, which legally means reconciliation. Sometimes people will go to court for a divorce and they will be reconciled, or sometimes two fighting factions will be brought into a suit and there will be reconciliation brought about. Now, it means in a courtroom reconciliation, and that's exactly the way we translate it in the Bible. Paul talks about being reconciled to God.

The fifth word is Apolutrosis. It means to redeem, to purchase, to set free, and it is translated redemption. Now listen, and I'll show you the distinction in these words. In justification, the sinner stands before God accused, but he is declared righteous. In justification, he stands before God accused, but he is declared righteous.

In forgiveness, the second word, the sinner stands before God as a debtor and receives a cancellation of his debt. In adoption, the sinner stands before God as a stranger, but he is made a what? Son. In reconciliation, the sinner stands before God as an enemy, but he is made a friend. In redemption, the sinner stands before God as a slave and he is receiving his freedom. You see.

All of those terms speak of the wondrous miracle of salvation. All of those things, justification, forgiveness, adoption, reconciliation, and redemption are provided because Jesus paid the price. Do you understand that? We are accused, but He bore our punishment, so we can be set free. We are debtors, He paid our debt. We are strangers, but He is a son and we are in Him made sons. We are enemies, but He is the friend and we in Him are friends of God. We are slaves, but He has bought our freedom. You see, all of those terms are different facets of the magnificent diamond of the doctrine of salvation. And so redemption is just one way to view the meaning of salvation. He bought us from the slavery of sin.

Now, let's look at this as it unfolds in our text. We see five aspects of redemption as Paul speaks. First of all, the Redeemer. Let's look together at verse 6. Grace would be the antecedent. Grace through which He hath made us accepted in the Beloved One, in whom we have redemption. Who then is our Redeemer? In whom do we have redemption? The Beloved One. That's what He says.

We have been accepted in the Beloved One. You see, because we are in Christ, because by faith we are made one with Jesus, because we are His body, because we are Christ in the world, we therefore are acceptable to God in Him, and it is in Him that we have redemption. There's only one Redeemer, beloved. And that's the Beloved One. And the reason we can be called the beloved of God is because we are in the Beloved One. He is the one in whom we have redemption.

You know, the term Beloved was God's special name for His Son. We don't have to worry about who the Beloved here is, it's obvious. Who is the Beloved One? Listen to God Himself speak and tell you in Mark 1:11, "This is My what? Beloved Son, and Him I am what? Well pleased." Again, God said, "This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him." Colossians chapter 1 says that we have been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. It's the same concept. Christ is the beloved of God. Christ is the Beloved One. And as the beloved of God, He is the recipient of all that God has to give out of His love. And the only way that we can ever receive it is as we are in the Beloved One, you see.

Actually, you want to get technical? There's only one individual in the entire universe, as far as we're concerned from our vantage point, who is the recipient of all the goodness of God, and that is Christ. And we as we are in Christ and only as we are in Christ become able to receive those good things. "Thou art My beloved Son."

So Christ is the beloved of the Father. It is by Him, because it is in Him, that we are redeemed. We are one with Him. You see, the Son is accepted by the Father. And if the Son is accepted by the Father and we are in the Son, we are accepted by the Father. Incredible thought. Think of it this way. Christ wants us to have every good thing. And the Father loves the Son. And since the Father loves the Son, the Father will grant to the Son of His love the thing the Son desires. And the thing the Son desires is that we have every good thing. And so they are ours in Him. And that's why verse 3 says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies," and then what's the last two words? "In Christ." You see.

Because we are in Him, we are accepted. Because we are in Him, we are blessed. Apart from us, dear ones, God blesses us for Christ's sake. You see. Because we're in Him. We in Him are accepted. Look at the word accepted. Literally, it's the word graced, and it would read this way. By grace we have been graced. He graced us is what the Greek says. He graced us. It's like dunking us in a big vat of grace. We've been graced. We could say to each other, instead of, now since we've lost the term born again, we don't know what it means anymore, we might start saying, "Have you been graced?" That's the idea. Grace by which He graced us.

So God can say of every Christian, listen to this. God can say of every Christian, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Isn't that great? You say, "You mean me? You mean me?" Yes. In Christ. "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." You see, Christ paid the price, bought us out, made us one with Himself. He is the Redeemer. And there is no other Redeemer. Only He.

Second, not only do we see the Redeemer, but the redeemed. Who are the redeemed? Who are? Well, it's very, very clear. It's the "us" and the "we." The "us" of verse 6 and the "we" of verse 7. "Us accepted, we have redemption." You say, "Yeah, that's good, that's a pronoun, but what's the antecedent? Who's the 'us' and who's the 'we'?" Oh, I want you to meet the redeemed. Boy, they are really they are really something.

Let me introduce them to you. Are you ready? Turn with me to chapter 2, verse 1. Here's the "us" and the "we." "And you," oh, by the way, it's the "us" and the "we" and the "you." "And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins." That's the first thing about the "us" and the "we" and the "you." We're rotten sinners. Just want to get that clear at the beginning. And here's some more about us, verse 2, "In which in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience." That's Satan. So far, the "us," the "we," and the "you" are dead in trespasses and sin, walking according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, who's Satan, the one who works in the children of disobedience. Beyond that, they happen to be guided by the lust of the flesh, the desires of the mind and the flesh, and are by nature the children of wrath. That's the "us" and the "we" and the "you."

Not a real scintillating group, frankly. In case you need a further definition, you could look down at verse 11. We are the heathen, some of the Bibles translated Gentiles, heathen. And then you could look at verse 12 what it says, "We are without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." That's the "us," the "we," and the "you." If that isn't enough to give you the point, look at verse 17 of chapter 4. 17 of chapter 4 says that we are the ones who walk in the vanity of our minds. Verse 18 says, "Having the understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, past feeling, given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness." That's us, folks.

There we are: the lewd, the greedy, the blind, the ignorant, the alienated, the darkened, the vain, strangers, no hope, without God, on and on, evil, following Satan. That's us. Nice bunch, wouldn't you like to hang around them? That's us. The redeemed. God has chosen to redeem sinners. That's the point. Titus 2:14, "Who gave Himself for us," now watch, "That He might redeem us from all iniquity." We are the iniquitous, that's who we are, "That He might purify unto Himself a people of His own, zealous of good works." He has redeemed sinners, people. Jesus said, "I am not come to call the righteous, but what? Sinners to repentance." You see, it's not until a person recognizes his sin that he seeks to be bought out of the slave market and that he offers himself to Jesus to receive the gift. The redeemed are the "we," the "us," and the "you," the sinners. Incredible. Unbelievable. You mean God should have looked around the world and picked out some really good people? Well, He would have had a problem, there weren't any. Because the Bible says, "All have what? Sinned and come short of God's glory." So He redeemed sinners. We are the chosen of God. We who have responded by faith to that elective purpose of God in the time before the world began. We are the ones accepted in the Father's love. We are the ones who because we are in Christ are said to be the Sons of God in whom He is well pleased.

Phil Johnson: You're listening to Grace to You Weekend, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. Today's lesson is from his study titled Richer Than You Think. Well, there's something we can't say often enough and that is, thank you to the people who run this radio station. They are our partners in the truest sense. Without their work, we would have no voice in your community or in communities like yours. In fact, friend, if I could make a suggestion, contact this radio station and let the people there know that you are thankful for all the work they do and for airing programs like Grace to You. You'll encourage them more than you know. And keep in mind, we'd love to hear from you as well. When you can, send a note our way. Our email address is letters@gty.org. Once again, that's letters@gty.org. And you can also send a letter by writing to us at Grace to You Weekend, PO Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. And when you visit gty.org, be sure to check out the various opportunities to take in John's verse-by-verse teaching. You can download 3600 sermons, free of charge in audio and transcript format. That's every message from John's 56 years of pulpit ministry. And if you're not sure where to start listening, log on to Grace Stream. That's a continual broadcast of John's teaching through the New Testament. We start in Matthew and take you all the way through Revelation and then start it all over again. It's an excellent way to spend a few minutes or a couple of hours. Find Grace Stream and much more at gty.org. That's our website again, one more time, gty.org. Now, for our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. Join us again next week as John MacArthur continues showing you the amazing inheritance that's yours in Christ. It's another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time on Grace to You Weekend.