Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: Today, on Real Life Radio: We have been released from the power of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Are you off on a tangent somewhere, people? Are you a Christian somebody around here? You're off in this thing and you just can't get your feet out of the sin. You keep walking—listen, don't think that you've got to live that kind of life. God's given you the power to get out of it. Stop it.

Announcer: This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J., thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

Jack Hibbs: Hey, my friends, come with me on our Bold Faith Hawaii Cruise, June 12th to the 19th, 2027. Listen, we're going to set sail for seven unforgettable days with myself, Dr. Frank Turek, and special worship with Gia Lucid. It's going to be a breathtaking trip. This is more than a vacation; it's a time of rest, renewal, fellowship, and spiritual strength in the word of God, all centered around the Bible. You can reserve your spot by going to jackhibbs.com.

Announcer: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues with his series now called The Book of Ephesians and a message titled Our Great Redemption, Part 1. Ephesians is a letter the Apostle Paul wrote to the church of Ephesus, showing every believer who they really are in Christ.

And here, Paul reminds us that we've been bought back, redeemed, and fully forgiven through the blood of Jesus Christ. You see, God didn't just make us and then leave us to wander through this life alone and without purpose. He brings us back when we're lost, ransomed us from sin and from death, and canceled every debt we've ever owed. It is the good news that saves us and sustains us.

So today, Pastor Jack tells us that through our Lord's redeeming love, the curse of the law has been lifted from our lives. Jesus took our place on the cross, paying the ultimate price so that we don't have to. His grace and forgiveness have truly set us free. Now, with his message called Our Great Redemption, Part 1, here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: First thing we're going to see tonight is what we have in him. We're going to ask some questions and hopefully have some answers, but we're going to hit a couple of points. Number one: what we have in him, what we have in Christ. What is it? Well, the first thing is what we have in him is redemption.

The word redemption in the Greek means to ransom in full. And I'll explain this in a moment, but to ransom in full, to cancel the obligations held against another. That's what it means. Redemption: to ransom in full. This is a great definition because it tells a story. To ransom means to buy back.

You're not only redeemed, people. If you've given your heart to Jesus, you're not only going to heaven, but the fact of the matter is, it tells a story in the very meaning of the word that God made you, you ran from him in our sin, and we were born alienated from him. He not only made you, but he bought you again. He bought you back.

Just like the gingerbread man story, same story. You've heard it before. I don't need to even say it again. He not only made you, but he bought you in your fallen state. He ransomed in full. He didn't make payments on you. He didn't put money down on you. He made you and he ransomed you fully. He bought you back. That is good news. That is very good news.

There are three realities produced by Christ's act of redemption. There are three realities produced by Christ's act of redemption. Jot this down. Number one: the repayment, the repayment of sin's debt. You see, you and I, being sinners needing redemption, we have always in our lives, though you don't want to admit it or not, though you think this might be a terrible thing to say, it's just kind of too bad.

The fact is, we're sinners and we needed redemption. And to complete the redemptive act, Jesus Christ came and paid the debt that you and I couldn't pay. You think your mortgage is nuts? You think that car payment is out of this world? We've missed it, you guys. We owed a debt in the spirit realm that you didn't really see its monthly statement and its bottom-line loss at the end of the month, because it's not on paper, it's not tangible, but you felt its pressure every day in your life.

You felt the weight of sin on you until you came to Christ. That's why, again, new believers are so much fun to be around; they've been freed and they experience that and they walk in that liberty. But there's this thing of sin and its weighing on us, and the Bible says that the wages, the wages of sin is death. Sin literally pays out dividends, and the dividends it pays is death.

It's a spiritual law. The book of Romans tells us there was no death in the world until sin entered the world. That's amazing. There was no death in the world biologically or spiritually until sin entered the world.

But the first thing is that there's the repayment of sin's debt. First Corinthians 6:20 says, "For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." You don't even have control over your body any longer, nor your spirit. It's yielded to Christ if you're a Christian.

He bought you. He owns you. Oh, Jesus, I think I'm going to do my thing. You can't do that. You've got to ask him, "Lord, do I yield my body to this thing or to that thing? Do I yield my mind to this thing or to that thing?" He owns you. And I don't know how that grabs you. I like that. It brings me comfort. If he owns me, that means he's very much interested in me. He's vested in me, something of great worth to him, and he's not going to let me go.

There's a lot on the line here. You may think you're not worth all that much, but he thinks you're worth something, I'll tell you that. And we'll see what that something is in a moment.

The second thing concerning the three realities that Christ's redemption has provided us: the second one is that there's the removing of the curse of the law against our life. The curse of the law has been removed. And you know what? I think on this single issue here, you and I struggle with this more than anything else in our Christian walk, and that is understanding that we've been freed from this curse of the law.

The Lord's done some things in my life the last couple of years, and I've really been enjoying the liberty that I have in the Lord. And with that liberty comes power and it's fun, it's great, and I'm enjoying my Christian walk more than ever, though it's a difficult walk and it's a tough time that you and I live in.

But even still, I get bound up at times about this thing about the law. "Well, you know what? I just need to keep those Ten Commandments." Yeah, those things are holy and they're awesome and they're great. And if I could keep them, I'd keep them. But the moment I strive to keep the first one, I wind up getting arrogant because I've spent an hour and a half doing the thing that it says to do, and I'm going, "Hey, well, I'm doing pretty good." And then pride creeps in and it blows out the whole rest of the thing.

And you know, you try. You want to. Isn't it in your heart to do absolute perfection as a Christian? People make fun of that bumper sticker: Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven. Well, you know that's true. Some people have viewed that as a cop-out. Well, you know what? Not to the real Christian. It's a passion of your heart to walk holy before the Lord.

But the beautiful thing: Galatians 3:13 says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Now, is that a suggestion or is that an absolute statement? Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Galatians 3:13. Having become a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree or on a cross."

Jesus took our place. That's the very act of redemption. You and I were supposed to go to the cross and be crucified. How about this? Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for cursed is everyone who sits in an electric chair in our modern-day culture. Cursed is everyone who is strapped to a gurney and given the lethal injection in Utah. Cursed is everyone who stands against the wall and is fired upon by the firing squad. It's a shame. It's disgusting. You're a criminal.

The awesome thing is Jesus steps in and says, "Okay, I'll take your place. I'm going to set you up here and I'll stand there and I'll take it." He not only made you, he ransomed you in this incredible act of redemption. And your ability or inability—and my inability—to grasp it or not does not change its power or its truth. Are we walking in that? Are we enjoying that?

The third thing is this. What do we have in him? The third thing in this three things that he's provided for us in his act of redemption is that he's released us from sin's control. This is a heavy verse. Romans 6:14: we've been released from the bonds of sin. Listen: "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace."

You know what that means? It means that the demands of the law that it required of us, that you and I sometimes try to pull off, Jesus Christ comes in and he's met those demands. And not only that, but by the Holy Spirit being within us, he's given us the power to walk with him.

But listen, because we are positionally set apart and made holy in Christ, the law no longer is our judge. We're like the commercial that says we answer to a higher authority: the grace and the truth of God.

Do you remember when I told you guys about Paul's—the hypothetical way that we describe Paul's life, his new life in the Lord? You look at the book of Romans chapter 7 and Paul is talking about how the flesh, no matter how hard you try, just can't live a holy perfect life.

And then he gets to Romans chapter 8 verse 1, and he says, "But thank God." He praises the Lord that there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus now. And what that translates to us today—and I've acted it out before and maybe I ought to do it again—it means this: that Paul had a grip on his gospel that he presented to the people that he'd received from Christ.

That if Paul was right in the middle of just, you know, the praise band is out, maybe at Caesarea Philippi, the praise band's doing the thing, they're getting down just about the last song, and Paul's pacing back and forth getting ready to deliver the message, there's thousands gathered around, and Paul's just kind of behind the scenes, and Peter comes running by and steps right on Paul's toe and just crushes his toe.

And Paul jumps up, grabs his toe and says, "Peter, you big dumb fisherman! Can't you watch what you're doing? You jerk! Can't you tell I'm going to go out there and deliver a message from God in a moment? I'm God's apostle to the Gentiles. I've seen the risen Christ and you just come stomping on my toe and you probably broke my foot, you big dumb fisherman!"

And then Peter turning around, Paul looking at him, Paul putting his head down says, "You know what? Lord, forgive me. Peter, I am so sorry. I ask you to forgive me, brother. That was absolutely sin, what I just did. I absolutely failed the Lord and I failed you and it was a horrible witness. I ask you, Peter, to forgive me."

Peter goes, "Man, you're forgiven. I do it all the time." And then Paul would say, "Jesus, forgive me for my sin, my anger, my temper, Lord, please forgive me." And the Lord says, "Forgiven. Homologeo. Say the same thing. Say the same thing. Homologeo. Say the same thing."

God says, "You just sinned, Paul." Holy Spirit goes, "Aunt, aunt, aunt," right? "You've just sinned." Paul says, "I've just sinned, and I ask you to forgive me, God." And you know what? Paul gave Peter a hug and the curtain opened up, praise band ended the song, Paul went out there and preached the message and a zillion people got saved.

And you and I have a hard time with that because the way you and I think, because of what Paul just did, he should have went out there, tripped on the electrical cords, fell on his face, and everybody get out of the stadium and leave, right? That's how we think. Why? Because he sinned, right?

That's not what the Bible talks about. Is that a license to sin? If you think that's a license to sin and if you think that's what I'm promoting, you've missed the whole thing. Paul says, "You know what, Peter? I reckon the old man dead. It was not I, the new man, who just sinned against you; it was the old man, that old carcass, Paul, Saul. And I own up to my sin and I did wrong, but that guy, I'm going to reckon him crucified in Christ, dead and gone."

But see, you and I want to flog ourselves for a couple of weeks and do penance until we feel like we've paid something so God will talk to us again. And that's a works-centered relationship, and it's an affront to the grace of God.

Announcer: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now, let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: We have been released from the power of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over you. Are you off on a tangent somewhere, people? Are you a Christian somebody around here? You're off in this thing and you just can't get your feet out of the sin. You keep walking—listen, don't think that you've got to live that kind of life. God's given you the power to get out of it. Stop it.

"I can't stop it, I'm hooked." You think you're hooked. The enemy's singing you a song that you are hooked. Stand firm in Christ and say, "I'm not going to go back to that place, I'm not going to go back to that guy, I'm not going to go back to that girl, I'm not going to do this, that, or the other. I'm turning around and I'm walking out on this thing. I'm going to follow the Lord."

He's given you the power to do it. It doesn't say it's painless, but you and I, he's given the power to walk out on the sin that so does easily beset us if we let it. If we're messed up tonight, it's not God's fault. We've allowed it to happen and he's provided the power for us to get out of it; we just need to do it.

Let's keep going here quickly. It says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness." Not only should you underline the word redemption, but underline the word forgiveness. And just what does this mean? Well, obviously, it's the forgiveness of sins. By the way, this forgiveness of sins, the word sin right here is paraptoma, and it means a side slip, a slipping up, a lapse, or a deviation from the course.

Doesn't it sound gentle? A lapse or a deviation from the course. That doesn't sound so bad, does it? Well, it also says the unintentional error. Okay, that sounds still pretty gentle. And it means the willful transgression, an offense, a trespass.

You know what a trespass is: you cross the line. The sign says "Don't cross this line," and a trespasser goes, looks around left to the right, reads the sign, and crosses the line, crosses right over the fence. He gets shot with salt in his rear end and then wants to sue the landowner, you know how it goes. He's a trespasser. He's lucky he didn't die.

Sin is not only the unintentional crossing of the law—hey, maybe the fence got knocked down and you went into somebody's private land. You sinned. You've unintentionally erred. You didn't mean to, but you sinned nonetheless; you're still breaking the guy's property line.

That's not only sin, but so is the willful transgression and trespass to say, "Hey, I know this is somebody's private land; I'm going on in anyway." That's sin. We have forgiveness of our sins.

The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I don't know what it is, but I'm getting addicted to watching the news at night, watching all these guys lie to me. And you can hit that one key and it goes to two-four-seven, seven-four-two, two-four-seven, four-seven-two, four-seven-seven-four-two. And it's great. Do it real quick. And they're all lying.

It'd be great if they're standing there: "And this is what I'm going to do," and their nose starts to grow and it turns into a tree and a bird lands, you know, like Pinocchio's thing. But it's just a bunch—it's a lie. And listen, it's always been a lie. And you're going to have to vote for the guy that lies the least because the Bible says every man's a liar.

And the Bible says we've all sinned. We all need forgiveness. And by how fast the clock is going tonight, maybe we should just stay on this point right here and we'll end. Do you guys remember in the book of Numbers, the children of Israel were complaining and moaning and grumbling and then they're just cruising along out there in the wilderness and then they turn on Moses?

And they start chewing on him. And God—it's amazing. God and Moses, they were never in the same mood on the same day. Because one day, Monday, God says, "Stand back, Moses. Scoot over. I'm going to kill every one of them." And Moses says, "Don't do it! Don't do it!" Then Tuesday, Moses says, "God, get out of my way! I'm going to kill every one of them." And God says, "Now, Moses, calm down, calm down." It's a great thing. They were never thinking the same thing on the same day.

So they're chewing on Moses, complaining and whining, and God says, "Moses, look out." And it says that God sent fiery snakes, serpents, to bite the people and to start killing them because of disobedience.

So then God says, "You know what? Put a molten bronze, brass serpent on a pole and raise it up in the air. And tell the people that if they look at the brazen serpent on a pole"—that's where the medical, by the way, the medical institution got their sign for healing, that snake on a pole—"Moses, tell them if they look at the pole with the snake on the pole, the brass snake, brass stands for judgment in the scriptures, snake, sin."