Leviticus 25:23-38, 47-55 (9/3/11)
The Microsoft Word spell checker comes up with some strange suggestions once in a while, but my favorite is the suggestion it used to have for “remediation.” The spell checker didn’t know “remediation” (I word I used routinely at work), so it always suggested “redemption.” That tickled me, because land that was being remediated was also being redeemed – bought back and brought back to productive use at great cost to the taxpayers.
The basic idea behind “redemption” is being bought back and brought back.
The jubilee comes every fiftieth year, by the way. That is explained earlier in the chapter.
Isaiah 48:17-20, 49:25-26, 54:4-8 (9/6/11)
Yesterday in Leviticus we read about who could redeem what under what circumstances.
The verb
redeem is
ga’al in Hebrew, and a
redeemer is also
ga’al. Just as the human redeemer buys his brother back from slavery or buys his brother’s property back from the creditors, just as a slave buys himself back from his master, God buys us back from sin and death.
Luke 2:36-38; 21:20-28 (9/7/11)
We Christians tend to see redemption as a personal matter of individual redemption, but redemption has an important corporate aspect as well. First-century Jews were concerned about the redemption of the entire nation of Israel. When the prophetess Anna saw the baby Jesus in the Temple, she immediately recognized his importance and started talking about him “to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
When Jesus' disciples ask him about the end times, he also takes about corporate redemption: “straighten up and raise all-y’all’s heads, because all-y’all’s redemption is drawing near.”
1 Corinthians 6:12-20, 7:20-23 (9/8/11)
A few days ago my son and I were looking at the latest
Consumer Reports. There’s an article about all the distracting new gizmos coming soon to a vehicle near you – internet access for the driver, for example. I said, “What are they thinking? They shouldn’t put these in cars!” My son said, “They do it because there’s no law against it.”
Auto makers should read 1 Corinthians. Paul says that the non-existence of a law against something is not necessarily a good reason to do it. But Paul’s
main argument is that you have been bought with a price – you have been redeemed from slavery to sin by God in Jesus Christ. Therefore, you should not indulge in behavior that enslaves you to something else, whether that behavior is against the law or not.
Colossians 1:9-20; Hebrews 9:11-15 (9/9/11)
This is the last day of our study on righteousness and redemption. We’ve learned that righteousness is required, that we haven’t got any, and that God graciously counts our faith as righteousness. We’ve learned that repentance and confession are necessary for forgiveness of sins. Thanks be to God our Redeemer, who loves us enough to buy us back from sin and death!
More on Righteousness and Redemption
Righteousness is required
Works righteousness is not effective for redemption
Faith, all by itself, can lead forgiveness
Righteousness is imputed to those who have faith
Another path to forgiveness: Repentance and Confession
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