I find myself weeping while preparing for a sermon this week and for our upcoming Back To Church Sunday. Weeping because I am working through the details of Romans 3. The topics are the heaviest topics of the Bible like: Redemption, Propitiation, Sin, Sacrifice, the Mercy Seat, and mostly LOVE. Through any given week in a ministers life they can come across people who just simply don’t care about what God has to say. People have a knack for unapologetically wasting your time and love. This week I received several blows and was allowing it to upset me. I began to separate myself emotionally. Ever do that? Truth is what we need. We are so weak that our minds race away and our spirit is maneuvered by events and actions of others quicker than we want to admit. We desperately need a constant ingestion of truth to our soul. Jesus said this in Luke 4.4- “And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” We need substantial healthy ingestions of truth each and every day, just to survive. We do take in food for our soul each day, but not always is that food good for us. In fact, most of the day is spent ingesting negativity and human hate in multiple forms. This is like having a diet of only coffee and sugar, both of which I love. If my diet consisted of those alone I would have heart burn and then heart failure. The negativity and human hate, bitterness, diseased speech, etc. is also heart destructive, but at the moment you’re in it, it feels pleasant. It is addictive. This morning my addiction was matched and overtaken by the mind blowing majesty of God’s love. Let me share with you how His amazing grace was shed on me once again as the Spirit intercepted my heart-fall with His truth.
In reading and pondering Romans 3 God opened my eyes to the bigger picture. Although this post is not meant to share all of the details of redemptions plan, I do believe it gives enough information for you to begin your search into this theme. Salvation should be explained simply to those who need it, but it should be studied by those who now have it. Romans 3 teaches that the human race was created in His image- righteous and perfect, just as He is. Created in His image also means: As He has a free will, we have a free will. From Adam to now, we have committed sin with that free will. So we are now unrighteous, unholy, and dead in our sins. We have offended that holy, righteous, God by choosing sins and going away from His perfect plan for the human race. By this sin, we are sold on a slave market of sinners. We chose and now choose sin and therefore sin took complete control (sold into sin). But we have been redeemed. In the market of souls, the price of death had to be made. Holy blood had to be spilt. Where are you going to find a sacrificial death substitute that also has holy blood? Jesus knew this as He created us. Yes, He created us. John 1.1 clearly says- “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” His holy blood was required and He knew it. Holy blood was placed upon the Mercy Seat by Jesus to appease the wrath of God and betrayal of mankind- “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:” (Galatians 3.13). Because of His sacrifice we have been moved from the category of unrighteous back to the category of child. His righteousness has been given (imputed) to us so that we can communicate once again with the lover of our souls. This is explained in Romans 8.15- “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” This is how peace was made by Jesus, whom created us.
The act of redemption alone is earth-shattering. It made me think of movies where a con-man had a plan put into motion years in advance that took just as long to come into effect like the Oceans 11-13 movies. The plan I read this morning has been in motion before time existed! Hebrews 9.26 says- “For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” He suffered often?? I have been perplexed by that. The Greek word for redemption is agorazo and means the purchasing of something on the market. My soul was on the market of souls, so was Adam’s and so was your’s. I thought through this for quite some time… He died once but suffered often… He purchased me once but suffered often… after reading again Romans 3 it hit me: How much love yet heart break for God to watch Adam breath for the first time yet know instantly that this beautiful life and friendship would be betrayed. This loving act of life-breath and soul-transplant would cost Him stepping out of heaven and stepping into flesh to taste death one day to be able to purchase this man and his offspring (me) back to Himself. WHAT GREAT LOVE IS THIS??? I am overwhelmed! I cannot hardly believe He could love me like that. He is for me! How can it be the song says. I deserve death and He replaced my death with His own sacrificial death as a substitute for me. Knowing what Adam would do, He still breathed the breath of life into His nostrils and Adam opened his eyes as a living soul- never knowing what was about to happen and what he would cost his God. I have been made fun of, castigated, left behind, misunderstood and betrayed. None of which can hold a candle to what I have done to Jesus. Yet out of His great love He created me anyway.
Redemption is an amazing bailout program. A holy payment. Just stop right now and let is sink in how much He really loves you. Can you imagine the scene… Adam looking into the face of God and God holding Him as a child knowing the heart break that was ahead? Can you imagine the next scene when Jesus died on the cross and Adam once again saw Him face to face? Can you imagine the praise and thanks that was given by Adam for what just occurred? And can you imagine the heart break of Adam for what He did to the I AM who loved Him so much?
Thank you Jesus. Thank you for loving me that much. It is beyond my comprehension, but that’s ok, I need to be overwhelmed with your plan today. Thank you for redeeming me. Help me to show others your precious sacrificial love today.