Colossians 1:14a
1. Vs. 9-12 – In the context, Paul described a worthy walk with four participles:
· being fruitful, increasing, being strengthened, and thanking.
2. Just after mentioning our need to be continually thanking God, Paul lists four REASONS for thanksgiving:
· delivered; translated; redeemed; and forgiven.
3. Last time we looked at vs. 13 – delivered and translated.
4. This morning we want to look at vs. 14 – redeemed and forgiven.
5. This is cause for thanksgiving for every born again believer.
1. DEFINED: ἀπολύτρωσις – redemption, ransom, release
a. From the noun lutron = a ransom price paid.
b. Ransom price: 1a paid for slaves, or prisoners of war. 1b for the ransom of life. 2 to liberate many from misery and the penalty of their sins.
» Matt. 20:28 – Jesus said that He came not to be ministered unto but that His life might be a ransom (lutron) for many…”
c. Its basic root word “luw” means to loose.
d. Hence, the ransom price paid results in a “loosing” or setting free (of the slave, prisoner of war, or to ransom a life).
2. OTHER TERMS for redemption in the New Testament
a. Agorazo = to purchase in the market place. (from agora). This is the often used, normal, everyday term for buying or purchasing anything.
b. Exagorazo = to purchase OUT OF the marketplace.
» This term adds a prefix to agorazo (ex = out of)
» Hence, it speaks of a purchase made, but also of removing that which is purchased… taking it out of the marketplace.
» This was a common term used for paying a ransom price to deliver and set free a slave.
c. Lutrow = This term for redemption (which has its root in luw and lutron) speaks of releasing upon the receipt of a ransom price paid.
d. Apolutrosis = this is the noun used in our text in Col. 1:14.
» Thayer: a releasing effected by payment of ransom, deliverances, liberation procured by the payment of a ransom.
» This term speaks of the ransom price paid, and a release.
» But it also adds a prefix meaning “away from.”
» It speaks of the ransom price paid and the deliverance away from its former relationship.
» It is used of the emancipation of slaves.
» There were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire. Paul’s readers knew well this language of slavery.
» They understood the concept of a slave standing in the marketplace; the purchase of a slave; a change of ownership; and for those fortunate ones, who had someone who loved them enough to pay the price of redemption for them… they also understood the concept of emancipation too… set free…
» All of this is set forth in the terms Paul uses for our redemption in Christ: slaves to sin; the ransom price paid; the deliverance; emancipation… set free… perfect language to use for our great salvation in Christ.
3. SUMMARY: Putting all the terms for redemption together, a rich definition emerges:
a. A ransom price is paid
b. That which is redeemed is taken out of the market place.
c. That which is redeemed is taken away from its former relationships…
d. It speaks of being rescued; delivered from bondage; set free!
e. That which is redeemed is thus under new ownership and has entered into a new relationship.
f. Two main aspects: the price paid and the deliverance acquired.
4. Redemption is needed by all men. (Briefly…)
a. Slaves to Sin.
b. Sin’s Sentence…the curse of the Law.
c. Subject to Satanic bondage
A. The Law
1. The curse of the law. Gal. 3:13.
a. The curse of the law was clear: death.
b. Everyone who seeks to become religious in hopes of earning a good standing in God’s sight puts himself under the Law… and thus, unwittingly, under its curse.
c. Gal. 3:10 – The curse of death and condemnation is upon “every one that continueth NOT in ALL things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”
d. The law’s curse was this: one slip and you’re condemned forever!
e. The law required perfect obedience in ALL that it said—or else the curse of the Law falls upon us: death!
f. James 2:10 – the one who tries to be good and yet fails in one point is guilty of ALL. He is a law-breaker and thus condemned.
g. Gal. 3:13 – Christ became a curse FOR US…
» For us = substitution.
» This is the good news of the gospel. The curse that we earned… that we deserved… that should have fallen on us fell on Jesus Christ instead… as our Sin Substitute.
» We deserved to die… but Christ died FOR US… in our place.
» Rom. 5:8 – when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
» God’s wrath fell on His own Beloved Son…
» God’s righteous judgment against MY sin fell upon His own Beloved Son…
» God’s justice was executed against His own Beloved Son.
» The Law’s curse—death—the wages of MY sin was death—and Christ died for me… and for you. He took the curse in my place and yours.
» The penalty for MY sin was death—the curse of the Law for my sin demanded death—and Christ died for me… and for you. O glorious substitution!
» God’s justice demanded that the curse of the Law be executed… and God manifested His love for you and for me by sending His own Beloved Son to die in our place… to be made a curse FOR US.
» This is WHY Jesus sweat as it were great drops of blood in Gethsemane… as He contemplated being made a curse for us.
» He was made SIN for us… (II Cor. 5:21)
h. In bearing the curse of sin… by dying in our place, Christ REDEEMED us from the curse.
» God is just and fair. The curse has already been paid.
» You and I can BENEFIT from Christ being made a curse through faith… by receiving Him by faith.
» Those who have received redemption IN CHRIST also have the promise that there is therefore now NO condemnation to those in Christ Jesus!
» Gal. 3:13-14 – Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law SO THAT (vs. 14) we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
» The promise of the Spirit is the promise of LIFE… eternal life… the blessing God promised to Abraham is available to us Gentiles too… but only BY FAITH.
» Christ became a curse for us—but that avails us nothing UNLESS we receive Him personally through faith.
2. The bondage of the law. Gal. 4:4-5.
a. Before salvation, Israel was under bondage to the Law.
b. The emphasis in this passage is NOT on the curse of the law or its penalty. Rather, the emphasis is on OBLIGATION to the law as a rule of life.
c. Paul emphasizes here that the believer in Christ has not only been redeemed from the law’s curse and penalty… but also he has been redeemed or set free from obligation to the law!
d. The believer in Christ is NOT under the law… but has been freed from the law.
e. Even gentiles who put themselves under the Law (10 commandments) are putting themselves under the whole law.
f. Hence, religious men are putting themselves in bondage or slavery to a legal system they will NEVER be able to keep.
g. Christ redeemed us to take us OUT of such slavery… to deliver us… redeem us… set us free—once and for all!
h. We have been set free from obligation to the Law… and have been brought into a whole NEW relationship to God… the adoption of sons!
» Adoption of sons is different from regeneration or being BORN into God’s family. (salvation)
» Adoption has to do with our position before God… adopted as a FULL GROWN SON.
» Regeneration looks at our salvation as a birth—and pictures a long growth process ahead… growing into maturity.
» But adoption looks at the believer from a different perspective: our position in Christ.
» As a redeemed one… we are adopted into sonship… and hence IMMEDIATELY (every true child of God) already possesses ALL of his riches in Christ.
» God treats the believer as a FULL GROWN son… and we all possess all the privileges of sonship.
» Under the Law, Israel was treated as young children under tutors (Gal.4:2)
» In Israel as well as in ancient Roman society, there was a prescribed age when a child would formally be considered an adult—and at that time he would be accepted into adulthood and would assume the responsibilities of adulthood and the privileges of it.
» This is what Paul refers to here—the redeemed one—in God’s sight—is adopted and thus accepted as a full grown son… with full rights and privileges as such.
» Gal.4:1 – as long as a child in a wealthy house is a child, he really isn’t much different from a slave in that household. He doesn’t have access to any of the privileges, the wealth of that home… even though in time he shall inherit it all.
» As adopted sons, God treats us as full grown sons… heirs who by faith get to experience our inheritance in Christ now. God has already given us all spiritual blessings in Christ.
i. Christ has redeemed us from bondage to the law which kept Israel and those under the law in a position no different than a servant.
j. Gal. 4:7 – but now in Christ, we are redeemed—and as redeemed ones, we are no more a servant but a SON—a full grown son—with the full rights and privileges of a son… heirs of all in Christ.
k. Rom. 7:4 – freedom from obligation to the Law does NOT mean a life of lawlessness.
» We have been set free from the law SO THAT we might be married to Christ.
» This is a NEW kind of relationship that results in good fruit unto God.
» Being under the Law resulted in fruit unto death (vs. 5)
» Redeemed and set free—free to marry Christ…
» Redeemed and so happy IN JESUS! In Him is life… and freedom… free from the law of sin and death.
» Do YOU want to be free from a religious, ceremonial law that only binds and produces frustration? Come to Christ in faith. He will set you free!
B. The Present Evil World
1. Gal. 1:4 – Christ died for us SO THAT He might deliver (redeem) us from the world system.
a. The present evil world = the spirit of the age; the system masterminded by Satan.
b. Trench defines as follows: “All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitute a most real and effective power, being the moral or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale.”
c. This world system had a GRIP on every one of us prior to salvation.
d. We were held captive by the world and its evil ways… its fads, fashions, its philosophies, and trinkets.
e. “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world” (I John 2:16).
f. God rescued us from the world at a great price — His own Son! Christ died to deliver us OUT OF the present evil age.
» We were held captive to this evil age and Christ died to set us free!
» He didn’t redeem us so that we could then go BACK to the world and its ways!
» He redeemed us that we might be DIFFERENT from the world… and separate from the world.
» He redeemed us that we might be HIS.
g. Eph. 2:2-3 – we ALL walked according to the course of this world.
» As we did, Satan WORKED IN each one of us (energew)…
» There was Satanic influence operating in the world… and that influence kept us blind to spiritual reality and truth…
» It was a selfish, self-centered life—seeking to fulfill and gratify all the desires of our flesh and mind.
» And because of that, we were children of wrath. God’s wrath justly abode above each of our heads.
» It was a broad road to destruction, but one which held us captive… captive to a system that fanned the flames of our own lusts and selfish desires.
» Every one on that road was blind—and also spiritually dead in his sins (vs.1).
» That’s the road we ALL traveled before being redeemed. Perhaps some here today are still on that road. If so, you NEED to be redeemed.
» The world system is a system of slavery to its evil ways. It woos us back… but we don’t HAVE to return to that awful slavery.
» Remember when Israel was redeemed from bondage to slavery in Egypt? After a few trials in the wilderness, they wanted to RETURN to Egypt. They FORGOT what awful bondage was there… and that whole generation DIED in the wilderness.
» What a lesson for us: don’t ever forget the bondage that life in the world really is. PITY those believers who have been deceived and have returned! Rescue the perishing!
2. A Vain manner of life in the world. 1Pet. 1:18.
a. Peter tells us that we were also redeemed from a “vain conversation” = an empty way of life.
b. I Pet. 4:3 – we USED to walk like them… but God rescued us from that VAIN and empty way of life.
» The world might THINK it is great fun and that their life is full—but it is really EMPTY compared to what they are missing in Christ!
» Since they have never experienced the abundant life in Christ, they have nothing of substance to compare it too. That vain life is all they know.
c. But those redeemed KNOW experientially how BLESSED and abundant is our new life in Christ.
d. The life of the Christian is NOT boring as the world imagines, but it is full… satisfied… content… a purged conscience… and rest for the soul!
e. Redemption means that a life of emptiness is over… replaced with something much better! Redeemed and so happy in Jesus! No language my rapture can tell!
f. I have known the emptiness of life in this world—and I now know the fullness and abundance of new life in Christ. Blessed redemption!
g. “All my life long I had panted for a draft from some cool spring; that I hoped would quench the burning of the thirst I felt within. Hallelujah I have found HIM whom my soul so long has craved!”
h. HE is not far from every one of us… and He, the Lord Jesus Christ invites you to come to Him in faith: come unto ME all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your soul!
i. Redemption delivers us from the present evil age and from a vain manner of life.
C. The Slavery of Sin.
1. Rom. 6:20-21 – we WERE slaves to sin – the sin nature.
a. We were slaves to the lusts and desires of the flesh and mind.
b. When we fulfilled those lusts we THOUGHT we were doing our own thing… that we were our own boss.
c. Actually, Paul says by fulfilling those lusts, we were demonstrating that we were servants or slaves to those desires. (lust of the flesh; lust of the eyes; pride of life)
d. We were all slaves of sin at one time. The particular sins we were beguiled by may have differed, but in this sense we were all the same: unwitting and unwilling slaves!
e. The only freedom we really had was freedom from righteousness!
f. Sin at one time had DOMINION over us!
2. Rom. 6:18, 22 — freedom from sin and self —
a. Because of our Redeemer and His work on the cross, He has procured FREEDOM for us through faith.
b. Christ died to redeem us — not only from sin’s penalty—but also to redeem us from sin’s power!
c. Our old man WAS a slave of sin, but God put that old man to death! (Rom. 6:6) SO THAT we should no longer SERVE sin as a slave!
d. Rom. 6:7 – because we died with Him, we are FREE from sin!
e. Chains have been torn asunder, setting our spirit free!
f. God saved us once and for all—and God has already provided all we need to LIVE A LIFE in freedom from sin!
g. Yet sometimes we ACT as if we were NOT free.
» Some believers live as if they were still enslaved to a loose tongue…
» Some act as if they were enslaved to alcohol or drugs…
» Some acts as if they were enslaved to sexual sins…
» And they have tried and tried to experience freedom only to fail repeatedly…
» Failure CAN be good—IF it brings us to the place where we cry out, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me…!?”
» Then, at the end of our own resources, we reach out in faith to Christ—who DELIGHTS in lifting us up out of the miry clay…
» When we are weak, then are we strong. Admit your weakness. Admit your NEED of God’s power. Admit that you are unable to redeem yourself from the power and grip sin has in your life… and THEN and only then will you begin to experience the power of God—and the deliverance from the power of sin!
h. We are no longer servants of sin unto death, but now we are servants of God unto righteousness… and the end of this road is everlasting life!
i. We deserve death, but because of God’s great grace, we receive eternal life! An abundant life… a life of liberty and freedom from sin. Blessed redemption!
j. Freedom and deliverance from the power of sin requires the cross just as much as deliverance from the penalty of sin.
k. It is completely beyond our ability and beyond our grasp on our own… but when we acknowledge that… and lean not on our own strength or wisdom… and learn to lean on the might hand of God in faith—He holds us up.
3. All iniquity. Titus 2:14 —
a. Note that Paul here states that Christ died to redeem us from ALL iniquity.
b. There is no sin so powerful that Christ cannot give us deliverance.
c. Sometimes believers who are ensnared in a sin for a long time see their plight as hopeless—as well it is on our own.
d. But nothing is too hard for the Lord. In fact, nothing is even HARD for the Lord!
e. If we will but choose to trust in Him—He will give us deliverance from ALL iniquity—even your besetting sin.
f. He redeemed us to take us OUT OF the world… and to take the world OUT OF us…
g. He redeemed us to save us AND to purify us a people UNTO Himself.
h. Just get out of the way and let God take charge of your life! What great things He desires to do—to replace the man we were in Adam (sp. Dead; slave to sin; sinful; wretched) and replace that old image with the image of His dear Son! The indwelling Christ and His life and character to be manifested in our mortal bodies!
i. What glories are ours in Christ—as those redeemed—and so HAPPY in Jesus!
j. God didn’t redeem us to let us wander in the wilderness. He redeemed us to bring us into the Promised Land… to give us VICTORY over our foes… over sin, Satan, the powers of darkness, the flesh, over all iniquity… and to bring us into the kingdom and freedom of His dear Son!