This past week I was informed that there is legislation before the Judiciary Committee in our Maine Legislation to remove clergy from the list of people who can solemnize weddings.  The idea is to make the wedding a civil affair, not a religious one. 

                    We live in a country that is divided.  In the last election, the country was split almost equally in half by blue states and red states.  We also are a country that is becoming increasingly polarized by moral issues.  The two sides in the moral debate are mostly divided between those who hold the Bible as the authority on all that is good and wholesome and those who believe that individuals know what is best for themselves, that man is his own authority.

                    This polarization is found in the Bible as well.  Paul says, “I no longer look at people as I once did.  Now I look and ask, “Are people in Christ or out of Christ?  Do they believe in Christ or do they not believe in Christ?”

                    This is the challenge Jesus gave to those who listened to him.  He said, “Come, follow me.  Believe in me.  Trust me.”  And those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are saved.  They are now “in Christ.”

                    When we come to Jesus, we not only get to know Jesus, but he has a truckload of spiritual blessings for us.  He says, “If you are in Christ, I declare that you are fit to serve God, that you are blameless in His sight.”  He says, “If you are in Christ, I choose to adopt you into my family.” 

This morning we are going to look at a third blessing and I would state the blessing like this.

When we trust Christ, Christ redeems us and forgives our sins.                

When we listen to Paul in his writings, we need to remember that there are two audiences before Him.  He is writing to both the Jewish people, who worked hard to retain their culture and to follow the Old Testament, and the Gentiles, who came out of various cultures around the Roman Empire.

The Jewish people would remember their redemption from Egypt.  Genesis 15:13 says, “Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and ill-treated four hundred years.”

During that time they were in slavery.  Whatever Pharaoh asked them to do, they had to do.  There were times they hated the slavery.  They were doing what they did not want to do and were not wanting to do what they were doing.  Life was hard and it seemed there was no way out.

But God redeemed them.  He brought them out of slavery. 

The cost was the death of the oldest Egyptian male child.  Remember the plagues of Egypt.  Each one was a little worse.  God tried to communicate to Pharaoh that he was to let Israel go, but he refused.  It took the death of the oldest Egyptian male child in each home for him to give permission.  The Jewish children were spared because their parents put blood over the door.  The death angel “passed over” them, which is the background of the Jewish Passover.

This idea of paying a ransom to free someone from slavery was common for the Romans as well. With all the wars and intrigue of the Roman court, kidnappings and the enslaving of people was a normal part of life.  And just as we see in Iraq today, it was possible to ransom or redeem someone from a life of slavery.

Imagine how it felt for the Israelites when the waters parted in the Red Sea and they left Egypt.  Imagine how if felt for someone taken and treated as a slave, when they were released.

When we come to Christ, we are ransomed.  We are redeemed from a life of sin.  That is why Paul follows with, “forgiveness of sins.”  We are redeemed from sin through Christ Jesus.

So what does this mean?  When we come to Jesus, we find that he has paid the price for our sin.

Who do we owe?  We owe God for the way we have lived our life.  Let me illustrate this by asking a question, “What is the greatest sin?”

Would you say murder, theft, coveting?  I would say that the greatest sin is to break the greatest commandment.  That commandment is to love the Lord our God will all our soul, with all our strength and with all our mind.  The first commandment of the ten is, “Thou shalt have no other God’s before me.”  Rejecting our creator, rejecting our maker, rejecting God and his Son, Jesus, is the greatest sin we can do.

How much of our lives were lived in the sin lane?  How much of our live are lived where God was not important, we didn’t believe in his son, Jesus and we would not consider our lives dedicated to Jesus Christ?

But Christ paid a price, his own precious blood, to redeem us.

God said that the wages of sin is death.  Jesus experienced death so that he could redeem us from sin.

“13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” Galatians 3:13, 14, NIV.

Why?  So we could be blessed.  And redemption is a blessing.  The promise of the Spirit is a blessing.

                    In this passage, Paul speaks about redeeming us from the curse of the law.  What is the curse of the law?  The curse of the law is the penalty we have to pay when we break it, that is the curse.

                    If any of you have had to pay the penalty on delinquent IRS payments, you know the curse.  If any of you have spent time in jail or have had to pay a fine, you know the curse of the law.  If any of you have lost a spouse because of your immorality or have had your vehicle or furniture repossessed, you know the curse of the law.

                    In Christ we have no curse.  Jesus paid it all.  All that we owe, all that justice demands we pay, was paid on the cross.  The result was that our sins were forgiven.  They were stricken off the ledger. 

                    Our price has been paid, In full, by Christ. 

                    The curse we feel because we have broken God’s law is off us when we trust in Christ. 

                    Now we are able to experience, not the curse, but the blessing God promised to Abraham.

“13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14 He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.” Galatians 3:13, 14, NIV.

This is a mystery.  But when we put our faith in Christ, the payment is applied to our account.  It is a benefit of trusting Christ.  We are no longer under the curse, but as redeemed people, we fall under the blessing God gave to Abraham.  The blessing is our inheritance, as is seen in Galatians 3:18 and we will be discussing at a future time.

But there is a specific application of this that Peter brings out in his book on this.

“17 Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” 1 Peter 1:17-19, NIV.

We are to live as strangers here on this earth.  What does that mean?

First, it means that our way of life will change.

Notice that Peter says that “You were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers…” 

If we do not understand at some fundamental level that the issue was not one sin or one problem that we had that needs change, but that our whole way of life was missing the mark, then we do not really understand the cross.

Our way of life was empty without Christ.  Christ died to pay a price so we could change direction, walk a new path, experience a new life. 

Why? “…in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

God is giving us a new life, removing the curse, paying for all the debts we owe because he wants to.  It’s not an issue of our worth.  We don’t deserve redemption.  But God’s grace is rich!