Redemption Through His Blood
I Introduction
A Open Your Bibles to I Peter 1:13-21. Our lesson text follows the message of mercy, rebirth and hope Peter taught in verses 1-12. Now Peter establishes the following:
1 (Vs 1:13-17) - Do This:
2 (vs. 18-19) – Why Do That?
3 (vs. 20-21) – From where did that most valuable blood redemption come?
B Here is the message of vs. 13-21:
1 Be holy like Christ! He has existed from before the world and chose to redeem them through His Blood.
C Not knowing what the term redemption means can throw understanding out the window.
1 Ex. Consider the state of Oregon in the 1970’s.
a Little boys often went out “treasure hunting” – searching everywhere!
b The objective not gold nuggets but discarded aluminum cans and glass beverage bottles.
· Once valuable – now worthless to the consumer.
c Little hands saw value in what was considered worthless.
· Stores bought back for $ and returned value again.
d The lost became found and worthless fulfilled a purpose again.
2 The buying back by the store represents redemption.
D The redemption of mankind through the Blood of Christ parallels the “treasure hunting” example.
1 Christ purchased what had become worthless.
2 Through Him by an established plan, the worthless became holy.
a Galatians 4:4-7 - The redemption by Christ’s blood, causes man to become a son of God
II God Created Man in His Image Why Did Man Need Redemption to Be A Son? (Genesis 1:26)
A In the beginning…
1 Man existed fully alive, spiritually and physically
2 God made life very simple for man.
a (Genesis 1:28) - Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and have dominion over its life forms
· God established man as chief over all the earth.
(i) This directly related to His plan.
3 In addition to God’s positive commands for man, he also gave them a negative command.
a “…from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat”.
· Man ignored God’s command and as punishment man received death (Genesis 2:17).
(i) The death of man unfolded in two ways.
- First - Immediate spiritual Death. Sin separated man from God - (Isaiah 59:1-2).
- Second - Later physically death - Returned to the dust (Genesis 3:19).
b Based on the sin of Adam, man needed purification, justification, reconciliation, and sanctification.
· He went from the valuable image of God to a state of perceived worthlessness.
· He needed Spiritual and Physical Redemption.
III By God’s Mercy and Grace He set a price for redemption.
A Blood Became the Price for Sin
1 Genesis 9:4 – “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, its blood.”
2 The requirement of blood meant life became forfeit with sin.
B Man did not only forfeit his spiritual and physical life because of sin.
1 (Genesis 3:21) - Animals forfeited their life to clothe Adam and Eve in their naked state.
2 Patriarchal Age sacrificing - Able (Gen 4), Noah (Gen 8), and Abraham (Gen 22 - Familiarity).
a What were the reasons behind the sacrifices?
b Job 1:5 – Only time outside of Eden during patriarch’s sacrifices clearly tied to sin.
3 Why blood? Opposing God by sin isn’t minor! It requires the greatest thing of value upon earth – life!
a Psalm 49:5-9 - God set redemption value of man much higher than gold or silver.
IV The Redemption Price presents a Redemption Dilemma
A Whose blood had the authority to redeem and give value again?
1 All men sin (Romans 3:23) and their lives already being forfeit (Romans 6:23) cannot atone for sin.
2 Offering innocent children to redeem man would offend God (Deuteronomy 12:31)
a Would still mean the continual death of man, a life for a life, which God does not desire.
3 Temporarily, God required the lives of animals to atone for man’s disobedience.
a Dilemma: God made man chief over animals.
· Matthew 6:26 – “Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?” Animal life is not equal to human life. It ultimately could not give life.
(i) (Hebrews 10:1-4) States animal life cannot take away man’s sins.
b Continual animal sacrifice could only cleanse the flesh
· That forgiveness required constant reminder of the forfeit life
(i) The conscience remained stained and physical death still loomed.
V What Was the Redemption Solution to Heal Man’s Condition?
A Romans 7:24 – “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death!”
1 According to our Lesson Text, before the earth, God had a permanent solution in mind for mankind.
a The patriarchs had a firm belief that God would redeem them. Job 19:25-27 – “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”
b Thus, the patriarchs walked by faith. Genesis 26:5 “...Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”
· Yes, there was law before the Mosaic Law
(i) Righteous men followed it by faith
(ii) Believed they would be redeemed from sin giving them Spiritual and Physical redemption.
- They believed in life after death.
B Before end of the Patriarchal age…
1 (Genesis 12:1-3) - God promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed through his seed.
2 (Galatians 3:16) states that seed, was the Redeemer, the Christ Jesus.
3 As time would stretch into the Mosaic Age, prophecies would make it clear there would be a redeemer for the sins of the world (Deuteronomy 18:18, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Jeremiah 31:31-34).
4 How did Jesus have such value that His blood would be accepted as redemption for the sins of all?
5 How could a single life redeem innumerable lives making the worthless represent great value?
a I Peter 2:21-22 - Jesus is sinless
b Micah 5:2 – Jesus is eternal
c Isaiah 9:6-7 – Jesus is God
6 His life is worth more than all mankind and all animal life for all time.
a The creation cannot be greater than the creator. Only He can redeem it.
· The redemption of man demonstrates how much God loves the life of man.
VI Man Had to Wait on Redemption
A Redemption did not occur right away.
1 It needed to begin at the right time, the fullness of time
2 We have read (Galatians 4:4-7) in regard to the fullness of time and adoption as sons…
a Consider Romans 5:6 – “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” Redemption is not random, but a planned process.
b Men were not walking by faith as they should (Habakkuk 2:4).
· To correct this, God chose a people to be an example unto the world.
(i) Romans 9:21-24 - He chose Israel so he could show His wrath, power, and blessing.
· God gave them the Law of Righteousness, the Law of Moses.
(i) Galatians 3:19-22 - When they faltered it held them under their sins.
(ii) This function was to bring the people to Christ.
3 Galatians 3:23-29
a Figuratively, the Law brought man to Christ because it caused sin to increase (Romans 5:20).
· No manner of righteous works or sacrifices could remove the curse (Deuteronomy 27).
· The Israelites would only draw closer by learning to walk by faith as Christ who would justify them through His faith.
b Literally, the Law of Moses brought man to Christ through the new covenant (Jer. 31:31).
· (Hebrews 9:15-16) blood was needed to establish that covenant and the blood was Jesus’.
B The Redeemer Came Preaching the Gospel of God in the First Century
1 The faith Christ exhibited toward God enabled Him to be offered as a sacrifice for all mankind.
2 (Hebrews 5:8-9) - Through his obedient faith, He became the author of eternal salvation.
3 Hebrews 9:12-16
a According to Hebrews, Christ provided a pure sacrifice by giving His life by blood for all mankind.
· Man’s conscience stained by a continual remembrance of sin could now be free.
b Yet, how can man come into contact with the blood which eternally cleanses?
· (I Peter 3:21) declares baptism in water saves a man as an appeal through the resurrection of Jesus for a good conscience.
c Why does man appeal through baptism for his conscience?
· (Romans 6:3-7) man is united with Christ’s death and resurrection in baptism.
(i) When united with Jesus death, man contacts His blood.
(ii) (Hebrews 10:22), discusses baptism as a sprinkling of the heart (purging of the conscience) which reflects back to purification by blood as in past ages.
d In conjunction with other read passages (Hebrews 9:12-15) establishes:
· When man no longer has to remember the “life forfeiting works” he committed…
(i) He can focus on serving God.
· Those who lived by faith before Christ were cleansed by the fulfilled promise.
· Those under the law were free from the curse of the law.
· Those who would accept by faith redemption for future sins would receive it.
· Mankind could look forward with hope to eternal inheritance and not look back on failure.
· Man created in the image of God came to be sons of God.
VII The sacrifice of Jesus was not the end of the redemption process.
A Following death/burial/resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit of promise was poured out on mankind.
1 Ephesians 1:14 states the Spirit was “given as an earnest [pledge] of inheritance until redemption of the purchased possession.”
a (Ephesians 4:30) speaks of a future “day of redemption”
b (Romans 8:23) speaks of the redemption of our bodies.
2 Mankind can be cleansed through the blood of Christ, but they are still under the curse of physical death.
a On Earth’s final day, the resurrection day, by the power of Jesus, man will overcome death.
· I Corinthians 15:55 - “Oh death where is your victory? Oh Hades where is your sting?”
· The Redemption process will come to a close.
· Man will have full life as in the beginning
· He will be changed in the twinkling of an eye (I Corinthians 15:52).
3 Until that final day, by eternal redemption man can be cleansed of further sin through Christ’s blood.
a I John 1:6-2:2
VIII In closing, consider the words of Paul regarding redemption through Jesus our Redeemer:
1 Romans 8:10-14
B Paul’s Words Echo What Peter Declares in Our Lesson Text
1 Be Holy! Live According to the Spirit!
a Christ purchased the Church with His blood that Man might live.
b Without Him, man proves himself helpless. - Death becomes the only option.
2 Knowing the Great Value paid by Christ’s Blood…
a How can we refuse sonship and reject the completion of the Redemption Process?
b We are under obligation to be like Him in all manner of living.
c We are his Treasure and precious possession.
Let us Praise God for Redemption through Jesus Blood and Live through His Spirit