Jesus is the Christ, Messiah, Anointed One. He is not only the One that redeemed us, he is the embodiment of our full and free redemption. He was sent from Heaven, born in the earth and born-again from the bowels of hell.
As our redeemer, Jesus paid the price to set us free from all captivity and won us back to God!
As our redemption, Jesus provides us with everything that Heaven has to offer and has given us all things that pertain to (eternal) life and godliness.
Jesus not only set us free from separation from God as our redeemer, he also gives us access and authority to his life, kingdom, power and dominion, as our redemption in manifestation.
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:24), we have full and eternal justification. We've been made right with God because of the grace that he gave legally through Jesus at Calvary, and literally through your new birth.
Our redemption (freedom from captivity, release into liberty) is found in Jesus. That redemption that Jesus gave to us is in us forever by the Holy Spirit. The redemption we have is in Jesus, flows from him, was provided by him and belongs to him, as the author and finisher of our faith.
The redemption that Jesus brought can't be separated from the salvation that he brought. The redemption he brought is the activation and operation of the salvation he is.
But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God - and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).
You are absorbed into the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through the new birth.
Jesus is the source of God's divine wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. You have access to everything that Jesus is, through his name, the presence of the Holy Spirit, because of the Father's love for you.
The Father in Heaven sent his redemption through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. Because of your eternal redemption, you can't be removed from your spiritual absorption into the Holy Trinity, nor can you be denied the privileges of redemption! All that Jesus is, you have become and will always be!
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace (Ephesians 1:7).
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14).
The fullness of our redemption is centered in Jesus, our redeemer and redemption brought forth from Heaven into the Earth! The foundation of redemption is the complete and unconditional forgiveness that God gave through Jesus.
While we've done nothing to merit or receive the forgiveness of God, the new birth is the decision that we make and act upon on order to receive redemption.
Notice that repeatedly in the above verses, the redemption we celebrate is located "in him, in whom," which is Jesus.
Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood he entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12).
Jesus personally ratified our redemption, as our redeemer! Jesus suffered everything he did, throughout his ministry, life and death at Calvary, to be able to provide us with everything that redemption offers.
The life of Jesus is in every Christian, through the presence of the Holy Spirit, and we have the nature of the Father abiding in us.
Our redemption is secure, as is our redeemer, who's seated by the Father in Heaven above, and one day, we'll be seated together with them both!
Christopher Longgrear (D.Min., Ph.D.) of Fresh Fire Ministries International is senior pastor of Fresh Fire Church in Marietta, Parkersburg and Athens. Thoughts of Faith is a weekly column written by various ministers and lay people. Those interested in scheduling a date for writing a Thoughts of Faith column should contact Janet Gossett at 376-5446 or jgossett@mariettatimes.com. Or, if a Thoughts of Faith column is written at the writer's convenience and sent to The Times, it will run the first available date.
