When I consider Redemption, I contemplate the full change which takes place from fallen flesh to transformed Heavenly being which every Saint will become by the transforming power of God, at the resurrection of the just.
Earthly man, in what ever condition he may find himself can never take credit for this Redemptive work. For it is all in Christ. It is not a change which we can generate, but rather a regeneration which takes place by the Power of the Holy Spirit because of our trust in what Christ accomplished on our behalf. And, said trust comes only from the Mercy and Grace of God.
Let’s look at a little of this Redemptive process, which God has ordained for our benefit, that we may be made in the likeness of Christ.
The first thing which we all need in the beginning is forgiveness. Without forgiveness of sin, there is simply no place else to go.
Without repenting and turning away from our sinfulness, then trusting in Jesus ability and willingness to forgive us of that sin by virtue of His shed Blood; we would in reality never receive that forgiveness.
Forgiveness is great and essential in order to be redeemed, but that is not all which Christ has done and does do for us.
The next part of Redemption which I would like to address as best as I can (my limited ability and understanding while still in the flesh makes me pray for Gods help in addressing such), is Deliverance.
We have been forgiven from sin, however we have not mention the prospect of being delivered from sin.
Many believe I think that we are simply delivered from sin by some God given ability not to sin anymore after we have been forgiven. This is what I thought for a few years; but then found myself unable to: 1. Stop sinning (there is a proclivity by many believers to think that they simply must ask for forgiveness on a continual basis, because we obviously cannot stop doing certain things). 2. Keep a continual faith in Christ. I thought I was trusting Christ, but when I failed to do something which I had gotten in a habit of doing for our Church; I felt like a sinner. This is because I had started placing trust in that which I was doing.
Deliverance is God given, but is God given according to our continual trust in all which Christ accomplished for us at Calvary.
What do I mean by all?
Well, formost I think is our trust and understanding of Christ delivering us from the Law. If we do not understand that we are delivered from the Law, we will undoubtedly still try in some, perhaps, unnoticeable way, to live by law. It may not be the Ten Commandments, it may not be the Law of Circumcism, it may not even be a law that our local church has made up for us to adhere to. It might even be as simple as a law which we have made up on our own.
Whatever kind of law, or wherever we came up with it; if we are adhering to any kind of law, we are not really walking in the deliverance which Christ has purchased for us (the only law which can deliver us from the Law of Sin and Death is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, Rom. 8:2). If we are not delivered from the Law, rest assured you are neither delivered from the power of sin.
Gal. 3:13, says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one who hangs on a tree.”
Gal. 2:16, says, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by the Faith of Jesus Christ,
19, For I through the Law and Dead to the Law, that I might live unto God, (it’s impossible to live unto God if we are not dead to the Law.)
21. I do not frustrate the Grace of God: for if Righteousness come by the Law, then Christ is dead in vain.”
1 Cor. 15:56, …the strength of the sin is the Law.
Gal. 5:1, says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has mad us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (it’s easy to tell from verse 21 of the proceeding chapter, and from the verses that follow verse 1, that the yoke of bondage which Paul is talking about is the Law.)
2. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
3. For I testify again to every man who is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole Law.”(Rom. 2:25, For Circumcision verily profits, if you keep the Law [The reason that such an individual would be debtor to do the whole law is because they have chosen law as a method of justification. When we agree in thought or method that something other than Christ can deliver us from sin, then we are obligated to prove that method, because of our lack of faith in Christ having fulfilled the Law.])
4. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the Law; you are fallen from Grace. (of no effect, of no effect, of no effect, because of thinking which says law can justify me, or I can justify myself by the things which I do. If the Laws of God could not and can not justify us, how can anyone possibly believe that any man made law, whether from a church or out of our own head, could possibly justify us?)
Rom. 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight”
Rom. 4:4, Now to him who works is the reward not reckoned of Grace, but of debt.
13, For the Promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the Law, but through the Righteousness of Faith.
14, For if they which are of the Law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect.
Rom. 6:14, For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the Law( it seems a simple conclusion that if we find sin is dominating us in some way, then we are placing ourselves under the Law)
Rom. 7:6, But now we are delivered from the Law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of Spirit.
Rom. 7:8, For without the Law sin was dead.
9. For I was alive without the Law once; but when the Commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
11. For sin, taking occasion by the Commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Rom. 8:3, For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4. That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
So, how do we walk after the Spirit?
The same way we started out in the Spirit (Gal. 3:3). By trusting in what Christ has accomplished for us at Calvary; continually.
Not just when we accept Christ as our savior, but every day as we “daily” accept Christ as our Deliverer.
