1 Peter 1: 18-19 Bought with the blood of Christ

1 Peter 1: 18-19 Bought with the blood of Christ

The redeemer is one who was foreordained before the foundation of the world. It imports an act of the will of Christ – that this is what should be.

We who believe in him have the comfort that comes with his appearing then and the appearing that is to come.

After his humiliation of becoming man and suffering unto earth God raised him up to the glory that he had from the creation of the world.

The decree of God to send Christ to be a mediator was from everlasting – God had his purposes in our ransom long before he revealed them to us in Grace.

1. Our redemption was paid - by God

2. Ransomed - from God

3. Redeemed - for God

Paid in full with blood

1. Our redemption is paid for by the father –

The origin of money and its uses dates back to Mesopotamia 3000 years Bc if not sooner. The earliest form of payment was due to law regarding fines for wrongdoing in society.

As time went on certain goods and commodities were attached with a price tag.

Peter begins v 18 by reminding us that we were not bought with what this world might regard as valuable.

Value is based on worth and worth causes the item to wither go up in price or to have low prices or no price at all.

Hungry howies for instance has a simple pizza that is only 5 dollars on Wednesdays. Its simply dough and bread and its value is fairly low

The Pizza Royale however at Dominci royolas is 4900 american dollars.

The 12 inch pizza pie is densely packed with an assortment of some of the world’s most expensive food ingredients, such as lobster marinated in cognac, caviar soaked in champagne, sunblush tomato sauce, Scottish smoked salmon, venison medallions, prosciutto from Italy, and vintage balsamic vinegar. In addition to all these fine ingredients, it’s topped with a significant amount of edible 24-carat gold flakes.

Wagyu Japanese steak – 3000 American dollars

Employing the most traditional production methods, Kobe beef comes from cows that are allegedly fed only beer and massaged by hand to ensure a tenderness and marbling beyond compare

Just a few of the worlds most expensive things ever include

1. B2 bomber – 2.2 billion dollars

2. Alaska pipeline - 8 billion dollars built in 77

3. International space station – 157 billion dollars

Lastly the most expensive people to ever live – All Americans

1. Bill gates – well over 100 billion

2. Henry Ford – 190 billion

3. Andrew Carnegie- 300 billion

4. Rockefeller 320 billion dollars

These mentioned above are all corruptible things, obviously food is to be eaten, material foundations and space stations will die out and people will meet their maker without 320 billion dollars to help them in the final verdict.

These are all perishable things and dross and they do not compare with the price that was paid for us

All this to say that if we are bought by the father than what exactly was our redemption worth?

The supreme irony of the Christian faith is that we have been redeemed both by God and also from God.

1. God is willing to pay this price because of the value of his children. The reason God didn’t buy is with silver or Gold is because of our outstanding value in his eyes and so his price is of the most value – mainly his son.

A. Our value - “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

B. What are worth – Christ’s ransom and his blood which has no value it is priceless

For our redemption and ransom the price was everything God had to offer

Similar to Paul “I have been poured out like a drink offering”

Gods payment was himself. “1 Cor 6:20- bought with a price

Matthew 20:28- The son of man came to give his life as a ransom for many.

Ransom is the same root context of the broader word redemption.

When we think of ransom we think of a kidnapper who steals a child and then asks money in return for the child. This is similar to how the Bible deals with ransom, we need to pay some price to be released from bondage and slavery.

God demands a payment for our wrongdoing and this payment is Christ who volunteered to stand in our place.

What makes him so special that his blood should ransom us is that he is pre existent and eternal and glorious – he is a glorious person who humbled himself to such a degree that his blood was so precious that we can rely on it and hope in him and we have eternal life.

Conversion is tasting the beverage of redemption and realizing there is nothing like it in the world making it our sole desire.

V 19- but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without spot or blemish.

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Ransomed from God

The supreme irony of the Christian faith is that we have been redeemed both by God and also from God.

1. Futility – Solomon reminds us in the great book Ecclesiastes that all of live without Christ is vain and futile. The epistles constantly teach us to remain faithful and not fall back into the vanity of nothingness or to follow the idols of this world.

2. Wrath of God to come – 1 Thessalonians

“even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come”

3. God himself – “Nothing is scarier in the universe than a holy God”

For the unbeliever this day is a day of darkness with no light and for the believer it is a day of light with no darkness.

How will anyone escape if they neglect so great a salvation?

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Redeemed forever–

A. Immediate presence of Jesus

When we speak of riches these things are not necessarily bad things. Enjoying an expensive dinner or using space stations and such are all good things, this is Gods world and we are to enjoy the goodness of it at times.

To live is Christ indeed –

But the ultimate hope of the Christian is the immediate presence of Christ. Christ promises this himself

“that where I am, there you may be also” – John 14

to die is gain

B. Adopted by Christ

What kind of love is this that we should be called the children of God?

C. Promise of Heaven eternally and the grace of death

Dr. Sproul tells a story of his father who suffered a slow death of deteriorating over three years. He had several debilitating strokes causing him to be paralyzed and having pure white hair. He was 52 years old but he looked 80. Every day he sat in his chair until dinner time when RC would hoist his hands over his shoulders and drag him to the head of the dinner table. To maintain his dignity he sat at the head of the table for diner every night until his death.

After his death RC had nightmares that made him wake up in a cold sweat – the nightmare was that he saw his dad but he kept on dying and he couldn’t stop him from being sick. The dream happened to him about 30 times – watching his father sick and dying over and over again.

One night he dreamed that his father was there but it was a new body – the dream was so intense that he remembered the appearance even with his eyes open.

D. We shall see him as he is

The greatest pain of Dr sproul’s life was comforted with none other than the word of God and its promises of our ransom and the benefits of it.

What we are promised as Christians is an uninterrupted unmediated direct apprehension of the living God upon death. We are going to be like him and see him as he is.

We are saved by God, from God, for God

18 – knowing that you were ransomed (BY GOD) from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers (From God) , not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without spot or blemish. (For God)

Read Revelation 21-22