The Truth of Redemption | 1 Peter 1:18-21

INTRODUCTION

We are going to look into the important yet basic question related to the redemption of our lives.

1 Peter 1:18-21

¹⁸For 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 ancestors, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. ²¹Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

Here we find four questions that unfold for us the truth of redemption.

1. God redeemed us from? Sin

There are four aspects of our sinful condition.

a. Evil desires.

1 Peter 1:14

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. That is an identifying mark of an unredeemed person. He is driven by evil desire.

b. State of Ignorance.

1 Peter 1:14

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. We were ignorant, without the knowledge of God, without the knowledge of saving truth.

c. Empty way of life.

1 Peter 1:18

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.. That is to say it is pointless, valueless, useless, worthless.

c. Traditions.

1 Peter 1:18

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. Tradition.

The condition then of unredeemed man is a condition of being driven evil desire, in the state of ignorance, having a life that is empty, and simply a product of tradition rather than divine truth. This condition is like the condition of man in

Ephesians 2:1-3

¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

2. God redeemed us with? Blood

1 Peter 1:18-19

¹⁸For 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 ancestors, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Blood redeemed us. The price paid to satisfy God and redeem us is death. This payment cannot be made with a corruptible earthly commodity, even one as valuable as silver or gold. The price is higher that is blood.

2.1. The speciality of Jesus’ blood

May I note for you that when the Scripture says the blood is precious, it has in mind the death of Christ and His whole redemptive work, not just the fluid.

a. Sinless

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

b. Without blemish.

Hebrews 9:14 ¹⁴How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

3. God redeemed us by? Christ.

1 Peter 1:19-20

¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. ²⁰He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Romans 3:24

and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:13

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 pole.”

Galatians 4:4-5

⁴But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.

Ephesians 1:7

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

Colossians 1:14

..in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Titus 2:14

….who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

The sweeping testimony of New Testament writing is that Jesus Christ is the Redeemer.

a. Christ is the precious Son of God.

1 Peter 2:4

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him. Precious to God. Jesus was the perfect, the precious Son of God.

b. Christ brings people to God.

1 Peter 3:18

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

c. Those who trust in Christ will never be put to shame.

1 Peter 2:6

For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

d. Christ was chosen before the creation.

1 Peter 1:20

He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

He has appeared or revealed in these last times. This speaks of His incarnation.

1 Peter 1:21

Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

This points to his ascension. Predestined, incarnated, resurrected, ascended

4. God redeemed us to?

1 Peter 1:20

Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

We are redeemed so that our faith and hope are in God.

1 Peter 1:13

Therefore, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming, with minds that are alert and fully sober.

We have been redeemed so that we can have a living, vital confidence in God in the present—faith—and in the future—hope.

God redeemed us so that we can have a relationship with Him, trusting Him for the present and hoping in Him for the future. A Christian looks to the future; not to citizens of this world, but to that one which is to come.

Psalm 49:15

But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.

That’s hope. I may go into the grave, but God will bring me right back up and receive me.  We have that hope, we have that faith, we have that confidence.

Romans 8:23

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

The body.  That’s our hope.  We trust God in the present for the redemption of the soul.

We live in hope, holiness and honor expectantly because of this redemption, 1 Peter 1:13-15.

CONCLUSION

God wants you to live in hope.  God wants you to live in holiness and wants you to conduct yourselves in reverential awe and fear and honor to His name.  And the motive for doing that is to understand what He has done for you in providing redemption.