On every continent, in every country, in every city, in every family, people join together at times for celebrations. For instance, people celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. We decorate. We purchase cards and gifts. We take pictures r make videotapes to help us remember the celebration and all who participated in it.

As a nation, the U.S. celebrates various holidays—Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. These celebrations include family, friends, picnics, fireworks, and parades. Through these special occasions we remember where we have been as a nation; what got us here; what we stand for; and how we fit into history.

When we come to the Bible, we discover that the most important celebration of our lives ought to be the celebration of what God has done for us through Christ. Every public assembly of God’s people should be a grand celebration of who Christ is and what He has done.

The opening words of the Book of Ephesians ring with celebration in Paul’s praises to God for all that He has given to us in Christ. We find in Ephesians 1:3–14 a single sentence saturated with celebration.

In a “trumpet blast” of praise, Paul celebrated that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ (1:3). He celebrated that God has made us His chosen people in Christ (1:4). Paul celebrated that God has adopted us to be His children (1:5). He celebrated the grace freelygiven to us in Christ (1:6).

Then we come to this spectacular statement: “In Him [Christ] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. . . .” (1:7, 8).

In  Christ  we  celebrate  being  redeemed.  How does this celebration unfold?

WE CELEBRATE THE MEANING OF REDEMPTION

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, . . .” (1:7). Paul celebrated redemption in Christ, but what did He mean by “redemption”? Remember two words: “condition” and “cost.” Redemption  tells  us  something  about the condition we were in before we were redeemed. One commentator made this observation: “The fundamental idea of redemption is that of the setting free of a thing or a person that has come to belong to another.”

In the Old Testament, redemption was the price paid to gain a slave’s freedom. Redemption was also what God did for Israel when He liberated them from Egyptian slavery. Redemption means liberation or freedom from the control of another. Paul wrote about being “sold into bondage to sin” (Romans 7:14). Redemption reminds me of the condition that we were in before we

Redemption Through His Blood

Some years ago trading stamps were popular. For each dollar amount purchased a given number of trading stamps was given as a bonus. When sufficient stamps were saved up, they were taken to a redemption center and exchanged for merchandise.

Redemption is one of the central themes of Scripture and of the book of Ephesians, but it carries much more than the idea simply of exchanging one thing for another of equal value.

The Meaning of Redemption

Redemption comes from one of six terms taken from the field of law and used in the New Testament in relation to salvation. Dikaioō and related terms referred to legal acquittal of a charge and are used theologically to speak of a sinner’s being vindicated, justified, and declared righteous before God (see, for example, Rom. 3:4; 4:25; 5:18; 1 Tim. 3:16). Aphiēmi basically means to send away and was used to indicate the legal repayment or cancellation of a debt or the granting of a pardon. It is used in Scripture to refer to God’s forgiveness of sin (see Matt. 9:2; Rom. 4:7; Eph. 1:7; 4:32; etc.). Huiothesia referred to the legal process of adopting a child and is used by Paul to represent the believer’s adoption into God’s family (see Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). Katallassō meant to legally reconcile two disputing parties in court and in the New Testament is used of a believer’s reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:8–20).

Two Greek legal terms are related to redemption. Agorazō, and the related exagorazō, refer to buying or purchasing. The source of the terms is agora, which means marketplace, and the root idea of the derived verbs and nouns referred to buying and trading in the marketplace. In the New Testament they are used to denote spiritual purchase or redemption (see Gal. 3:13; Rev. 5:9; 14:3–4; etc.).

The other term for redemption, lutroō (along with its related forms), meant to release from captivity. It carried an even stronger meaning than agorazō and is behind the noun rendered here as redemption. This word was used to refer to paying a ransom in order to release a person from bondage, especially that of slavery.

During New Testament times the Roman Empire had as many as six million slaves, and the buying and selling of them was a major business. If a person wanted to free a loved one or friend who was a slave, he would buy that slave for himself and then grant him freedom, testifying to the deliverance by a written certificate. Lutroō was used to designate the freeing of a slave in that way.

That is precisely the idea carried in the New Testament use of the term to represent Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross. He paid the redemption price to buy for Himself fallen mankind and to set them free from their sin.

Every human being born since the Fall has come into the world enslaved to sin, under total bondage to a nature that is corrupt, evil, and separated from its Creator. No person is spiritually free. No human being is free of sin or free of its consequences, the ultimate consequence, or penalty, for which is death (Rom. 6:23). “The soul who sins will die” (Ezek. 18:4).

Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin” (John 8:34), and Paul points out that every person has committed sin: “There is none righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10; cf. Ps. 14:1). In the same letter the apostle says that we are all “sold into bondage to sin” (7:14) and that, in fact, the whole of creation is enslaved to the corruption of sin (8:21).

Sin is man’s captor and slave owner, and it demands a price for his release. Death is the price that had to be paid for man’s redemption from sin. Biblical redemption therefore refers to the act of God by which He Himself paid as a ransom the price for sin.

In Romans Paul speaks of redemption as “our having been freed from sin” and become “slaves of righteousness” (6:18). In Galatians He describes redemption in saying that Jesus Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (1:3–4); that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us” (3:13); and that “it was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery” (5:1). In Colossians the apostle says that “He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (1:13–14).

The writer of Hebrews explains redemption in these words: “Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself [Christ] likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (2:14–15)

The Elements of Redemption

which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. (1:6b–10)

In this passage Paul mentions five elements of the redemption God offers fallen men through His Son, Jesus Christ: the Redeemer, the redeemed, and the redemption price, results, and reason.

the redeemer

Grace (v. 6a) is the antecedent of which. It is God’s grace (undeserved love and goodness) that He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved, and because we are in Him we have redemption. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer from sin, the Beloved (the word indicates the One who is in the state of being loved by God) who Himself paid the price for our release from sin and death. Because we now belong to Christ, by faith made one with Him and placed in His Body, we are now acceptable to God.

From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry the Father declared Him to be “My beloved Son” (Matt. 3:17). And because we have believed in Him, “He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). Because we are now in the Beloved, we, too, are “beloved of God” (Rom. 1:7).

Only Jesus Christ has the inherent right to all the goodness of God. But because we are identified with Him by faith, that goodness is now also our goodness. Because our Savior and Lord is the Beloved of the Father and possesses all the goodness of the Father, we are also the beloved of the Father and possess all His goodness. Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father” (John 14:21).

The Father now loves us as He loves Christ and wants us to have everything that Christ has. That is why Paul could say He “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Every Christian is God’s beloved child because the Lord Jesus Christ has become our Redeemer.

The Old Testament concept of a kinsman-redeemer set forth three qualifications: he had to be related to the one needing redemption, able to pay the price, and willing to do so. The Lord Jesus perfectly met these requirements.

Charitoō (freely bestowed) is from charis (grace, v. 6a), and therefore Paul is saying that God has graced us with His grace. Christians are those who have been graced by God.

the redeemed

On us, “the saints … who are faithful in Christ Jesus” (v. 1), the Redeemer has freely bestowed His grace. We are the ones who have redemption through His blood.

In chapter 2 Paul reminds us of what we were like when God so graciously redeemed us. We “were dead in [our] trespasses and sins”; we “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air”; we “lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath”; and we were without “hope and without God in the world” (vv. 1–3, 12). In chapter 4 he reminds us that we formerly walked in futility of mind, “darkened in [our] understanding, excluded from the life of God,” because of ignorance and hardness of heart (vv. 17–18). Those are the kinds of people (the only kind who exist) that God chose to redeem.

It is of course because men are like that that they need redemption. Good men would not need a Redeemer. That is why Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14).

Until a person realizes his need for redemption, however, he sees no need for a Redeemer. Until he recognizes that he is hopelessly enslaved to sin, he will not seek release from it. But when he does, he will be freed from the curse of sin, placed in Christ’s Body, and blessed with His every spiritual blessing.

the redemption price

In Him we have redemption through His blood, (7a)

The price of redemption is His blood. It cost the blood of the Son of God to buy men back from the slave market of sin (cf. Lev. 17:11; Heb. 9:22).

Shedding of blood is a metonym for death, which is the penalty and the price of sin. Christ’s own death, by the shedding of His blood, was the substitute for our death. That which we deserved and could not save ourselves from, the beloved Savior, though He did not deserve it, took upon Himself. He made payment for what otherwise would have condemned us to death and hell.

The blood of sacrificial animals was continually offered on the altars of the Tabernacle and then the Temple. But that blood was never able, and was never intended, to cleanse the offerers from sin. Those animals were only symbolic, typical substitutes. As the writer of Hebrews explains, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). But in the shedding of His blood, “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:10). He “gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph. 5:2). The Savior Himself said that His blood was “poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28). As the writer of Hebrews explains, Christ’s sacrifice was “not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:12–14).

We “were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold, … but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:18–19). No wonder John saw the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders singing, “Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth” (Rev. 5:8–10).

The “redemption which is in Christ Jesus … in His blood through faith” (Rom. 3:24–25) has paid the price for those enslaved by sin, bought them out of the slave market where they were in bondage, and set them free as liberated sons of God. In their freedom they are in union with Jesus Christ and receive every good thing that He is and has. His death frees believers from sin’s guilt, condemnation, bondage, power, penalty, and—some glorious day—even from its presence.

the redemptive results

the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, (7b–9a)

Redemption involves every conceivable good thing, “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (v. 3). But here Paul focuses on two especially important aspects. One is negative, the forgiveness of our trespasses, and the other is positive, wisdom and insight.

Forgiveness. The primary result of redemption for the believer is forgiveness, one of the central salvation truths of both the Old and New Testaments. It is also the dearest truth to those who have experienced its blessing. At the Last Supper, Jesus explained to the disciples that the cup He then shared with them was His “blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:28). Redemption brings forgiveness.

Behaviorists and those from some other schools of psychology maintain that we cannot be blamed for our sin, that it is the fault of our genes, our environment, our parents, or something else external. But a person’s sin is his own fault, and the guilt for it is his own. The honest person who has any understanding of his own heart knows that.

The gospel does not teach, as some falsely maintain, that men have no sin or guilt, but rather that Christ will take away both the sin and the guilt of those who trust Him. As Paul told the Jews in Pisidian Antioch, “Through Him [Christ] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things” (Acts 13:38–39).

Israel’s greatest holy day was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On that day the high priest selected two unblemished sacrificial goats. One goat was killed, and his blood was sprinkled on the altar as a sacrifice. The high priest placed his hands on the head of the other goat, symbolically laying the sins of the people on the animal. The goat was then taken out deep into the wilderness, so far that it could never find its way back. In symbol the sins of the people went with the goat, never to return to them again (Lev. 16:7–10).

But that enactment, beautiful and meaningful as it was, did not actually remove the people’s sins, as they well knew. It was but a picture of what only God Himself in Christ could do. As mentioned above, aphiēmi (from which forgiveness comes) basically means to send away. Used as a legal term it meant to repay or cancel a debt or to grant a pardon. Through the shedding of His own blood, Jesus Christ actually took the sins of the world upon His own head, as it were, and carried them an infinite distance away from where they could never return. That is the extent of the forgiveness of our trespasses.

It is tragic that many Christians are depressed about their shortcomings and wrongdoing, thinking and acting as if God still holds their sins against them—forgetting that, because God has taken their sins upon Himself, they are separated from those sins “as far as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103:12). They forget God’s promise through Isaiah that one day He would wipe out the transgressions of believers “like a thick cloud” and their “sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me,” He said, “for I have redeemed you” (Isa. 44:22). Even before the Messiah came and paid the price for redemption, God spoke of it as already having taken place. Depressed Christians forget that God looked down the corridors of time even before He fashioned the earth and placed the sins of His elect on the head of His Son, who took them an eternal distance away. He dismissed our sins before we were born, and they can never return.

Hundreds of years before Calvary, Micah proclaimed, “Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Mic. 7:18–19).

To ancient Israel the distance from east to west and “the depths of the sea” represented infinity. God’s forgiveness is infinite; it takes away our trespasses to the farthest reaches of eternal infinity.

When Jesus comes into our lives as Savior and Lord, He says to us what He said to the woman caught in the act of adultery, “Neither do I condemn you; go your way” (John 8:11). “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death” (Rom. 8:1–2).

Forgiveness in Jesus Christ is undeserved, but it is free and it is complete. Those who have Him have freedom from sin, now and throughout eternity. In Christ our sins—past, present, and future—“are forgiven … for His name’s sake” (1 John 2:12; cf. Eph. 4:32; Col. 2:13). They were forgiven countless ages before we committed them and will remain forgiven forever.

Because we continue to sin, we need the continued forgiveness of cleansing; but we do not need the continued forgiveness of redemption. Jesus told Peter, “He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean” (John 13:10). Even though we continue to sin, Jesus “is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). He forgives all our sins in the sweeping grace of salvation. That does not mean we will no longer sin, nor that when we do our sins have no harmful effect. They have a profound effect on our growth, joy, peace, usefulness, and ability to have intimate and rich communion with the Father. Thus the believer is called on to ask for forgiveness daily so that he may enjoy not just the general forgiveness of redemption, but the specific forgiveness of daily cleansing, which brings fellowship and usefulness to their maximum. That is the issue in our Lord’s teaching on prayer recorded in Matthew 6:12, 14–15.

There are no second class Christians, no deprived citizens of God’s kingdom or children in His family. Every sin of every believer is forgiven forever. God knows how we were, how we now live, and how we will live the rest of our lives. He sees everything about us in stark-naked reality. Yet He says, “I am satisfied with you because I am satisfied with My Son, to whom you belong. When I look at you, I see Him, and I am pleased.”

Because God accepts every believer as He accepts His own Son, every believer ought to accept himself in the same way. We do not accept ourselves for what we are in ourselves any more than God accepts us for that reason. We accept ourselves as forgiven and as righteous because that is what God Himself declares us to be. To think otherwise is not a sign of humility but of arrogance, because to think otherwise is to put our own judgment above God’s Word and to belittle the redemption price paid for us by His own beloved Son. A Christian who denigrates himself and doubts full forgiveness denies the work of God and denigrates a child of God. If we matter to God, we certainly ought to matter to ourselves.

A person may have many friends in high places. He may know presidents, kings, governors, senators, and world leaders of every sort. But such friendships pale beside that of the most obscure Christian, who not only is a friend but a child of the Creator of the universe.

Philip Bliss wrote, I am so glad that our Father in heav’n Tells of His love in the Book He has giv’n.

Wonderful things in the Bible I see; This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me. Oh, if there’s only one song I can sing,

When in His beauty I see the Great King, This shall my song in eternity be:“Oh, what a wonder that Jesus loves me!”

The vastness and comprehensiveness of our forgiveness is seen in Paul’s statement that it is according to the riches of His grace. God’s grace—like His love, holiness, power, and all His other attributes—is boundless. It is far beyond our ability to comprehend or describe, yet we know it is according to the riches of that infinite grace that He provides forgiveness.

If you were to go to a multimillionaire and ask him to contribute to a worthy ministry, and he gave you a check for twenty-five dollars, he would only be giving out of his riches. Many poor people give that much. But if, instead, he gave you a check for fifty thousand dollars, he would be giving according to his riches.

That is a small picture of God’s generosity. His forgiveness not only is given according to the riches of His grace but is lavished upon us. We need never worry that our sin will outstrip God’s gracious forgiveness. “Where sin increased,” Paul assures us, “grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20). Our heavenly Father does not simply give us subsistence forgiveness that will barely cover our sins if we are careful not to overdo. We cannot sin beyond God’s grace, because as wicked and extensive as our sins might be or become, they will never approach the greatness of His grace. His forgiveness is infinite, and He lavishes it without measure upon those who trust in His Son. We therefore not only can enjoy future glory with God but present fellowship with Him as well.

Wisdom and Insight. The second result of redemption for the believer is his being given wisdom and insight. Sophia (wisdom) emphasizes understanding of ultimate things—such as life and death, God and man, righteousness and sin, heaven and hell, eternity and time. Paul is speaking of wisdom concerning the things of God. Phronēsis (insight), on the other hand, emphasizes practical understanding, comprehension of the needs, problems, and principles of everyday living. It is spiritual prudence in the handling of daily affairs.

God not only forgives us—taking away the sin that corrupts and distorts our lives—but also gives us all the necessary equipment to understand Him and to walk through the world day by day in a way that reflects His will and is pleasing to Him. He generously gives us the wherewithal both to understand His Word and to know how to obey it.

In Jesus Christ, God takes us into His confidence. “We do speak wisdom among those who are mature,” Paul said; it is “a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory.… Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:6–7, 12). He concluded that amazing passage by declaring, “we have the mind of Christ” (v. 16).

The French philosopher André Maurois said, “The universe is indifferent. Who created it? Why are we on this puny mud-heap, spinning in infinite space? I have not the slightest idea, and I am convinced that no one has the least idea.”

It is not surprising that those who do not even recognize that God exists, much less trust and serve Him, do not have the least idea of what life, the universe, and eternity are all about. Jesus said, “I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes” (Matt. 11:25). James said, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). When God takes away sin, He does not leave us in a spiritual, moral, and mental vacuum where we must then work things out for ourselves. He lavishes wisdom and insight on us according to the riches of His grace just as He lavishes forgiveness on us according to those riches.

the redemptive reason

according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. (1:9b–10)

Why has God done so much for us? Why has He blessed us with every spiritual blessing, chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, made us holy and blameless, predestined us to adoption as His children, redeemed us through His blood, and lavishly given us forgiveness, wisdom, and insight according to the infinite riches of His grace?

God redeems men in order that He might gather everything to Himself. The time of that gathering will be the millennial kingdom, which will be an administration suitable to the fulness of the times. When the completion of history comes, the kingdom arrives, eternity begins again, and the new heaven and new earth are established, there will be a summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. Jesus Christ is the goal of history, which finds its resolution in Him. The paradise lost in Adam is restored in Christ.

At that time, “at the name of Jesus every knee [will] bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and … every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10–11). Christ will gather the entire universe into unity (see Ps. 2; Heb. 1:8–13). At the present time the universe is anything but unified. It is corrupted, divided, and splintered. Satan is now “the ruler of this world,” but in that day he “shall be cast out” (John 12:31). He and his demon angels will be thrown into the pit during the Millennium, released for a short while, and then cast into the lake of fire for all eternity (Rev. 20:3, 10).

When every trace of evil has been disposed of, God will establish an incomparable unity in Himself of all things that remain. That is the inevitable goal of the universe.

Macbeth pessimistically declared that history is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” (Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5.5.19).

Apart from the wisdom and insight God provides His children, such a hopeless conclusion is inescapable. But history belongs to God, not to the puny plans of man or the perverse power of Satan. History is written and directed by its Creator, who will see it through to the fulfillment of His own ultimate purpose—the summing up of all things in Christ. He designed His great plan in the ages past; He now sovereignly works it out according to His divine will; and in the fulness of the times He will complete and perfect it in His Son, in whom it will forever operate in righteous harmony and glorious newness along with all things in the heavens and things upon the earth.^[1]

WE CELEBRATE THE RESULT OF REDEMPTION

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, . . .” (1:7; emphasis mine). The result of redemption is the forgiveness of sins.

The noun “forgiveness” (Gk.: aphesis) comes from a verb which means “to send away, to bid to depart.” God sends our sins away. They no longer stand between us and God.

Those who lived under the Old Testament had the scapegoat. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would lay his hands on it as a sym- bolic transferal of all the sins from the people to the goat. The goat was then taken out into a remote place in the wilderness so that it would never be able to return to the camp. The goat was gone, and so were the sins (Leviticus 16).

Jesus Christ became our scapegoat. He took our guilt and accepted the punishment:

. . . the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him (Isaiah 53:6).

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

. . . He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, . . . (1 Peter 2:24).

A group of people were once asked about their religious beliefs. A number of different ideas were expressed about heaven and hell. One of the common views held by many of the respondents was this: Where you spend eternity depends on how good you are. In other words, if a person stays out of trouble, takes care of responsibilities, treats people well, and seems to have more good that can be said about him than bad, then that person will go to heaven.

That idea cannot be found in the Bible! The Bible teaches that none of us is good enough to go to heaven: “There is none righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10); “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Those three verses alone disprove the notion that goodness gets people into heaven. It does not matter if you are selected as the most outstanding student in your school, recognized by the civic club as a model citizen, or respected in your congregation as a person of concern and compassion. You cannot enter heaven just be- cause you see yourself as basically good. Goodness will not get us into heaven. None of us can ever be good enough. Our sins have seen to that.

The first time I sinned, the first time you sinned, it became impossible for us to get into heaven by being good. None of us can do any- thing to “de-sin” a sinner.

Regardless of how good we might seem to others, we are not acceptable to God. We cannot make ourselves acceptable to God. God alone does this by forgiving us. He does this by sending our sins away. That is why we celebrate the result of redemption—the forgiveness of sins.

WE CELEBRATE THE MEASURE OF REDEMPTION

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us” (1:7, 8; emphasis mine). Paul affirmed the vastness and the completeness of our forgive- ness. The extent of our forgiveness is measured by the boundless grace of God which He causes to overflow into our lives.

God redeems and forgives according to the riches of His grace. God does not have a quota. God does not allow a person just so many “big” sins that we had better never exceed. “But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). No human being can ever sin beyond the reach of God’s grace. Our sins never can be so horrible, never so numerous that His grace cannot handle them.

The truth is this: Goodness will not get you into heaven no matter how hard you try; however, incredible sinfulness will not exclude you from heaven if you put your trust in Jesus.

Thom Lemmons wrote a novel that takes readers back to the first century, to the time of the cross of Christ, and to the years that followed. The main character is a carpenter named Linus who was abruptly awakened one night and summoned to build a cross for the crucifixion of a rebellious teacher from Nazareth. He did it. Later that same day Linus stood by and watched Jesus of Nazareth bleed and die on the cross he had made.

Guilt overwhelmed him. He fled Jerusalem and set out on a search for both truth and life. Years later, the memory of the dying Galilean teacher still haunted him. Linus met a man from Tarsus, named Saul. In their imaginary meeting, Linus and Saul had this conversation:

“I am guilty—directly guilty of his blood! I knew, felt he was innocent, and yet I—” He could not make himself say the words, his mind absorbed by the blood of an innocent man. . . . “I built the cross on which he was killed,” he whispered at last, in a voice choked with shame and confusion. “I knew, and yet I consented—”

. . . Saul leaned over and gripped his fore- arm. “Surely you cannot imagine you have more guilt in this than I, carpenter. . . . But none of us can escape a part in his death. Don’t you understand, Linus? He is the Passover Lamb, slain once for the sins of the whole world—of everyone who has ever lived or who will ever live.”

Hot tears began to seep from Linus’s eyes. He shook his head, unable to see, unable to permit himself to accept—“Think of it this way, my friend,” Saul continued. “If your work contributed to his death, it has also contributed to a new life for the whole creation. You didn’t just build a cross, Linus. You also built an altar.”3

The  cross  confirms that we  cannot  sin so much or so horribly that God’s grace is power- less to do anything about it. Men took the perfect Son of God, stripped Him and beat Him, and hung Him on a wooden cross to die like a common criminal. They did everything they could to humiliate, hurt, and destroy Jesus. God’s grace was still greater than their sins. God took what they did to Jesus and made forgiveness possible through His blood.

CONCLUSION Have  you  joined  in  the  celebration  of  redemption?  Remember,  goodness  will  not  get you into heaven. The only way to enter heaven is to be in Jesus. Are you in Jesus? Commit your life to Him. Do not put this off another day! Redemption is still a reality. Forgiveness is still offered. Grace still flows.

3Thom Lemmons, Once Upon a Cross (Sisters, Oreg.: Multnomah Books, 1993), 304.

^[1] John F. MacArthur Jr., Ephesians, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1986), 17–26.