Redeemeed

Redeemed how I love to proclaim it!Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;Redeemed thro’ his infinite mercy,His child and forever I am. (by Fanny Crosby) This past week someone in New Jersey won a $320 Million Power Ball Lotto jackpot. Talk about a nice sized Easter Egg. In order for that person to claim that winning prize he had to redeem it, take in his ticket and claim it. What would you think of that person if he would have just held onto that thicket and never redeemed his prize with it? My answer would be, “That’s ridiculously dumb, unbelievable!” There is something that needs redemption that makes $320 pale by comparison – your soul. “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world (get everything he/she wants), yet forfeit his soul?” Mark 8:36 (NIV, parenthesis MSG). That’s what Easter is about, redemption, your and my redemption.Maybe you are one of the many who quickly dismiss this as a bunch of religious horse puckey. But please hear me out. Can you escape death? Have you ever done something wrong? Are you absolutely certain you can stand up to God’s judgment on your own merits? I know my answers, “No, yes, and no.” That’s why I need redemption.Redemption has two sides. Through the death of Jesus Christ a sinner debt is paid for, the penalty of God’s law for sin, death, is forgiven, and God is able to pronounce a sinner justified. We have to be redeemed from, but we also have to be redeemed to. Jesus didn’t just die, He arose from the dead, He has the power to restore what sin and death claimed, to remake a sinner into a child of God, to grant someone destined to die eternal life. All of these you and I are completely incapable of accomplishing. When it comes to these we are utterly hopeless apart from Jesus Christ.You and I could win every lottery jackpot for the rest of our lives, although the chances of just winning one are remote, and they would not compare to what God offers to you and me through Jesus Christ. In contrast to the odds of winning a lottery the odds of dying and appearing before God are 100%. It is vastly more foolish to bypass Jesus Christ, the only source of eternal redemption, than to hang on to the winning ticket of last week’s Power Ball. In order for the redemption God offers to you and me to be applied and realized in our lives we must believe in Christ as your Redeemer, admit our need for redemption, and commit ourselves to following Him. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” Colossians 1:13-14 (NIV). To God be all glory, Happy Easter, Pastor Hans