October 10
“You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God,” 1 Peter 1:18-21.
The apostle Peter is speaking of our redemption and when it was first planned and designed. First of all, he tells us how we were not redeemed. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.” We were not redeemed with the material wealth of this world. No one was redeemed by keeping and following all the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament. Those laws symbolized the coming of the one and only Redeemer. No one was redeemed by following the man-made traditions of their fathers.
We were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” Jesus paid the ransom for our redemption with His holy, precious blood. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he told his followers, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” John 1:29. He was pointing back to the lamb’s blood that was spread on the doorposts and above the door of the Israelites’ homes on the night that the Lord passed through the land of Egypt and killed the firstborn in every Egyptian home. The Lord passed over the homes of the children of Israel. They were spared from death by the blood of the lamb. That marked the beginning of the Passover Festival.
Jesus Christ is the sinless Lamb of God who redeemed us. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews wrote about Jesus as our High Priest: “Such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself,” Hebrews 7:26-27.
From eternity in the counsel of God’s love, “(Jesus) was foreordained before the foundation of the world,” before the beginning of time, to be the Savior of the world who would shed His precious blood as the ransom for our salvation. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin,” 1 John 1:7. He suffered and died on Calvary’s cross to redeem us, but we do not believe in a dead Savior. “(We) believe in God, who raised (Jesus) from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” Our faith rests firmly in our risen Redeemer and ever-living Lord, the Son of God and the Savior of all people.
In his explanation to the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed, Dr. Luther wrote, “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death . . . Even as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.”
Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace!
Look unto Him ye nations; own, Your God, ye fallen race.
Look and be saved through faith alone, Be justified by grace. Amen.