Good morning, we're now going to read God's Word, the Bible.
And there are going to be two passages this morning.
The first one is Colossians chapter 2, and verses 13 to 15.
And the next one will be Romans 3, 9 to 26.
The ESV has helpfully labeled the section Alive in Christ.
And we're just going to be reading the last few verses of that, 13 to 15.
Chapter 2, Colossians.
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
God made alive with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.
This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame
by triumphing over them in him.
And then we turn to Romans, chapter 3, verses 9 to 26.
What then?
Are we Jews any better off?
No, not at all.
For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.
As it is written, none is righteous.
No, not one.
No one understands.
No one seeks for God.
All have turned aside.
Together they have become worthless.
No one does good.
Not even one.
Their throat is an open grave.
They use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of asps is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
In their paths are ruin and misery,
and the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Now we know that whatever the law says,
it speaks to those who are under the law,
so that every mouth may be stopped
and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
For by works of the law,
no human being will be justified in his sight,
since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God
has been manifested apart from the law,
although the law and the prophets bear witness to it,
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all who believe.
There is no distinction,
but all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
and are justified by his grace as a gift
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood
to be received by faith.
This was to show God's righteousness
because in his divine forbearance,
he had passed over former sins.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time
so that he might be just
and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Why don't we pray as we come to God's word?
Let's pray.
Our Father in heaven,
we only see in part
and we can twist and suppress the truth
by our intellect
or by our moral efforts.
We cannot reach into the heavens
and see you as you really are.
And so I pray that through your word,
your holy word,
give us a true and a clearer sight
of who you are this morning,
that we might stand in awe of you
and then truly seeing ourselves in your great light.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
It's not easy for God to forgive you.
Let me repeat that.
It's not easy for God to forgive you or me for that matter.
Now I'm hoping your mind is a bit curious,
trying to work out what I mean by such a statement
and whether it is true,
because it seems to fly in the face
of the Christian idea of a forgiving God.
So let me, with such a statement,
let me clarify what I don't mean.
I don't mean a whole bunch of things,
so let's clarify that.
I don't mean that God is like us
when we often keep a record of wrongs,
when we'd rather cut people out of our lives
rather than pursuing the painful path to peace.
I'm not saying he's like us when we do those things.
I don't mean that what you must do
in order for God to forgive is difficult.
All religions talk about a fresh start,
a washing of past wrongs,
and some of the requirements are just really difficult.
It's daily meditation.
It's daily prayers.
It's a pilgrimage.
It's all the Christian idea of like a monastery,
like becoming a nun,
giving up the pleasures of life
and strict treatment of the body and the mind,
and still, after doing all this,
not being 100% sure that God has forgiven you.
So I don't mean what you must do to be forgiven
makes it difficult for God to forgive.
Or perhaps you think it is easy for God to forgive.
Simply go to the confessional,
say the right words of repentance,
have a priest come to you on your deathbed
to give you the last rites,
and it's just easy.
It's all gone.
Just do the right ritual and it's gone.
All your sin is gone.
Some people have that view of Christianity.
Or perhaps you have a view of God
as if he doesn't want us to talk about our sin.
It's just so negative.
Surely God wants us to focus on a positive thing,
positive relationship.
Or maybe you have a view of God
that is like a harsh and critical father figure,
like too many earthly fathers,
as if God is ruthless,
quick to anger and slow to forgive.
When I say it's not easy for God to forgive you,
that is not because he is harsh or reluctant.
It's not easy for God to forgive you and me
because he's good.
And because our sin,
as we looked at last week,
is so awful.
Now to get a feel for this,
the Lord gives us the prophet Hosea.
It helps us feel the problem.
And the prophet Hosea's wife,
Goma,
whose affection and loyalty
should have been only for her husband,
instead she goes off
and she pursues other lovers,
thinking in these lovers
she's going to get the protection
and the abundant life.
Is it easy for Hosea to forgive his wife?
No, not at all.
There is a justice problem.
God's law says such treatment deserves,
such unfaithfulness deserves death.
There's a justice problem.
There's a relational problem.
A right jealousy produces anger.
And there's a heart problem.
Goma doesn't even want to come back.
She wants her lovers.
She's captivated by them.
Her heart is gripped by them.
There's a heart problem.
What a heart-wrenching picture
of our problem with the Lord.
And it's even worse than that.
Because we were made by the Lord.
We belong to him.
We owe all our affection and loyalty to him.
He deserves all our trust
to come to him as the source of all life.
And yet, as we saw last week,
we try to play God.
We try and control our own lives.
And we shake the fist at God's rule.
And we commit spiritual adultery.
Our heart goes to all other places
to find life except the source of life.
And that heart problem produces evil words and behaviour.
How can God, who is holy, easily forgive?
There's a justice problem
where a person sins,
a person deserves to die.
There's a relational problem.
God's jealousy for his own honour,
his jealousy for our total affection
is right and it produces anger, wrath.
And there's a heart problem.
We are held captive.
We're enslaved,
convinced that life is found
apart from intimacy with God.
For Hosea to get Goma back,
it came at great cost to him
to redeem her.
And our only hope is redemption.
We need a redeemer.
And we're going to look at that,
what redemption means today.
It is a beautiful concept.
So if you're overwhelmed by the weight
of what I just said,
please hang in there.
And redemption is wonderful.
Just two comments
before we dive into what redemption means.
I'm leaning heavily on a theologian
called Leon Morris
and he's got this book and a chapter
that goes into much more detail
than I can do in a single sermon.
So if you would like a copy of that chapter,
get in touch with me.
I'd love to share it with you.
I'd also recommend using the sermon outline
with all the Bible passages.
Redemption comes up so much in Scripture.
Why not use those to go and do your own study
and devotion and prayer,
either privately or with your family?
So what is redemption?
We need to buy back this word from our culture
because our culture uses redemption
in a very different way to what the Bible means.
So for example,
you might remember a couple of years ago,
the Aussie cricketers,
Steve Smith,
captain of Australia
and vice captain David Warner,
they got caught for ball tampering.
Do you remember this?
And they were banned from cricket
and their reputation was just shot.
But once they returned to test cricket,
the media completely changed their tone
about these two men.
Their cheating was wiped from the record.
Their reputation as worthy representatives of Australia
was restored.
How?
By performing well,
by hitting a century,
by performing.
They redeemed themselves,
commentators were saying,
the media were saying.
Or the classic movie,
Shawshank Redemption.
If you haven't seen it by now,
oh, I don't know,
you don't have to watch it,
but if you haven't seen it,
spoiler alert,
I'm about to ruin the movie,
but I blame you.
How does an innocent man
restore his freedom
after getting a life sentence
for something he didn't do?
He must make it happen.
He's got to escape
and win back his freedom.
He did it.
Scripture knows nothing,
nothing of being able to redeem yourself.
You can't.
The other surprising thing about redemption,
it was a common word in biblical times.
It was,
any Greek speaker
would know the word.
It wasn't,
it wasn't
in the religious sphere,
although the Old Testament
talks about redemption a lot,
but every Greek person
would understand it.
And it had two primary settings,
prisoners of war
and slaves.
It means more than being delivered,
it's more precise
a meaning than that.
So picture a prisoner of war,
especially if they're nobility.
They were worth a great deal
to their family and society back home.
So the captors
would send a message
saying,
here's the ransom price
if you want this prisoner back.
And they would,
if they wanted them back,
they would send the money over
and that person would be restored
to their home
and to their position in society.
Or picture a slave.
If someone wealthy enough
wanted to,
out of the generosity,
or whether the slave
saved up enough money
over years,
then they could pay
to the temple
of the gods,
whatever the gods were,
and they would
buy their freedom.
So for example,
there's an inscription,
we know this
because we have inscriptions
from back in that time period.
Here's one of them.
It recorded the date
and then it said,
for freedom,
a female slave
whose name is Nicaea
by race,
a Roman,
with a price
of three
minae of silver
and half a minna.
For freedom.
Redemption is about
someone who is a slave
or in captivity
being set free
by payment of a cost,
a price.
Which begs the question for us,
who or what
are we held captive by
that we need freeing from?
Now, I think to
feel the weight of this,
I want to compare it
to other narratives
out there
in our public community.
marketplace,
a public square.
Lots of people
offer a diagnosis
of the main problem
of our society,
of humanity,
of Western culture.
Let me just give
two examples.
There's more than this,
but one is
systemic racism.
That's the primary
problem in our society.
Seeing racism
not as just this odd,
awful occurrence,
and it is awful,
but seeing it
as built into
the fabric
of Western culture.
That's one narrative
at the moment.
So that's the main problem.
Another popular narrative
at the moment
is the ever-increasing
and even unstoppable
destruction
caused by climate change.
That's the great
evil of our times.
Now,
there's many more
voices out there.
There's only one voice
who dares to say
that the most serious
problem
isn't actually
outside of us.
It's inside
each one of us.
It's in our very nature.
Jesus said,
everyone who practices
sin
is a slave
to sin.
Amen.
The problem
isn't that
we make mistakes
every so often.
The problem
isn't outside of us.
The problem
is inside of us.
Like Goma,
we haven't only
committed spiritual
idolatry,
but by doing so,
our hearts
have now,
we've given our hearts
over to someone
who controls
our heart.
We are held captive
by sin
and its consequences.
And we heard it
in our readings today.
We heard it in Romans
chapter 3,
verse 9,
which says that
both Jews
and Greeks
are under sin.
That's an interesting
preposition,
under sin.
Not just we commit sins,
but we're under it.
Meaning we're under
the power
of sin.
It controls
our hearts.
Or in Colossians 2,
before knowing Christ,
we are dead
in our trespasses
and in the uncircumcision
of our flesh.
That's a Jewish way
of saying
there's something
rotten inside
that needs to be cut out.
The problem
is in here.
Again,
leaning on Leon Morris,
he helps us grasp
the point.
He says this,
we who belong
to God
because he created us
have gotten
into the power
of a strong
enemy
from which
we cannot
break free.
If I can say it
reverently,
God,
if he wants us
back,
must pay
the price.
So because
we are captives
inside our
very nature,
that's why
keeping God's
laws,
it can never
work.
It can never
set us free
because that's
just external
change.
It's not
internal.
Romans 3,
19 to 20
is the climax
of the argument
of the first
three chapters.
All people,
religious or
otherwise,
are in danger
of the anger,
the wrath of God
because no one
lives up to
what they know
to be true
about God.
Romans 3,
19,
by works of
the law,
no human
being will
be justified,
declared good
in his sight
since through
the law
comes knowledge
of sin.
God's law
is good.
It reveals
God's character.
God's law
teaches us
what is good
and what's evil.
There's nothing
wrong with the law
but it has
no power
to free us
on the inside.
Knowing God's law
only highlights
the gap
between how
holy he is
and my character.
It gives me
knowledge of sin.
He doesn't
free me
from sin.
And I find
Colossians 2,
23
startling.
So all
these religious
rules
rules.
Picture a monk
again
in a monastery
who struggles
with lustful
thoughts.
A monk
in a monastery
struggles
with lustful
thoughts
and they
are depriving
themselves
of sleep,
they're depriving
themselves
of food
so that they
can pray,
so that
they can
memorise
and study
scripture.
And Colossians 2
verse 23
says all
these rules,
this kind
of way
of religion,
these have
indeed an
appearance of
wisdom in
promoting self-made
religion and
asceticism and
severity of the
body, but they
are of no value
in stopping
the indulgence
of the flesh
because all
that rule
keeping doesn't
get to the
lustful heart.
It's of no
value.
We need a
redeemer.
God must act
contrary to
what we deserve.
He must take
the initiative
to set us
free.
The silence
after Romans
3, 19
and 20,
that every
mouth will
be stopped
before the
judgment seat
of God.
The silence
is broken
into in
verse 21,
but now,
God has
acted.
God's
righteousness
comes in.
Jumping
to verse
23,
all have
sinned and
fall short
of the
glory of
God and
are justified
by his
grace as
a gift.
How?
Through the
redemption
that is in
Christ Jesus.
Now,
here the
price paid,
whom God
put forward
as propitiation
by his
blood to be
received by
faith.
God the
father put
forward his
son for
our
redemption.
And the
son gave
himself
willingly
for our
redemption.
He stated
his
willingness
very clearly
in Mark
10, 45.
Even the
son of man
came not
to be
served,
but to
serve,
and to
give his
life as
a ransom
for many.
It's not
easy for
God to
forgive you.
It came
at a
great price.
His
son,
his
blood.
There's
no such
thing as
cheap
forgiveness.
The word
propitiation,
we don't have
time to go
into it fully,
but it
gives a
sense of
why a
price must
be paid,
because
propitiation
is about
taking away
the judgment
and the
anger that
our sin
deserved.
It's taken
away.
But don't
try to
work out
who God
paid.
That's
pushing the
picture of
redemption
too far.
The early
church fathers
came up
with these
narratives of
God paying
Satan.
It just
doesn't work.
That's not
in Scripture.
That's not
the point
of who
God paid.
We need
more
pictures of
understanding
salvation than
redemption.
That's why we
have other
words like
justification
and
reconciliation
and atonement.
We need
other words.
So don't
try and work
out who
God pays.
The important
thing is a
price had to
be paid,
and he
paid it.
His payment
not only
covers all
those after
Christ died,
it also
covers all
those who
trusted in
God's
promises before
Christ died
on the cross.
It covers
all who
belong to
God in
all of
history.
And like
the inscriptions
of the
slaves whose
price was
paid for
freedom,
all those
who receive
God's
redemption as
a gift are
actually set
free.
Free now
from the
penalty of
sin, free
now from
sin's control
over us,
and when
Christ returns,
free from
sin's presence
and all its
consequences once
and for all.
So Christian
in the room
or listening
in, when
your guilt
and shame
piles up,
when sin
says you
can't let
me go,
you have
to give
in, look
to the
cross and
see the
inscription for
freedom.
You are
free.
no price
left to
pay, no
anger of
God at
you, you
do not
have to
listen to
sin.
For
freedom.
I think
the hymn,
I can't
remember which
one it is,
it says,
when Satan
tempts me to
despair and
tells me of
the guilt
within,
upward I
look and
see him
there who
made an
end to
all my
sin.
And this
freedom,
this
redemption,
scripture speaks
of as
full and
forever.
The
consequences
of sin,
the corruption
of our
bodies,
even the
corruption of
the whole
world.
Jesus'
blood
redeems
it all.
Redemption
is a
big concept.
It's not
just the
removal of
sin, but
it's actually
the restoration
of us
back to
God and
the
restoration
of our
bodies and
all things.
And it
is forever.
Hebrews 9,
12 says
that by
Christ's
blood,
he is
secured
and eternal
redemption.
It's
forever.
Like a
prisoner of
war, our
souls and
bodies have
returned home
to God
forever.
Forever.
So do
you see
the heart
of God,
your
redeemer?
The kind
of God
he is.
It's not
easy for
God to
forgive you
or me.
It's not.
You and
I deserve
nothing but
his wrath
and justice.
To be
left in
the embrace
of our
lovers,
reaping the
misery and
death of
sin's hold
on us,
nothing in
us can
prompt God
to act to
save us.
As
Morris said,
if God
wants us
back, he
must pay
the price
and he
did.
Your
freedom,
your
restoration
came at
great cost.
The blood
of his
only son.
So how
should we
respond to
such a
God who
would pay
such a
price?
We need
to see
God as
he is.
He isn't
reluctant to
forgive.
He's not
reluctant.
He isn't
critical and
harsh.
He wants
you back.
He isn't
simply okay
with you
going through
the motions
saying you're
sorry,
acting as if
unfaithfulness
doesn't matter.
It does
matter.
It mattered
so much
that his
son had
to die.
But he
takes no
pleasure in
you trying to
redeem yourself
by your
own
performance.
He
wants us
back.
He is
our
redeemer.
He is
paid the
price to
bring us
home.
So how
do we
respond?
We should
respond in
awe.
What a
God.
He is
worshiping
God.
We should
respond in
faith,
receiving his
grace as
a gift.
Gratitude
and living in
the freedom
of belonging
to Christ,
body and
soul.
If we
see God
for who
he is,
then the mark of a Christian life, whatever we're going through,
in sorrow or good times, whatever is happening,
the mark of a Christian is expressed by singing.
Because how else do you respond to awe, to how good God has been to us?
Singing is the best way to do it.
That's the mark of not only the Christian life,
it's going to be the mark of the heavenly life.
We join the eternal choir of heaven that's pictured in Revelation 5.
And they sang a new song.
Worthy are you, for you were slain.
And by your blood you ransomed people for God,
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God.
And they shall reign on the earth.
Worthy are you.
You sampai you.
Samun