GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #518
A DIVINE PLEDGE
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
The
seal of the Spirit is that which gives us the assurance of salvation. The
Spirit of God is the earnest of our inheritance, assuring us of it until the
resurrection, here called the redemption of the purchased possession.
We
usually think of redemption only in terms of our blessed Savior’s work of
atonement; but that is a mistake. Redemption, in biblical terms, is the
complete deliverance of God’s elect from sin and all it’s consequences upon the
grounds of justice satisfied. It is a threefold work. It involves blood
atonement, the gift of life, and the resurrection of the body.
Redemption By Ransom
The
redemption of our souls from the curse and penalty of God’s holy law was
accomplished by the shedding of Christ’s precious blood as our Substitute (Gal.
3:13; 1 Pet. 1:18-20). Our sins could never have been remitted without the
shedding of Christ’s blood (Heb. 9:22). The Lord Jesus delivered all God’s
elect from the hands of God’s offended justice by paying the justly demanded
ransom price for us. It was this ransom price which secured and justly demands
our complete deliverance from all the consequences of sin and entrance into
heaven’s everlasting glory (Job 33:24).
Redemption By Regeneration
However,
atonement alone could never save anyone. It is not enough that our sins be put
away. We must also have a new, holy nature created in us, if we are to live
before God in the happiness and bliss of heaven’s glory. Flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God. In regeneration and effectual calling, every
chosen, ransomed sinner is created anew in Christ by the Spirit of God and is
thereby delivered from the reigning power of sin (Rom. 6:14-20; 2 Cor. 5:18; 1
John 3:5-10).Believers are men and women over whom sin no longer has dominion.
Being made kings and priests unto God, their lives are no longer ruled by their
passions and lusts. Believers reign over their passions and lust by the Spirit
of God. Still, there is more.
Redemption By Resurrection
There
is a day coming when the Lord Jesus Christ will come again. When he comes again
in power and great glory to tread under his feet all his enemies and to be
admired in all his saints, when he comes to make all things new, he will finish
his great work as our covenant Surety by raising the bodies of his elect from
their graves and translating those who remain here until the end into the blessed
liberty of resurrection glory (1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 21:1-6). This is what
Paul refers to when he speaks of the redemption (deliverance) of our bodies.
Then, when our great God and Savior makes all things new, we shall be
thoroughly, completely, eternally delivered from the very being of sin and from
all the consequences of sin. Imagine that!
AMEN.