The Bride of Christ Lesson 3d (The Bridegroom: Redeemer)

This is our fourth week studying about the Bridegroom: Redeemer. Today we will look at another word/phrase associated with redemption: purchase or to buy back. We will answer two important questions: Why do we need to purchased or bought back? What was the cost/price for our freedom? 

First, why do we need to be purchased or bought back? 

John 8:33-36, They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s seed and have never been in bondage to anyone. Why do You say, ‘You shall be set free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. Now a slave does not remain in the house forever, but a son remains forever. Therefore if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. 

Here Jesus uses the analogy of slaves and masters. At the fall, mankind came into slavery to sin.  We became subjugated to our “master” sin.  Jesus makes the point that slaves obey their masters and do not make decisions for themselves. The master can keep them or sell them at his will. They have no assurance about their future.  

The Expositor's Bible Commentary states: Jesus' reply dealt with the spiritual aspect of freedom. Sin enslaves because every act of disobedience to God creates an atmosphere of alienation and a trend to further disobedience that inevitably makes escape impossible. An act of sin can possibly be overcome, but the attitude and habit of sin are inescapable.i 

Jesus then goes on to state that if He, the Son, sets you free you are free indeed!  He was pointing out that our real hope for freedom does not lie in our ancestral lineage (i.e. “I am of Father Abraham”) or is in anyway contingent upon ourselves, rather it is in the action He was preparing to take to purchase that freedom for us.  

Second, what was the cost/price for our freedom? 

Webster 1828 dictionary defines purchase as: to obtain by an expense of labor, danger or other sacrifice. 

1 Corinthians 6:20, You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. 

We are the Lord’s both by creation and redemption. Here the latter is particularly in view. His ownership of us dates back to Calvary. We were bought at a price. At the cross, we see the price tag which the Lord Jesus put on us. He thought us to be of such value that He was willing to pay for us with the price of His own precious blood. How greatly Jesus must have loved us to bear our sins in His body on the cross!ii 

The picture is of a slave (Ro 6:17; cf. 1Co 7:23) being purchased from the horrible system of slavery. Christians have been freed from being overpowered by sin (Ro 6:17-18) and Satan (Col 1:13) and are enslaved to Christ (Ro 1:1) and to righteousness (Ro 6:18).iii 

In the Old Testament there were two mandatory sacrifices. The first was the sin offering.  This offering was to atone for sin and cleanse from defilement.  The second was the trespass offering.  This was made for the unintentional sins and defilement of physical maladies.   

In both cases the sacrifice merely covered the sin, it did not remove the guilt or the sin itself.  Under the law a price had to be paid for our sin. For God to buy us back, from slavey to sin, a sacrifice had to be made which would not only cover our sin until the next sacrifice, but which would completely remove our sin and the death sentence that came with it.   

Hebrews 10:1-10, For the law is a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of those things. It could never by the same sacrifices, which they offer continually year after year, perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, once purified, would no longer be conscious of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is an annual reminder of sins. 4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 

5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: 

“Sacrifices and offerings You did not desire, 
    but a body You have prepared for Me. 
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin 
    You have had no pleasure. 
7 Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do Your will, O God,’ as it is written of Me 
    in the volume of the book.” 

8 Previously when He said, “You did not desire sacrifices and offerings. You have had no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin,” which are offered in accordance with the law, 9 then He said, “See, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 

1 Corinthians 5:21, God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

Perhaps the best way to understand the first section of the verse, particularly the second use of "sin", is to recognize that Christ, treated as if he were a sinner, became the object of God's wrath and bore the penalty and guilt of sin. So complete was the identification of the sinless Christ with the sin of the sinner, including its dire guilt and its dread consequence of separation from God, that Paul could say profoundly, "God made him . . . to be sin for us."iv 

Galatians 3:13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us—as it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” 

The curse of the law is death—the penalty for breaking its commandments. Christ has delivered those under law from paying the penalty of death demanded by the law.v 

Galatians 4:4-7, But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born from a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth into our hearts the Spirit of His Son, crying, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 

Adoption in Roman culture differed from that in modern life. We think of adoption as taking someone else’s child to be one’s own. But in the NT, adoption means putting believers into the position of mature sons with all the privileges and responsibilities of that position.vi 

In conclusion, we needed to be bought back from slavery to sin and the price was high.  The sacrifice of a sinless man.  Jesus was the only one qualified to become that sacrifice.  He willing gave up his life, taking our sin upon himself, suffering the pain of death and separation from the Father so that we might not only be saved from the penalty of death, but that we could enter into sonship as heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus.   As sons of God, we can now fully possess the privileges and responsibilities of sons of God. 

Questions for reflection:      

1. Have I truly renounced the mastery of sin over my life by appropriating the victory of Calvary?  

2. Have I allowed the enemy to keep any footholds in my life?     

3. Am I walking as a son or a slave?  

4. Have I learned what it means to be an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus?    

Note: All Scripture references are from the MEV unless otherwise specified.       

Works Cited:

i Expositor's Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament Copyright 2004. 

ii Believer's Bible Commentary Copyright © 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2016 by William MacDonald. 

iii Expositor's Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament Copyright 2004. 

iv Expositor's Bible Commentary (Abridged Edition): New Testament Copyright 2004. 

v Believer's Bible Commentary Copyright © 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2016 by William MacDonald. 

vi Believer's Bible Commentary Copyright © 1989, 1990, 1992, 1995, 2016 by William MacDonald.