Please be upstanding for the Word of God as it is read, for indeed this is the wholly inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, written for you and for me today. Let us attend to its hearing. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespass according to the riches of his grace, which he has lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God remains forever. Oh, Holy Spirit, we come before you this day. We ask that you would enlighten this text to our mind. May anything that I say in error be quickly forgotten. But that which comes from thy word, may it cut to the heart. We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, as we open up our discussion here about redemption and forgiveness, two very important virtues for us to think about in the Christian walk, in the Christian life. Indeed, we are nowhere without them. Let us first consider marriage. Marriage, that holy institution in which a man and a woman come together, something that Paul will actually mention later on in this book and drive a very salient point home about what this means for the church. But marriage brings two people together that were once from two different houses in separate locations together. to form one house, to make one new house out of the two. And from that house, even more and more people come forth. Multiplication happens, there is a going forth there that happens, but all still part of this one household that was created when two came together to be one in unity. When that happens, there are many good things, many blessings that one spouse might have, but now when they come together, they both enjoy together. And on the other side of that, any downsides that come from one spouse or the other, when they come together, they share in that as well. Perhaps the easiest way to think about this is in the area of finances. When two come together in this way, the wealth of the one becomes the wealth of the other. And the debts of the one become the debts of the other. They are the same. There is no longer two bank accounts, but one. Why do I bring that for us to think about today in this passage? You might be asking, marriage is not mentioned in this passage at all. We're speaking in verse seven today of redemption and of forgiveness. We are redeemed, we are forgiven in Christ. We are bought into the household of God when we are redeemed. And when that happens, our debts are forgiven. And so that's what I want to really draw out today as we consider this passage and consider what Paul is saying here. First, I want to hone in on what it means to be redeemed. What does it mean to be redeemed? A lot of my sermons I know lately have been about definitions, but we're going to go into the definition of redemption. But then secondly, then we have to consider what does it mean that we are forgiven, that we're forgiven? And all this comes back to, at the end, the riches of His grace. We've spoken of the praise that we give to the glorious grace of God. Now we're going to speak of the richness of the grace of God. All of these things we've been talking about, these blessings that come forth through Christ and through Christ alone. These are the graces of God and how rich they are. And they are ours. They are those that belong to his church. And so let us consider that as we dive in today and consider What does it mean to be redeemed? What does it mean to be redeemed? Maybe the first thing we think of in the modern world, or maybe the really only time we use this word outside of a religious connotation, is when we redeem a coupon. You get a coupon. It says you have the right to this or that free thing or this or that discounted item. You redeem it and you buy something with it. Redeem comes from the idea that you're buying something. There is a transaction that occurs. Maybe a coupon really isn't the best way to think about this word. For indeed, the religious connotation is far more than that. Providentially, Pastor Joe is going through the book of Ruth, which has a lot to say about redemption. Ruth, if you know the story, is not even an Israelite at all. She's a Moabite woman, and she is married to one of the sons of a wicked man who left Israel behind. rejected the graces of God that he had given them to be in that land and to be a part of God's people. That man and his sons die, and Ruth is left destitute only with Naomi, and she follows Naomi back to Israel, and there is a near kinsman, the scriptures say, one who is of the same tribe. Ruth and Naomi are poor, impoverished, forced to glean from the fields in order to scrape by enough grain to make bread. Yet this near kinsman, Boaz, he says, I will redeem you. What does he mean by that? He marries Boaz, or marries Ruth, And what he has, he is actually the owner of the great fields that Naomi and Ruth have been gleaning from. But now that he marries her, she becomes a part of his household. She enjoys the wealth of his household. And her sons come from that house. Naomi is brought along as well. Redemption comes to Naomi and her daughter-in-law. And they enjoy the blessings that come with being part of Boaz's household. This is redemption, bringing someone in, even at great cost to oneself, into the household. God so often spoke of Israel as a house and as a house that he had bought for himself. For though we can see in human terms what happens with Ruth and with Boaz and the redemption that happens there, God indeed redeemed the people of Israel and brought them into his house to be his people. He speaks of this often throughout the Old Testament, and Exodus is the key point that he always points back to. For Israel were slaves to the Egyptians, forced to work for the Egyptians. And God, with a mighty and outstretched hand, went to them and redeemed them from the bondage that they were in, to bring them out of slavery, even through the wilderness and to Canaan that he had prepared for their arrival. God redeemed his people Israel. God did much to do this as he exemplified by the great power of his hand. It's through the great plagues, through the dividing of the sea, through providing them water in the wilderness and giving them the strength to conquer the enemies that were surrounding them in the wilderness. God was communicating to them that they were his people, that they were his because of what he had done, that he had bought them. For as I said before, redemption, it involves bringing someone in, but it also involves a kind of purchase. And a purchase not just with money, or that's normally what we think of when we think of purchasing power, but how This was greatly exemplified in Exodus was the blood that was shed by the lamb on the first Passover night and was smeared on the doorposts of God's people Israel and that the angel of death passed them over. The people were bought by God. They were his by right. This evokes a kind of concept that we might be somewhat uncomfortable with in the modern age. People being bought and sold that usually conjures up images of slavery. Especially in a modern era when autonomy rules the roost and autonomy is what every man wants. He wants to be the captain of his own ship. Well, being bought by another doesn't sound too inviting. Why would that be the religion I want to be a part of, where I'm bought by someone, where I'm owned by them? That sounds so degrading. Where I belong to them fully? Where I most obey them absolutely? Actually, this connection is made by Paul in another book, in Romans chapter six. When he talks about the fact that we are under sin, and then when we come to be those of God, those that are bought by God, here's what he says. He says in Romans 6, starting in verse 15, what then? Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching which you were committed to. And having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I'm speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We all know that last verse, or a lot of us probably know that last verse by heart. or look what leads to it. Autonomous man says, I won't be bought. I won't be a slave. But Paul is saying, it's not a question of whether you'll be a slave or not. It's who is your master. It's not a question of whether you have autonomy. You don't have it regardless. You are a slave to sin, or you are a slave to righteousness. There's no other, there's no in between. And yet, thanks be to God, he speaks of freedom here, doesn't he? He says, thanks be to God that you were bought, that you became slaves to righteousness. But how? Because of the free gift of God that came to you in Christ Jesus. that you were redeemed, and it was a grace. It was not something you earned. It wasn't wages, per se. It doesn't say the wages of sin is death and the wages of righteousness is life. That's true, but being that that's true, we can't actually be righteous enough to get that. We are all sinners. But he says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God, the grace of God is eternal life. in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The redemption we have, being bought to be a slave of righteousness, is a free gift that comes with freedom. For he who is in the Son is free indeed. But our culture may not understand, as though they strive after freedom, that it is only in humbling ourselves to the great Lord and Master, our God, the One who sent His Son, Christ, that we actually have freedom, that we actually have liberty, that we can actually do the things that lead not to death. We can actually begin to be sanctified by the power of His Spirit. So we begin to see what Paul means, that there is redemption in the Son. There is redemption in Christ, that he is a redeemer for us. He has bought us. And just as was symbolized in Passover when the blood was smeared on the doorposts for the people of Israel, that was but a type to look forward to the actual blood that actually pays for something. That is the blood of Christ. It actually pays for us, buys us, and ensures that we indeed belong to the household of God now and not a house that is leading to destruction, sinking into the sand. Indeed, there's maybe one more aspect that we could add to this word redemption to color the meaning just a bit more. Some translations translate that word redemption as a ransom. What is a ransom? We don't use ransoms a whole lot anymore, but it still happens from time to time. In ancient days, it was very common because if you were a noble, someone with great wealth or connections, and you were fighting in a battle, your enemy may refrain from killing you so that they could capture you, and while being captive, they could hold you for ransom. They could gain greatly by your release. This happened quite common in the ancient days, and even in the Middle Ages. What does it mean that we are ransomed if ransom is a part of this? Well, we were captive. We were held under bondage, just like Israel in bondage to Egypt. So we are in bondage to sin, in bondage to death, and yet Christ ransoms us as his blood. is used to pay for us and we are set free from our captivity. Jerome went so far as to say that our great redeemer, the one who will ransom us, the redeemer became a captive for our sake, that is he remained under the power of death for three days. So that we will not have to experience eternal death. That as he is raised, now we look forward to eternal life, to never experiencing the second death, to living in paradise and bliss with our God, that Christ would do that for us, to redeem us, to buy us, to ransom us. Oh, what great praise should be sent to his name. If we are bought, into the household. The next question we have to ask is what of our debt? What of our debt? Paul hasn't mentioned that yet in this passage, debt specifically. But we all know it to be true. We know that we are sinners. We know that sin leads to death. We know our own sin quite evidently. And we know that the household that we are being bought into, that we are being brought into, is one of life. It's one of peace and harmony. It is sinless. It is holy. How can these two things be so? We even know that the sin that we commit, we commit against the head of this household, against God himself. How can we be sons and daughters of that household? Well, as Christ redeems us, as he buys us by his blood, he also forgives our debt. He forgives our debt, our sin. For sin indeed incurs a debt. What would happen in the ancient days whenever a man bought a slave who had a debt? Those debts would now be or that the master would now be responsible for said debts. Those debts would be brought into and now be a part of that household. As we are brought into the house, as we come to the Lord Christ, just as we've been speaking all the blessings that become ours by being in Christ. we must speak of what Luther called the glorious exchange for indeed our sin, our debt, he takes on and pays for. Indeed, as he gifts to us his righteousness, he takes upon himself our sin and pays the penalty that sin rightly deserved. As we are brought into this house, blessings are imputed, debt is incurred. The Lord Jesus Christ, having committed no sin himself, yet goes to the cross to endure a most horrific death and endure a penalty that he for a sin that he did not commit, for many sins he did not commit. When we are bought, we are forgiven. Our debts are canceled because our debts are dealt with. The Lord Jesus spoke about this in a great parable, a parable I've mentioned often because it is so applicable. to this great blessing that we speak of. He speaks of a servant of a king. And that servant of the king owed the king what would be the equivalent today of millions and millions and millions of dollars. And the king, out of his great grace and out of his great love, forgave his servant. Now that's not the end of the parable. And so often we forget that we are that servant who had such a great debt forgiven. But this is why the other part of the parable comes. Because we are called as Christians to be those who brought into this house, forgive one another. For what does a servant do in the parable? He goes to a fellow servant, a servant who owes him maybe 100 bucks, and says, give to me what is owed this day. And the servant says, I don't have it. And so the other servant, the first servant, throws him into debtor's prison. and says, don't let him out until he's paid in full. How often do we become that servant because we forget just how much we have been forgiven? Our brothers and sisters sin against us all the time, and we sin against them. And yet it is nothing. in comparison to the sins we've committed to our God. It is nothing in comparison to what he has forgiven us. So as we consider the forgiveness that comes from Christ, let us be those that are quick to forgive, that are quick to overlook sins. Why? Because we are bought And we are forgiven by Christ. I mentioned in Sunday school this morning, this theme of the household. That God, when he created the world, meant to, out of all of humanity, to then build a kind of house. Adam would be its federal head. We say federal, the fancy term, we really think of really just a patriarch, a leader, a king, over this new humanity. And then this house would send up praises to the eternal God as they were given graciously dominion over the earth that they were put upon. One household with great harmony and peace and love. Most importantly, love for the eternal God, its creator. Adam introduced enmity into that household by not trusting in God, his creator, by not living by the word of God alone, instead trusting in his own reason and own intellect as he judged Satan's statement to be correct. That God did not want him to take of the fruit because then he would be as God and God was jealous of him. And that Adam needed to take what was his and through knowledge acquire eternal life. Rightly, the enmity should have been there between now, mankind, and God. And yet God, in his grace, introduced a promise that things would be righted. And in that, this is what we're seeing in redemption and forgiveness, that as Christ comes, he is buying for himself a new household, a new humanity, as even we are called regenerate, because we are born again into this household, a household of God's elect, God's people, who will sing praises to their holy God. a covenant house mediated and ruled now by the new and better Adam, the Lord Christ. For indeed, man was meant for this. Man was meant to worship. He was meant for communion with God. Wicked man rebels against this and great suffering, great toil, great peril comes because of it, as he acts against his own nature for what he was created for. He was created to enjoy God and glorify him forever, and yet he resists in his sin. Yet we resisted in our sin, and sometimes still do. And yet Christ, out of his great grace and at great cost to himself, buys us, purchases us, brings us into a new household as we are regenerated. And even look forward to the day when the world will be regenerated and there will be new heavens, a new earth, and it will be as it was meant to be. A new household, praising God. We are part of that household even now. That brings us to our last point. For if we are redeemed into the household, and if our debts are taken away as Christ deals with our sin on the cross, well, there's also a richness that comes to the riches of his grace. These graces we've been speaking of, they are riches, they are like wealth that is accumulated for us Indeed, they are all for us. All these riches are for those who are in Christ. For just as he took on our debts, he gives to us his riches. We are given access even to the throne of grace, even to pray to a holy God, to be in communion with him who created us, that we are called righteous, that we are being made more and more holy day in and day out, and that we will be glorified. And even these weak and feeble bodies that we now have, they too will be changed, glorified, become deathless, become eternal, and we will become sinless entirely. As we will no longer be able to send. No, even the thought will not occur to us to do so. For we will be with God. We are welcomed in to so great a house. In individualistic society, we don't think a lot about being a part of a house, but it was, of course, very important in the old world. You were part of this house, or you were part of that house. I, perhaps, if I'm being cheeky, will say I am proud to be of the house of Maltby. Indeed, I am. It's true. It's a good thing to be part of houses, to have lineage. To look back on fathers of old and to hope in those to come. To bring everyone together in loyalty and bonds of love that come with that. And the joy that comes when marriages occur and people marry into houses. I was very joyful when my sister very recently married into the house of O'Brien. And yet those things are pale reflections of what happens to us when we are born again, regenerated, and taken in to the house of God. And what a great lineage we have. Being a part of this house, we can look back on the great saints of old, of Abraham, of David, Moses, We can look at the apostles, we can look at the martyrs, we can look at the reformers. We are part of a great house. And that house has a great inheritance. Riches upon riches, grace upon grace. And we now benefit from that just as A poor bride would benefit from the riches of marrying a rich man. So too, when we come into the church, the church enjoys all the riches of the blessings that come in Christ. For indeed, he has all to give. He is eternal God. He is the great logos. He is the eternal son of God. Indeed, our poverty became his, so his riches might become ours. Our poverty became his, so his riches might become ours. And so, I leave you with this today, with this charge. Go. and share the riches of this grace that you have with your brothers and sisters in the church, for we indeed are one house. Do not despise the poor man who has just arrived, for his debts like yours have been paid for. As Christ's house, share in his graces that richly abound. Share forgiveness together, for this house has had such a great debt removed. Share prayer together, for this house has a great father to rule it. Share comfort together, for this house has a great many sorrows still, yet such a great comforter was given to us. Share in encouragement, for this is a strong house. Share in accountability, for this is a holy house. And share in rejoicing, for this is a victorious house. Let us go before our Lord and pray. Our Father, we thank you that we indeed are one house built together leaning upon the cornerstone that is Christ. I pray, Lord, that we would not take this lightly and that we would rejoice, knowing that we are redeemed and that we are forgiven, that all our sins are done away with in Christ. Yes, they are even removed from us as far as the east is from the west. Lord, we thank you. Be with us now. Draw us closer together and draw us closer to your son. It is in his name we pray these things. Amen.