Gospel of Redemption — E.A. Johnston

The Doctrine of Redemption

The Great Doctrines of the Gospel are Rune, Redemption, Repentance and Regeneration. We will focus our attention today, friends, on the Doctrine of Redemption. We will look at it as it is found in my Bible and how it applies to us personally.

Redemption from the Curse of the Law

We read in Galatians 3 .13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Many years ago I was driving to work on a busy road, and cars ahead of me were slowing down and looking at something, and soon I came upon the reason why.

There on a wooded lot among some trees hung a young man from a rope who had hanged himself in the night. It was a horrible sight. When you saw it, you wanted to look away. When Christ was nailed to the cross at Calvary, it was a scandal.

The scandal of the cross was a terrible sight to behold, but our text here in Galatians says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. Every mother's son will one day be held up to the strict and severe law of God.

God requires perfection, friend, to get into his holy heaven, and no man is perfect. If you stand in your own merits against that strict law of God, you will fail that test because every man is a sinner who has broken God's law by sin.

When you break a law in your country, you will be arrested, tried, and brought before a judge who will carry out the sentencing of the law in the form of some punishment. Some countries still cut the hands off of a thief.

If you're caught stealing, your hand is cut off. Other crimes come with a death penalty. They'll be carried out against you for breaking that law. Man is born under a curse. When Adam sinned in the garden of Eden, God immediately judged him, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, for cursed is the ground for thy sake.

In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. The broken law of God, friend, will send you to hell if you stand in your own merits when you die in your sins. When you're held up against it, you must stand in the merits of another, Christ Jesus.

I know I am a sinner, and I need a substitute for sin in the person of Jesus Christ, and it is here where we will take a look at this doctrine of redemption. The best way for me to explain it is this way.

Redemption as Purchase in the Marketplace

I once traveled to the ancient ruins of Ephesus in modern-day Turkey. Perhaps some of you have been there as well. There in Ephesus lay the remarkable ruins of a remarkable city that both the Apostle John and the Apostle Paul lived and labored.

It's one of the best excavated ruins of ancient Greece. As I was walking along the ruins of that city, I came to the place at the town square where the street market was, where things were exposed for sale.

This was like a strip mall, as we know it today, where things were bought and sold. It was called the Agora. Now hang on to that word, friend, because out of it comes our word redemption. Redemption in the Greek is used by that word agora, for it is agorazo, which means to redeem, to acquire for oneself by a ransom or price paid, spoken of those whom Christ has redeemed by his blood, from the bondage of sin and death.

Here we have the picture of Jesus going into the marketplace of sin to purchase us and save us from the penalty of sin, agora, agorazo. Now let's go a little deeper here in this doctrine of redemption.

Bought Out of Slavery to Sin

The little participle ek in the Greek language means to take out, to take out of something. The Greek word ek, agorazo, means to buy out, to purchase a slave for his freedom. In the ancient Agora, it was a place where slaves could be bought and sold.

So this word for redemption, ek, agorazo, means that Christ entered the marketplace of sin and bought us by his blood, then he brought us out of it, never to go there again. This means that Christ saves us from the power of sin as well as the penalty of sin.

We don't have to be a slave to sin anymore. Christ our Redeemer gives us power over sin by his Holy Spirit within. Now let us look at this as how it pertains to our daily living, friends, as the blood-bought believer in Christ Jesus.

Redemption Means Belonging Entirely to Christ

In 1 Peter 2 and verse 24 we read, Who in his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye are healed? Let me tell you, friend, when you really get hold of that fact, when you really realize that Christ died for you, and you let the reality of that truth sink in, that redemption means buying back, that if he died for me, then I don't belong to myself, I belong to him.

He paid a price to purchase me, and that price was his very blood. If that's true, that redemption means buying back, and that I now belong to him, then I would be a thief to keep what wasn't mine. So in order to be consistent with this truth, I have to give up everything to God.

Redemption's Future Completion in Heaven

Listen, friends, when I came to see that Jesus had died for me, it was no longer hard to give up all for him. Well, I hope this little message on our redemption has helped you to better understand what Christ really did for you on Calvary's cross, how a bloodstained Savior saves us both from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, and one day we will stand in his presence in heaven and be saved from the presence of sin.

How wonderful heaven will be, friends. I don't know about you, but I don't fear dying. I have too much to look forward to, but let us pray.