Transcript

Please turn with me to the book of Colossians chapter 1, verse 12 to 14. Last week, I read to you from verse 3, all the way to 15 but today, I’m just going to read these three verses. But I want you to keep in mind verse 3 to 15, which is the basic subject matter of what we’re going to talk about.

We started a new series last week and titled it “Redeemed”. We’re going to talk about how we’re redeemed and what it means to be redeemed and what we are redeemed from. And let’s read verse 12, 13, and 14: “Giving thanks to the Father who was qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness of sins”. Notice the words “in whom we have redemption”; in whom we have the person. We’re going to talk about this person who is our Redeemer, today. You need to get a revelation of these things.

We talked about how sin came into man’s life and literally ruined everything. It touches every area of our life. When God redeems us, He redeems all that is lost. So, you need to keep that in mind. He redeems all that is lost. But the Redeemer is the key to this subject of redemption, the Redeemer. Why we need such a Redeemer, why an incarnation is necessary for redemption to happen, why God had to send his Son from Heaven that to this second person of the blessed Holy Trinity, must take on the form of a man and come into this world, to redeem man. Why couldn’t God arrange it some other way? Couldn’t any other man, a man of God, maybe a great prophet, some holy man, somewhere? Can such a person not be a redeemer? Why did God have to bring His Son in the form of a man? Why was incarnation necessary? Why God had to become man, take on humanity and come into this world in order to redeem man. That’s what we’re going to look at today.

Well, I would say the first thing is this, the plan of redemption had to have a man in it. First of all, we need to understand, it had to have a man in it. Why? Because a man was the key figure in the fall. The fall happened because man chose, he used his will. He was having his eyes wide open and fell into sin. He knew what he was doing. He chose to do it. Man was the key figure. But if you ask man, man was blaming his wife, as you know, and the wife was blaming the serpent, everybody put blame on someone else. Because that’s human nature, you know, but let’s read about what the Word of God says about it. Who is to be blamed for the fall? How does God’s Word look at it? The apostle Paul teaches it in Romans chapter 5, verse 12. How does God look at the fall? And who does He put the blame on squarely? Look at verse 12, “Therefore, just through one man sin entered into the world”—did you notice that—”just as through one man, sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned—”. 

Now, just notice the first couple of lines: “Through one man sin entered into the world”. Now, immediately I think men will object. They’ll say, “How can you say through one man’s sin? It’s the woman that was the problem. It’s the woman that talked to the serpent. The woman was influenced by the serpent. The woman is the one that ate the fruit first. The woman is the one that took it and gave it to man. Should you not blame the woman? Was it not right to blame the woman? Why do you blame the man? Why does God put the blame squarely upon man?” The woman is to be blamed when you first think.

But the Bible teaching is summarized by Paul here. Paul says, “Well, this is the way Bible looks at it; this is the way God looks at it: “through one man sin entered into the world”. Man is responsible. The reason is this: When God created, He created man first, the woman after man. Not only did He create man first, but He also gave all the instruction that He was supposed to give concerning what they can do and what they cannot do, such as the forbidden fruit and all of that. All instructions whatsoever, was given only to man, God never spoke to the woman. It was given to man and after that, only the woman was made. That’s the way the Bible presents it. All instructions were given to the man already. The man was supposed to share it with the woman and with the children, whoever he’s got, the man is responsible. So, that is why God holds the man responsible. He should have taken charge of the situation. He is knowledgeable about the Will of God in this matter. He knows what God wants and what God cannot accept. He knows what is forbidden. He should have risen up in that situation. He should have stopped the whole thing. He should have chased the devil out; the devil didn’t have authority over man. The devil was thrown out from Heaven, from the presence of God. The devil was a wanderer, he was a vagabond, he didn’t have a place to go, he had no authority whatsoever. Whereas man was given all authority. Everything that was created was put under man. Remember, when God made man, He blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply, replenish, subdue, and dominate”. So, God put everything under man. Man had a tremendous responsibility, because he had great authority, he was second to God only. Only God was above him, all of creation came under his administration and rule – the sun, moon, and the stars, all that was created, everything came under man. And therefore, man had a tremendous responsibility placed on him. He was put in charge. And what happened was that he kept quiet the whole time, when this whole thing took place. When everything happened, he simply stood there, and I don’t know what he did. But in the end, he just ended up doing what the devil wanted. He had his eyes wide-open; he was very knowledgeable, he had all the power to resist, he had the authority and ability to chase the devil out. He had the ability to take charge of the situation, he was the man in charge, but he did not take charge.

So, the man had the key role in the fall. Since man’s role is the main thing in the fall, consequently, the key figure in redemption had to be a man because man was the key figure in the fall. So, in the redemption also, man is supposed to play a big role just because it’s man who lost it, it’s man who must play a role in the redemption also. Man lost it by his will, by his decision, by his knowledge, with all the authority that was given to him, he still lost it. So, man had to play a role. Alright.

So, the redemption, the plan of redemption had to have a man in it, but it could not be a man who was born through a man. The Redeemer could not be a man who was born through man. What do I mean? You see, after Adam, all the people that were born after Adam were born through man, the seed of man is the thing that produced the generation after that. And so, one born among men in that way, could not be the Redeemer. The one that is supposed to be the Redeemer has to be exactly like the first man, the first one, Adam. He had to be a copy of the first Adam, otherwise it will not be right. He lost it and the one who redeems it also must be exactly like him. Now, this is very important because otherwise it will not be legal, it will not be the right thing. Man lost it, therefore, the kind of man that lost it must be the one that redeems it. Suppose I went in, we talked about the pawning last week, you know, to give an example of redemption, where you go and pawn your jewellery or something and, or something that you have and get some money for it. So, you’ve lost this stuff and now, you want to redeem it, you have to pay the money and redeem it. So, only the one that went and pawned it can redeem it, you know. Somebody else cannot go and do it, he has to go and do it. The one who lost it has to go and redeem it. One fellow cannot go on give it; another fellow cannot go and take it. That’s the way it is. You have to have the same man go back and get it. And also, the first man was a very special in so many ways.

Look at the first man: he had the nature of God in Him. He didn’t have sin in him; he had the nature of God in Him. He did not have the seed of the man in his blood. He was not born to another man, the first man. The first man was different from all of the men that came after him. All of the men that came after him, all of the people that came after him, were from the seed of this man. And then, after that, the men provide the seed and so on, that is how the birth happens. But the first man did not come from the seed of a man. He came from the seed of God; he had the seed of God in his blood. He was different. That is a very significant difference. There was no father, there was no human father before him, he was the first man. So, he came from God, he had the seed of God in His blood, he did not have sin, he had the nature of God in Him.

Now, the Redeemer has to be exactly like that but the problem is that kind of a person is not available now because sin has entered. And after sin entered, all men that are born to Adam, are now sinners, because the sin that came into Adam now began to be a fact in everyone’s life, everyone born after Adam, were born in sin. And so, therefore, there was no man available to redeem man, not the man that is required to redeem man. The kind of man that we’re talking about is not available. There was Adam and after that everybody was a sinner. You’ve got to have someone like Adam. Now, how did God get that kind of man. This is what makes incarnation necessary. Now, God had to make the arrangement and the thing is God has made the arrangement and made the plans. The Bible says, “Before the foundation of the world; before the world was created, God had made arraignment for the Redeemer”. When the book of Revelation talks about Jesus, it talks about Jesus as the Lamb of God, from before the foundation of the world, “slain before the foundation of the world”, it says in the book of Revelation. What does it mean when it says, “slain before the foundation of the world”? Does it mean that before the world was made that Jesus died? No, certainly not. It’s a biblical language and you have to understand it. What it’s saying is that God in His mind and plan and purpose had purposed that His Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, would become the Redeemer and He would go down in the form of a man and He would die on a cross and He will shed his blood, give His life, and make the sacrifice to redeem man. He knew that God knew that when He created man, there’s going to be some problem because if He created man in His image and likeness, that means the man would be a thinking being, he would be a free person, free to make his decisions, free to think, free to choose. The choice will be there, freedom will be there. Now, if choice and freedom is given to man, God knew very well, that it could go wrong. So, before God created man, before God created the world, see, the Bible puts the story in this way that He created the world first and then He created man last. The last creation was man. Now, before all of these things happened, before the creation of the world, or man, God already set in His mind, the plan and the purpose of redemption already was set in God’s mind. He’s like a tremendous Father, you know.

Now, in our country we hear of people, before the child is born, they’re ready with school fees, ready to pay some lakhs of rupees to these schools to get them in. I know some people that have got the college fees put away before the child is born. Some are very wise and very clever; they know how to plan. They’re good parents and all of that. But if you and I could do this, how much more God? God is an all-able, all-powerful God. Before God made man, before He even made the world, He had already planned for man’s redemption; the Saviour was already ready. Before man was made, the Saviour was made ready. That is the way the Bible presents it. Now, man sinned and Saviour is needed, the Saviour had to be the kind of man that the first Adam was before he sinned. He’s got to be that kind of man and there is no man like that available. So, how did God get that kind of a man in here, into this world?

Now, turn with me to Luke, chapter 1. Luke, chapter 1, where we have the story of the birth of Jesus and there, we can start reading from verse 30 onwards, Luke chapter 1, verse 30, onwards: The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name JESES. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father, David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom, there will be no end”. Now, the angel comes to Mary and says, “Look, Mary, you’re going to conceive in your womb, and bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He’s going to be great.” And look at this: “He will be called the Son of the Highest.” He’s going to be that kind of Adam, the Bible calls Jesus the second Adam, or the last Adam, sometimes the Apostle Paul does. Because to emphasize this very fact that he was just like that first Adam in every way. That is why He could be the second Adam or the last Adam. It says that He’ll be called the Son of the Highest, in every sense. He was the Son of God Himself. In every sense, God was His Father. There was no man involved because she was not married and she did not conceive because of marital relations; she conceived supernaturally. Verse 34. “Then Mary said to the angel, how can this be since I do not know a man?” Now, this is not a question that came out of unbelief. Zacharia’s few verses earlier, the same angel goes to Elizabeth’s husband, Zachariah, and tells him because Elizabeth and Zachariah, they’ve been waiting for a child to be born and they’ve been getting old and nothing happened. And all of a sudden, one day Zachariah was ministering in the temple. He was a priest, and the angel of God, this same angel, appears to him and says, “Now your wife is going to conceive and is going to have a child”, and tells him about all that’s going to happen in the life of John the Baptist. How God is going to use him and all that. But, you know, his response was of unbelief. It’s different. There is a difference between Mary’s response and his response. I response was, “Don’t you know? I’m old and my wife is old”. You know, he thought God didn’t know the age. So, he wanted to tell God the age. We are very old; this is not possible right now; you’re coming too late. And then, he said to the angel, “I want a sign”.

Now, that’s funny to me, really, because the angel of God has come right where he is and appearing and standing before him. Don’t you think that is a sign? I would think that’s a sign if an angel came into my room and stood there and I know it’s the angel of God talking to me, I wouldn’t be asking for a sign because that itself is a sign. You cannot get a greater sign than that. But this guy asked for a sign, that clear thing of unbelief. And he was talking about how it’s impossible because they are old and so on. That is why he was given a sign, a very strange sign, where he could not talk after that. Because when some people talk, even the child that is going to be born will not be born. It will not happen. Just by their talk, they can undo what God has tried to do. That’s how powerful their words are. So, he was made dumb until the day John the Baptist was born. And after John the Baptist was born, he was let loose. He was able to speak, there’s no more danger.

But in Mary’s case, it was not the same thing. She says, “I know not a man”. I do not know a man; how can this be? This is a very reasonable question. Here is a young woman not even married, and the angel comes and tells her that she’s going to conceive, she doesn’t understand. She said, how is it possible? I do not know a man. That is, I’m not married. The angel answered and said to her, now listen to this, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, the Holy One who is to be born, will be called the Son of God”. Again, the expression, the Son of God. The one that’s going to be born of you is going to be the Son of God. He’s going to be born not as a result of a relationship with a man, not through the seed of a man that’s already here in this world, born through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest will overshadow you. And as a result, the Holy One is going to be born. Notice the word, “Holy One”. That is why He is the Holy One, because He was born of this. If He was born through the seed of a man, He will not be the Holy One, because the seed of a man is sinful. After Adam sinned, all others were born through Adam, were born in sin. So, a holy one is not possible. So, a Holy One is going to be born. The Holy One is born through the power of the Holy Spirit, conception happens and He’ll be called the Son of God. And then, angel says to her in verse 36, “Now, indeed, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren”.

Now, the angel of God is saying this just to encourage her, “Look, your cousin was getting old and didn’t have a child for a long time. She was a barren woman, everybody knows that. But she is now pregnant, six months”. Then angel says, “For with God nothing will be impossible”. In other words, the angel is saying, “Look, your cousin is pregnant. For a long time, she was barren, she couldn’t have a child. She’s pregnant. Why? Because with God, nothing will be impossible.” Then Mary said, “Behold, the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. That’s a tremendous response of faith on the part of Mary. I don’t know if she understood what the angel said, when he said that the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest will overshadow you, and the Holy One will be born of you, He’ll be called the Son of God. I don’t know how much of it she understood, but she was ready to believe the angel. And she said, “I am a maidservant of the Lord, and let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. Now, this is how God brings this man that is required for redemption into this world. The man born without the seed of man, and with the blood of God in His veins, He was born, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin. God had planned, kept it. Nobody understood it. All through history, God gives certain clues and makes certain statements, but nobody seems to have understood.

Now, go back to Genesis, chapter 3, the very first promise of the coming Messiah. Look at this, just think about what Adam and Eve and the devil would have understood by this. Verse 15 “I will put enmity”—God says to the serpent—”I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel”. Well, Satan didn’t understand all of it but he understood one thing, that God is going to raise up a seed of the woman. I don’t know if you understood what that meant. He’s going to be the seed of the woman; He’s going to be born of a woman without the help of a man and that person is going to bruise your head. I’m sure he understood that part very well. That his head is going to be bruised and from that time onwards, he started looking out. Watch out because he knew that God was going to send a seed of a woman who’s going to bruise his head. And then, in chapter 4, in verse 1; look at chapter 4, verse 1, it says, “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore—now, this is the first child born to Adam and Eve—she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord”. King James Version would say, “I have begotten a man from the Lord”. In other words, it looks like she was expecting this child, to be the one to bruise the head of Satan. I don’t blame her because they’ve lost everything, they had been thrown out of the garden. They’ve lost all the blessings of God, the good life that God had provided them in the beautiful garden, as a result of their disobedience and sin. Now, they are outside the garden, living their own life, struggling in every area of their life, because of sin. The curse was in operation. I’m sure she longed for somehow to be relieved from this curse and to be brought back to the blessing. And the only thing that she could remember is that God said, “The seed of the woman will come and He’s going to bruise the head of the serpent, this devil, who’s been behind these things.”

Now, she’s expecting eagerly for such a person to come and when she got pregnant, she started thinking, well, this has got to be the child, certainly. God said, He’s going to raise up a seed of the woman, to bruise the head of the serpent so, this is the one who’s going to do it. And so, when the child was born, she says, “I have acquired a man from the Lord”. In other words, she’s saying, “Here is a man from God, the kind of man that God was talking about, that’s going to bruise, the head of the devil. Here is that man”. She was all full of expectation but he didn’t happen to be that saviour or redeemer. He happened to be the first murderer. He had the nature of Adam because he was born from the seed of Adam, who has become a sinner. Sin nature has entered into him; therefore, sin was part of his life and here he became a murderer. And I think then the devil started watching out for Abel because Abel started getting close to God. He was worshipping God, he was offering sacrifices, he was pleasing God in all his ways, he was having a very close relationship with God. So, the devil got very nervous, you know. He started looking out for this person who was going to come and bruise his head. So, that is how the murder of Abel happens. He moves upon Cain to murder Abel. And Abel is murdered because devil wanted to eliminate all the possibilities of this thing happening – the bruising of his head, happening. Now, you see biblical history, you will see that the devil always goes against the godly seed and tries to destroy them because from the beginning, when God made the promise, the devil had been nervous, watching out for this person will come and bruise his head one day and that is why He gave such a big problem to all the godly seed.

Now, God had done what He had always wanted to do. He has brought down this man, this second person of the Trinity, in the form of a man into this world and the Bible refers to him as the Son of Man and the Hebrew words for it are ‘ben-adam’. Ben-adam means the son of Adam, or it means just like Adam. Now, that’s very significant. Doesn’t mean just like Adam in a very ordinary way. He’s like Adam. No, no, not the Adam, that has sinned; he’s like the Adam that was before sinning. He’s like the Adam that walked with God, and that Adam, that was made in the image and likeness of God, that Adam that had the nature of God, that Adam that had no sin. He’s ‘ben-adam’, the son of Adam! He was like Adam, that was originally made by God. See what God has done. The great God of the universe had this one and only spotless thing. spotless person. and that was His Son, His only begotten Son. Only He is available to do the job. There is no one, there is no man on earth, because everybody is sinful Adam’s children. Nobody can be a redeemer. Nobody, anywhere, other than God’s Son, the only begotten Son. Now, God decided to do something very remarkable. He was ready to give His only begotten Son to come into this world, take on humanity, enter into this world, live, and suffer and die on the Cross. And that is why the price that Jesus paid, is considered a precious price. It’s very precious. There’s absolutely no one that could redeem, there is no one else qualified to redeem. God Himself cannot come and redeem, because it has to be a man because man lost it, the man must redeem. So, here is the only person that can do the job that nobody else could do. And God has sent Him to do it. God didn’t have to do it. God didn’t have to make such a big sacrifice but He did it because He loved us. He refused to give up on us. I can see the Fatherhood of God; I can see the Fatherly nature of God through all of this.

A parent, a father, especially, when he sees his son or daughter going wrong, going in the wrong way, and destroying themselves, does not leave them to destroy themselves. A good father, what he does is, he focuses all of his attention upon this child that is ruined, that is going in the wrong way. All of his resources are employed, to somehow bring back this son or daughter that is going in the wrong way. He goes and spends all of his time, all of his money, all of his energy, contacts everyone that he knows, does anything that he can, gets all the counsel that he can, does whatever he could to somehow restore the child back. Why? Because he gave birth to the child. The child is his child; he becomes responsible. Now, God, I think felt like that when man sinned and fell into sin and the whole mankind plunged into sin. God could have simply withdrawn Himself and said, “You guys deserve it. You did it, and you live with it.” But God didn’t do that because He’s got this Father’s heart. He says, “I will go to any lengths. I would spend all My energy, every resource that I have and I will do everything that is in My ability to restore man.” And I’ll tell you, when God acts like that, God can restore man.

Now, the psalmist in Psalm 8, look at Psalm 8 for just a moment. He is astonished at God’s love for man but not only for the love of man, he is astonished at the way that God has made man and God looks at man. Look at verse 3, chapter 8. Psalm 8, verse 3: When I consider your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? Now, the psalmist looks at the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars, and he says, “Wow, that glitters, that’s glorious, that’s shining, it’s beautiful, but when I look at man, he looks very ordinary. He doesn’t look anything special. Nothing very attractive, nothing glittering, nothing glorious about him. He looks very ordinary among the creation but you look at God and God is ever so mindful of him. I like that word. His mind, God’s mind is fully occupied with this fallen man. God’s mind is fully occupied in redeeming and restoring man. He’s always thinking about this man. He’s always working things above for this man. All His energy and time and power are used for this man. You’re so mindful of him, the Son of man, that you visit him. Why? What is so special about man? He gets a revelation; he writes: For you made him a little lower than the angels and You have crowned him with glory and honour. He sees that man is so special before God. Man is like a child of God; God created man and looks upon as his own child and children. “Crowned him with glory and honour” – You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands. All of creation was put under man. Man was second only to God to rule over everything. You put all things under his feet. Everything was under man’s feet. But that is why God goes to this extent of sending His only begotten Son. Because man is so special. He is ever so mindful of him, thinking of them, will not let him perish in his sin. He created him and therefore, He feels an obligation to restore him. You ask any child today, he will tell you, “You’re my father; you gave birth to me, so you come after me, you do this for me. You’re supposed to educate me, you’re supposed to help me, you’re supposed to feed me, you’re supposed to do all those things, you’re the father.” And God is the perfect Father. And look at the perfect Father going to work, always mindful of this fallen person and doing the utmost for his salvation, giving His only begotten Son to come into this world, to redeem this man.

Now, when this man came into the world, he had to be a real true man. So, when Jesus came into this world, He did everything that He did, from the time He was born to the time that He died on the Cross, everything that He did, He did it as a man filled with the Holy Spirit, as any other man or man of God would do things. He did His miracles, He preached and ministry, everything that He did, was done by the power of the Holy Spirit, by faith in God. That’s how He did it! He said it, He Himself said, “The works that I do, the Father is doing through Me. I see the Father do it and I do it”. I’m not here to do whatever I want to do. So, He’s acting as a true man. He did not use anything that is uncommon to man to get His job done here. He lived as a true man because He’s got to be a true man to redeem man. So, He took on humanity, He used what men would commonly use, that is faith and anointing of the Holy Spirit and all of those things to do His work. You read about that in Acts, chapter 10.

Let me quickly read this verse: Acts, Chapter 10, verse 38, says this about Jesus. Peter preaching in Cornelius house refers to Jesus and says this about Jesus (Acts 10:38): He says, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit, and with power”. How did Jesus do all the miracles, signs, and wonders? Because He was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. That’s how any man would do it. Any man doing signs and wonders, miracles, does it like that. Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. That means He’s showing what can be done by a man when he’s anointed by the power of the Holy Spirit and when a man has faith in God, when a man is sent by God to do some work, when the man is empowered by God, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with faith. When he goes forth, what can a man do? You can look at Jesus and it shows you what a man can do.

So, He is a true man. He is the Redeemer. He is qualified, fully qualified as a Redeemer because He is just like that Adam that was before the fall. He had the nature of God, He didn’t have sin in Him, He had the seed of God in Him, He was not born through a man. In every way, He was just like that first Adam and He goes to the Cross, pays the price for our eternal redemption, buys us back and look at what Paul says about how we have been bought and now that we belong to Him. In chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians, verse 19, he said, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you. Whom you have received from God and you are not your own?” Now, he says, “You’re not your own; you were bought at the price.” So, he says, “You’re the temple of God, you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit which you have from God and you are not your own.” Why are you not your own? You see, we go around saying, “It’s my money, my body, my everything. I’ll do with it whatever I wish.” Well, look at this: For you are bought at a price. Look at how Paul looks at redemption. What happened with redemption is Jesus came and died, gave His life, went through all that He went through and as a result, He has bought us at a price, therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

Now, there are many things in here, but I just want to point out this. Many people think that redemption has to do only with the forgiveness of sin, because in Colossians, when we read from Colossians chapter 1, verse 12, to 14, verse 14 says, “In whom we have redemption, which is the forgiveness of sin”. Now, many people have taken that and said, “Redemption has to do only with the forgiveness of sin. It has nothing to do with anything else other than the forgiveness of sin.” Nothing can be farther from the truth than that. Yes, it says, “Redemption through Him, which is the forgiveness of sin.” But don’t limit redemption to the forgiveness of sin. See, what happened when man sinned? When men sinned, first of all, something spiritual happened. He became spiritually dead. Spiritually dead means, he didn’t just fall down and die. See, death in the Bible is not just falling down and dying, not stopping this thing of breathing. It’s not that the man’s breath has stopped and the man has stopped breathing. That’s not what is called death. The Bible talks about spiritual death. Spiritual death is everything that is evil coming into man, everything that is evil coming into man. If you’re not happy in your life, that’s death, it’s a kind of death. If you’re afraid, if you’re anxious, you’re not able to sleep, that is a kind of death, that’s the way the Bible puts it. Death is everything that is evil; life is everything that is good! In Deuteronomy, you remember, God says, “I put before you life and death, choose life”, He says. What does He mean? Is He saying choose whether you going to live or die? No, of course not. He says, “I’ve put life and death before you. Life means everything that is good; death means everything that is bad.” He says, “Don’t choose everything that is bad; choose everything that is good. Choose life.” How do I know that this is the meaning? Because in the same passage, where He says, “I put before you life and death and choose life”, He also says, “I put before you blessing and cursing”, He says. It’s the same thing. Life is blessings; death is all the curses. “Choose blessing, not the curse”, He says.

So, what happened when man sinned? When man sinned, he opened the door for the curses to come in. That means, everything that is bad, death came and settled in. It started with a relationship with God being cut off, then it spread everywhere. See, sin affects every area of your life. It goes to every nook and corner of your mind and pollutes it, dirties it. It goes into every nook and corner of your body, destroys it completely, destroys your health and everything about it. This goes into your family life and brings such unhappiness and dissatisfaction and all of the strife and everything into the family life. It goes into your material life, your financial life and destroys the work of your hand, takes away the blessing, so that you work a lot and earn very little. Sin begins with the relationship with God being cut off but then, it spreads to every area of our life, to marriage, family, to our body, to our mind, to the work of our hands, to our social life, everywhere; it spreads everywhere and completely ruins everything. And when redemption comes, what does it do? When we are bought at a price, when we are redeemed from the curse, when we are redeemed from being slaves of the enemy, the devil and sin. When we are redeemed and bought at the price, what happens? First of all, a relationship with God is established. The spiritual thing happens, then that being established now, the effect of it spreads everywhere. It affects your mind, the peace of your mind, the tranquillity of your mind. Everything about your mind is affected by it. Your relationship with God is affected by it. Your body begins to enjoy the life of God. Health becomes a part of your life and then, even the work of your hand is blessed. Whatever you put your hand to do, is blessed. Your family life is blessed. Strife and all of those things begin to wane and peace and joy and happiness begins to come. In that way, every aspect of life is affected. So, to say, that redemption has only to do with spiritual things, with the forgiveness of sin. A lot of people have reduced it to such a small thing. The Bible calls the salvation as “a great salvation”. The book of Hebrews says, “It’s a great salvation”, that’s the expression used, “great salvation” because it is very great because it covers everything. It changes us radically and totally. People have taken it and made it into a very small thing, forgiveness of sin now and when you die heaven. That’s what they have reduced it to. Alright.

So, God has come into this world in the form of a human. God has succeeded in getting this man into this world. And the last Adam did exactly what the first Adam did. What did the first Adam do when he fell into sin? He went from life to death, which is what we were talking about right now. Life to death. He was the first man to go from life to death. Literally, He was born again in the wrong way. God didn’t make Him like that; God made him a person just like Him, in His image and likeness, in fellowship with God without sin. But now he’s gone from life, everything good, into a life where everything is bad. Later on, when Jesus came as the Redeemer, He is doing exactly the same. Look at what Jesus did when He came. He was the second Adam, sinless one. He was just like the first Adam before sinning. He had the seed of God in Him; He’s the sinless One. And what does He do? He does something very similar to the first Adam. He takes our sin upon Himself and becomes sin. This is something very remarkable.

2 Corinthians 5:21 once again, that tremendous verse, which says, “For God made Him to be sin for us that knew no sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. So, what does He, the second Adam, do? He does what exactly the first Adam did. The first Adam partook of sin. The second Adam comes and partakes of sin in a very similar way, but this is not a bad thing. This is Him partaking, not by sinning but He partakes of sin. He takes our sin and takes it upon Himself. And on the Cross, He became sin for us. Galatian, chapter 3, verse 13 says, As it is written, “Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree” – talking about the Cross again. So, Paul says that He took our curse. He took our sin and the curse that accompanies that sin.

When you read Deuteronomy, chapter 28, it’s a very interesting chapter. The first 14 verses are blessings. It says, “You will be blessed going out, coming in; you will be blessed in the city and in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed. The fruit of your cattle will be blessed. The fruit of your field will be blessed and it’ll increase. Even your grinder will be blessed”, it says. It says, “Your enemy will come one way and run seven ways. God will bless the work of your hands; everything that you put your hand to do, will be blessed. God will send rain and new season; therefore, you will not borrow but you will be lending to many nations.  You will not be beneath, but you shall be above only. You will not be the tail but be the head.” That’s the first 14 verses. But then, the verses go up to 68 verses I think, long passage, dreadful passage. You’d hate to read it. It looked like a medical catalogue of diseases and curses, financial curses, curses in the area of work of our hands, in family life. All of those things that we talked about, how marriage fails and how finances fail, how health fails. It’s talking about all the curses. I mean, it makes an elaborate list, long passage and in the middle of it, in verse 61, there is an interesting verse, in Deuteronomy 28. After giving a big catalogue of diseases, particularly, it says, “Even those diseases that are not mentioned here will come”. Just to make sure everything is covered.

So, look at Jesus hanging there on the Cross. The first Adam partook of sin in the wrong way. He became a sinner; he sinned and partook of sin in this way. The second Adam partook of sin in another way. He took our sin and made it His great sacrifice, He never sinned but He took our sin and became sin for us. And when He became sin for us, He also took our curse and took our punishment on the Cross and He died there in that condition and when He died, something very interesting. In Acts, chapter 2, Peter preaches on the day of Pentecost. Remember that first sermon that Peter preachers after the Resurrection, on the day of Pentecost? He says this: let me read to you from verse 23, “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands and have crucified and put to death…” In other words, “You crucified Christ”, he says, looking at the Jewish people. Then he says, “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.” Now, Peter is going into some area that is very astonishing. In other words, he seems to imply that Jesus was experiencing the pains of death. This is a reference, if you read the following verses, you’ll see that it’s a reference to Jesus, not only suffering pain and agony on the Cross, physically, but He experienced the pain more than that, by going into the very depths of hell, he says, Listen to the rest. For David says concerning Him—then, he refers to David’s prophecy. He says—’I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He’s at my right, that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoices and my tongue was glad; moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Hades” – which is hell. He’s referring to David psalm, quoting it, just like that. He says, “For You will not leave my soul in Hades—in hell—nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence”. It appears as though he is talking about himself because he’s saying, “You will not leave my soul in Hades, You will not allow your Holy One to see corruption”, and so on. “You have made known to me the ways of life.” It looks like he’s talking about himself. But look at the next verse: “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” In other words, he’s saying, “Hey look, I’m not talking about David because David is dead. His graveyard is here. You know where his grave is. His body is still there.” So, when he said, “You will not leave my soul in the Hades”—in hell—“You will not allow Your Holy One to see corruption”, David was not speaking about himself because he died and his grave is with us. And you know, and everybody standing there knows, in Jerusalem. And then he says, “Therefore being a prophet.”

What is David talking about being a prophet, and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him? That is the fruit of his body according to his flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. In other words, he says that David knew that God is going to raise up Someone, One of his descendants to reign on His throne and that would be the Christ, the anointed One, the Messiah. He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God raised up, of which we’re all witnesses. In other words, he’s saying, when David said you will not leave my soul in Hades, that is hell, that means, it seems like the soul, the Spirit of Jesus went into Hell, was taken into hell, not only did He suffer our sin, not only did He take our sin upon Him and became cursed on the Cross of Calvary. When He died there, His spirit descended into hell, where every fallen man has to go, descended into hell for man. He experienced not only the punishment for our sin, which is death, but He also experienced the punishment which is hell. He went all the way to hell! That’s what David implies and God did not leave His soul in hell. He did not allow His Holy One to see corruption. He did not leave Him in hell. He went all the way down into hell and concerning why He went into hell, one man writes like this: He went into the very bottom, where there was no more bottom left, where He did not reach, so that you would not have to go, so that the worst sinner from this great earth can be lifted from his sin and trespasses. If He did not go to the very bottom—listen to this—if He did not go to the very bottom, there would be a degree of sin that He did not cover. He says the very fact that He went all the way down to hell is very important. Some people assume that He went into hell, in the good section, you know, the story of Lazarus, the poor Lazarus and rich man, Jesus said. The poor Lazarus and rich man both are in Hades. But the place where Lazarus was, there was a place of comfort, a good place where he’s enjoying his life, sitting in the bosom of Abraham. But the place where the rich man was, he was in agony. He was asking for one drop of water to be put on his tongue. Two sections. One good; one bad. So, some people say Jesus went only to the good section. But it looks like Jesus went to the bad section. 

Jesus went to the bad section because that is where a sinner would have gone, carrying our sin, being laden with our sin. Having become sin for us, taking our curse, our punishment, went all the way down where sinners would have gone. And there, Satan realizes he has made a big mistake by bringing Him there because He was there because of our sins that was upon Him. Not because He has sinned, therefore, Satan all of a sudden found there was no authority over Him. He had no authority over Him. He could not rule over Him. He could not be held there at all. That is why verse 24, in Acts 2, says this: “Whom God has raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.” The devil found out that he could not hold Him there. It was not possible for death to hold Him because He is a different kind of man; He is a sinless man. The second Adam, sinless man, taking on our sin, He suffered. The devil thought, we’ll take Him to hell where all sinners belong, because He has become sin, and He is cursed now. We’ll take Him down to hell, and there, he found out that he could not hold Him because He did not have any sin. He was carrying our sin; therefore, the devil had no authority over Him and Colossians, chapter 2, verse 15 tells us what happened there.

In hell, this is what happened. Having disarmed the principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them. Now, in hell, Jesus overtook the devil and his hosts, defeated them fully and completely, totally. Disarmed principalities, that means, He took their weapons, they had no weapons to use against Jesus, because He was the sinless One. He disarmed the principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them. He put them to public shame, one translation says. Put them to shame, publicly, triumphing over them in it. And the Tamil translation puts it beautifully. Instead of “in it”. In what? The Tamil translation says [Tamil] That means, He triumphed over them in the Cross of Calvary. What happened on the Cross of Calvary is not that He just died there, took our sin there, took our curse there. He went all the way down to hell, where every sinner would have gone and suffered His hell also, but then, the devil found out that he cannot hold Him there. Death could not hold Him because He was the sinless One. He triumphed over them, disarmed them, disarmed the principalities and powers, made a public show of them. When God raised Him from the dead and brought Him back up because He has completed His work and finished this work successfully.

Now, when He came up from death, Peter says, “We are all witnesses of it”. And when He came out, everyone that put faith in Him was now free from Satan’s hold and from sins dominion. Sin and Satan could not hold anybody in its dominion anymore if they put their faith in Him. That is why, they went and proclaimed forgiveness of sin, in the name of Jesus, everywhere. Because if you put your faith in Him, Satan and sin cannot hold you down. Something great has happened. What happened? A great exchange has happened. He took our sin, so that we may take His righteousness. So, sin went upon Him, righteousness came on us. He took our weakness and our sickness, so that His divine health and healing can come to us.

Now, how dare that some people say that in redemption, healing is not there? When the Son of God Himself, I like Matthew 8:17, like I quoted the other day, when A.B Simpson discovered it. He says, “For He Himself took our weakness and our sicknesses.” “He Himself”, that word became so real to me. “He Himself”. Who? The Son of God Himself, came down from Heaven and took it upon Himself. Why would He take it upon Himself? It would have no meaning, Him taking our sin upon Himself, our sickness upon Himself would have no significance, whatsoever, without us being able to get healing from that. He took it upon Himself, is meaningful only because that means that we can receive healing. Otherwise, why would He take it upon Himself? Why did He take it upon Himself? For what? Just so He can take it upon Himself? No! He took it upon Himself so that you and I can be healed. He Himself took it, so we can believe that healing is ours.

Well, there’s a lot of people that say redemption does not include healing for our bodies. Well, how can anybody say that? They say it has passed away. How can a fact pass away? It’s a fact that He Himself took it upon Himself. It cannot pass away means He took it upon Himself that means that we can claim our healing from what He did on the Cross of Calvary. So, He died to make us alive. He was made sin, so that we can be made righteous. He became weak, so that we can become strong. He suffered shame, so that we can receive glory. He suffered hell to send us to Heaven, so that we can go to heaven. He went down into hell. He was condemned, so that we can be justified and be called righteous. He was made sick with our sickness in all of that, so we may receive His health. He was cast out of the very presence of God. God turned His face away from Him because He was made sin. He was cast out from the presence of God, that He cried out “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me”? So that you and I could hear those beautiful words which said, “Come boldly, to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy in the time of need”. He was cast away from the presence of God, so that you and I can come into the presence of God.

Let me tell you, my friends, we are New Covenant people. We are redeemed people. Now, redeemed means something extraordinary. The New Covenant is something that far surpasses anything that you can imagine. I think, you shouldn’t settle for anything less. A lot of people are still in the Old Testament. I remember, back in those days, we used to have double portion meetings. So, we wanted to get the double portion, like Elisha asked for Elijah’s double portion of the anointing and the gift that he had. In the Old Testament, the people were afraid of God’s presence. When Moses went and stood in God’s presence and came back, they said, “Please cover your face, we cannot stand to look at it. It’s glowing too much.” When God spoke, they said, “Don’t speak to us; we’re afraid. Speak to someone else, let them come and tell us.” That’s the way they were. But under the New Covenant, that Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Moses and all these great prophets and so on, who shuddered before the presence of God, before the glory of His countenance, has come now to dwell in us. He’s living in us. So, Jesus says, “Of all men born of a woman, there is none greater than John the Baptist.” In other words, “John the Baptist, is the greatest prophet”, He says, under the Old Covenant, greater than Elijah, and all these people who had double portion. He’s greater than all of them. But then, the very next line says, “The least in the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist.” That’s the difference of the New Covenant. The least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist.

I hope you and I realize today that we are New Covenant people, the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist. Never settle down for anything less than that. You are redeemed. You are a redeemed person. Jesus suffered on the Cross and went all the way down into hell and came out of it, defeating every power of Satan, every force of Satan, for you. He did it all for you. He didn’t do it for Himself; he didn’t need it. He did it for us, so that we can be free from it, so that we can be redeemed, so that we can belong to Him, and so that we can be free, so that we can be blessed. You and I are redeemed and the Psalmist says in Psalm 107, I think, verse 2, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.” Amen.

Stand up together, please. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. I want you to remember this week as you go about. Remember that you are redeemed; you’re not an ordinary person. God did the utmost for you, sent His Son, died on the Cross, went all the way down into hell, so that you can be redeemed, you can belong to God, you can be a child of God, so that you can have the blessings of God in every area of your life, so that your life will be filled with the blessings of God in spirit, soul and body, in the work of your hands, in your family. In every area of your life, the blessings of God can flow freely. That’s what being redeemed means.

Let’s lift up our hands and give thanks to God.