Beauty in Our Redemption
The Red Thread — Part One
Finding Beauty in Our Redemption
Why do I say “Finding Beauty” in these talks? Perhaps it’s because the human heart is drawn to beauty. When you find something beautiful, it stirs your heart—be it music, a sunset, an ocean, or a mountain range—whatever strikes you as beautiful, your heart seems to always be drawn to it.
Jesus talked about the kingdom of God being like a man searching for beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Searching for beauty isn’t a quick glance at something. When we see the beauty that thrills our soul, we gaze at it; if possible, we hold it—either in our mind or in our hands. What if in finding beauty, we find meaning, and in finding meaning, we find joy, and in finding joy, we find the source of it all—Jesus.
I believe there is great, great beauty in Jesus—what He has done for me and what He is doing in me. I can’t stop talking about Him and what He has done. He is the pearl of great price.
Review from Last Week
Perhaps, just perhaps, when the one that speaks truth into your life is where you begin to notice Grace. The Lord called Gideon “The Mighty Man of Valor” before Gideon ever picked up a stone to throw. The LORD spoke truth into Gideon’s life and was with him as he became what the LORD knew him to be. The voice of truth will always speak to who you are, not what you should be because the LORD already sees who you are.
Seeing and hearing who the LORD calls you becomes a beautiful part of your journey. I believe learning from the Scriptures and the Messiah is the highest form of learning, and it is the urgent call for the Church in this time.
Finding Our Beauty in Our Redemption
God Made a Way
God made a way back to Him before you ever knew you were going to need a way back. This is the foundation of Truth about an Abba (Daddy) Father who has seen beyond your years, before you took your first breath, and has been calling you before creation.
There is no greater story than the eternal and, yes, mystical one we call Redemption. God making A Way when there was no way for you; to reveal The Truth to you when you did not believe there was any such thing, and to give you life when you had no life to start with.
Definition of Redemption
Redemption is God’s gracious act of rescuing humanity from spiritual death and offering eternal life through Christ’s sacrifice. It is being saved from sin and its consequences through Jesus Christ. It encompasses:
- Deliverance from Sin (Romans 3:23–24)
- Restoration – Restores the relationship between God and man (Ephesians 2:8–9)
- Transformation – A process of spiritual renewal where believers (those who have trusted in Christ) are transformed into a new life aligned with God’s will (Titus 2:14).
- The transformed life is the exchanged life.
- We exchanged what we didn’t have for everything that Jesus has: Life!
Jesus – The Red Thread
If we were to read all the books that have been written on redemption, study the Old Testament Scriptures and all the New Testament letters, and then try to summarize them in one word—what would that word be?
Yes: Jesus.
He is the red thread, the purpose, and the meaning throughout all Scripture—the subject, if you will.
Imagine:
66 books in the Bible
40 authors
Written over 1,500 years
All pointing to one—the One—Jesus, our Lord.
He is the subject (the Who).
The theme in all the Scriptures—the Why—is called Redemption.
Redemption: The What, the Who, and the Why
Redemption (deliverance, restoration, and transformation) points to what we lost and how we get it back again.
We lost our right-ness with our Creator, and consequently we needed a way back to who He created us to be.
Simply put:
Who was it that came for us and why?
He Knows What Has Hurt Us
We have the Author of our salvation, as Hebrews identifies Jesus, and we have the One who holds all things together, as revealed in Colossians—the One who knows what has hurt us.
Even if we don’t know the source of our hurt—something in us might seem askew, off, or wrong—the root of this, in a believer, is often sin consciousness and condemnation.
This has robbed Christians of:
- Peace with themselves
- Peace with others
- Peace with the Father
It has robbed us of:
- Fellowship and friendship with His Son
- And caused us to fear the Holy Spirit
It has given us a sense of unworthiness before God.
The joy expressed in the Gospels has become words on a page at best, and at worst something we despise—because we want to have it, but peace seems elusive.
As Kenny once said:
“It was like nailing Jell-O to a tree.”
Let the Scriptures Speak
Colossians 1:13
He has delivered us (past tense) from the power of darkness and conveyed (citizenship) us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love.
Citizenship in God’s Kingdom
What a beautiful place to start—He, Jesus, has delivered us.
If we have been delivered, then from what?
The power of darkness—that would be the kingdom of this world.
But we’ve been given citizenship into God’s Kingdom.
Roman citizenship meant everything:
- Legal protection and right to appeal to a higher authority
- Political participation (i.e., voting)
- Right to own property, marry under Roman law, and move freely across the empire
We have legal rights in God’s Kingdom.
One of those rights—and perhaps the most important—is our standing before the Lord as being the righteousness of God in Christ.
This becomes critical for us—not only to know this, but to realize it.
Beauty in Our Redemption
The Red Thread — Part One (continued)
Our Standing in Righteousness
Romans 3:20
Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed (made clear), being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.
How righteous is God? When you believed you received the righteousness of God. All of it. It wasn’t handed out with partiality. It wasn’t given to you based on your good looks, study habits, or feeding of the poor. You got it all and God isn’t going to take it back.
Not only does He not take it back, He could not take away your righteousness because this righteousness is not based on what you have done, it is based on what Jesus Christ did on the cross for you.
God decided what He was going to make you and if He felt like making you righteous, then come hell or high water, you are righteous.
You have a right-standing with Him. You don’t get a choice in the matter. It’s our believing in what He did that is the real matter. It matters to Him who He made you—it cost Him His Son.
This righteousness, it is given to who? To all and on all, for there is no difference.
Man or woman, white or black, red or yellow, tall or short, skinny or not… FOR
Romans 3:23–24
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
The Sin Problem
So in order for you to become righteous, Jesus had to deal with the root problem of man, which is sin.
The root of man’s unrighteousness is sin.
Jesus had to deal with the Sin problem.
Romans 3:25–26
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Like my good friend Wayne Jocobson says,
“Hearing the truth about what God has done for you is going to set you free but, it’s going to mess with you first!”
When you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you became the Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Which is, Christ In you. The hope of glory.
Your Standing Before God
Your Standing — How do you think the Creator looks at you?
He paid the most incredible price for your life, and do you think He forgot what that price was?
He cherishes you and has no greater joy than to be with you and to see you walking in truth.
Would He ever condemn the one who He made righteous?
How could He condemn the one He gave His Son’s life for?
When you stand before the Father right NOW and IN THE FUTURE He will see you—the beautiful you, the redeemed you, the glorious you, and His Masterpiece.
Standing Before the Throne
Standing before the throne of God—How do you see yourself?
What does the Scripture say about you?
How could there be any doubt? God never, ever lies!
His word is Truth and He thinks very, very highly of you.
Romans 4:25
Who (Jesus Christ) was delivered up because of our offenses (sins), and was raised because of our justification. (when we were justified)
Isaiah 53 says that our iniquities were laid on Him.
Once they are laid on Him, they are no longer laid on us.
If they are on Him, why do we want them back?
Why do we continue to fret and stew about something that Jesus took away?
We Have Peace
Romans 5:1
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We could not have received the righteousness of God unless we were justified by God, and we were justified by God by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Peace—you get peace only from Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Peace. We have it.
Don’t need to pray for it, we’ve got it.
Peace is in the “package” of Jesus Christ.
God is not mad at us—we are at peace with God.
AT PEACE WITH GOD!
Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:17–19
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,
19 That is, that God was in Christ reconciling (to bring back together that which has been separated, redeemed) the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
When you are born again, you receive Christ in you, the hope of glory.
There isn’t anything else left to give you.
You get everything you are ever going to get from God at that moment.
What we “work on” is our mind… our renewed mind.
No Condemnation
Romans 8:1–2
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Hinds’ Feet
In the book of Psalms – He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and sets me upon my high places.
Mother deer put their feet on sure steps, and the back feet track with the front.
The fawn puts their feet in the exact same place as their mother.
There was a time when we were lost and without hope, we didn’t have a rope to climb or bootstraps to pull ourselves up by.
But now we are joint heirs with Christ and Children of God.
Jack Salter
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