O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with the LORD
there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant redemption. And He will
redeem Israel From all his iniquities. Ps 130:7-8
I've been thinking a lot about redemption these
last few days.
What is redemption?
According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, to
redeem is:
to buy back; repurchase; to get or win back; to free from what
distresses or harms; to free from captivity by payment of ransom; to extricate
from or help to overcome something detrimental; to release from blame or debt;
to free from the consequences of sin.
Ephesians 1:7,8 In Him we have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He
lavished on us
We were redeemed by God, at great cost, bought
with the precious blood of Christ.
1Pet 1:18,19
..... you were not redeemed with
perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited
from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and
spotless, the blood of Christ.
Jesus paid the price, and it didn't come
cheap. He redeemed us, bought us back,
brought us back, to the Father, to free us from our iniquities, from the damage
done by sin to be in relationship with Him.
Think on that for a minute.
How does God redeem us?
I've been wondering about the how. I've come to the conclusion that it's a
process.
Having paid the price, God wants to restore us to
our intended glory.
But how?
Are we just saved and that's it?
I think not.
Ps 130:7 says, 'With the Lord is lovingkindness
and abundant redemption.' How can
redemption be abundant? It must be more
than just a buying back, a one-off thing.
It must be a process.
A process of being cleaned up, restored,
scrubbed, polished, waxed, scraped, changed, refined, emptied of iniquity and
filled to overflowing with good things, to restore to us not only our glory,
but also to our purpose in this life.
I spent quite a bit of time meditating on
redemption today, while doing something rather mundane and tiresome, and it
made me realise that the process of redemption can be the same - mundane,
tiresome, difficult, long.
I spent considerable time today redeeming my
fridge!
I took ownership of the mess within (the smell
finally got to me) and decided it was time to restore it to a place of smelling
and looking better and being more useful to us, not stuffed full of things we
no longer recognised and that were no longer fit for human consumption (the
dogs did well, though).
I really do not enjoy cleaning up my fridge. When our oldest daughter, Liz, lived here,
it was a task I often delegated to her.
She was good at it. I am
not. Fermenting kidney beans and rotting
vegetable matter are not pleasant and are not up there on my priority list of
fun and interesting things to do.
I have been putting it off for quite a while,
partly because I was just busy with other things.
But also because it's hard work, and smelly and
stomach-turning, and takes longer than just a few minutes.
And it makes my kitchen really messy!
This is my kitchen after my redemptive work, and
before the big, post-redemptive wash-up.
My almost three year old came in, hands on hips,
and said, 'What did you do?! You made a
big mess!' She didn't see the
clean-ness of my fridge, the work going on, how much better it is, just the
mess. She is a mess-spotter.
It got me wondering about the redemptive work God
wants to do in our lives. Are we afraid
of the mess that God might make if we give Him permission to redeem our messes?
Are we afraid of what we might smell like if our
rottenness is exposed, or perhaps we're afraid of the scrubbing, of the
dysfunction becoming obvious if we allow God to really expose our mess in the
process of redemption? Can we allow
ourselves to be messy for a while, while God does His perfect work?
Do we allow our fellow Christians the freedom to
be messy and less-than-perfect, privately and in church, while God does His
redemptive work?
Are we burying our messes in a closed fridge, to
keep our kitchens spotless? Until it
becomes too obvious and everyone starts to notice.
Fridges slow down the rotting process, and
they're a great place to hide a mess!
Takes a while for it to be noticed.
They look great, especially if you never get beyond the front row on any
particular shelf. I often wonder if
church is a bit like that. A place
where everyone is busy hiding their messes behind our happy, polite,
well-behaved facades?
But what's really in there? God knows - before the smell even starts to
emanate to others, God knows.
I wonder if He feels like throwing up when He
smells some of the rotting stuff in us?
Rev 3:16,17 says He does.
Do we let ourselves become so full of stuff and
waste that we can't be useful for our original purpose?
Can we get really honest and let God do His
redemptive work in us?
Can we give ourselves grace and mercy to be less
than perfect and together, so He can expose the junk?
Can we allow Him to expose our messiness so He
can do the work properly?
Can we let others see and smell our rottenness,
and help us in our journey?
Ouch!
O Israel, hope in the LORD; For with
the LORD there is lovingkindness, And with Him is abundant
redemption. And He will redeem Israel From all his iniquities.
Ps 130:7-8
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