SUNDAY STUDY: Our Kinsman Redeemer

You have probably heard before how our salvation is a free gift (free for you but it cost Someone great suffering and death), and just like a gift under the Christmas tree, it isn’t yours until you unwrap (accept) it.

From Clarence Larkin’s “Dispensational Truth”:

Adam and Eve were directly and personally created by God. If they had any children born while in that state of innocence, their children would have been born innocent. After they disobeyed God and sinned, they were separated from God and doomed to die, Gen. 2:17.

Their children were born sinners by inheritance, and all humanity received the penalty of spiritual and physical death. We sin, not as a result of environment or temptation, but because we have a sinful inclination. It is the natural disposition that we inherit from Adam.

As slaves to sin and death, men and women needed a radical redemption that would pay the price to set them free. Every religion other than Christianity (which is more of a relationship than a religion) seeks in one way or another to do “good works” in order to pay off the debt (to merit or earn freedom) that resulted in enslavement.

“And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices [blood of bulls and goats], which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God…” Hebrews 10:11-12.

OT law allowed a kinsman redeemer (a male relative, a substitute) to ‘redeem’ a relative who owed a debt, was sold into slavery, became orphaned, lost their home, or was widowed… Jesus had no sin of His own (perfect holiness) therefore He owed no debt (wage). “The wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23. There was no need for Him to die. He willingly took on the sins of all people throughout all time, and He Himself paid what we owe. God, instead of judging us, judged Jesus for our sins. He suffered the penalty – He paid our debt.

As our kinsman Redeemer, Jesus redeemed what we had lost: our right-standing with God. He gave us a new identity in Himself; and the assurance that we never have to worry about having to be redeemed again. He paid the price of redemption once and for all.

God offers the free gift of forgiveness in Jesus Christ. But we must actively accept the gift. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:18

To believe in Him is to believe that He is who He said He is, and He did what He said He did.

Please click HERE to read the true story of an 1833 pardon by a US president and the Supreme Court decision of a convicted criminal that illustrates the free gift of redemption and our acceptance or rejection of it.