Redeeming Blood :: Deeper Devotion

Ephesians 1:7, 8
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.

I challenge you to never allow the reality of Jesus’ death to leave your mind. Never forget that His blood was spilled for your sin. We wake up to a world of increasing relativism every morning. We walk down the halls of our schools, surrounded by friends and strangers who are unknowingly enslaved to sin. Their master is the prince of lies and the king of deception. He works them hard on a daily basis, engraining deep within them a false self-confidence that will ultimately lead them to an eternal death.

In Him we have redemption through His blood. Do you truly believe this statement? Is it at the core of your being? The word redemption is a legal term. It means that something has been purchased with a price. Jesus Christ has purchased you from your former master. The price was His life; it was paid on a cross 2000 years ago. The currency was blood and there was enough spent to cover the sins of every enslaved individual. Have you become so distant from the day of your salvation that you no longer speak of this Man who purchased you from your slavery to sin? Have you ever fully understood what Jesus did?

I pray that you would develop a passion for this message! It should be the driving force of your existence. Christ’s death should be on your mind when you wake up in the morning, go to sleep in the evening, and every minute in between. Your friends and family are endlessly working, bound in chains to their sin. Their freedom has been bought but your lack of passion has left them in the dark. At best, you stand by and watch them in their pain and suffering; more likely though, you participate in their captivity. You return to the fields of their labor and work along side them. Their freedom was paid for on the same day as yours, and yet, you believe, “What worked for me doesn’t work for everyone.” They desperately want out, but you never tell them for fear that they won’t believe you. You watch them try on their own; they are too weak. You watch them trust in others who have professed to be gods, but their pockets are too shallow to purchase them back. Jesus Christ proclaims, “I myself am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father accept through me” (John 14:6). What are you waiting for? When will you take your hands out of dirt, stand up, and tell your friends and family that you have both been purchased? You are free, and you no longer have to toil together in captivity. I beg you to stop participating with them in their sin and to share with them the “riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.”

Jesus Christ died on a cross to purchase a relationship with you. We have been commanded to share that message with every enslaved individual we meet. Until the passion of His death indwells your spirit, this will never happen. George Whitefield, the great preacher from the First Great Awakening once said, “God forbid that I should travel with anyone a quarter of an hour without speaking to them about Christ.” It was that passion that inspired a movement that led tens of thousands to Christ.

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