Pawned and Redeemed
"He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Colossians 1:13-14
One of the questions from our Community Bible Study lesson this week was "When a piece of jewelry is taken to a pawn shop, it must be 'redeemed' by its owner for a certain price within a certain length of time, or it becomes the property of the shop owner. Using this analogy, describe what happened to you when you were redeemed by the blood of Christ."
Wow! what a great analogy. In the beginning, we belonged to God, but we pawned ourselves so that we could experience the supposed pleasure of sin - only to find ourselves slaves in the pawn shop, slaves to the master pawn broker - Satan. Then Jesus came in, and laid down the price to get us out of there and take us home with Him - laid down His very life - and so, in our extreme gratitude for being released from this prison, we stay as close to Him as possible, loving, adoring, and surrendering ourselves fully to Him. Choosing to be His slaves in His home, rather than Satan's slaves in the nasty pawn shop - because it has to be one or the other. There is no where in between. We don't have the income to support ourselves on our own, so the choice is to pawn ourselves, surrendering to the pawn broker, or accept the gift of redemption that we don't deserve and surrender ourselves to the Father.
Forgiveness is so wonderful! Psalm 32:1-2 says "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!" That word "covered" is great - kasah - to cover, conceal, hide, to clothe; to forgive, to keep secret; to hide oneself, to wrap oneself up.
Like Adam and Eve in the garden, our covering of our own sin is only fig leaves and not very concealing. But God made a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, to give us an appropriate covering to truly wrap our sin up in His love so that it is no more. He cleanses us and removes the sins from us. He chooses to "forget" them. He covers them up with the righteousness of Jesus which overpowers them and makes them no more.
One of the questions from our Community Bible Study lesson this week was "When a piece of jewelry is taken to a pawn shop, it must be 'redeemed' by its owner for a certain price within a certain length of time, or it becomes the property of the shop owner. Using this analogy, describe what happened to you when you were redeemed by the blood of Christ."
Wow! what a great analogy. In the beginning, we belonged to God, but we pawned ourselves so that we could experience the supposed pleasure of sin - only to find ourselves slaves in the pawn shop, slaves to the master pawn broker - Satan. Then Jesus came in, and laid down the price to get us out of there and take us home with Him - laid down His very life - and so, in our extreme gratitude for being released from this prison, we stay as close to Him as possible, loving, adoring, and surrendering ourselves fully to Him. Choosing to be His slaves in His home, rather than Satan's slaves in the nasty pawn shop - because it has to be one or the other. There is no where in between. We don't have the income to support ourselves on our own, so the choice is to pawn ourselves, surrendering to the pawn broker, or accept the gift of redemption that we don't deserve and surrender ourselves to the Father.
Forgiveness is so wonderful! Psalm 32:1-2 says "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit!" That word "covered" is great - kasah - to cover, conceal, hide, to clothe; to forgive, to keep secret; to hide oneself, to wrap oneself up.
Like Adam and Eve in the garden, our covering of our own sin is only fig leaves and not very concealing. But God made a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice, to give us an appropriate covering to truly wrap our sin up in His love so that it is no more. He cleanses us and removes the sins from us. He chooses to "forget" them. He covers them up with the righteousness of Jesus which overpowers them and makes them no more.
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