This week for Christmas in July, I am sharing an excerpt from my book, Redemption, the Heartbeat of Christmas, What the Birth of Christ Means to the World. The book is available on Amazon. I hope this reminder of what Jesus did for us will speak to your heart, as God did to mine.
What is the Depth of Redemption? by Barbara Latta @barbaralatta
In church, we hear a lot about
redemption. Sometimes we hear the word so much we lose the depth of its
meaning.
What is the depth of redemption? We
can better understand how deep Jesus’ sacrifice was for us by thinking about a
person in prison.
Those of us who have not experienced
the despair of imprisonment can’t fully understand the feelings of this
punishment. My husband and I were confined to two weeks of quarantine when a we
arrived in a foreign country during the Covid pandemic.
We lived for two weeks in an Army barracks with only thirty
minutes of fresh outside air per day.
Days dragged on minute by minute,
hour by hour.
We walked ten
feet from one wall to the other to stretch our legs.
We looked out the window at the scenic air conditioner unit below our floor.
Packaged food appeared at mealtime.
The next day repeated the same boredom, the same meals, the
same hard mattresses. As bad as this felt, we were released after our required
time ended. The day we left with our luggage blessed us with a small taste of
freedom.
Our experience had no comparison to life in a penitentiary.
Prison is Not a Pleasant Place
I have never visited a death row prisoner, but I have seen
the cells in museums where inmates were housed while they awaited execution.
Years after the concrete walls and bars no longer confined murderers, the eerie
vibes still flowed through the air. Sanitized walls and floors couldn’t hide
the reason people who fell into the deepest sins were sentenced to death.
On occasion, a governor issues a stay of execution to a
death row inmate. The prisoner doesn’t die, but he remains locked behind bars.
The person is not released from their crime, they are merely given a different
way to pay for their wrongdoing.
Mercy Fills a Heart with
Gratitude
How much appreciation would we feel, if on the way to
execution, an innocent person took our place? Do we know the depth of what
redemption means?
The Greek word, exagorazo recorded in the New Testament for redeem,
means to buy up, ransom, to rescue from loss.
To a condemned prisoner each click of a guard’s heels
against the concrete hallway tells him that the greedy claws of death wait to
squeeze life out of his body. Metal keys clank and open the door, not to
release him, but to enact the final sentence.
What if the unthinkable happened? If a hand reached out and
grabbed the guard’s arm to stop the progression and a voice said, "Let him
go free. I will take his punishment," what would the condemned person do?
He’d probably fall to his knees and weep in amazement and
gratitude. Maybe he would ask incredulously, "Why would you do such a
thing?"
And then to hear the most beautiful words in the universe, "Because
I love you," would surely elicit heartfelt gratitude.
People who commit such horrible crimes do deserve their punishment. Their debt to society requires restitution. But to even the most vile, horrific people in history, such as Jeffrey Dahmer, Adolf Hitler, or Osama bin Laden, Jesus gave the gift to take the execution in each one’s place. Whether they accepted it or not, we don’t know.
We Are All Guilty
As fallen human beings, we can all place our faces on the
prisoner. "I haven’t done those heinous things these violent criminals
did," you and I may say. I know, but sin is still sin. And no matter how
good we think we have been we were still born with a sin nature.
I used to think the punishment toward the human race wasn’t
fair because of what Adam and Eve did. We weren’t there. We didn’t commit the sin.
Why do we inherit something from them that we didn’t do? And then one day God
said to me, "My perfect, sinless Son didn’t commit the disobedience
either, yet He took the rap for all of mankind. How fair was that to Him?"
But when the
kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us,
through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. (Titus
3:4–5)
That thought hit my mind with bricks of realization. Life
wasn’t fair to Jesus for Him to take the punishment for something He didn’t do.
That’s what redemption is all about. The expression of love so high and wide
and deep and far that our human understanding cannot comprehend the magnitude
of our Creator’s character.
Our salvation depends upon our acknowledgement that we begin
life shackled in sin (Romans 3:10). We require atonement. We may think we live
a good life. We may not feel the physical impairment of this need for freedom
like we would if we were locked away in a concrete and steel cage. But the
spiritual aspect of guilt is a greater burden than temporary life in jail.
God placed the gift of redemption in the tiny embryo of a
human being and presented His offering to mankind. Our celebration of Christmas
can be enhanced when we view this special day as more than Jesus' birth, but as
holding the power of the redemptive work of Christ.
We aren’t just saved from sin, we are saved for
abundant life (John 10:10). Jesus didn’t simply release us from the prison of
sin, He also gave us the keys to the kingdom so we can live in the fullness of
God.
When we realize the grandness of God's gift, we can rejoice, not only on Christmas, but every day of our existence on earth. Christ took the keys to the cell door of sin and opened the way to freedom. This is what His birth means to the world.
Join the conversation and share what redemption means to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment