1Cor. 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
Eph. 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
Redemption is a wonderful word. It means so much more than just forgiveness. It carries the idea of making all things new. Redemption involves restoring and overruling for good all the loss that’s resulted from our sin. Part of what it means for Jesus to be our savior is that He’s able to do more than just forgive our failures; He actually commits His grace to redeem our situations. Those verses above tell us that in Him is redemption, because He has become to us redemption. Jesus’ capacity to make all things new is part of our reality in Christ. We know that Jesus has the miraculous ability to forgive us our sins, but it’s important that we come to know that He has miraculous ability to make all things new when we sin. Look at this story of redemption at Gethsemane.
Luke 22: 47, “While He was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them; and he approached Jesus to kiss Him. 48 But Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” 49 When those who were around Him saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” 50 And one of them struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his right ear. 51 But Jesus answered and said, “Stop! No more of this.” And He touched his ear and healed him.
Impetuous Peter cuts this poor slaves ear off, and then Jesus who is our redemption, miraculously put the ear back on. It’s interesting to me that in the four Gospels where the story of this man’s ear being cut off is recorded, only in Luke are we told that Jesus redeemed the mess that Peter created, by putting the ear back on. Of course, Luke’s Gospel represents the heart of Paul, and Paul knew what it meant to fail and for Jesus to redeem.
Peter certainly understood personal failure, but in his gospel, the Gospel of Mark, he doesn’t mention the redemptive act of Jesus. It was important to Paul that this part of Peter’s story, and the redemptive story of the the grace of Christ be told. Maybe Peter still was too ashamed to tell the grace story. I don’t know, but one thing I do know is that I often thank Jesus that He is my redemption. I have often watched Him make things new out of things I’ve messed up. He is still in the business of putting back ears that we cut off. How many of you live in fear that you will have to live with the consequences of your failure, as parents, or in any other area, for the rest of your life. I encourage you to dare to believe that “In Him” is redemption. He is the great overcomer, and if He can overcome death, He can overcome any mess you’ve created.