REDEEMED

 KEY VERSES: 13 (Christ) In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession… (Ephes 1:13-14) 

  “Christ,” or the Messiah, is Jesus, the “Son of God” according to His birth, “God” according to His pre-existence, and the “Son of Man,” according to His image.

  “Ye” is the “whosever” as in John 3:16. Read that again: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  Therein “Jesus” so loved “whosoever” in the world. It should be obvious that Paul is writing the same gospel message that John wrote.

  “Trusted” is not in the Greek. It was added for clarity by those who translated into English. However, it completes the context. In John 3:16, “believeth” (Greek; pisteuo) means persuaded to have confidence in one (Strong’s Dictionary). That “one” is Jesus. Hence, “believeth” is better said, “trusted” and that notion comes from John 3:14 wherein Jesus likens “trust” to the Hebrews who had confidence in Jesus for delivery from the lifeless serpent in his “tree.”

  Jesus used the expression, “born again” and declared you “must be” born again (John 3:7). Thus, rebirth commences when either a believer or a non-believer begins to trust Jesus for deliverance. In other words, belief alone is not enough, and confidence in Jesus is necessary. The Hebrews all believed in God because they had seen Him in the cloud by day and fire by night. Their problem was that they failed to trust in God in whom they believed.

  Yesterday, I wrote about philosophy. Psychology is a philosophical religion because its adherents either trust in the philosopher or themselves for deliverance from whatever ails them. Essentially, sin is what ails those with psychosis; the worst from of which is schizophrenia. Why the worst? Because of delusions of grandeur. That is what ails the typical sinner, and taken to the extreme, they become gods and/or kings. The problem with psychology is that it places dependence on oneself for deliverance from whatever, when those who trust God would come to Jesus in all things, to wit: “All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing (trusting), ye shall receive” (Mat 21:22).

  Nothing is too hard for God and Jesus is His intermediary. “Virtue” comes from Jesus unto the oppressed (Mark 5:30). When Jesus died all virtue had gone out of Him as He “gave up the Ghost” to God (Luke 23:46). Hence, the Comforter, the Holy Ghost, is the virtue that heals Christians both physically and spiritually — in “all things.” Do you believe that? If you do, then you trust in Jesus and are born again. If not, then your “rebirth” was from a “false pregnancy.” Therefore, not only “belief” but “trust” is imperative for eternal life.

  What persuades Christians to be “Christian?” From the key verses, “After that ye heard the word of truth.” Something heard and considered persuades sinners to become Christians. Paul “reasoned” with those that he encountered (Acts 17:22). The key verse says, “from the word.” Acts says, “from the scriptures.” What does scripture say about Jesus? That He is the Word (John 1) and scripture is the inspired Word of God. (2 Tim 3:16). The Old Testament is the very Words that Jesus spoke before He was ever flesh.

  Do you believe that? Paul did!  That acknowledges that Jesus IS God. The Hebrews, when they saw the lifeless serpent on the pole, saw Judas dead in his tree, and that happened on the same day that Jesus died on His “Tree.” Satan was in Judas, just as he had been in the Serpent.

  Do you believe that Jesus’s Purpose defeated Satan? It did. That is why God came down; that was His Way of diminishing Satan until the time comes to rid the heaven and earth of his presence.

  Consider the Third Commandment: “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain” (Exod 20:7).  The “Name” is Jesus, and He is Lord of all. God’s Name had a purpose — to defeat Satan. With that, to take Jesus’s Purpose without significance is blasphemous. The penalty for that is guilt. Only by Jesus nailed to the Holy Cross can reprieve be made. The blood and water shed by Jesus remises the guilt of the sinner under conviction (1 John 5:6).

  What happened on the Cross? Sinners, “whosoever,” deserve death, but instead Jesus died in their places. He suffered death on their behalf. The key verses say that after persuasion, “in whom also after that ye believed.” The “whom” there is Jesus, and where it reads “believed,” again, that is pisteuo, or have confidence in. That is why “trusted” was added. It came from pisteuo and completed the context.

  What truth persuades? “The gospel of your salvation.” The “gospel” is the reward for trusting Jesus. Yes, those who trust Jesus shall be rewarded, and those who fail to trust will be punished. “Your salvation” is negated by the word, “gospel.” It is Jesus who rewards and punishes. You can neither reward nor punish yourself. That takes the focus off your works and exalts Jesus. “Your salvation” is by only One Way, and that is by the Name, “Jesus” (John 20:31). The example of the brazen serpent is crucial. It demonstrates that people have no power to save themselves from serpents or any malady, physical or spiritual. Vipers are easy compared to Satan, and the Hebrews could not even kill the vipers!

  “Salvation,” in the Greek, is “soteria” which means “preservation” until a “future salvation” (ibid) when Jesus shall physically return to gather the saints; thus “preservation of the saints.”

  That is not the same thing as “eternal security” because there is one exclusion; and that is stedfast faith to endure to the end. God “seals” those who trust Him, but they still have the levity of breaking that “seal” themselves. Only Jesus can save, but everyone can condemn themselves. God imbued his creatures with free will, and that is to choose between God’s preservation, or their own inclination to self-destruct. The “original sin” caused that pre-disposition.

  “Sealed” is “marked.” Scripture speaks of the mark of the Beast (666; Rev 13:16) and the seal of God… both on their foreheads, but the mark of the Beast also on their hands. The marks on the forehead seem to represent the mind; to which master the person has been persuaded as his own. The mark on the hand seems to symbolize that a doctrine of works is damning.

  The seal of God on the forehead are those who He preserves until the final test. Whose visible mark will they take? Will those preserved break the seal or take the mark of the Beast? With that, perhaps, God preserves those who continue in the faith until the final test of faith — Do we trust Jesus or do we trust in ourselves?

   Now for an analogy. This comparison is not to trivialize or diminish God, but strictly to amplify. Do you remember S & H green stamps? Each time a purchase was made a number of green stamps were awarded by the store. The buyer would paste them in a book until they were full, then then could be redeemed. Oftentimes the person would want the reward greatly and prize it before it was even in hand. Once time had elapsed and the buyer remained faithful to the store and to his part in pasting the stamps, then they could be redeemed for prizes. The collector would always determine the prize and look forward to it with anticipation. They could review the collection of prizes in a catalog and have their eyes on the prize until enough stamps were collected to redeem.

  Those who were earnest, put the stamps in a vault or cabinet for safekeeping. There they would be preserved until redemption time. Some collected from the start, but before long, the prize was not worth the cost. Soon the stamps were misplaced or thrown away.

  Those who are born again trust God for redemption, but redemption does not come until the time expires or enough “stamps” are collected for the prize. (The Book is the Torah and its cover is love). What are those “stamps?” Earnestness and devotion. That must never end because that demonstrates love for the Giver and the Gift.

  God puts the “stamp book” (the Book of Life) in a safe place to preserve them. Christians are part of that “book” as we are the “stamps” in the Lamb’s Book of Life. When the time comes, God examines the “book of stamps” for truth, integrity, and diligence. When He opens the Book of Life, there is one big stamp by itself? On it is written, “He trusted God throughout life” and on it is the blood of Jesus. He did the work for that one Stamp and there was no need for our tedious work.

  All the while that we do things for Him, He is doing it all for us! Our “stamps” have been discarded, and only His remains. We know the prize; it is an eternal vacation in Paradise in the Garden of God, and all Christians need do is keep the faith that God provided; that He will do all the work of payment, preservation, works, and redemption.

  What happens if Christians become careless? Satan steals the book and makes it His. It is no longer a Book of Life but a collection of garbage pail kid stamps to be thrown out into Gehenna.

  I have found many discarded stamp books partially filled. The person was not earnest nor patient. They somehow got lost before they were redeemed. Some of those people are long gone, and their “stamps” shall never be redeemed. Now the stores are closed, and they can never be redeemed. Someday, God’s “store” will be closed for business, in His time, not ours, so we must trust now that there is time to redeem.

  Satan discourages that. He suggests that it is not worth the gift to wait, and that they will never be redeemed. “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11).

  In other words, Christians are to live as if the “store” is closing and comprehend that it will be closed someday. That store closes when we die; by then it is to late and the bad “stamps” can never be replaced with genuine ones.

(picture credit: WKTV Journal)