Once-for-All Forgiveness: The Power and Promise of Redemption

Paul begins the letter of Ephesians by blessing God for all of the blessings that He has blessed us with (1:3-14). One of those blessings is redemption. Redemption, as a secular term means “to secure the release or recovery of persons or things by paying a price.” However, in Christianity, redemption refers to the act of being saved through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the only One good enough to pay the price for our release from death and bring us into God's favor. This is the very reason that He became a human being and lived on earth (Mark 10: 45).

In the Old testament “redemption” should be understood to mean “giving a price in exchange for that which was one's own and which has somehow found its way into someone else's possession.” An example of this would be the Exodus (Ex. 6: 2-7). Redemption is never free or without effort. We should never think of it simply as deliverance. Looking at it from the Lord's perspective, redemption is costly. The price of redemption of course is the blood of Christ (I Peter 1: 18, 19).

In the Old Testament, “blood” is mentioned 200 times in connection with a violent death. 103 of these are connected with sacrifice. To say that we are redeemed by Christ's blood is another way of saying “by His death.” As a matter of fact, we could say “by his bloody death taken away violently.” Our Lord paid a heavy price to secure our redemption. We do wrong by assuming that human beings are basically good. In the same letter, it is written that, “we were dead in our trespasses and sins” (2:1); “without hope and without God in the world” (2:12); “we lived in the futility of our minds, darkened in our understanding, ignorant and hard-hearted” (4:17,18). Our prospects of a future of blessing with God were not there. We are so bad concerning guilt and shame, so far gone toward destruction, that God Himself had to die an extremely violent death in order for us to be saved. This says volumes about our Lord's love for us.

In verse 7, The word “forgiveness” means literally “released from” and the word translated
“trespasses" means " the actual and numerous results of our sinful nature.” So we could say
that our redemption has affected our release from the many results of our sin nature. The worst result being our separation from God. This is a completed deal here, there is nothing that is still keeping us in bondage to sin and death. Unlike the Old Testament religion, which required sacrifices to be offered over and over again, our Lord offered a complete, sufficient, once-for-all sacrifice for our once-for-all forgiveness of sin. Unfortunately, many believers ride a roller coaster of depression about their sin. They believe that God still holds their sin against them.

When Paul writes “we have redemption,” he's using a present tense verb which means literally, “we are having redemption.” It's an ongoing process. It's hard to conceive of an ongoing forgiveness, however we have passed from death into life. When our sin was forgiven at the cross, we died to sin (Philippines 2:20), there's nothing left to become unforgiven for concerning our separation from God. Psalm 103:10-12 says that God has promised to separate us from our sin and remember it no more. He doesn't remember it and neither should we. Our Lord says the same thing to us that He said to the woman caught in adultery, “neither do I condemn you, go your way” (John 8: 10-11). Don't ever think that you are worthless in God's eyes. He gave Himself to suffer a horrible death so that you might be redeemed forever. The Lord paid for and secured our redemption because He loves us for no other reason than He does and because He wants to show off His grace. Our redemption, secured at the cross, is the greatest display of God's grace ever known. It can't be topped.

The Lord knows that we are not complete unless we are in a relationship with Him. Our redemption also points to how wise and understanding ourLord is. It is the only effective way to bring us into fellowship with Him and deal one final, complete death blow to Satan, sin, and death. Sin restricts God’s intended fullness of our lives. However, the cross reminds us that redemption is available to everyone; No exceptions. There is nothing you can do to separate yourself from Christ. Regardless of how vile you feel or how monstrous society may mark you, your Creator offers you redemption.

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