A young boy received a toy sailboat for his birthday. He treasured it greatly. One day, while he was sailing it in a pond in one of the city parks, a strong rain storm came up. The high wind swept the sailboat to the other side of the pond, and the hard rain caused the overflow to be high enough to sweep the boat into the city water drainage system. The young boy was heartbroken, but there was nothing he could do. The boat was lost.
Some time later, he was walking down the street past a toy store. He stopped and looked in the window. There stood his very own sailboat in proud display. He rushed inside to claim it. “See,” he told the proprietor, “it even has my initials carved into the hull.” “I’m sorry, lad,” the proprietor said. “Someone brought that boat in here the other day and sold it to me. The boat is now mine. It could be coincidence that the initials on the boat are the same as yours. You can have the boat, but you’ll have to pay me what I paid for it.”
The youngster did not have the money, so he went home even more dejected than before. The boat was his, but he couldn’t possess it. It was not fair.
That evening when his father returned home from work, the boy poured out his story. The next day, the father went to the toy store and bought back the boat which belonged to his son in the first place. He redeemed the boat and returned it to its rightful place. “That,” says Barnhouse, “is redemption.”
In general, redemption means “to be bought back.” Redemption has several dictionary meaning coming from different Greek words that are all translated “grace.” First, it can mean “to purchase from the marketplace.” But it can also mean to take us out of the market place. So, in relation to our salvation, it means that not only did Christ pay the price for our sin, but also removed us from the “marketplace of sin. A third thing it can mean is to pay a ransom, so that the held one can be freed (1 Peter 1:17-19).
So, when we take all three of these meanings together to form a composite picture of redemption, we see that by Christ’s death on the cross, believers in Him have been, one purchased: two, removed from the marketplace of sin; and three, set free to live a new life.
Lamb beats the Lion?
There certainly ought to be more eagles and hawks and owls than sparrows and doves and catbirds. What chances have these latter little creatures against the fierce beak and talons of the birds of prey? But, strange to say, it is the birds of prey that are being slowly exterminated, while those that are defenseless continue to multiply. The lion and the tiger certainly ought to have a better chance in a world like ours than the lamb. Yet for every lion and for every tiger there are millions of lambs.
The same is seen in the warlike nations. They do not last. How much real happiness did such aggressors as Napoleon and Hitler enjoy? Napoleon spent the last years of his life in vain regret on the lonely island of St. Helena, and Hitler died a miserable suicide victim upon beholding the complete shattering of his earthly dreams in defeat of the third Reich. The German philosopher Nietzsche preached the doctrine of aggression as the means to the mastery of life, but he ended his day hopelessly insane.
Three kinds of Religious leaders in the New Testament
Scribes: Copyists of the Law and sayings of the rabbis; profound scholars of the Law. Their knowledge on the Old Testament Law was at times astonishing. They also taught the Law and were often called upon to clarify religious disputes.
Pharisees: Religious rigorists who believed in a life of sharp separation from Gentiles and strict adherence to the Mosaic Law. Their traditions were even stricter than the Law, so that by keeping their traditions they would be unlikely ever to break the Law. From the point of view of the Pharisees, for instance, Luke 7 records a most outrageous incident. Jesus was dining in the home of a Pharisee (a very respectable thing to do) when a prostitute come into the house and began anointing Jesus’ feet with costly oil. Her tears of repentance dripped onto Jesus’ feet, and she wiped them off with her long hair. This revolted the Pharisees. If Jesus were a true prophet, they reasoned, He would know what sort of woman was doing this awkward and untimely thing. Jesus response vindicated her actions as being a sign of her repentance. Jesus accused them of breaking the Law in order to keep their traditions.
Sadducees: Religious aristocrats who considered it prudent to get along with the Gentiles, to “live and let live.” Less rigorous theologically, they were often very wealthy because they had more liberal scruples about their dealings with Gentiles.
Jesus and His Bible
Jesus’ use of and reliance upon the Old Testament in daily life is remarkable. The four Gospel Accounts contain 3,920 verses: 1,865 of these are His recorded words. This is 48%. Of His quoted conversations, 179 are from the Old Testament. Ten percent of the recorded daily conversations of Jesus consisted of Old Testament verses literally quoted.
These articles came from Glad Tiding of Good Things. The bulletin of the Jacksonville church of Christ in Jacksonville AL. Allen Webster is the preacher there. Love, Keith
