If you’re new, we usually go right through books of the Bible, but I felt compelled to do a series on the cross of Jesus Christ and what he did for us on the cross. So I’ll go ahead and pray, and we’ll get right to work.

Father God, we thank you. We thank you that we get to be the church of Jesus Christ, that we get to be part of the greater church of Jesus Christ here in the city of Seattle. I thank you for this great space that you’ve given us. I thank you for all these people that have come out at this late hour. And Jesus, as we study, I pray we would be made aware of our great need for redemption, that we would be convinced that you are our redeemer, and that we would leave here trusting you, having experienced your redemption in our lives. To accomplish that, we ask that you would send the Holy Spirit to lead us, to guide us, to teach us, to conform us to be like you by the power of his grace. And so, Jesus, as we gather together as always, we ask that our time would be pleasing to you and that it would profitable to us, and we ask this in your good name. Amen.

Well, as we jump in, we’re looking at Jesus’ death on the cross for three months. It is the crux of human history. It is the centerpiece of our faith, and it is the great jewel of all that we believe. And like every jewel, it has many sides that each need to be appreciated and examined, so over the course of three months, we’ll look at the different sides of the doctrine of the atonement, the death of Jesus for our sins.

The first week we looked at substitution. That was the week I yelled at you. Sorry about that. The second week we looked at Christus Victor, and I scared you last week talking about Satan and demons. And this week we’re gonna deal with one other side called redemption. And this side of this great jewel is particularly important, but what’s curious is through the history of the church, actually for almost 2,000 years, the doctrine of redemption has been misunderstood and mistaught. I’ll fix that for you tonight. You’re welcome.

Now, the problem started as far back as I could trace to a gentleman named Origen who lived – he was born in 185 A.D. – and what happened was they began teaching that redemption, what redemption means – and some of you have heard the word redeem, redemption, redeemer. A lot of Christians use it. It’s Christianese. You know, you redeemed, brother? Thoroughly redeemed. What does it mean? Look, I don’t know. It’s a big word. I like them. You know, we need to know what this word means because it appears throughout our Bible. It appears about 130 times in the Old Testament, about 20 times in the New Testament. Redeemer, redemption, redeemed, all the derivatives thereof.

The question is what does redemption mean? Well, the great mistake is that it means that this concept of redemption was taken from the pagan slave market, okay. That’s a common misunderstanding. Many of you got a theological background, you’ve been taught, oh, when you hear redemption, think Roman pagan slave market where somebody’s a slave and somebody else comes in, pays a large sum of money, purchases their freedom so that they can have a new life. They say it’s just like that. Jesus paid for us to be redeemed.

Well, there’s a couple big problems with this. The first is who did Jesus pay off, and the debate throughout the history of the church has raged. Did Jesus pay off God the Father? Did he pay off Satan? Well, the problem is if he paid off God the Father, that makes God the Father the bad guy, Jesus the good guy. That’s not true. They’re both good. And the problem is if Jesus paid off Satan, well, then that means Satan’s in charge of Jesus, and Satan rules over Jesus, and Jesus is having to cut a deal with Satan to save us, which is just preposterous and horrendous.

And if you were raised in sort of a charis-maniac background, you know, just the guy with a hankie up front, you know, and this is like the guys – we’re kind of charismatic, but the charis-maniacs like the guys on TV, you know? Wife looks like she lost a paintball gun war, and it’s true. And dude’s got white pants like up to here. You know, he unzips the fly to look at you. Gimme more money. I don’t know why the pants are always so high on those guys. They don’t need shirts, just pants. That’s all the need.

And those guys, when you watch them on TV, sometimes what they’ll say is that Jesus on the cross got defeated by Satan. He went down to hell and for three days Satan and demons beat him up. And like a great UFC bout, you know, Jesus finally got a knee to jaw, knocked him out, paid the price, wrote the check, purchased our redemption, got the keys of the Kingdom, resurrected – hooey, hooey, that’s just hooey.

It’s not true. Jesus on the cross said it’s finished. I’m going to paradise. He wasn’t defeated by Satan. Colossians 2:13-15 we looked at last week says he defeated Satan and demons on the cross. Jesus didn’t go to hell and get beat up by Satan for three days and write a check to pay our redemption. That’s the silliest thing in the world. Jesus went to hell, took out his ATM, swiped it, looked at Satan, said, “Well, how much for a Chinese guy? How much for an African guy? Can I get two rednecks for the price of one? Nobody wants them.” You know, I mean, it’s just crazy. You know, it’s just crazy.
So it doesn’t come from pagan slave market. The other problem with this is if does come from paganism, then Christianity’s nothing more than just modified paganism. We take all our ideas from paganism, which isn’t true, just not true. I tell you this because some of you are college students. You could take theology classes. They’re gonna tell you that Christianity is nothing more than borrowed pagan ideas. It’s actually real popular concept today among young, hip churches, what’s known as emerging churches, and all this other stuff, and it’s not true.

In Leviticus 17:11, God says, “I give you this sacrifice of atonement,” foreshadowing Jesus. It comes from God, not from paganism or culture. Paul says in Galatians 1:11, 12, “The gospel that I preach didn’t come from human beings, didn’t come from philosophers, religions, cultures. It came from God.” And so we believe that the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the forgiveness of sin, the redemption of God’s people is not borrowed from pagan thinking. It doesn’t come from human speculation. It’s revealed to us from God, and it’s something that God alone has designed and intended for our salvation.

So what we know is that we’re not modified pagans. And the problem is with that if you think that Christianity’s modified paganism, then people logically come to the conclusion then we should just be pagans today. We should take radical environmentalism, Buddhism. We should take feminism, whatever is out there, Marxism, and we should just redo Christianity for them, for pagan thinking, because that’s all that the New Testament authors did, and they say oh, no, we can’t do that. We can do that.

We can’t say well, God the Father, God the Son, feminists don’t like that. Chuck it. Jesus died for our sin, and that’s bloody and brutal. Pacifists don’t like it. Chuck it. We have to say well, if it’s in the Bible, it doesn’t come from paganism. It comes from God, and if it comes from God, then we need to listen and pay attention.

And so the question is if this concept of redemption doesn’t come from paganism, and it comes from God, then where would we go to learn what redemption is and have the prototype for redemption? And the illustration’s not the pagan slave market. The redemption picture comes from the book of Exodus, and I need you all to get this.

I’ve read 42 books on the atonement, the death of Jesus on the cross, plus a list of about 15 systematic theologies and a couple hundred articles. I’m a total geek. I like this stuff. And they all say modified paganism. And I grab my Bible, and I just grab the 150 times that the word redeemer, redemption, redeemed appear, and it always goes back to Exodus. It doesn’t go to pagan Roman slave market. It goes back to the Old Testament to the book of Exodus. That’s what it does.

And it makes sense because a guy like Paul, who’s a Bible teacher, an Old Testament scholar, he’s not working from paganism. He’s working from the Old Testament. And the prototype there is that God’s people were in slavery, bondage to Pharaoh, who was an evil man, who was abusing them, mistreating them, not allowing them to worship God, that God came and crushed him. Didn’t write him check, didn’t pay him off, didn’t negotiate. Redeemed his people, took them out of Egypt, parted the Red Sea, eventually got them home to the Promised Land so they could be free to worship him and live new lives with him. That’s the picture of redemption.

I’ll prove it to you. Exodus 6:6 speaks of this redemption, which means being liberated, freed, rescued from bondage or slavery to a person or thing. Exodus 6:6, “Therefore, say to the Israelites, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you’ – there’s our word – ‘with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.’” Redemption comes from the book of Exodus, God crushing Pharaoh, liberating his people.

I could give you many more. I’ll just give you the verses. You can download the iPod if you wanna doublecheck my work, but Exodus 15:1-18; Deuteronomy 7:8; Deuteronomy 15:15; 2 Samuel 7:23; 1 Chronicles 17:21; Isaiah 51:10; Micah 6:4 over, over and over. Old Testament points redemption back to the exodus.

Now, immediately some of you think this sounds like obscure theology. What does this have to do with me? I’m not a slave. I’m free. But here’s the truth. You and I are all slaves to sin and death. We can’t stop sinning. We can’t stop dying. We’re all sinners. We’ll all die.

In addition, in our culture we do believe in slavery. We just have sort of a modified, upgraded version. You’re a slave to your genes, your genetics. You’re a slave to your personality. You’re a slave to your education. You’re a slave to your culture. You’re a slave to your socioeconomic background. You’re a slave.

And we do that to make all kinds of excuses. “I’m unpleasant, nasty. I don’t wear pants. I drink a lot, and I light off fireworks, and it’s genetic. My dad was like that, too. I’m a victim, right?” You’re like oh, well, if it’s genetics, go for it, you know, because you can’t help yourself. You’re a slave to your genetics.

I’m a slave to my personality. “I’m mean and nasty, and I cuss people out and I pick fights, but it’s my personality. I’m an extrovert alpha male.” Ha, ha, well, repent of your personality, you big jerk. You know, we do believe we’re slaves. Like “oh, I was raised in a bad family, so I’m gonna be a bad person.” Oh, you were a criminal? Did you go to a bad school? Did your daddy leave? Well, you’re gonna steal DVD players. That’s the say you come out. You’re a victim. Sorry for you.

But we’re not, you know, the good news is this. You don’t need to be a slave to your family upbringing, a slave to your education, a slave to your culture, a slave to your genetics, a slave to your personality. You could be redeemed. You could get changed. You could get transformed. You could have a new life. So this is what the Bible is talking about. When you hear the word redemption, it’s being taken from one way of life to where you’re stuck to a new way of life where you’re free. That’s what redemption means.

So then the next question is, well, redemption sounds great. Who’s our redeemer? Again, the Bible teaches repeatedly that God is our redeemer. This is important because we do have a day where people have other redeemers. Oh, your life will get better if you just get more education. Your life will get better when you get married. Your life will get better when you have kids. Your life will get better when you make more money. That will make your life better.

Well, the truth is that your life can still be bad when you’re married with kids, rich, employed and educated. You could still have a terrible life. Lots of people do because redemption isn’t to be found in things. It’s to be found in God, and that ultimately we’re not against getting married, making money, reading books, going to college, but you need to be redeemed for any of that to be meaningful and for that to be connected to God. And God alone is our redeemer, and our hope and our trust is in him.

Psalm 78:35 says it this way, “They remembered that God was their rock, that God Most High was their redeemer.” God is our redeemer. We need God. We need God to save us from one way of life and give us a new kind of life. Again, the concept of God the redeemer, replete throughout Scripture. I’ll give you some. Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 47:4; Isaiah 48:17; Isaiah 3:16; Jeremiah 50:34; Hosea 7:13; Hosea 13:14, goes on and on and on. God’s our redeemer. God’s our redeemer. God’s our redeemer. He’s gonna help us. He’s gonna save us. He’s gonna change us. He is for us, not against us. We need him. Continual teaching of the Bible.

This continues to the birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus is born. Zechariah and Luke 1, Anna, a godly woman in Luke 2, both prophesy at the birth of Jesus, our redeemer. They both say our redeemer is here. The redeemer that we’ve been waiting for is finally here. Here he is, the baby Jesus. God became a man. Here’s our redeemer.

Paul then in the New Testament, among the 20-something occurrences of the word redeemer, redemption, and its derivatives says in Titus 2:13, 14, “Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us.” God is our redeemer. Our God is Jesus. Jesus Christ is our God, who died to redeem us. Also it says in Romans 3:24 as clear as could be, “Redemption came by Christ Jesus.” Love that, simple.

Said I’d like to be redeemed. I’d like to have a new life, fresh start. I’d like to have transformation change. Jesus, Jesus. If you forget everything I say, and you probably will, and you leave here and you say what did you learn at Mars Hill, your friends ask. Say they just told me about Jesus. That’s all they talk about. That’s it. That’s what really matters is Jesus. We want you to be redeemed. That’s only possible through Jesus. Again, Paul says it in 1 Corinthians 1:30; Galatians 3:3-14; Galatians 4:4, 5; Ephesians 1:7. Jesus Christ is our redeemer.

Now, here’s why this matters. Everybody wants their life to change, right? We want change. We’re all frustrated. That’s why we have horns on our cars, right? Like we just want everything to be different. And I was thinking about it. You watch TV. Almost all the shows are about redemption. They don’t use that language but redemption, things being different, things getting changed, things being better, right? So some dude looks at his wife, says “Huh.” He calls the Swan, right, and they send her in. They sandblast her, you know. They suck all the fat out of her legs, and they put in other places, and you know, they dress – they give her a haircut, new nose, facelift, jaw, teeth. She comes out. He’s like “Hoo hoo, redemption, yes.” And then she looks at him and says, “Well, he looks terrible.”

And so they call The Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. The five gay guys come out. They give him a total new wardrobe. He has a shirt with buttons and one eyebrow. They totally transform the guy, you know, from one eyebrow to two, and now his pants match, and his shoes are on the right feet, and he has no urine-stained sweats on. Totally different guy, hardly recognize him.

And then they go home, and they realize well, our home stinks, so they call, you know, Extreme Home Edition Makeover, and then they bring everybody out. New house. Oh, my gosh, thank you, Kenmore appliances. And then they go to drive in their car, and they realize it’s a beater, so they call Exhibit, and they’ll pimp their ride. You know, redeem the wife. Redeem the husband. Redeem the house. Redeem the car. I got rims. Thank you, Jesus, and I got a system.

And then they go home, and their kids are all little midget demons, just evildoers, so they call the Super Nanny, and she whacks them around. And it’s, yeah, redeem the kids, redeem the wife, redeem the husband, redeem the house, redeem the car, but you’re still going to hell because you haven’t really been redeemed. That’s the problem.

Because people want things to change. We’re not against change. If you can look better, raise nice kids, get rims, praise God. We’re all for it, but the real change comes inward. We try to change the appearances and the effects and the look. Really, change starts on the inside in what the Bible calls our heart. God redeems us from the center, and the life we live out is a redeemed life, right? because you can get married, make money, look good, have change and still not be connected to God, still be thinking in old patterns, still be someone who’s really stuck, and God redeems us.

The question then is well, how does Jesus redeem us? How does he do that? Hebrews 9:12 says that he, Jesus, “did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place once for all by his blood, having obtained eternal redemption.” Eternal redemption. There’s our word.

1 Peter 1:18, 19 says the same thing in a different way. “You know it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Here’s what they’re saying. You and I are sinners that Jesus Christ has come, that he has lived a life without sin, no blemish or defect, that he died on the cross for our sins. When you hear the word blood, a great theologian J. I. Packer says that that is theological shorthand for sacrificial death. Jesus shed his blood. He died for our sins. Death is the penalty or wage for sin. Jesus dies for us. He forgives us. He loves us. And redemption is accomplished by Jesus.

And what he says is this. Peter says you don’t obtain redemption by meriting it, earning it or paying God off. This is so important. For some of you, this will seem simple. For some of you, maybe this is life-changing. The first is that we don’t have to purchase our salvation.

If you took a bus here, and you don’t have a nickel in your pocket and you say I would like to be friends with God. I’d like my sins forgiven. I’d like God to help me and be my friend and change my life and give me a new start and take me into his heaven. How much does that cost? I don’t have any money. Good news. It’s free.

I’ll tell you what. Nothing on earth is free. Depending upon how much you make, that really determines the quality of your life and the kind of people you have access to, right? If you wanna go see a counselor, we’re not down on counselors, but it’s $100.00 an hour. You talk to Jesus anytime, anywhere for free. Don’t have to schedule an appointment. He’ll love you. He’ll hear you. He’ll help you. He’ll serve you.

Jesus Christ gives himself away freely, not because he’s cheap but because he’s priceless. We could never afford his love, and so he gives it to us freely. That’s our doctrine of grace, that God just gives himself to us in Jesus.

There are whole religions that to be a part of you need to be rich to buy the books, go through the – all this stuff costs you tons of money. I’ll tell you what. To be a Christian, it doesn’t cost you anything. It costs Jesus everything. He died. All you need to do is just trust in him. That’s the bottom line.

See, I didn’t know this, friends. I’ll be honest with you. I thought that you earned your salvation, not by giving money but by giving good deeds, what the Bible calls righteousness, self-righteousness. See, I though if you’re a good person and your good deeds outweigh your bad, then you paid God back for all your sin. And then when you die, you stand before God and you pull out your resume and say I am a great person. Look at all the nice things I did, and I gave some money to the church, so let me in. Lucky you. You get to be with me forever. That was exactly what I thought.

And then I realized that that is the worst offense to God, to come to Jesus and say, “I’m a good person just like you, and I don’t need you. Thank you for dying for all the bad guys, but I’m a good guy.” That just mocks Jesus’ whole life and death, the whole purpose of his coming. That just absolutely disrespects him in every way.

And I learned as I read the Bible that we don’t come to God with our hands full saying, “Look at all the good things I’ve done.” We come to God with our hands empty saying, “Look at all the ways that I need you.”

I was raised Catholic, and I was a good Catholic boy, an altar boy. And I went to Catholic school, and I’m not banging on Catholics. There are many that love Jesus, but what I was told in the Catholic Church was this. Jesus forgives you, but you’ve gotta pay God back. And you’re forever indebted to God, and you’re never certain if God really has forgiven you and you’re going to heaven because even if you sin, you may still need to go to purgatory and pay God back.

So I lived under this constant terror that have I done enough good deeds to outweigh my bad deeds? Have I given enough money to the church? Have I earned my salvation? Have I done my part? Is God pleased with me? When I stand before him, will he look a me and say, “Well, there’s a good guy” or will he be disappointed?

And finally I just kind of cracked under the pressure. I stopped going to church when I was in high school. I just said forget it. If God needs me and my money, what kind of God is that? If God can’t – if God’s looking me saying, “Mark, you better do your part because I need you,” what’s that say about God? And if God needs my twenty bucks, like how impressive is that? Like God’s in heaven going, “Dang, I can’t pay the light bill, and I told them it was a Kingdom of Light, and there’s no darkness at all. And the rates are up, and I can’t get a job, you know, and oh, man, Mark’s got twenty bucks. Boy, that’ll make the difference. I’m telling you. That’ll keep the lights on.”

You know, God doesn’t – it’s so silly. God doesn’t need me, and he doesn’t need my little good deeds, and he doesn’t need my twenty bucks. But I need God. I need God to forgive my sins. I need God to love me. I need God to help me. I need God to redeem me. When I understood that I don’t need to come to God with my good deeds and my money, I come to God with my sins and my spiritual poverty, that God is a loving, good God. His name’s Jesus, and he’s a giver, not a taker, and he gives to me what I need because I need him.

And so salvation is given. Redemption is given, not because we paid for it with our deeds or our dollars, but because Jesus has paid for it with his life and his death and resurrection.

Now the next question is if redemption is about being delivered and God is our redeemer and Jesus has redeemed us through his death on the cross as a substitute for our sins, paying our penalty of death, then how do we obtain this great gift? How does it become made applicable to our own lives? And Romans 3:21-24, Paul describes how we obtain this, and I need you to know this because I want to know Jesus, and I want you to belong to Jesus, and I want Jesus to do good things in your life, and I want Jesus to serve you and help you and save you and redeem you, and here’s how that is made possible.

“But now a righteousness from God apart from law has been made known.” Romans 3:21 says, “to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith.” That’s the important word, faith. “In Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference for we all have sinned, fallen short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption” – there’s our word – “that came by Christ Jesus.”

Here’s what he says. We all have the same problem. We’re sinners. There are some of you who say I don’t wanna hear that. I’m a good person. Are you as good as Jesus? Are you perfect? See, in God’s economy, he sees perfect and imperfect. You say well, nobody’s perfect. Well, except for Jesus, so we’re all sinners. You say but I’m a good person. Well, pride is the worst sin, so you’re not. Okay, now you’re with me. We’re all sinners. That was my favorite sin. I thought I was as good as Jesus, to be honest with you, until I was 19, reading the Bible and realized pride is a sin. I’m a terrible sinner. This is not good. I need him.

So we’re all sinners, Paul says, and that salvation isn’t something we could earn or merit, but it’s something that God gives freely to all who believe. What that means is this, friends. There’s not one person in this room that if you want your sins forgiven, Jesus won’t forgive you. There’s not one thing you’ve done that is beyond the love of God. There’s not one person here that if you would extend a hand to Jesus that he would not extend a hand to you, no one. There’s no one here if you wanna be redeemed that Jesus wouldn’t redeem you. You want Jesus to be your God? There’s no one here that God would reject, no one.

See, God is a loving, good God, and God knows every hair on your head. God knows every thought in your mind. He knows every longing in your heart. He knows every day of your life. He adores you. He loves you. He is a good, loving God.

And what he says is this, that redemption is possible by us trusting in Jesus, not trusting in our own merits, our own good works, nice people, our spirituality, the amount we tithe, how much we read, how much we know. It’s by trusting not in ourselves and what we’ve done. It’s by trusting in Jesus and what he has done by living without sin, dying for sin and rising to save us sinners, to redeem us. It’s about Jesus.

Here’s the simple fact. If you trust Jesus, if you love Jesus, you are redeemed. Some people say that’s too easy. Actually, it’s the hardest thing in the world because it requires humility. Everyone and everything else will tell you if you wanna have redemption, be a friend of God, you can earn it. You can pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and you could save yourself.

Christianity says you don’t even have boots, let alone straps. You can’t pick yourself up. You can’t save yourself. You can’t fix yourself. You need God. You need to just empty your hands of all your self-righteousness and be given the righteousness of Jesus Christ. It’s what 2 Corinthians 5:21 says. It says, “God made him who knew no sin to become sin, our sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus died for my sin. Jesus forgives me. He gives me his righteousness. He takes my sin. Luther calls it the great exchange. All I need to do is trust in Jesus, not myself, trust in his life, not my own, trust in his death, not my own, and trust in his resurrection so that I will have my own.

So here’s my question, Mars Hill. Do you love Jesus? Do you trust Jesus more than you trust yourself? When you wake up in the morning, do you talk to Jesus? Throughout the day, do you read the Bible to learn about Jesus? When you go to bed at night, do you talk some more to Jesus? When you’re frustrated in the middle of the day, when you’re tempted to sin, do you talk to Jesus and ask him to help you, to redeem you, to get you out of it? When someone else has needs or trouble, do you put a hand on their shoulder and pray to Jesus, say, “Jesus you helped me. Please help them, too. They need your help”? Do you ask Jesus to redeem other people in circumstances? Are you about Jesus? Is Jesus on your heart? Is Jesus on your lips? Is Jesus on your mind? Do you trust him? Are you living with him? Is he a real friend?

Mars Hill, I have the best news in the world. Jesus just didn’t die three days later on a Sunday, which is why we’re here on a Sunday. He rose. He conquered sin and death. He really did redeem us. And today Jesus Christ is alive and well, and he is our Mediator and our High Priest and our advocate and our friend, and we pray to him, and he hears. And we ask of him, and he helps, and he’s humble, and he serves, and he loves to do good because he is just altogether good.

And, friends, I need you so much to be people who trust Jesus, especially when it hurts and especially when it’s hard because if you trust Jesus, you are redeemed. And if you haven’t been redeemed yet, you will be redeemed by Jesus, and it’s the best news I’ve ever heard. Jesus saves us, oftentimes from ourselves. Jesus saves us from so much. I could go on and on and on about what Jesus has redeemed us from.

I’ll give you just a few. First, Jesus has redeemed us from the curse of the Law. Galatians 3:13, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us.” Here’s the point. Have you ever read the Bible and felt bad? Just felt like “boy, this book sucks. I was looking for inspiration, you know. I wanted to feel good. I wanted to sing songs and turn my drapes into clothes and watch the Sound of Music, you know. I wanted to be up, man. I wanted to feel good. And I read the Bible, and I just wanted to kill myself and listen to indy rock. You know, I’m just depressed, just end it.”

You know and I was that guy. I remember in college I thought I’m a little depressed in college, you know? I need inspiration. Oh, I’m gonna read myself some Bible, so I read it, and I wanted to die. I just wanted to kill myself. I thought this sucks because everything I read sounded good, but I was never gonna do it. I’d read like “don’t lust.” I was like “I’m in college. They’re half naked. That’s why I came here. That’s not gonna happen.” You know, “cross that one out. What’s next?”

“Don’t covet.” What’s coveting? It’s wanting things that belong to other people. Ha, ha, cross that one off, you know? Don’t covet. Don’t lust. Oh, I won’t. That’s a lie. That’s on the list, too. Look at that. There it is. Don’t lie. Dang it. Dang it. And I’m looking at, you know, don’t get drunk. What? I’m in a frat. I’m in a frat. One of the requirements is to be an alcoholic, you know? What the – don’t get drunk? Don’t get naked? Don’t covet and don’t lie? Okay, I won’t. Hoo, hoo. That’s a lie. It’s just – I’m doomed.

So I took my Bible to this Christian guy I knew, crazy Christian guy. Always wore the Christian T-shirts. Had the Christian bracelet, the bumper sticker. It was like he had whole catalog of Jesus junk and holy hardware. The guy owned everything. I said, “Well, I’m gonna go talk to that guy, you know? He seems to know.” And I go to him, I say, “Dude, this Bible doesn’t work.” He says, “What do you mean it doesn’t work?” I said, “It’s not very uplifting. It just bums me out.” And he says, “Well, do you think the Bible’s bad?” I said, “No, I think it’s good. It’s got nice things to say, but I just feel bad when I read it.” He says, “Well, maybe you’re bad.” I thought, “This kid’s a genius. The Bible’s a good book, and I’m a bad guy.” So I read it and I feel bad because it’s the list of all the things I’m never gonna do. And I thought, you know, maybe he’s onto something there. Maybe I’m evil, and the book’s good, and I’m bad, and every time I read the book I just see all my flaws and sins and errors and pride and self-righteousness, and that was the key turning in my whole life.

The Bible’s good. I’m bad, but I read it and I feel cursed. It’s like another thing I’m doing wrong. I didn’t even know. And then I realize Jesus says in Matthew 5, “I’ve come to fulfill the Law, obey the Law, in your place. I’ll forgive you of sin. I’ll put the Holy Spirit in you. He’ll give you the same power that enabled me to live an obedient life. You can live a new life by the in dwelling power of God the Holy Spirit.” And when you read the Bible, you don’t need to feel like you’re cursed and condemned. You could be convicted, acknowledge your sin, confess it to Jesus, who dies for you. The Holy Spirit will come then and empower you to be obedient and live a new life, and we’re redeemed from the curse of the Law. So now I read the Bible. I don’t feel condemned. I feel convicted, and when I repent, I feel freed and liberated to go live my new life with Jesus.

Second thing he delivered us from, he redeemed us from, satan and demons. We talked about it last week, so I won’t belabor the point. But it says in Colossians 1:13, 14, “He” –that’s Jesus – “has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us in the Kingdom of the Son he loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

When we’re sinning, we’re over in darkness. Satan, lies, demons, death, rebellion, folly, it’s all over here in darkness. Jesus forgives our sin. That extricates us from darkness. He breaks that bond that tethers us to darkness, and he takes us over into the Kingdom of Light.

Now in the light, that doesn’t mean we’re perfect, but it does mean that we are made known. Now we could be authentic. We’re exposed, right? I’m standing out in the light, and now we know who we are, and we confess our sins, and we deal open and honestly. And if you’re here and Christians have always judged you and looked down on you, made you feel like they’re good and you’re bad, that’s really not the way it’s supposed to work. Christians are supposed to be the most humble people of all because we’re supposed to be the most aware that we are sinners and we’re no better than anyone else. In fact, many of us are hypocrites because we know better and we still do it.

But by living out in the light, that allows us to be honest. And this honesty is, quite frankly, for a lot of people just altogether shocking. I’m working on a column for the “Seattle Times” that’s coming up, and they’re letting me write columns about Jesus, so I tell stories of people who have been redeemed, tell their stories. And I’ll send them the story and then my nice editor, nice lady, she always e-mails back and says like, “Are you sure they’re gonna allow you to say this? Like she was sleeping with her boyfriend, had an abortion, and now she’s a deacon in the church? Are you sure that…” Yeah, they’re cool with that. She like, “But that makes them look terrible.” Well, yeah, because we’re over here in the light saying “I’ve been redeemed. This was my life, and now this is my life. Look what Jesus has done.”

And it’s not about me looking good. It’s about him looking good. That’s what it’s all about, so we’ll be honest. And Paul says, “Let me boast in nothing but the cross of Jesus Christ,” so when we boast, we say, “I was like this. Now I’m like this, and God’s still working on me. He’s still making changes, and I’m not perfect and completed, but it’s because of Jesus, not because of me. It’s because he’s done a great work, not because I’m a great person.”

Got a guy this week, maybe he’s here tonight. He’s a great guy. I’m writing his story for this Saturday, and he’s getting married. Pray for him. Great guy, loves Jesus. Four years ago he’s living behind a dumpster in Belltown as a drug addict, walking around urinating on himself. Today he’s a pastor in a church, running a rehabilitation clinic, getting married to a delightful Christian woman. What do we call that? Redemption. Darkness? Forgiven. Light. New life, new guy, new guy who now could talk about his life and say, “I was in darkness. Now I’m in light. See what Jesus does? That’s why I love him.” That’s what redemption is.

And so when we become Christians, sometimes we fail to talk about our darkness. We say well, that makes us look bad. Well, it makes him look good, and so let’s just tell the truth. Let’s live out in the light and be honest.

Another thing he’s delivered us from, darkness, yes, the curse of the Law and also our internal flesh, Romans 6:6-7. Paul says it this way, “We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anybody who has died has been freed from sin.”

Here’s the point. We are rebels and lawbreakers. Right, some of you, you break every law. I mean, if the speed limit says 60, you go 70 just because, right? And how many of you have ever met a child? Do you – have you ever given a rule to a child and seen them defy it for no logical reason just because they’re evil. This is what they do, right? I literally have told my kids, “You need to have some ice cream.” My son retorted. He said, “No!” I’m like what do you mean no? “You can’t tell me what to do.” I told you to eat ice cream. I didn’t tell you to eat a weed whacker. I told you to eat ice cream.

But there’s something in us even from birth. This seed from Adam, this seed of rebellion, this fleshy desire to just disobey and be defiant, even to our own destruction to where we do things that aren’t logical. Proverbs says they’re foolish. We even hurt ourselves and ruin our own life in the name of being free to do what we want, which is slavery to folly and sin and death.

And so what happens is this. This rebellious part of it, of who we are, it really just needs to die. It just needs to die because it’s no help at all. And this rebellious part of us, when we hear God tell us to do something, we read God’s commands in Scripture, something in us just wants to rebel and go break it. That’s the flesh. And Paul says this. “Just as Jesus died for our sin, so we now can put to death our sin.”

Some of you have for too long accommodated your sin, let it sit right in the middle of your life and work around it. Some of you have renamed it into something a little better. Some of you have learned to diminish it and to sort of modify it, keep it under control, right? So we have sexual sin, but we draw the line here in pencil, and occasionally we move it. You know and that’s kind of the silly stuff we do, right?

And what we try to do, we try to keep our sin manageable. We try to excuse it, rename it, justify it, work around it, accommodate it, accept it. I’ll never change. This is just the way I am. And if you want to be my friend, you have to accept me the way I am. It’s like really? You couldn’t change and maybe be different? No because this is the way I am, and I’m being true to myself. Well, be true to Jesus and be redeemed and change.

And the good news is you can put to death sin. This is one of the most remarkable things of the Christian faith that altogether shocks me, and I’m still delighted in it and every day find it to be just amazing. See, before I was a Christian, here’s what I was. I was a violent guy, really violent. I used to fight all the time. I was angry, bitter, mad, violent all the time.

I remember as a little kid punching holes in my walls in my room, punching through doors. I remember picking fights with perfect strangers. I remember just like being out. A dude would look at you. Are you looking at me? No. Well, you’re looking at me now. You wanna go right here? I mean, just that guy, this little guy who wanted to fight everybody, right? Just that brawler, jerk, mean guy. And I thought, you know, this is way I’m always gonna be. I’m gonna be mean. I’m gonna be nasty. I’m gonna be violent. I’m gonna slam guys’ heads into the trunks of cars. I’m gonna put guys in the hospital because that’s just being true to me.

And then I got redeemed. God saved me. All of the sudden, to be honest with you, I had no desire to fight anybody. Like the last thing I’d do is wake up in the morning saying, “Man, I hope somebody cuts me off, and I hope he’s little.” I just – I don’t think about fighting. You know, I’m just like, hey, I could pull a hamstring. I’m old. It’s just I don’t wanna fight. The anger’s gone. The bitterness is gone. The violence is just gone.

My other thing, too, was I honestly thought that I was impossible to live a sexually pure life. Be honest with you. I wasn’t married as a virgin. I was sexually active before I got married, before I became a Christian at the age of 19, and my thought was, well, dudes are always gonna look at porno. Dudes are always gonna flirt with gals. Dudes are always gonna have a gal on the side. Dudes are always gonna end up at a strip club at least a few times a year because that’s just what dudes do. It’s just being a guy, being true to the man.

And sometimes it’s like what is that? Like, well, dudes get naked a lot. They’re extroverts. What has it go to do with anything? You know, but that was kind of what was in my head, and if you would’ve walked up to me and said do you think you’ll be sexually pure, I’d say, “Well, it sounds like a good idea, but it’s just not gonna happen.” Do you think you’ll be faithful to one wife for your whole life? I would’ve said, “It’s a good idea, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen because I don’t think things like violence and anger and lust and perversion, I don’t think you can kill them. Maybe you can manage them.”

I would’ve thought, well, maybe I’ll be the guy who doesn’t have sex with another woman, but I’ll go to the strip club. Well, that’s my new morality, which is lust in your heart. Bible says it’s the same in God’s sight. It’s bad either way. To be honest with you, I didn’t think that I could really change, so I just learned to accept myself and love myself and embrace myself and hug myself and kiss myself and love myself because I needed to be true to myself and go to hell, which was a problem. I needed to be true to Jesus and have his life lived though me, which was totally different.

And what I found was when God redeemed me, man, things changed. You know, you don’t have to be perverted. You don’t have to be violent. You don’t have to be bitter. You don’t have to be angry. I actually changed. Shocking. I actually changed. I still wake up, look in the mirror. I’m just like hmmm, this is curious, isn’t it? We’re not gonna beat anybody up today, and we’re gonna keep our pants on. Shocking. Thank you, Jesus. And you know, I’ve been redeemed from this dark way of life to this other way of life that, quite frankly, I find much better, to be honest with you.

And so the internal flesh, it’s a rebellious part of it, but it’s a part that because Jesus died, we can kill it, crucify it. We don’t need to live in sin. We actually can put sin to death. I hope that’s good news for some of you. You know, you could just stop by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The last one is the external world. This is another thing that Jesus Christ has redeemed us from: the curse of the Law, darkness, our internal flesh and the external world. Paul says in Galatians 6:14, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.” The world means this. The world means different things in the Bible. Sometimes it means cultures, languages, nations. In this sense it has a negative connotation, and it’s referring to the way of thinking and the way of acting that is predominant among people who don’t know Jesus. That’s all. It’s negative. It’s just flesh in corporate form, which is what a guy named Loveless says, which is right.

And so when we’re talking about worldliness, we’re talking about people think a certain way. They think that’s the only way to think, and so they live in light of those assumptions. That’s why Paul says “Don’t be conformed to the pattern of this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Think differently. And I’ll tell you what worldliness is. If you would’ve asked me, again, as a college student before I got redeemed, before I became a Christian, what is a normal life? I would say, well, a normal life is you grow up. You’re mom and dad fight. They commit adultery. They get divorced. You grow up in a home marked by poverty and hardship.

You hit junior high, and you have some sort of your first sexual encounter. You smoke your first joint. You drink your first bottle, and you start sinning and rebelling in secret. Come high school, you’re trying to have as much sex as you can. You get a little bolder and more brazen. You drink a little more, smoke a little more, do your thing. You go to college, and you spend the eight years of your undergraduate work just drunk and naked because that’s what you can do. Just keep taking out Pell grants and drink light beer.

And then you’ll graduate, and you will move in with someone that you’re not sure you wanna marry, but it seems like the next stage of life. You live together, have sex together, but you don’t really intersect your lives. You don’t intend to marry. If you get pregnant, you abort the child. The relationship doesn’t work out, doesn’t lead to marriage, so then you end up doing this a few times. You just get sick of it. You end up them reaching a point where you meet someone that you feel like, well, I guess we should get married now because we’re in our late 20s, early 30s. We been together awhile. We’re already living together. Maybe we had a kid together. Well, I guess this is what we do. It’s time to grow up.

You get married. You end up committing adultery on each other, despising each other. You get good lawyers. You fight it out in court. You split half of all you own, and then your kids grow up with the same thing you did. It’s normal, just normal. Isn’t that normal? All kids get high and rebel against their parents and have sex and don’t marriages end in total travesty, and isn’t this normal?

And the issue is, well, should it be? See, that’s worldly thinking like all these things are absolutely inevitable. Does it really need – does everybody need to jump in that stream that’s just flowing right into hell? Do we all need to just float downstream like all the other dead fish? Isn’t there another stream we could swim in, one that’s going to heaven and has life and isn’t just assuming that all kinds of sin are just natural rites of passage, that certain kinds of rebellion are just normal? See and that’s worldliness. Worldliness has all these assumptions that, well, this is just the way it goes.

You meet God, and Jesus redeems you and renews your mind. You realize actually there’s a whole other way to live your life, not in the darkness, in the light, not going to death but going to eternal life, not opposed to God, in obedience to God, not marked by the flesh but by the Holy Spirit, not marked by Satan but marked by Jesus, one that’s not filled with despair but one that’s filled with joy, one that doesn’t have sin as the final word but grace and redemption as the final word. And there’s hope and there’s joy and there’s life in Christ.

And some of you have been told when you die Jesus will take you to heaven, and that’s all that you know of Christianity. Let me tell you that’s true. If you love Jesus, when you die he’ll take you heaven. We believe that. But here’s what we also believe. You need Jesus before you die like yesterday and today and tomorrow. You need Jesus for your life. You need Jesus for your whole life because Jesus will give you eternal life, but he’s also concerned about your life now, and he wants to redeem you from all these ways of thinking and acting that are not good for you. They’re destructive. They’re deadly. They’re unproductive. They’re unfruitful. They’re unhealthy. They’re unwise, and Jesus loves you, and he wants to redeem you from that and give you a different life, make you a new person, give you a fresh, clean start.

And he wants to do that right now before you create any more trouble for you and for others because he loves you so much. I love how Peter says it. He says that we were redeemed – 1 Peter 1:18-19 – “from the empty way of life handed down to us by our forefathers.” One generation just does it this way, hands it off. The next generation does it that way never thinking is there any alternative? Is there a new way of life? Is there more than this? Is there any hope for me? Could I be different? Could my life change? Could my future change? Could my family change?

I’ll tell you what. The hollow and empty way of life handed to me by my forefathers is rampant alcoholism. Massive generations precede me of excruciating alcoholism, brutal, devastating alcoholism. Guys who can’t hold jobs, can’t own homes, can’t sustain marriages, can’t raise kids because they are drunk all the time. Not just drunk, mean, nasty, violent drunks. And if you grow up in that world, you just wake up thinking, well, that’s what my family did. That’s what I do. That’s what my kids’ll do. This is normal.

Then you get redeemed by Jesus, and you get brought out in the light, and you realize, oh, it doesn’t need to be this way. Could be different. By God’s grace – and I’m not a great guy – but by God’s grace I’ve never been drunk. I been redeemed from alcoholism. Praise God for that. I can’t imagine what my life would be like.

I’ve actually had relatives, uncles, who have died from alcohol, died from alcohol, slaves to it. Can’t stop drinking it, can’t beat it, can’t put it to death. It puts them to death, and that’s the truth of sin. You either kill it or it kills you, but it’s a fight, and the fight is real, and the war is on. Hollow and empty way of life. I’ll tell you Jesus has redeemed me from a hollow and empty way of life. And I guess this is my closing question for you guys, and I appreciate you coming out, and it’s something I want you to think about.

Next time you’re ticked at God, disappointed, frustrated, I hope this question helps. It’s a question I ask myself all the time. What does Jesus redeem me from? If you’re a Christian, ask that question. If you’re not a Christian, ask Jesus what do I need you to redeem me from?

Let me tell you honestly, and this is not fun for me, but let me tell you what Jesus has redeemed me from, okay? I’m a guy who found his first porn magazine when he was about 10 years old, 11 years old, on his way to school. Kids left them stashed underneath the bridge to school.

I was a guy who then ended up looking at porn for years. I’m a guy who ended up having sex with his girlfriends. I’m a guy who, had Jesus not redeemed me, I tell you exactly who I would be today. I would be a guy who’s very sexually perverted, probably would not have any friendship with a woman that didn’t have any sexual potential. Probably would just use women. Probably would’ve married but definitely wouldn’t have been faithful to my wife. I would’ve been the guy with girlfriends on the side, in the strip club, picking up girls in the bar at the hotel in the bar at the hotel on the business trips. I would’ve been that guy. I definitely would not have been a guy who is faithful to one woman with his thoughts, with his hands, with his life. No way. Actually, I would tell you there’s not even a possibility that that would happen.

And also my life would be two compartments. One would be work. I would probably work 80-100 hours a week. I would massive amounts of money. I would be very successful and very rich. I would push people around. I would bully them. I would intimidate them. I would threaten them, and I would exert my will on others to make a buck, and I would be about making money, partially because I grew up poor and I wouldn’t ever wanna be poor, so I would make myself some money. I would get a lot of accolades for that because I would produce results even though I would do it in a real evil, awful, bad way.

The other half of my life would be husband, father and family. My wife would despise me because I would be unfaithful to her. I promise you that I’m a guy who, apart from Jesus’ redemption, is a guy who doesn’t love his wife but intimidates her, and she’s afraid of him, and he pushes her around with his words and threats of physical violence and maybe even smacks her around now and then just to keep her in line.

And I promise you that with my kids, that I hate them, and that they hate me because I would be busy a lot and buy them presents. I would come home. They would not respect or obey me because I wouldn’t know how to deal with sin. I wouldn’t know how to raise a kid. I wouldn’t know what to do with them. So what I would do, I would yell at them, intimidate them and threaten them. I would treat them and my wife just like I treated my competition in business. And when my kids disrespected or disobeyed me, I would hit them out of anger out of anger and out of violence, and I would intimidate them to be afraid of me and obey me.

And I’d wanna be my own little God, and I’d want everyone to be afraid of me and to do what I want. That’s who I would be apart from the redemption of Jesus Christ. And at the end of my workday like tonight, I would go have a few beers and I’d go to a strip club, and if some guy looked at me, I’d probably punch him in the mouth. That is your pastor apart from redemption. That’s the truth. I’m not proud of that. I don’t like to talk about that, want everybody to think I’m a great person, nice guy, holy and pure, but the Bible says that no good thing lives in me. That’s true.

And then the Holy Spirit came into me through the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, now there’s something good to work with, and now the Holy Spirit gives me new desires. You know what? I been faithful to my wife. We’ve been together 17 years. Dated 4, married 13. Totally faithful to my wife, but it’s by redemption, not by my own will.

I actually don’t even think about adultery with other women. I actually enjoy my wife. I really like her. Like she’s delightful. I don’t raise my voice. I don’t yell at her. I don’t intimidate her. I’m actually shocked that I’m as loving of her as I am. It surprises me. It’s a supernatural love that I just don’t have in myself. It’s a miracle that keeps coming out through the Holy Spirit.

My kids, I never hit my kids. I don’t yell at my kids. I love my kids. I enjoy my kids. I adore my kids, and I’m so grateful that they get a redeemed dad instead of the guy I would’ve been. Last night, I rolled over. I was thinking about this. I rolled over. I looked at my wife. It was the middle of the night. I said, “Jesus, thank you so much.” Here’s my wife. I love her. We’re close. We’re faithful to each other. We’re happy. My babies are sleeping in the other room. When I come home, they run to me and kiss me. They’re not afraid of me. They know I love them. They snuggle with me. They pray for me.

I got up this morning. I’m getting ready to preach this sermon. I look in the mirror. I just, I literally was talking to myself saying “I can’t believe this. Look at this.” My plan was to get drunk and fight and make money and commit adultery and beat my wife and ruin my kids and go to hell. Would you look at this? I’m gonna go to Mars Hill and talk about Jesus. What a great deal. What a great – that’s so much better than the plan I had to be the drunken, alcoholic, wife-beating, rich, you know, thuggish, perverted jerk.

I’m telling you I’m not a great guy, but Jesus is a great God. And I am continually shocked at how much he actually can do even in my own life and what he’s redeemed me from – unbelievable – what he’s redeemed to – unbelievable. And you know there’s days I say oh, Jesus, I’m whining. I’m complaining. I wish it were different. And I ask myself if Jesus hadn’t have redeemed me, what would my life be like today?

I asked my wife that question. Honey, if I wasn’t redeemed and you weren’t redeemed, what do you think life would be like for us? Here’s what my wife said. I don’t wanna talk about it. Me neither. It’s totally depressing, totally depressing.

So here’s what I’m gonna ask us to do as a church. Just be honest with Jesus. Let’s stop trying to impress him with our good works and our morality and our spirituality. Let’s just empty our hands of all of our self-righteousness. Let’s go to Jesus with our hands saying I need you. I need you to redeem me from the curse of the Law, Satan and demons and darkness, sin, death, hell, folly, rebellion. Save me from myself. I’m my own worst enemy.

And I promise you Jesus will do that. Give your life to Jesus tonight. Be a Christian. Continue to walk with him. His redemption is continual, and you’ll get stuck, and he’ll get you out of that too. He’ll keep changing you and working on you and working with you because he’s never done with us. And here’s my promise to you. For those who are redeemed, there is no regret. Nothing is better than life with Jesus. It’s not perfect. We’re still sinful, still works in progress, but he who began this good work is faithful. He’ll see it through to completion. Our redemption will be complete. We’ll be with Jesus forever in heaven. We’ll get our redeemed body. We’ll get our redeemed eternal life, and it begins today. It begins today.

And here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna pray for us. When you’re ready, you’ll get your time with Jesus in your seat. Talk to him. He’ll listen. Ask him to redeem you from things and thoughts that you really need redemption from, you need deliverance from.

We’ll take communion, which is remembering Jesus’ body and blood shed for our sin and celebrate his death, burial and resurrection. We’ll sing and celebrate because redeemed people are happy just like the exodus. They were redeemed to worship. We’re redeemed to worship.

Then I’m gonna go home and see my wife. You know what? I’m not going to the strip club tonight. I’m not gonna go get drunk and punch some guy in the mouth. I’m gonna go snuggle with my wife, talk to her about Jesus. I’m gonna go kiss every one of my kids. I’m not gonna go smack them around. And by God’s grace, I’m gonna go live a redeemed life. I want that for you too, and Jesus invites you to that tonight.

And so, Jesus, thank you so much for redemption. You have redeemed us from hollow and empty, bad, dark, fleshly, carnal, worldly ways of life. Jesus, it is my prayer that no one in this room would leave without being redeemed, without giving their sin to you and receiving your loving forgiveness and redemption. Jesus, please take us from darkness to light. Please take us from the flesh to the spirit. Please take us from death to life. Please take us from rebellion to obedience. Please take us from destruction to delight. Please take us from ourselves to you.

We ask that you would do this by the power of the Holy Spirit. We come to you with our hands empty saying that we need your deliverance. We need your help. We need your love, your grace, your mercy, your forgiveness, your work. We’ve tried and we can’t fix ourselves, but you can, and so we give ourselves to you. Amen.