Day Five -- Redeemer

Come before the Lord today in stillness and rest. Breathe deeply, seeking to settle into the sense of His glorious presence. Let the word Redeemer move in your mind, meditating on its beauty. Jot down a few thoughts of what this means to you.

Today you may be looking at a facet of this you’ve not seen before. In fact, it may seem unusual or strange compared to the way you are used to thinking about your redemption. Ask God to give you an open heart, to illumine your soul to the spiritual realities He wants you to see. Remember that we are completely dependent upon the Holy Spirit for the truth of God's Word to change us.

Slowly contemplate the verses below, before reading the devotional that follows.

...looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives… whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!

Titus 2:13-14, Job 19:25-27

In his wonderful three volume anthology entitled The Unfolding Drama of Redemption, Graham Scroggie beautifully unveils Scripture as a spiritual organism with every part connected to the larger whole. From creation to the consummation of the age, he carefully unveils how the multi-hued threads of God’s Word are woven together into an eternal tapestry. And from the beginning it is clear that the essence of all Scripture distills in the being of Christ, our Redeemer. He is the hero, the lead character, the one who gives significance to all other players, and meaning to every dramatic scene. Scroggie writes:

In the Old Testament Christ is predicted; in the Gospels He is present; in the Acts He is proclaimed; in the Epistles He is possessed; and in the Revelation He is predominant…In this view all parts of the Bible, from books to verses, constitute a divine progressive revelation of redeeming love; God and man meet in the One who is the God-Man. [Scroggie, W. Graham, The Unfolding Drama of Redemption, Kregel Publications, 1994, p. 31.]

Indeed, the revelation of redeeming love is a beautiful theme that resounds in songs and sonnets from God's Word and the very fabric of our lives --not only in human history, but in our personal stories as well. We are lost souls, ever prone to sin and the self-destruction that accompanies it. We are born with a yearning to be set free, and a longing for someone grand enough to sweep us out of the bondage of our brokenness. The unfolding drama of redemption is the what of God's Word, the description of our condition and its cause, of a solution and its source.

But there is something that gives breadth and depth to the what of redemption, and that is the why. Why did God redeem us? To fail to lay hold of this is to run the risk of placing man at the center of redemption's story, causing us to approach Scripture like a yearbook, always hoping to find our own picture on its pages, and disappointed when we don’t.

But as Scroggie so brilliantly sets forth, Christ -- not humanity -- is the centerpiece. From the beginning of His Word until the end, God makes it clear that as much as He loves us, He is motivated not first and foremost by us, but by Himself. But I acted for the sake of My name... I,even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake… (Ezekiel 20:9, Isaiah 43:25). This is a difficult thought -- it seems to fly in the face of the plethora of teaching about our worth, our value, our specialness to the heart of God. How can it be that God forgives and redeems us for His own sake?

To begin to grasp this, we must look at the very nature of sin. When God created Adam and Eve, He offered them the most exquisite mystery His majesty might afford, the privilege of dwelling in His presence, enjoying intimate communion with Him. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit because they believed a lie that there must be something more, something better, indeed, that the presence and person of God was not enough to satisfy their souls. This one sin polluted all of creation with a tragic and insidious world-view repudiating God's sovereign sufficiency.

Since then, we have continually sinned by trading the infinite worth of God for vain worldly substitutes, saying in essence that there is a greater gain, a more powerful purpose for living than the Creator who gives us breath. For God to allow this to go unpunished would imply careless indifference, a casual sharing of His glory that in the end would deny His very divinity. If He is God, there simply can be nothing better. By His very nature, God must extol and uphold His own honor and worth, destroying anything that sets itself above Him. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; for how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another (Isaiah 48:11).

God could have acted for the sake of His name by simply dooming all of us to eternity in hell. This is the miracle of His mercy -- that through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, God upholds His own worth by making a way for us to know Him. Being cleansed, forgiven and set free from the impotent treadmill of banal glories, we can at last taste and see and know His supreme glory. As He manifests Himself in and to and through us, our hearts will burn with desire to magnify Him, to make Him known -- until every tribe and tongue has heard, until the whole earth is filled with His glory. This is God's plan. This is what it means for Him to redeem us for His own sake.

The unfolding drama of redemption reveals hidden wonders that even angels long to understand and at which we will spend all of eternity marveling. Because God alone comprehends the full worth of His being, we can only be awestruck when we see to what lengths He goes to preserve His name. To know that our Redeemer lives, that we will one day stand before the One who laid down His life that we might gain His glory, can only stir within us hearts that ever live to glorify His name every day on this earth. O for a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer's praise…

Respond

Jesus, our Redeemer has paid the ransom with His own blood not only to deliver us from slavery to sin, but enable us to satisfy our souls in Him. In what ways might we tend to view our salvation as ultimately about us instead of God? How would understanding the why of redemption change the way you approach things like prayer, God’s Word, fellowship etc.?

God did not pay such a costly price to redeem humanity primarily because of their need, but because He wanted a people through whom He could make a name for Himself, a people who would both gain His glory, and give Him glory through joy-filled obedience. In what ways are you experiencing the glory of God? In what ways is that flowing out of your life in glorifying Him? What kind of a name for Himself might He gain by the life you live?

The joy of joys we have been purchased for is the moment we see God, when our Redeemer takes His stand on the earth. Such a wonder must continually stir and motivate us to greater obedience. Ponder this and write a prayer of response.

A Prayer

Blessed Redeemer, Precious Redeemer, seems now I see You on Calvary's tree…That image resonates in my heart and still I feel the thrill of it oh God, for my ransom has been paid in holy blood. Lord, why do I struggle so to grasp that You didn't redeem me primarily for my sake, but for Yours? And humbly Lord, I must ask if Your plan is really working. I look at my own life and at Your church, and more often it seems we bring shame to Your Name than glory. We act more like masters of our fate than a people for Your own possession. Oh God, remind me moment by moment that You redeemed me for Yourself, that the costly blood You spilled has no value outside of a life that glorifies Your Name. Prepare me for that day You will take Your stand and I will behold at last Your face, my precious Redeemer. Even the thought makes my heart faint with joy.

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