In the Spring of the Year 2000, we were in the midst of some negotiations. We found the house we wished to buy, but the seller did not want to sell it to us. Our realtor gave us some advice, “Offer him the listing price. He cannot refuse that.” We did and that was that.
By hook or by crook Lucifer snagged God’s most precious creation: people. He owned the souls of all people from that time forward. He owned them, though, on God’s terms. Lucifer, knowing that God was self-constrained by his word figured to get God in a box by tricking Eve and tricking Adam. God saw this coming; he foreknew the mire humanity would be bogged down in.
Each of us has a listing price: our blood or the blood of an innocent person. See the ownership deed lists that price. When that price is offered Satan cannot refuse. I offered the listing price for our house and it was ours. God offered the listing price for our souls and we are his: redeemed.
Here is a bit of the passage for today’s lesson:
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, . (Ephesians 1:7a–ESV)
See how that first phrase fits with our introduction? Paul says we are redeemed, and if we think about redemption in terms of the things around our own lives it helps by putting a grasp upon it.
People are never their own
“We have redemption,” said Paul. Redemption is from the House of Lucifer. Redemption is into the House of God. There is no independent House of Me. That place is nothing more than a child of the House of Lucifer. In life, we may feel as if we have our independence, but the Bible indicates otherwise. It just seems like we do. We never exist on our own spiritual tier alongside God, Satan or any else.
God gives grace to people allowing them to recast their allegiance with himself. Grace enables freedom to flee Satan’s kingdom. Escaping is the reality, however. Personal independence is a false reality. There is a title-deed to each of our souls and it was written long before we had a role in it.
The option for a recasting the allegiance, that is redemption, came at God’s price. That price was his blood. Satan may be the soul-owner, but he only owns them because of the framework he assembled. Similarly, the price placed upon the souls of humanity was God-assembled. That price was God foreknown. God was ready before the creation to pay it. Satan never had a chance in the matter though he sure thought he did. He only sort of owned souls.
In Redemption, God offered the listing price.
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