Join us as Dr. Kyle walks us through the profound truths embedded in Ephesians, illustrating the price of redemption and the boundless grace extended to believers. Uncover how God orchestrated our salvation through Christ, likened to the kinsman redeemer, and explore the remarkable narrative that foreshadows our spiritual liberation. This episode encapsulates the essence of forgiveness and grace, drawing parallels between scripture and divine redemption.
We’ll be right back. powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
Please join me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1, verses 7 through 10. Ephesians 1, 7-10. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the faithful saints living in the city of Ephesus, which was the fourth largest city in the world at the time. Paul wrote this while he was under house arrest in Rome in about AD 62, and he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers so they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God. See, he wants these Christians to be established and equipped more and more in their faith, thus this letter. Last week we began looking at the doctrinal section of this book that’s found in chapters 1 through 3. It’s very interesting because this doctrinal section begins with one single sentence in the original language, the Greek. A sentence that consists of 202 words and a sentence that’s 12 verses long, verses 3 through 14. Some say that this is actually a song of praise to God, a hymn, which might have been the case. But more than anything else… This is an attempt to use a whole bunch of words to praise God for his divine plan. And it’s as if Paul can’t contain the love and the praise that he has for his good God, so he just rattles off these 202 inspired words that are filled with incredible truths about what God has done for the believer. And it’s only at the end of verse 14 that Paul takes a breath. Last time in verses 3 through 6, Paul praised God for choosing us for Himself, for predestining us to adoption, and for making us acceptable in the Beloved, all of which are incredible reasons to praise God, to bless God. But look, there’s more. In fact, there’s much more, verses 7 through 10. Let’s look. Verse 7. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. We’ll stop there for now. And here we see three more reasons that we, the chosen and redeemed ones, believers, can bless and praise our amazing God. Why? Because we have redemption. Redemption. We have redemption. We’ve been redeemed. Redemption means to buy back, and it speaks of being set free by the payment of a price, a ransom. The picture here is this. When a prisoner has been taken captive, and he’s been made a slave by some wretched slave owner, look, before that slave could be set free from that captivity from the slave market, a ransom price would have to be paid. And only when the full price, the full ransom was paid, only then could the slave be set free. So redemption is a deliverance of someone or something through the payment of a ransom. And the good news is, that’s exactly what Jesus Christ has done for every Christian. Look, we’re all slaves to sin. Satan owned us, and he’s a wretched master. That’s true of every person, whether they realize that fact or not. Everybody in the world is held captive in their sin, sold under sin, in bondage to their sin, and the Bible is abundantly clear about that truth. So, how can I get out of bondage? Here’s how. You have to pay a price. What price? Death. Death. The price for sin, the wages of sin is death. So in order to purchase sinners from the grasp of sin and the wicked one forever, there must be death. That means that either you die and pay the price for your own sin for all eternity, since sin committed against the holy, eternal, and infinite God is worthy of eternal and infinite wages, or else someone who is truly worthy and able comes along and pays the incredibly high price for you. But who? Who? Who can do it? Who is worthy? And then, who would be willing? Only one, right? Who? Jesus. God the Son. Only Him. He alone could pay the asking price for your soul, and that’s exactly what He did. A good Old Testament picture of this is the story of Ruth. See, Ruth isn’t just a great story, but Ruth is a wonderful foreshadowing of our own redemption. For in this book, we learn what a kinsman redeemer is. The concept of a kinsman redeemer comes out of the book of Leviticus. Leviticus 25.25 says, So, essentially, a kinsman redeemer was a relative who redeemed or bought back what was lost. That could be the other person’s property, their freedom, or even their name. The kinsman also might be called upon to exact revenge on someone who might have killed that relative. So the kinsman redeemer was a rescuer. The kinsman redeemer was a restorer. Note that this role wasn’t something that should be entered into lightly. No, because there were some serious obligations that were necessary for the person who would be that kinsman redeemer. The story of Ruth, if you remember, begins with Naomi, who is Ruth’s mother-in-law. Sad to say, both her husband and her two sons died. That left Naomi and her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, as widows, all three of them. This is very serious because there were few things worse in those days than being a widow with no sons. See, to be in this position meant loss of income, loss of support, loss of possessions, and ultimately the loss of property. And so these three women were now destitute and they were in a very extremely desperate situation. And the only hope they had was for one of their relatives to see their plight and then to be willing to pay the price of redemption to be that kinsman redeemer. As it happened, Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem from Moab, where they had been living. Upon arriving in Bethlehem, Naomi sends Ruth to glean in the fields of Boaz, a wealthy relative of Naomi. What was gleaning? Gleaning was something that allowed the poor to go into the fields and pick up the scraps of grain that had been left over, either purposefully or by accident. And it shows us how desperate these women truly were. Well, through a series of divinely appointed circumstances, very clearly, Ruth was able to appeal to Boaz to be her kinsman redeemer. And as the male relative of Ruth’s late husband, he qualified for that role. That said, Boaz wasn’t the first in line to be that redeemer. No, there was another relative who was to be in line for that position first. But as we find out, he was unwilling to be that kinsman redeemer to pay the price and to take on the responsibility of that. But Boaz, who was next in line, was willing. And so he became the kinsman redeemer by marrying Ruth and by paying the full price and redeeming her property and redeeming her name. Ruth 4.9 says this, Then Boaz said to the elders and the crowd standing around, you are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of her husband and sons. And with the land, I have acquired Ruth to be my wife. This way she can have a son and carry on the family name of her dead husband and to inherit the family property here in his hometown. You are all witnesses today. So, Ruth now has a kinsman redeemer. He basically swooped in and he rescued her. Note that they went on to have a son named Obed, who became the grandfather of David, who was the forefather of Jesus. Now look, to be a kinsman redeemer, there were four requirements that had to be met. One, you had to be kin. The only way that you can be a kinsman redeemer was that you had to be of the same family. There had to be some kind of relational tie. Two, you had to be willing. In the Ruth and Boaz story, the person who was the next redeemer in line simply wasn’t willing to follow through with the redemption. See, if the person wasn’t willing, they couldn’t be forced to do it. Being willing is at the heart of what a kinsman redeemer is. Three, you had to be able to redeem. Willingness alone wasn’t enough to be a kinsman redeemer. You actually had to be able to follow through with that redemption. And if you didn’t have the financial means to make that redemption, then you couldn’t be the redeemer and it didn’t matter how good your intentions were. Four, you had to pay the price in full for redemption. There’s no such thing as partial redemption when it came to being a kinsman redeemer. Unless the full price was paid, there was no redemption. It was an all or nothing proposition. Now, all of that is a picture of what Jesus did for us as believers. We were just like Naomi. We were just like Ruth. We were desperate and destitute. We had no hope, and we’re all lost in our wretched and sinful condition, and we needed someone who could step in and become our Redeemer, because we certainly couldn’t redeem ourselves not even close. So Jesus came, and He met. All the requirements that were necessary to be our eternal Redeemer. And note that he paid a massive price to buy us back. More on that in a second. But look, first Jesus became like us. Because the Redeemer had to be kin, that means that Jesus had to become like us, human. And if Jesus didn’t take on full humanity, then there’d be no way of redemption for us. He was 100% man and 100% God at the same time. Since sin came… into the world through one man, it would take another man to bring about our salvation and our righteousness. That would require the infinite God to take on human flesh, again, fully God and fully man at the same time. He had to be man to redeem men, and he had to be God because only God is able to pay the asking price for our souls, and so that’s what Jesus did. God the Son to redeem us. Second, Jesus was willing to do it. How good is that? As He said in John 18.10, No one takes it, my life, from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. So Jesus freely did this. No one twisted His arm to do this. No, He was willing to be obedient and to see this process all the way through to the brutal end. Third, Jesus was able to redeem us. Having the willingness means nothing if He didn’t have the ability to redeem. Thankfully for us, this was not the case. The death and obedience of Jesus Christ was everything that was needed to bring about our redemption and, of course, His resurrection. Fourth, Jesus paid the complete price for sin, our sin, and He paid it in full. Right before He died, He declared, “…it is finished.” That’s a term from the world of commerce that literally means it has been and now stands paid in full. It’s like having a bill of sale that now says that nothing more is owed. No, all has been paid up. How much? All. All. See, he paid the full asking price. He died so we could be his by grace through faith. He said, me for you. I’ll bleed. I’ll pour out my blood and die a wretched death on a cross for you. I’ll give my life for you. I’ll be the sacrifice so that you could be set free. Here’s the blood to prove it. Me for you. As one said, you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver, no. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. Note that he redeemed us with what? His blood. Why? Because without the shedding of blood, there’s no forgiveness. Hebrews 9.22. See, blood represents life, and when blood is spilled, it represents death. A substitute dying in your place. It shows us the high cost for sin. The wages of sin is death, and blood represents that to us. Pretty gory. But remember, sin is gory. Think about it. When you sinned in the Old Testament, an innocent animal had to be killed. It had to be slaughtered, a bloody mess, blood everywhere. And it was all pointing to Christ on the cross who bled and died in our place as believers. You know that you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, 1 Peter 1.18. So again, you sinned. Death. Something has to die. Why? Because all sin against an infinitely holy God results in the death penalty and it must be paid up in full because God is a just and righteous God. Sin is a crime against the God of the universe and the penalty for that crime is death. The death penalty represented by the shedding of blood. The whole of the Old Testament shows this to us, and it points to the great sacrifice that was to come, that of Jesus’ sacrificial giving of his own life on our behalf on the cross. Leviticus 17.11 is the Old Testament’s central statement about the significance of blood in the sacrificial system. God, speaking to Moses, declares, “…for the life of a creature is in the blood.” I’ve given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It’s the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. In other words, God says, I have given to you the creature’s life, which is in its blood, to make atonement for yourselves and to cover the offense that you have committed against me. In other words… The substitute’s life for you represented by the substitute’s blood being poured out and resulting in its death in your place. So the blood shows that atonement, covering for your sin, has been made. Death so you could live. And again, it all points to Christ on the cross. He himself declares that he came to give his life as a ransom for many, Matthew 20, 28. Paul exhorted believers to glorify God in their body. Why? Because you’ve been bought with a price. What? What price? Christ’s blood, his life for yours. Peter said that you were ransomed not with perishable things such as gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ. And then the apostle John described people in heaven praising God saying, worthy are you for you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, Revelation 5.9. So, Who are we? We are the ransomed ones. We have been bought back from the slave market of sin, and the price he paid for you was very, very costly indeed. His very life for yours. Wow. Isn’t that a great reason to praise and bless God? Look at what he did for you. It’s very personal. Look at what he did. For me. Here’s a question. Kind of a trick question. Who are you saved from? Careful. Careful. You’re saved from God. Namely, you’re saved from the wrath of God, right? Think about this. God saved you from God, right? Think about that. He is a just God and He must punish all sin for His justice to be satisfied. But look, He loved you so much. That Paul says he chose you and adopted you, but it wasn’t without a price. No. See, God, God the Father, sent God, God the Son, to become your sacrifice for sin as a believer and to die a brutal death on the cross. And look, to face God’s wrath against your sin in his own body. So God punished God, brutally and horribly, to redeem you and to rescue you. Does that blow your mind a little? Who killed Jesus? Well, the Romans did or the Jews did, but who really killed Jesus? God did. God the Father did. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, Isaiah 53, 6. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He, God the Father, has put him, God the Son, to grief, Isaiah 53, 10. Why? Why would God do this? To redeem you. You think he loves you? I mean, look at what he did. So who then was a ransom for your soul paid to? One might expect that a ransom had to be paid to Satan since he’s the custodian of sin and death to which all men are enslaved. But God, the Son, isn’t beholden to Satan that he should make any kind of payment to him. Satan himself is God’s chief captive and thus he’s in no position to make any demands on God. No. Instead, the ransom of Christ’s blood was paid to God the Father whose holiness demanded a just payment for the penalty of sin. What extravagant love God has for us. Think about what he did to redeem us. He didn’t just snap his fingers and say, chosen, adopted, end of story, no. But he made sure that he redeemed us fully and completely from our old wretched owner’s hands, and that’s exactly what he did. And look, Jesus had to become a man, live a perfect life, die a brutal death on a cross as our substitute for sin, pay the wages in full for our sin, and then he died and rose from the dead to redeem us. Come on, isn’t that a great reason to bless and praise God today? Look at what he’s done. Second, we can bless and praise God because we have the forgiveness of sins, and that’s a great result of our redemption, forgiveness. Is there a better word for guilty sinners like us? You’re forgiven. By God. You’re forgiven. The word forgive is from the Greek word ephemi. It means to literally send away, to let go, to remove, to cancel, to release, and to pardon. It means to once and for all take away the sin, and then to also… Listen, remove the guilt, the punishment, and the power of that sin. That’s the best news ever. Henry Law writes that forgiveness is remission of due penalties, the obliteration of incurred guilt, the withdrawal of just displeasure, the blotting out of accusing handwriting, the burying all offenses into oblivion, the hushing of the loud thunder of the law, the canceling of its tremendous curse, the consigning to a sheath the sword of justice. It’s the frown of Jehovah softening into eternal smiles. It encounters sin and strips it of its destroying pride. power. How incredible is the forgiveness of sin by the Lord God Almighty? Warren Wiersbe says that forgiveness is the greatest miracle that Jesus ever performs. It meets the greatest need, it costs the greatest price, and it brings the greatest blessing and the most lasting results. That’s right. Psalm 103.12, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us, forgiveness is everything. Look, You may be a great big sinner. Do we have any great big sinners in the place today? Guess what? Jesus is great at forgiving the sin of those who surrender to him, of those who look to him, of those who seek his forgiveness and mercy. Don’t we know it? Every single day? But John, you don’t know what I’ve done. I’m glad I don’t. But God knows. And he says that he will forgive you if you flee to him in repentant faith. All your sin, every single one of them. See, Jesus obliterates the thing that condemns you, your sin, and he washes you clean by grace through faith because of what he did on the cross in your place. Clean, forgiven, pardoned forever. Do you understand how good this is? How does this ransom and forgiveness happen? Look, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Now remember, grace is God’s unmerited favor toward sinners who don’t deserve it. One said, grace is everything for nothing to those who don’t deserve anything. Grace is God’s generous favor to undeserving sinners and needy saints. Grace is all God’s power, all His love, all His beauty available to you. Christians are those who have been lavished with God’s amazing grace that saves them, us, and keeps us. Those who receive God’s gracious redemption and forgiveness of sin gain insight into the fact that God no longer holds them guilty for their sin because all those sins have been paid for. Christians know that. They know that they don’t have to earn their salvation. No, Jesus did the work, all of it, to secure our redemption. We know that. Also, because we have been redeemed and forgiven, we know that we don’t have to wallow around in sin and guilt anymore. No. Repent, give it to God, and move on for the glory of God. We know that. Also, because we have been redeemed and forgiven, we know that it’s not really about the fading things of this life. No. It’s about the next. And the wise soul is the one who redeems the time and who lives for the next life. Also, because we have been redeemed and forgiven, we know that God knows what He’s doing and we can trust Him, right? Even in tragedy and pain and hardship and death. And we know that to live is Christ and to die is gain. And we know that for us, the best really is yet to come. And in wisdom, we live like we believe that. See, God gives us His Spirit to help us once we’re saved by His Spirit. He saves us, by the way, as well. But we’re also called… to cultivate our faith by diving into his word, which will give us even more insight into eternal things. Christians understand these things more and more while non-Christians don’t. Isn’t that true? I mean, they don’t get it. We get it. And we can grow in our understanding through the word of God. We understand this, right? Life is a vapor. These things fade away. Glorifying God is all that matters, truly. Obeying God and bearing fruit is lasting. God’s grace has opened our eyes to these things and we continue to learn as we use His means for growing in this divine wisdom. What matters? What lasts? We know. We know because of God’s grace that He’s lavished upon us. I say thank you, Lord, because so many are lost and blind to these things. Thank you, Lord.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on expository truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time and to find this sermon in its entirety as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville. a seminary professor and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. Located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.
