Redeemed!

          "In the Bible, to redeem means to free someone from something bad by
      paying a penalty, or a ransom."
                                                                       NIV Commentary

         
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                                    "For you know that 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 from your forefathers, but with
                                     the precious blood of Christ, a lamb, without
                                     blemish or defect.
                                    "He was chosen before the creation of the world,
                                     but was revealed in these last times for your sake.
                                     Through him you believe in God, who raised him
                                     from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith
                                     and hope are in God."

                                     " ... For you have been born again, not of perishable
                                      seed, but of imperishable, through the living and
                                      enduring word of God."
                                                                                       1 Peter 1:18-21, 23

         
          Jesus paid for the sins of His people, with His blood, a perfect sacrifice
     that God the Father accepted as payment for all the transgressions we would ever
     commit.


          Silver and gold (material things) come and go, but Jesus' precious blood
      shed on the cross for His people, leads them out of the darkness of sin and into
      His light.

          Led by the Holy Spirit, we receive life when we hear and believe the word of
     God.


                                               " ....for all flesh is like grass and all its
                                                 glory like the flower of grass.  The grass
                                                 withers, and the flower falls, but the
                                                 word of the Lord remains forever."
                                                                                 1 Peter 1:24-25a

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          He paid the price to buy the freedom of people in bondage to sin and under
    the curse of the law.


                                      "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law
                                        by becoming a curse for us -- for it is written,
                                        'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'
                                        -- so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham
                                        might come to the Gentiles so that we might
                                        receive the promised Spirit through faith."
                                                                                 Galatians 3:13-14


          "Christ's death, because it was a death of substitution for sin, satisfied
     God's justice and exhausted his wrath toward his elect, so that Christ actually
     purchased believers from slavery to sin and from the sentence of eternal death."
                                                                              John MacArthur


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                                        " ... You are not your own, for you were bought
                                          with a price."
                                                                            1 Corinthians 6:19b-20a

          God's people belong to Him, because they were purchased by the precious
     blood of Jesus.


                                        "He has delivered us from the domain of darkness
                                         and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
                                         in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."
                                                                              Colossians 1:13-14

          Believers are freed from slavery to sin by Christ's death, and given entrance
     into the kingdom of  God.
         
         "The Greek word for 'forgiveness of sins,' is a composite of two words that mean
     'to pardon' or 'grant remission of a penalty.'"
                                                                             John MacArthur

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                                         "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,
                                           that we might die to sin and live to righteousness."
                                                                                  1 Peter 2:24a


          This is called substitutionary atonement.  Christ took on the sins of His people,
     and bore the punishment and penalty that satisfied a holy God.  His righteousness
     is imputed to us, and God views us as clean and holy, because of what Jesus did for us.

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          The Christian's redemption came at the cross.  Before we were even born, we had
     been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, according to God's gracious and merciful plan.

          We were chosen (Ephesians 1:4), foreknown (Romans 8:29), predestined (Romans 8:29),
     and called (Romans 8:30) to salvation.
    
                          
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           Therefore, we were not redeemed because we believed, but we believed because
     we were redeemed!