A HIGH PRICE
Many times we don’t
appreciate what is given to us as a gift. On the other hand, when we have to
pay a high price for something, we value it more.
Our redemption had a
high cost: the blood of the Lamb.
(1 Peter 1:18-19) knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your
forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, (19) but with
the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
Our redemption had a
high cost, but it was given freely to us. That is why the Lord asks us to
remember it on his feasts, year after year, so that we don’t forget the great
gift that He has given us and we don’t lose the thankfulness for what he did.
God does not need for
us to be thankful, but we do need it. We must not forget what the Lord has done
for us. He took us out of slavery and into freedom; having been dead, he gave
us life.
SLAVES
Part of us showing gratefulness
for our redemption is living as God commands. God does not give us freedom so
that we fall back into chains and bondages. He wants us to be free; and for
that we have to be cleansed from sin.
We used to be slaves
to sin. A slave does not do whatever he or she wants, but what his master
decides. If we are slaves to sin, even if we want to do good deeds, we cannot.
(Romans 7:14-19) For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under
sin. (15) For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want,
but I do the very thing I hate. (16) Now if I do what I do not want, I agree
with the law, that it is good. (17) So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin
that dwells within me. (18) For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is,
in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to
carry it out. (19) For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want
is what I keep on doing.
The Israelites were
born as Pharaoh’s slaves; in the same way, every human being is born as a slave
to sin. That is the master we serve.
But God said to
Pharaoh: “Let my people go, that they may serve me”. The
Lord wants to redeem us so that we would stop serving sin, and start serving
Him.
God took us out of
Egypt, from the slavery of sin, and now we are free. But that freedom is not so
that we do whatever we like, but for us to do righteousness.
Paul explains it this
way:
(Romans 6:16-18) Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient
slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to
death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? (17) But thanks be to
God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart
to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, (18) and, having been
set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
SLAVES OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS
Many people want God
to save them from the “consequences” of sin, but they want to keep on doing
whatever they want. That is not freedom, but libertinism.
God paid a high price
for our redemption, so that we might live in freedom, not for us to fall into
sin again.
This does not mean
that after being “saved” we won’t sin again. While there is still iniquity in
the world, we can fail. The difference is that now sin does not rule over us
(unless we let it). Now, if a believer sins, he can repent and start all
over again. God is our Lord, and He is interested in us serving righteousness,
and not sin.
This is what we
celebrate during the week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We remember
that we have already gone out of Egypt, and now we have to live without leaven,
without sin in our lives.
The way that we show
gratefulness for the gift of redemption is by being slaves to righteousness.
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