The Art of the Deal

The
Art of the Deal

It's
Finished!

Redemption, Reconciliation, Appeasement

August
9, 2020

Introduction   

            Israel
was redeemed as a nation out of Egypt, (Ex. 6:6). The Lord established that an
animal should be redeemed by another, (Ex. 13:13); Later in Leviticus 25:25,
it's established the redemption of lost estate by a kinsman redeemer. 

This practice then becomes a type of Christ's
redemption -

 -- A redeemer had to be a near kinsman -
In order for Jesus to fulfill this, Jesus had to take on human form. 

 -- He had to be able to redeem; the price
to be paid being the blood of the Son of God.

 -- Jesus had to be willing to redeem,
(Heb. 10:4-10): Verse 7 “ I said,
'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the
scroll of the book. . . I suggest that from 4 - 10
be read to be in context. 

 -- The redeemer must
be free from that which caused the need for redemption. In other words, the
redeemer can’t redeem himself--

 -- Jesus had no need
of redemption. As the antitype of the high priest on the Day of Atonement,
Jesus Christ offered a sacrifice but NOT for Himself. (Hebrews
4:15), we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet
without sin. 

Everyone, all creation, all
humans are slaves, sold to sin. Romans 7:14; 1 Corinthians 12:2 Paul said to
them that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however
you were led. (I guess he’s referring to you Mark?) … following
the course of this world, to the Ephesians he said, following the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience-- Seems the same prince of the power of the air is still,
today, at work in the sons of disobedience.  

All are helplessly condemned, Ezek 18:4,  all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of
the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die. John 3:18, whoever
does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name
of the only Son of God.

To be redeemed from sin
called for death by blood - the shedding of blood - An unclean could not be
sacrificed; Man being in the same category of the unclean, an unclean animal as
the donkey, needed a substitute to take its place. Hebrews 9:27-28: Christ,
having been offered once to bear the sins of many . . .

Once one has been redeemed
spiritually, the one emancipated never returns to his former slavery. John
10:28 --  I give them eternal life, and
they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. The redeemer will not sell a slave He has bought.

Come to Jesus Christ,
accept this gift of freedom, this salvation, be saved, He will never
let you go. The only caveat is you must come willingly - Ex. 21:56 -- if
the slave plainly says, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not
go out free,' 6 then his master shall bring him to God, and he shall bring him
to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall bore his ear through with an
awl, and he shall be his slave forever.

God has undertaken the
needs of lost men. He has become the kinsman-redeemer; Jesus has paid all
demands against sin, the lost state, condition of man in eternal woe; 
That being the undertaking committed to Him by the Father, which begun when He
was on the cross, specifically His sufferings and the consummation with His
death. And to that is what the words “it is finished” refers -
The saving work of the cross of Christ our Savior - The Art of the Deal, though
a unilateral deal. What have you got to lose?

Now, we know the Lord God
gave Israel many ways to commemorate the exodus - 

But of course there’s the
consecration of the first born - This was so there would be plenty
opportunities to give their children the facts about salvation & that it
all pointed back to Israel’s escape from Egypt, when the Egyptians paid for
Israel’s redemption at the cost of their first born.

This rite of redemption was a sign to the son
that he had been saved by grace. It would show him that someone else paid the
price for his sins.

Likewise, Jesus has given us one way to
commemorate our redemption, our being reconciled, and propitiation; And that is
by celebrating communion, the Lord's Supper.

---- COMMUNION ----