![[Photo of a Scripture verse]](https://www.deankwilson.com/Blog_images/1_Peter_1_21.jpg)
| “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” |
| —1 Peter 1:21 |
Most of us have never had the experience of pawning some item in order to pay our immediate bills. In fact, one normally finds pawn shops only in larger cities. Even if you happen to watch the television program Pawn Stars, you really have no idea of how this enterprise functions in real life.
People bring in items for which they hope to get a needed amount of money. They receive some money considerably less than the item is worth. They are given a ticket that allows them to claim the item. If they return before someone else buys the item they pawned, they can retrieve the item by paying the amount of money they were given, plus a significant surcharge. That amount of money is called “the price of redemption.”
In the aforementioned television show, you only see those who want to turn some item of personal value into cash. You never see the truly down-and-out individual who needs cash to pay some bills and comes into the store to pawn a cherished item in the hope of eventually getting it back. The “getting-it-back” part is hard. The price of redemption costs more than the person received from the pawn broker. And, there’s always the risk that the item will be sold before the person pawning it can return and redeem it.
In our lives as Christians, Jesus has paid the price for our sins. He has staked us for all eternity—given us the redemption we need to satisfy God’s holiness.
There has never been anything we could do to earn God’s favor. His redemption is a gift. It is He who calls us to Himself. It is He who pays the penalty for our sins. It is He who enables us to live in obedience to His will, through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
The Apostle Peter summed up this mysterious spiritual transaction using the words found in 1 Peter 1:17-21:
Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear.
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 ancestors, 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.
Once we belong to God through Christ, we become foreigners in a land to which we no longer belong. We live out our days here as aliens. Our home is in heaven. We are on earth for a season. But, we have our true country located just “beyond the blue” in the life to come.
The redemptive price paid for us cost Jesus His earthly life. Through the shedding of His blood, we are redeemed. This price was not paid by some currency that will perish. No, the price that was paid was paid by One who never perishes. And that fact, dear ones, makes our redemption all the more spectacular.
