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George Stepan

Trials From Without - Lesson 6 - Valuing Redemption

Peter 1:17-21

The power of Spiritual Reality

17 If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth;

18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,

19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you

21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.


Salvation is simply amazing. God planned it all before creation, decreeing that He would permit the fall and provide redemption for the world. He established from the start with Adam and Eve that if they sinned, death would result. Satan lied by saying, “You will not surely die, instead you will have everything God is holding back from you.” Eve believed in the devil instead of God and Adam followed right along. God decreed that Jesus would become a man and die for sin. This is where the blood comes in. The life of the flesh is in the blood. Leviticus 17:11 Sin lives in the blood of every human being. That sin was put there by the father. Jesus came into the earth without a human father and thus did not have original sin. He triumphed over all of the devil’s temptations, so He never committed a sin.


The reason He had to die for sin was that blood is the only payment acceptable to God. Our blood all has sin in it; Jesus’ doesn’t. So He could die and shed His innocent blood as a substitute for us. 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit . . .


Do you understand that nothing but the blood of Jesus can pay for your sin? People want to offer religion, self-reformation, good works, and the like to God in hopes of salvation, but Jesus is the only One who can save you from sin and its punishment. His blood is precious like the sacrificial lamb in the Old Testament — unblemished and spotless. You can believe in Him and receive Him right now. Pray something like this: God, I know that I’m a sinner and I can’t save myself. I believe Jesus died on the cross in my place and that He resurrected. So I believe in Him as my Savior and receive Him. I also agree that from now on Jesus is Lord of my life. Thank you, God, for saving me.


Now you are in an eternal relationship with God, which should affect your life today. You can now call God your Father, and that should produce a feeling of reverence and awe because of who He is and because of what He and the Lord Jesus have done for you. Looking back to before Christ's days makes no sense because the perishables like silver and gold and the futile pursuits handed down from ancestors didn’t redeem you. The blood of Jesus did, and you need to honor it and be devoted to it and your Savior.


The other benefit of this salvation is connecting you permanently with God the Father. This work of Jesus on the cross was all planned long before creation, but now He has come here, and salvation is personal. Through faith in Christ, you have faith in God, and included in that is the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. Of course, if He hadn’t resurrected there would be no salvation or Christianity, but He did, and believing in Him means you are believing in God as well.


This teaching lays the foundation for you to anchor when buffeted by trials. Precious blood has bought and saved you, so you don’t have to yield to pressure and talk that demeans you.


You are a born-again, sanctified, Spirit-filled, heaven-bound, rejoicing believer in Jesus and you overwhelmingly conquer in all things. Don’t let anyone talk you out of it — not for even a minute.

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