Compelling Love

God promises to bring abundant redemption to His people, in spirit, soul and body.  Psalm 111 and Psalm 130 exemplify these promises:

Psalm 111 (NIV)
⁷  The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy.
⁸ They are established for ever and ever,
enacted in faithfulness and uprightness.
⁹ He provided redemption for his people;
he ordained his covenant forever—
holy and awesome is his name.

¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise.

Psalm 130 (NKJV)
⁷ O Israel, hope in the Lord;
For with the Lord there is mercy,
And with Him is abundant redemption.
⁸ And He shall redeem Israel
From all his iniquities.

Job declares, “I know my Redeemer lives,” as he looks forward to a coming bodily resurrection:

Job 19 (NKJV)
²⁵ For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
²⁶ And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,

Daniel 12 describes a coming bodily resurrection of both the righteous and unrighteous:

Daniel 12 (NKJV)
² And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life,
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.
³ Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever.

Our Redeemer lives, and He is coming soon as Jesus describes:

Luke 21 (NKJV)
²⁷ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

In John 11:25-26, just before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus declares, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

Paul teaches in Romans 3:21-24 that redemption is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ:

Romans 3 (NKJV)
²¹ But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, ²² even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

Paul writes in Romans 8 about “the glorious liberty of the children of God”, including the “redemption of our body.”

Romans 8 (NKJV)
¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; ²¹ because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. ²² For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. ²³ Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

Paul declares in Ephesians 1 and in Colossians 1 that “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

Ephesians 1 (NKJV)
³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

Colossians 1 (NKJV)
⁹ For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰ that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; ¹² giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³ He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Christ by his own blood has obtained our eternal redemption:

Hebrews 9 (NKJV)
¹¹ But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. ¹² Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, “bore our sins in His own body on the tree, we having died to sins, might live for righteousness”.  Through Him we have abundant redemption, and healing in His name.

1 Peter (NKJV)
²⁴ who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. ²⁵ For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, 3/30/2019, https://compellinglove.net/

Photo credits:
(1)  https://faithful-in-christ.tumblr.com/post/143739077230
(2) https://biblia.com/bible/niv2011/Job19.25-27
(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oE5Pl-b2B4
(4) https://www.haikudeck.com/ephesians-17-uncategorized-presentation-NdDtxtAlE9#slide0
(5) http://shop.biblevisuals.org/S2011-MVDL_Hebrews9_12_downloadready-to-printpdf.aspx
(6) https://wallpaper4god.com/wallpapers/1-peter-224_5059_1600x1200.jpg