Eph 1:7-8
In Whom We Have Redemption
In Jesus we have redemption now. The word used here for redemption apolytrosis means to buy someone out of slavery. We have been set free, because the ransom due to God, because of our sin has been paid by the death of His Son Jesus. A debt was owed that we had no means to pay on our own, and so God paid the debt for us. Rom 3:23-24 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, We have been justified, because a price has been paid by Jesus in dying for our sins, and we are considered righteous before God because He has taken on our sins and paid for them, and we have been given His righteousness in the eyes of God. We have redemption through Christ.
And just as there are 3 tenses of salvation (past, present, and future), there are 3 tenses of redemption.
Past: Saved from the Penalty of Sin (Justification), Redeemed through God’s Plan from the Beginning. We have been saved through Jesus’ saving atonement on the cross. Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God Not by works, so that no one can boast. This refers to the once and for all work in which God delivers a sinner from the penalty of sin. In Acts 2:23, Peter affirms that Jesus was delivered to be slain according to God’s foreknowledge and plan. God has provided the payment for sin, before the first sin was committed
Present: Being Saved from the Power of Sin (Sanctification), and deliverance and forgiveness of sin. God has not only saved us from the penalty of sin, God is also saving us in the present: 1 Cor. 1:18 18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. As we put our trust in Jesus for salvation, we live our lives for Him, walking as He walked, and when we do this, we see the power of God made evident in our lives, and that His Word is true in our lives—Jesus is exactly who He claims to be, and God can be trusted to keep His promises. 2 Cor 2 14-15. 14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us reveals the fragrance of the knowledge of Him in every place. 15 For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing This second aspect of salvation is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in delivering us from the power of sin as we cooperate with His sanctifying work in our lives. Jesus died once for sin. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all time, 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; There’s no more blood to be poured out, His death was sufficient to pay for all the world’s sins, past, present and future. And He lives to be our High Priest in Heaven. Hebrews 7:24-25 24 Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. 25 Therefore He is also able to save forever those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Jesus is making intercession for us with God. Col 1:14 says 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And effect of the payment continues to cover sin, as we put our trust in Him and confess it. 1 John 1:9 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Future: Will be Saved from the Presence of Sin (Glorification), and our redemption will be complete.
It promises that He will one day deliver us from the presence of sin Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. The writer to the Hebrews stated in 9:28 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. Luke 21:28 28 But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Our redemption will be complete when the effects of Christ’s once-for-all death on the cross are complete, and we are in the presence of God.
In His Blood
Since ransom implies both a setting free, and a price being paid, Paul makes sure that we know what our redemption cost Jesus. His life, His blood as an atoning sacrifice, so that we could be freed from the bondage of sin. As the author of Hebrews states explicitly. Heb 9:14-15 13 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the violations that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Jesus didn’t just die for our sins, He was our sacrifice for sin. 22 And almost all things are cleansed with blood, according to the Law, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
The forgiveness of sins
Our redemption includes forgiveness of sins as an immediate result of release from sin’s bondage by the payment of Christ’s sacrificial death. It’s a release from the punishment for sin because the price has been paid by Jesus. As a result of redemption in Christ through his blood, God has cancelled or forgiven sins and the necessary punishment that goes with them, putting it on Jesus instead. God is not lenient with sin, the debt was just paid by Jesus, because sin had to be paid in order for the sinner to be set free.
According to the wealth of His Grace.
And God saved us, because of who He is. It is according to the wealth of His grace, because of the fullness, the abundance, His overflowing, lavish unmerited favor toward us. It is Grace, because there was nothing that we could do to earn forgiveness of sins, no works, no efforts, no sacrifice that we could make, because we were already sinners. It took the one and only sinless man Jesus to redeem and forgive our sins.
1:8 which he has lavished on us with all insight and discretion
It is lavished on us in the over-abundance that was necessary considering the many, many offenses that we had committed against Him. So God made His grace abound to us, be poured out unsparingly on us in overwhelming abundance.
With all insight and discretion
The word here for God’s insight is σοφία, Sophia “wisdom,” which is applied knowledge, or uniting theoretical knowledge with practice. And there is a difference between human and divine wisdom (see 1 Cor 18, and 20-25). There’s nothing in human wisdom by which we can transform ourselves. Self-help books only make us more self-satisfied sinners, who think we don’t need God’s wisdom. Human wisdom cannot reform the flesh, indeed nothing can, it must be denied, crucified, put to death. Then we will change from the inside out. And this is only made possible through the crucified Christ, which is the wisdom of God, who makes regeneration possible, who transforms us and saves us. This is the power and wisdom of God. So, the best wisdom is that which has been revealed by God in His Word. Thus, it is insight into the true nature of God’s revelation. Phronesis means discretion, or understanding. See Luke 1:16-17. So, it’s the idea that God’s wisdom turns hearts toward Him, and shows the disobedient the “wisdom,” “discernment,” and “discretion” to be righteous and obedient. He will give us wisdom in all kinds of situations in life, if we will let Him. He will give us every kind of insight and discretion that exists, if we will listen to Him. As Paul prays for the Colossians in 1:9, “in order that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and understanding,”