Redeemed used to be a popular word in the evangelical vocabulary. It was a part of many hymns and gospel songs. Reference was often made to Christ as the Redeemer. We don’t hear that much anymore, and I think we may have lost an understanding of what it means to be redeemed.

In 1 Peter, the apostle is writing to believers who are scattered around the Roman world. He describes them in 1 Peter 1:1 as aliens. They are aliens in the sense that they are part of God’s Kingdom, and so they are aliens in the world. They are God’s chosen. They are those who are being sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit, who obey Jesus Christ, who have been sprinkled with His blood.

The circumstances for them are dire. The great persecution under Nero broke out in A.D. 64, and it lasted a long time. The Roman historian Tacitus reported that Nero rolled Christians in pitch, or tar, and then set them on fire while they were still alive and used them as living torches to light his garden parties. He sewed them up in the skins of wild animals and set his hunting dogs on them to tear them to pieces. They were also nailed to crosses. Christians perished in a delirium of savagery.

First Peter is written after that persecution has begun, and that tone finds its way into every chapter. For example, in chapter 4, verse 12, he says: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may rejoice with exultation.”

The emphasis of this epistle is: “Face persecution without losing heart, without wavering in faith, without becoming bitter, and always realizing where your hope lies. It lies in your eternal inheritance that cannot fade away, for which you are protected, and to which one day you will ascend. No matter what comes, have hope in the promises of Christ. You may not be valuable to the world, but you are priceless to God, so that ‘You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ’” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Redemption is a more specific word than salvation. It focuses on the means by which salvation is accomplished—the payment of a price. And the payment is made to God.

We are in bondage to sin, which consequently has put us in bondage to God, the Judge and Executioner of all who sin. We are in God’s prison awaiting judgment. To be redeemed, the redemption price must be paid to God so that God is satisfied and can set us free. And Christ is our Redeemer. That’s what Peter is saying.

Redemption looks at our hopeless, helpless condition as prisoners of iniquity on death row, and the price that God accepted for our liberation.

There’s little doubt in my mind that as Peter wrote about being redeemed with precious blood, he was thinking about something that was familiar to all Jews—the Passover. 

The celebration of the Passover was the celebration of God buying the freedom of the Hebrews out of bondage in Egypt. Moses, in Exodus 11:4, told Pharaoh that all the firstborn in the land of Egypt would die. The Hebrews were then given instruction on how they could escape the slaughter. They had to sacrifice a lamb and spread the blood on the crosspiece and the side pieces of their door. The lamb’s blood would be shed in place of the blood of the firstborn.

The Hebrew people numbered as many as 2 million, so you can only guess the vast massacre of lambs that went on, and blood splattered everywhere on their homes. This is how an entire people was purchased. The redemption price was the blood of the lamb, and that’s got to be in Peter’s mind as he says, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless,” which was exactly how the lamb of the Passover was described.

How can sinners be redeemed? Not with silver or gold, but with precious blood. It’s going to take blood. This is a vivid way to describe death—it’s going to cause death. The price is sacrificial death. It’s going to be with precious blood, the blood of a lamb unblemished and spotless, just as at the Passover. It had to be a perfect lamb, spotless and unblemished, and he had to give his life. 

And who is that Lamb? Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He is the only acceptable sacrifice.

You have been redeemed by the death of the perfect Lamb of God, and through that you have become believers in God, and now your faith and hope are literally in God. We are joined with God. We are one with Him in Christ. ©2016 Grace to You

Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995.

Adapted by permission from a sermon preached June 12, 2016.

John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California.

Photo: Courtesy of Grace to You