The Riches of God’s Grace in Christ
Colossians 1:12–14
© Mike Riccardi
Introduction
Well, we return again to our series in the Book of Colossians, so please turn with me in your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1. According to the Bible, the Christian has what you might call a complicated relationship with money. On the one hand, Scripture acknowledges that wealth is a blessing from God. Proverbs 22:4 says, “The reward of humility and the fear of Yahweh are riches, honor, and life.” Proverbs 10:22 says, “It is the blessing of Yahweh that makes rich.” And so those who are rich in this world’s goods are to thank God for their wealth, and they are to steward it faithfully to advance God’s kingdom purposes, and not to selfishly hoard it for themselves.
And so on the one hand wealth is a blessing from God. But on the other hand, Scripture warns against the deception of riches. In Mark 4:19, in the parable of the sower, Jesus speaks of “the deceitfulness of riches” as among those “thorns” that “choke” the plant growing out of the seed of the word, so that professing believers who set their hearts upon material riches become spiritually “unfruitful” and reveal themselves to be no true believers at all. Psalm 62:10 says, “If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them.” In 1 Timothy 6:9–10, Paul says, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and piercedthemselves with many griefs.”
So, on the one hand, we are surely to view riches positively, as a gift from God, that bring blessings for us to enjoy unto God’s glory even in this present life. And on the other hand, we are not to fix our hope on material wealth but are to steward it as a means of blessing others: as 1 Timothy 6:19 says, to “store up for [our]selves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that [we] may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
Understanding that complex relationship, then, helps us understand what the Bible means when it so often describes the spiritual blessings of salvation and life in Christ as riches. True blessing, true honor, true wealth and all that it brings—security, satisfaction, joy, peace of mind— all come from laying hold of what Paul calls in Ephesians 3:8: the “unfathomable riches of Christ.” These are spiritual riches that are so plentiful and bottomless—so great-making and satisfying—the finite human mind can’t even fathom them! That’s why Paul exclaims in the great doxology of Romans 11:33: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!” Romans 10:12 says the Lord is “abounding in riches for all who call on Him.” Ephesians 1:18 speaks of “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” Ephesians 2:4 speaks of God “being rich in mercy,” and in 2:7 of “the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” In Psalm 119:14, the psalmist says, “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches.” In verse 162 he says, “I rejoice at Your word, as one who finds great spoil.” And in verse 72 he says, “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” Titus 3:6 says God richly poured out His Holy Spirit upon us through Christ. Hebrews 11:26 says that Moses considered “the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.” And even in this letter, Colossians, Paul speaks in chapter 1 verse 27 of “the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,” and then again in chapter 2 verses 2 and 3 of “all the wealth that comes from” full assurance, and “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” being hidden in Christ.
O, if only there were words to express how rich you are in Christ, Christian! The riches of His grace have been lavishedon us! We live in spiritual luxury! We have abundance, fullness, all manner of sufficiency! We are amply supplied in the mercies of our Savior—the King and Sovereign Ruler of the universe—because of all the blessings of our salvation.
And that is something that Paul needs the Colossians to know. He needs them to understand and comprehend and truly grasp the weight of how rich they are in Christ—how abundantly supplied. Why? Because, you remember, this precious church in the Lycus River Valley has come under the assault of false teachers, who are peddling a mix of Jewish ceremonialism and pagan mysticism, that amounted to saying that Jesus—and simple faith in Jesus—was not enough. They challenged the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ in and above all things.
They were challenging Christ’s sufficiency in salvation—saying that certain ceremonies of Mosaic worship were necessary to be observed in addition to trusting in Christ. They were challenging Christ’s sufficiency in sanctification—proposing that the severe treatment of the body and observing manmade commandments were needed for progress in holiness. And they were challenging Christ’s sufficiency for wisdom—claiming that mystical visions gave access to elite spiritual knowledge. And the Colossians were under the threat of being duped by these false claims—that maybe the Gospel they’d heard from Epaphras wasn’t the true Gospel, that Paul and Epaphras got the basics right, but that perhaps there was something more to the Christian life that these false teachers knew about.
So what do you do with believers who are tempted to doubt the true Gospel in favor of the latest spiritual fad being peddled their way? especially when that fad claims that that Savior and that Gospel are insufficient for abundant spiritual life? You overwhelm them with the riches and the wealth and the abundant sufficiency of the blessings of that Savior and that Gospel!
And in our text this evening, that is precisely what Paul does. We come tonight to the end of Paul’s prayer for the Colossians, which began in verse 3, and continues all the way down to verse 14. Verses 3 to 8 formed Paul’s thanksgiving. Paul gives thanks to God for His grace to the Colossians—one, because he is genuinely thankful for their spiritual progress, but also because he wants to convince them that the Gospel they heard from Epaphras has borne fruitin their lives. It’s produced faith, love, and hope. And so that Gospel—of Christ’s supremacy and sufficiency—is the true message from God, and the message of the false teachers is not.
And then, verses 9 to 12 begin Paul’s petition, for what he wants God to go on working in them. And so he prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will—that they would know what God wants from them, and that they would have all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so they can apply that knowledge to their lives. And that’s the great purpose of his prayer: that the believers would walk worthy of the Lord, so that they please the Lord in every aspect of their lives. And that would result in increasing obedience, greater intimacy and communion with God; it would result in strength to patiently endure whatever circumstances providence brings them; and it would result in a life of joyful thanksgiving.
And we stopped there last week at verse 12, but Paul just keeps going. He mentions the name of the Father, and it launches him into an elaboration of the work of the Father toward us, for which we should render him joyful thanksgiving. He just bursts into a celebration of the riches of God’s grace to us in Christ! Two weeks ago I entitled my message, “Thanks to God for Grace to You”; you could title this message, “Thanks to God for Grace to Us.” Let’s read our text. Colossians chapter 1, verses 12 to 14. Paul writes: “joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. 13For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
As Paul celebrates the riches of God’s grace to us in Christ, he focuses in on four saving actions of the Father. In theological terms, we name them (1) definitive sanctification; (2) freedom from sin’s dominion; (3) regeneration; and (4) redemption. But because the emphasis really is on how spiritually rich we have been made to be, I’m going to outline these as four descriptions of the believer who has been graced with the riches of God’s salvation in Christ. (1) We are qualified for a saint’s inheritance, (2) rescued from Satan’s reign, (3) transferred to the Son’s kingdom, and (4) redeemed by the Savior’s blood. And we’ll work through each of those together.
I. Qualified for a Saint’s Inheritance (v. 12b)
First, we have been qualified for a saint’s inheritance. Paul says, our Father “has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.” He has qualified us! The verb hikanóo means “to make worthy,” “to make one fit for something,” in some contexts “to authorize,” and “to make sufficient” (BDAG, 472–73). It’s translated that way in 2 Corinthians 3:5, in a context that makes much sense. Paul says, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.” We are not sufficient in ourselves. The very fact that the Father has had to qualify us to share in this inheritance testifies that we are not naturally qualified for it.
We are spiritually insufficient. We are unfit, unworthy; unqualified for a saint’s inheritance. Outside of Christ, in our natural state as human beings under the curse of sin, we are qualified for nothing but a sinner’s inheritance, a criminal’sinheritance, an orphan’s inheritance. Who were we, outside of Christ? Ephesians 2:1 says, “you were dead in your trespasses and sins”—dead in sin—“…in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world”—ruled by the world—“according to the prince of the power of the air”—dominated by Satan. Ephesians 2:3 says, we “were bynature children of wrath.” This is who we are by nature. Nothing has to happen to us for us to be the just recipients of the wrath of God, because of our sin, because of our corruption, because we are the opposite of being saints.
Paul goes on, in Ephesians 2:12, and he describes us as “separate from Christ, . . . strangers to the covenants of promise, [and] having no hope and without God in the world.” Because we are without Christ by faith, we are without God. And because we are without God, we are without hope. No future but eternal destruction. No inheritance but what Hebrews 10 calls “a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.”
But what has our Father done? He has acted through the work of His Son, the Lord Jesus, to qualify the unqualified, to make us fit for a share in the inheritance. These terms that are translated “share” and “inheritance” show up many times together in the Greek translation of the Old Testament to speak about the portion of the promised land that God allots to the various tribes of Israel, after He redeems them from bondage out of Egypt! Numbers 26:55–56 says, “But the land shall be divided by lot. They shall receive their inheritance according to the names of the tribes of their fathers. According to the selection by lot, their inheritance shall be divided between the larger and the smaller groups.” What an apportioned lot of land of flowing with milk and honey was to Israel, the inheritance of heaven is to all who trust in Christ for salvation.
What is that inheritance? I can’t think of the word without thinking of 1 Peter 1:3–4. There, the Apostle Peter says, Our Father “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” In Matthew 25:34, Jesus tells those at the judgment, “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’” Our inheritance is a kingdom, where we will see the King in His glory, in which we reign over all the earth alongside Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the Sovereign of the universe. It’s for that reason that Matthew 5:5 says that the meek shall inherit the earth. If God the Father promised God the Son, Psalm 2:8, the nations as His inheritance, and the ends of the earth has His possession, and we are called heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ, Romans 8:17, then we will inherit the whole earth that rightly belongs to Him and which He has come to rule in righteousness. Hebrews 6:12 says that “through faith and patience [we] inherit the promises,” all of them! “As many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes.” Hebrews 1:14 names one of those promises when it calls believers “those who will inherit salvation.” Saved! Rescued! Deliveredfrom the evil world, our sinful flesh, and the tyranny of Satan our enemy! And Matthew 19:29 says that everyone who has left earthly blessings for Christ “will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”! And what is eternal life? It is to know God. God Himself will be our greatest inheritance. Lamentations 3:24: “Yahweh is my portion.” Just as God says to Abraham, “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward” (KJV).
O, think of that day! Revelation 21 speaks of it: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. … And He who sits on the throne … said … ‘I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.’” Listen: “‘He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.’”
This, is a saint’s inheritance. An inheritance of a holy one. And we are not holy ones. And so what has God done? He has qualified us. He has qualified us by sanctifying us, by setting us apart for Himself in eternity past, by choosing to set His affection upon us for no reason about us; nothing we did, nothing God foresaw we would do. And He set us apart unto Christ, and He called us into fellowship with Christ through the definitive sanctification of the new birth. And He goes on making us progressively holy, day by day, as we follow after Christ and put to death the deeds of the body.
In Acts 26:18, Paul describes conversion this way: He speaks of “turn[ing] from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” When the Holy Spirit regenerates someone and grants him saving faith, he is sanctified, set apart, unto a life of holiness. And as he lives out his days as a faithful follower of Jesus, he lives a saint’s life. He’s transferred the country of his citizenship from earth to heaven, and so he begins to live as a citizen of that heavenlykingdom. In this way, through the working of God’s powerful, sanctifying grace, we who were sinners become saints, and so we inherit what saints inherit.
It’s why Scripture says, 1 Corinthians 6:9–10, that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom. Ephesians 5:5: that no immoral man has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ. Galatians 5:21: that those who practice the deeds of the fleshwill not inherit the kingdom of God. And so, Matthew Henry says, “Those who are not saints on earth will never be saints in heaven.” And dear friend, I would plead with you, be set apart unto the God of holiness through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ this evening. Lay aside the fruitless ‘inheritance-less-ness’ of sin, and be qualified for a saint’sinheritance.
It’s an inheritance “in Light,” which speaks of purity, for God is Light, 1 John 1:5, and in Him is no darkness at all! And He dwells in unapproachable light, 1 Timothy 6:16, with Christ, who will be the Light of the New Jerusalem, Revelation 22. There the Light will yield unending joy, because we will see the light of the glory of God shining in the face of Christ, no longer hindered by our sin. O, friends! we who were once beggars on the dunghill, then to be crownedand enthroned as kings and priests to our God! Once destitute, with no future—in debt to ten thousand talents! then to be heirs of the world, and of God, and of Christ (cf. Gill). This Gospel gets you those riches! Don’t you dare abandon such a hope!
II. Rescued from Satan’s Reign (v. 13a)
A second description of the believer who has been graced with the riches of God’s salvation in Christ is, number two, we are rescued from Satan’s reign. Look at verse 13: “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness.”
“The domain of darkness.” The word is exousia. It means authority, power, jurisdiction (MacArthur, 40). And being contrasted with “the kingdom” of Christ in the second half of the verse indicates that it does have those overtones. “Domain” or “dominion” is a good translation. Outside of Christ, each one of us is reigned and ruled by—under the dominion of—darkness.
The domain of darkness is the domain of sin, for sin is darkness. First John 1:6 characterizes living in sin as “walk[ing] in the darkness.” Ephesians 5:11 calls acts of sin “the unfruitful deeds of darkness.” The dominion of sin in a person’s life results in a darkened mind, Ephesians 4:18: “…being darkened in their understanding and excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them.” Sin corrupts the intellect and makes us spiritually blind, 2 Corinthians 4:4, with the result that spiritual truth is foolishness to us, 1 Corinthians 2:14. Sin also darkens the heart, Romans 1:21: “their foolish heart was darkened.” And sin also brings the will into the darkness of slavery; Romans 6 speaks of our being “slaves of sin.” The domain of darkness is the domain of sin.
The domain of darkness is also the domain of Satan, the mortal enemy of our souls, the accuser of the brethren, whose only joy is to make men miserable in sin with himself. He is called “the prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2, and is the captain of what Ephesians 6:12 calls “the rulers, … the powers, … the world forces of this darkness, … the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Back again to Acts 26:18: Paul speaks of conversion as “turn[ing] from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God.” Darkness is the dominion of Satan. In fact, the only other place in Scripture where this specific phrase—the domain of darkness—appears is in Luke 22:53, when Jesus says to the chief priests and temple officers who had come to arrest Him, “This hour and the power of darknessare yours.” Exousia is translated “power” there, but it’s the same word. The supernatural Satanic forces at work to effect the murder of the Son of God are described as the domain of darkness.
And then, third, the domain of darkness is the domain of hell itself—which is a place of utter darkness, Matthew 25:30. Second Peter 2:4 speaks of the pits of darkness to which God sent the fallen angels when he cast them into hell. And 2 Peter 2:17 says that God has reserved for false teachers “the black darkness” of hell itself. There is a terror that darkness brings. To be in utter darkness, with no light, unable to see down to your own feet or even inches in front of you, is harrowing. It’s utterly bewildering, because you don’t know how you can even move.
Spiritually, that is the domain that we were under: sin, Satan, and hell. But what has our Father done? “He rescued us.” He rescued us! The word is ruomai, and there are two significant events in the Old Testament where ruomai appears alongside other words that show up in this text: Exodus 6:6–8 speaks of Yahweh’s rescue of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, and Psalm 107 speaks of His rescue of Israel out of the darkness of exile. Our souls were enslaved in the bondage and the exile of spiritual darkness, wandering around without knowing where our next step would land. And He has come and turned on the lights. “I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” He “has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” “I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light.” “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Lightin the Lord.” The God “who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
He has overcome our spiritual ignorance with the light of truth. He has enlightened our darkened hearts with the light of His grace. He has freed our enslaved wills with the light of His power. We who were under the dominion of sin have been rescued—not only from sin’s penalty, but also from sin’s power. We died to the law through our union with Christ in His death. We are to “consider [our]selves,” Romans 6:11, “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” This means that sin’s legal right to rule over us is broken. “And having been freed from sin,” Romans 6:18, “you became slaves of righteousness.” Not every trace of sin has been eradicated from us; we still do battle with sin. But though sin remains, it no longer reigns. Through Christ, we have been rescued from Satan’s reign.
III. Transferred to the Son’s Kingdom (v. 13b)
And the flip side of that leads us to our third point: we have been transferred to the Son’s kingdom. And we see that in the second half of verse 13: “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”
This word “transferred” is methístemi. It seems to be something of a technical term for the removal of previous rulers and the establishment of new ones. In Acts 13:22, as Paul narrates Israel’s history, he speaks of how God “removed” Saul from being king and raised up David. It’s used the same way in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, in 1 Kings 15:13 and 2 Chronicles 15:16 speaking about the removal of King Asa’s mother from being queen mother. Daniel 2:21 says, “It is [God] who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings.” And then just a bit later in that immensely significant section of Daniel 7, Daniel relates his vision and he says in verse 12, “As for the rest of the beasts”—who represent kingdoms—“their dominion was taken away,” same word.
And so God takes away the dominion of Satan in the sinner’s life, and He transfers us to the dominion of Christ, where His rule holds sway. The kingdom of the Son is the kingdom of Light that we just heard about, which is the polar opposite of that domain of darkness from which He rescued us. The illumination of our dark hearts in regeneration, the freeing of our enslaved wills, the sanctification of our souls out of our corruption, moving us from a state of wicked unbelief to granting us the gifts of repentance and faith, bringing us into the household of faith, making us members of the church, the body of Christ—once slaves of sin and Satan, now slaves of Christ. All of that is being placed into the Son’s kingdom.
And I love what Pastor John says about this in his commentary, so I’m just going to read it to you. He says, “‘Kingdom’refers to more than the future millennial kingdom, when Jesus will reign on earth for a thousand years. Nor does it speak merely of the general rule of God over His creation. The kingdom is a spiritual reality right now. Paul gives us a definition of it in Romans 14:17: ‘The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joyin the Holy Spirit.’ The kingdom is the special relationship men in this age have with God through Jesus Christ. A kingdom in its most basic sense is a group of people ruled by a king. Christians have acknowledged Christ as their King and are subjects in His kingdom” (MacArthur, 41). Surely the consummation of Christ’s kingdom awaits His eternalreign on the new earth. But our entrance into Christ’s kingdom befits His present reign via the new birth.
That’s what Christ Himself says, isn’t it? John 3:3: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And verse 5: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” And so if one is born of water and the Spirit he does enter the kingdom of God—into that realm of grace and light and truthand holiness, wherein the ascended Lord Jesus reigns over those glad souls whom He has made willing to serve Him in the day of His power (cf. Ps 110:3); where there is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; where sins are forgiven, and consciences are cleansed, and the sure and steadfast hope of eternal life is birthed in microcosm in each believing soul.
O dear friend, if you remain under the domain of darkness, I call you this evening to flee from that dark and gloomy kingdom—that reign of tyranny and slavery—and to enter into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, Jesus. One preacher asks, “Who would not deliver himself by flight from that doleful kingdom, and shift his abode to this blessed one?” (Davenant, 160). Who indeed! Dear unbeliever, you must be born again! And—praise God—you may be born again, because God is still gracious! He is still rescuing from Satan’s reign and transferring to His Son’s kingdom. And He calls you to turn from your sin and receive the Lord Jesus by faith. and enter into this kingdom of the riches of His salvation.
IV. Redeemed by the Savior’s Blood (v. 14)
Well, that brings us to a fourth description of the believer who has been graced with the riches of God’s salvation in Christ. We have been qualified for a saint’s inheritance, rescued from Satan’s reign, transferred to the Son’s kingdom, and finally, number four, we have been redeemed by the Savior’s blood. Verse 14: “…His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
And you can see the progression as the passage continues. Paul moves from effect to cause, here. To be qualified for a saint’s inheritance is to have experienced the definitive, positional sanctification unto a holy life by the Holy Spirit. And that definitive sanctification rests on being freed from the dominion of sin and Satan. And freedom from sin’s dominion is grounded in having been granted the new birth—the purifying renovation that is the Holy Spirit’s regeneration of the heart dead in sin. And the grace of regeneration is purchased by the atonement of Christ—the redemption that He has accomplished for us on the cross.
Redemption means to secure the release of a captive by the payment of a price. It means “to purchase someone’s freedom by paying a ransom” (Grudem, 88). The first extended instruction on the laws of redemption in Scripture come in Leviticus 25. When an Israelite had become so poor that he had to sell his property, or even sell himself into slavery, God’s law made provision for his family to redeem his property, or to redeem the man himself, out of slavery by the payment of a price.
By far, the most famous example of redemption in the Old Testament is the Lord’s deliverance of His people Israel out of their bondage of slavery in Egypt. Exodus 2:23 says that Israel sighed under the bondage of their masters, and that God heard their groaning, remembered His covenant with Abraham, and in Exodus 6:6 said, “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you.” And so redemption refers to the deliverance of slaves from bondage.
Well, in the same way, Scripture testifies that all mankind is born into the bondage of slavery—that we are so beholden to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life, that we are properly said to be enslaved to our sin. Jesus says, in John 8:34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” Everyone! This is how God Himself speaks about who you are by nature: you are enslaved to sin. Your mind, your desires, your will—every aspect of your being is held captive by sin, under the reign of Satan in the domain of darkness.
And so the Father has sent His Son to redeem His people from the bondage of their slavery, to purchase us out of the slave-market of sin by the payment of the ransom price of His own life, to redeem us from the curse of the law, Galatians 3:13, by becoming a curse for us, by bearing the penal sanctions of that curse in our place. Christ has come to purchase us out of the slave-market of sin by the payment of the ransom price of His own life—to “give His life a ransom for many,” Mark 10:45.
And the ransom price which effects the release of sinners from the bondage of our sin and from the curse of the law is the Savior’s own precious blood. Paul doesn’t say that here in Colossians, but he does say it in the parallel passage in Ephesians 1:7: “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” First Peter 1:18 says, “You were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold,” but, verse 19, “with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”
Ours was a slavery that was so unbreakable that the most precious metals and stones on earth could not suffice to release us. But our Savior—our Kinsman-Redeemer—does not bring perishable things for the ransom price. He brings His own precious blood—blood worth more than silver, more than gold, more than rubies, more than diamonds! For He brings the blood of a sinless substitute—of a spotless Lamb! He brings the blood of God Himself. In Acts 20:28, Paul tells the Ephesian elders “to shepherd the church of God, which He”—that is, God—“purchased with His own blood.” Dear people, God has no blood. God is a spirit. But Jesus has blood, and Jesus is God! Which means He is not only sinless, but infinitely righteous, possessed of the infinite merit and worth that God’s law requires of those who would be ransomed back into fellowship with Him.
And so that blood effectively purchases, Colossians 1:14, “the forgiveness of sins.” And O, “how blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom Yahweh does not impute iniquity!” Forgiveness translates the word aphiemi, which is a compound word consisting of the preposition apo, “from,” and hiemi, which means “to send.” Because a sufficient ransom price in the blood of Jesus has been paid, God can legally send our sins away from us. These sins that clung to us like crimson stains have been washed white as snow. Our shameis erased, and God’s justice is satisfied.
He has removed our transgressions from us “as far as the east is from the west,” Psalm 103:12. He has declared that He will not remember them, Isaiah 43:25. He has cast all our sins behind His back, Isaiah 38:17, into the depths of the sea, Micah 7:19.
Conclusion
Dear unbeliever, isn’t that everything you could ever want? The full and free forgiveness of your sins, all of your transgressions totally covered, every wicked thought, word, and deed, recorded in the book of God’s infinite and indelible memory—blotted out! The real guilt that you’ve earned before the bar of God’s justice—extinguished before your judgment day! Friend, you may settle out of court with the Holy Judge of all the earth, if only you’ll come to Christ in repentant faith this evening!
What sin is worth refusing Him? Truly: do you really get genuine satisfaction from your idols? from drink and sex and money and power? Do those worldly riches really quench the thirst of your soul? You know they don’t, because you go back to them again and again, and you still wake up with that empty feeling in your heart that “There has got to be more than this.” Dear friend, there is! There are the riches of God’s grace to us in Christ! And they are yours for the taking this evening, if only you’ll have Him! if only you’ll turn from your sins, forsake the filthy rags of your own righteousness, and trust in Christ alone for forgiveness!
And to my brothers and sisters: savor—to the depths of your soul—all the way down to your spiritual tastebuds—savorthe sweetness of how rich you are in Christ. Qualified for a saint’s inheritance, rescued from Satan’s reign, transferred to the Son’s kingdom, and redeemed by the Savior’s blood. Celebrate the sufficiency of those riches! Let your heart rest in them! Seek nothing beside them! And let the sufficiency of those riches in Christ steel you against the false promises of sin. Be so satisfied in these treasures that you have no desire for the monopoly-money this world seeks to entice you with.
And may you always remember that it was this Gospel—of grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from works: the perfect life, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection of Jesus Christ—it was this Gospel that brought you those riches. Never stop trusting it, and never stop living in light of it.