Redeemed

The temple is dark. Noisy with chants. Crowds press through. Men, women, children bowing before multiple idols.

Shiny cloth drapes several of these gods. Gods of stone and clay and metal.  

I watch a father guide his young son from one graven image to the next. Showing him how to bow, what to say, where to place the offering. 

A way of life. Inherited. Passed down from one generation to the next. 

Standing there in the dark, I feel the weight of it.

Empty ways

In his first letter, Peter says to the scattered sojourners, “For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers” (1 Peter  1:18).

Empty ways of life abound in this world. Meaningless rituals handed down from one generation to the next. 

Some are desperate to appease dark powers and evil spirits with sacrifices and offerings. Living in fear of the void that looms in pitch-black on sleepless nights. Putting their trust in amulets and power rings.

Others speak vacant mantras. Rote prayers. In hopeless repetition.

For many—perhaps the majority—it’s the constant push to accumulate good deeds. Maybe, just maybe, these attempts will pay off. Outweighing the bad deeds on the grand scale of things. 

Nothing is certain.

Redeemed

But there is hope. Those who repent of sin and believe in the gospel are redeemed from empty ways, Peter says. Rescued. 

How?

“Not with perishable things like silver or gold….” Or the ash of incense. 

Not with offerings of fruit or animals. The common sacrifices that have to be repeated over and over and over again. 

No. We are “redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb” (1 Peter 1:19). Once for all.

The perfect sacrifice. Paying the penalty we deserve with His very life. For the life is in the blood.

Our Redeemer lives

We celebrate Resurrection Day soon. Easter. The day the slain Lamb was resurrected from the dead.

“Through Him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:21). Through the risen Christ we believe.

Our Redeemer lives.

Redeemed

In Christ we’ve been redeemed out of the empty into the full. Out of dark fear into bright hope.

Out of dry, daily ritual into the well of continual abiding. Out of fruitless striving into the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

In the Resurrected Christ we rest, remain, abide. Abiding through prayer and the Word.

Living hope

Crowds continue to press through the dark. In the noise. Captivated and held captive by empty ways. 

And He calls us to go. And speak of the hope that lives within us.

That they may be born again. Not of perishable seed, but of the imperishable. Through the living and enduring word of God. “And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you” (1 Peter 1:23-25). 

We proclaim a living faith. Living hope. In the living Christ.

Alleluia.

Related posts

Job and the hope of Easter – Hidden art – Door of No Return – Clay jar and the Potter – Repent and believe – Gospel conversations along the way – Set free on the Sabbath