Letters to the Cross: Redemption and Reconciliation

This Sunday at Christ Memorial Temple we will be continuing our Easter Sermon series called Letters to the Cross. Over the five Sundays in March, we will be examining the doctrines of the Cross and how it applies to us today.

Week One: Substitutionary Atonement
Week Two: Justification
Week Three: Redemption and Reconciliation
Week Four: Propitiation and Expiation
Week Five: Victory

Week Three Introduction: It was 2000 years ago… what does the Cross do today?

You Are What You Eat

Our socioeconomic status is revealed by what we eat. In college anyone could tell how well I was doing financially by a quick tour of my refrigerator. Between the handfuls of Taco Bell fire sauce, the jar of expired relish, and the pot of leftover ramen noodles, one could easily ascertain my quality of life.

As you climb the economic ladder, you discover foods that are as rare as they are easily pronounced. ES-CAR-GO -(the T is silent... trust me I learned the hard way).

The point being: we are what we eat. No where else is this better illustrated than Jesus parable of the prodigal son, in the 15th chapter of Luke. This is the parable of Redemption and Reconciliation.

It must be noted that Jesus tells this parable to group of sinners and tax-collectors. Jesus message on that day was simple and pure: You don't have to stay in bondage... I am looking for you.

Sweet Redemption

Redemption is word that is thrown around too lightly in today's brand of Christianity. It has become akin to simply being saved from sin. This is only partly true because it misses the key element of reconciliation and response. Redemption throughout the Bible refers to slavery and bondage. We cannot be redeemed until we admit that we are not free. There is bad news before there is good news.

The prodigal son took his inheritance into a far country and spent frivolously. For a season his food intake looked like his excess wealth... that is until the famine came. The son thought he was living free of obedience when in reality he was living free of righteousness as a slave to his own passions and desires (Romans 6:16)

We are bound by death or we are bound by life. We are slaves to sin or slaves to Christ.

Eventually sin revealed itself a cruel master, and the son found himself living with swine and eating their husks. Sin had led him to a form lower than humanity. Yet even in the mire, the son could hear his father's voice.

We can not atone ourselves for sin nor can we justify ourselves before God, but in redemption we DO have a response."Let the Redeemed of the Lord say so!" Like the children of Israel in Egypt, like the prodigal son we too can cry out to God in our slavery and bondage. In justification, atonement, and redemption the cross comes to us, but only in redemption can we meet our salvation.

Jesus said His mission was to seek and to save the lost. Some people are never found because they do not respond to the voice of the cross, the voice of redemption. Like the lost sheep, Jesus is looking for the slaves among the swine. His redemption is for those who wait on Him (Titus 2:13-14)

We have five responses to redemption:
Conviction (Luke 15:17)We 'come to ourselves' and realize we are indeed slaves.
Confession (17) We cannot be redeemed unless we confess our need for it.
Repentance (18) We are transformed from darkness to light. Our sin is against God.
Restitution (19) Willing to work for the will of God over our own will.

Finally, the 5th response to redemption is Reconciliation (20-23)

It is amazing that many want to be saved from their predicaments, but few want to return home to a real relationship to God. But there is no redemption without reconciliation. When God calls us out of darkness we must come home and not return to the slavery to sin. The son returned to his father's house, to find that He had been looking for his return daily. No more eating pig food... only the fatted calf was good enough for this occasion.

The cross of Jesus says that we are NOT banished to the swine field, we are NOT bound in darkness and sin. The cross of Jesus trades the burden of sin for the easy yoke of salvation. But not only liberation and freedom... but a return home to be with our father (2 Corinthians 5:19). And that is what the Cross does today... it redeems us and then reconciles us to God.