The Sufferings Of The Redeemer

Why redemption? Why do we need a Redeemer? I think we answered the part of the price of sin and its unquenchable cost. But what of after we are saved? Do I still need a Redeemer if I have salvation in hand? How does Christ the Redeemer help me after I am saved?

We, although saved from it, we are still living in a fallen world. And if the world looked like Hiroshima after a nuclear strike, then no doubt we would not be enamored with it. And yet we live in a lovely world, a lustful world filled with wonders and wants that our flesh greatly desires even after redemption. We still look at the world with loving and longing eyes and we do so for only one reason.

We take our eyes off the Cross of Christ. The Apostle Paul warned against glorying in anything other than the Cross:

    “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14)

Worldliness is a great temptation. You can tell worldliness is seeping into your life when you find yourself thinking of it more than heaven. We are in this world and not of it. It is a delicate balance and it takes the grace of God to keep us pure. That was Paul’s admonition to Timothy:

    “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.” (2 Timothy 2:1-7)

I need a Redeemer after I am saved to help me be sanctified, set apart and made holy, separated from the world while still living in it. My love for Christ should never be exceeded by my love for anything else. Remember Paul’s determination:

    “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2)

This world is not heaven and we should stop expecting to live our lives as though it is. Disappointment comes to our lives so many times because we are so deeply invested in this world instead of the Kingdom of God. Commenting on Galatians 6:14, Matthew Henry says this about the world and Christ crucified:

    By Christ, or by the cross of Christ, the world is crucified to the believer, or he to the world. The more we consider the sufferings of the Redeemer from the world, the less likely shall we be to love the world. The apostle was little affected by its charms, as a beholder would be by any thing which had been pleasing in the face of a crucified person, when he beholds it blackened in the agonies of death.

Your Christian life will only be as successful and victorious as you are separated from this world. Do not be enticed or intoxicated with worldly riches but be enrapt with Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

No matter the sufferings of this world, we can all shout to the highest heavens the words of Job:

    “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27)

Is that you?

In Christ
Dave
Ps. 37:4

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    Copyright © 2013 David Jeffers

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