The Down Payment

Those of us who have purchased a home know the thrill of buying your own home. We have saved and dreamed of this moment, and it has finally come. Most of us did this by putting down a down payment. When God redeemed us from sin and saved us from our own destruction, he put a down payment on our redemption. Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph 1:13). This happened when we believed when we placed our faith in Jesus as our savior.

The seal not only assures us that we are his but also assures us of his protection. Our Lord owns us, and we are protected until the great day of redemption. Along with his mark, the Holy Spirit serves as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. This down payment announces that more of the same will be coming—this is the first installment. God redeems us and promises to bring us to full redemption with our bodies, minds, and spirits and as citizens of heaven where there is no more sin, sorrow, and death.

When my family and I left for Argentina as missionaries for the first time, we took crates marked in giant letters, “Boyd Brooks, Buenos Aires.” I later built cabinets for our house out of the plywood of these crates. That was always a reminder of our destination. Those crates left Oakland, California, bound for Buenos Aires; it was stamped on every crate. God did that for us when we believed and trusted Jesus for salvation.

The best we have ever experienced in coming to know Christ is a foretaste of what is to come. The day we experienced freedom from shame and guilt and knew our sins were forgiven was just the beginning. This seal of the Holy Spirit guarantees that God will give us the rest of our inheritance and keep his promises.

We are “God’s possession.” This message inspired Israel as a young nation: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession” (Deut 14:2). We too are reminded that we are God’s possession and have his mark of ownership and destination in our lives.

 

 

Redemption

Redemption is payment or ransom paid to get something back. The price of our redemption was Christ’s own blood to redeem us. Enslaved by sin and powerless to free ourselves, Christ purchased us at an infinite price.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, saying, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us” (Eph 1:7-8).

We experience redemption through forgiveness and God’s grace. When we have been forgiven, that redemption changes the way we think. It helps us to see the world differently—the way God intended for us to see it. Peter says that when we realize that we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we begin to understand how much this redemption costs (1 Peter 1:18-19). Jesus referred to his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Forgiveness is God’s invention for coming to terms with a cruel world where people are hurt. Even people with their best intentions will hurt and disappoint others. God began by forgiving us. And he invites us all to forgive each other. Forgiving seems almost unnatural. Left to ourselves, we don’t want to forgive people who hurt us. Our sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do. But redemption changes our hearts. God’s grace changes our hearts, and forgiveness radically changes our lives.

The theme of the entire Bible, from the first book to the last, is redemption. Nothing in the world is as powerful as redemption. God takes the broken, sinful, and rebellious and redeems them. This redemption begins when we repent and turn from sin, and then God’s lavish grace goes to work on our hearts.

Paul says that God has given his gifts to us “in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” John D. Rockefeller, one of the world’s wealthiest men, used to stage moments where he gave gifts to some poor soul. What he gave was petty amounts in comparison to what he had. Rockefeller never gave in accordance with his wealth. God gives to us “in accordance with the riches of his grace.” He gives from his unlimited resources. When we begin to understand how wonderful redemption is by being forgiven and forgiving others—we begin to appreciate God’s grace at work in our lives.

Chosen

  

We sometimes think of God as the creator, and we should. We see him with our mind’s eye, creating planets, placing them in their precision orbits, and flinging the stars in their constellations. However, we forget that before he made one bit of cosmic dust, he created relationships between you and him and between him and me. That’s right! Before the foundation of the earth, he chose you to be his son or daughter.

Let that sink in today—the fact that God chose you! You were chosen for himself, his pleasure, and his will. Your life is not an accident. You’re not on this earth by mere circumstances but by divine choice. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph 1:4). The choosing was before time ever existed “before the creation of the world.” choosing was before human existence!

Have you ever been passed over? Have you ever had to stand and wait while the team is being chosen? The best players are being picked, and you are obviously not wanted. Finally, there is a huddle between the captains and maybe a trade-off. We take him, but we get to go first. The reasons for God’s choosing were only in himself. The grounds of God’s choice are his love and good pleasure, not man’s or woman’s goodness.

Stephanie Fast was an orphan raised on the streets of Seoul, Korea, following the Korean War. She was abused by men and had to live much like an animal. To survive, she often ate rodents and insects. Sometimes, she would stare from her dark hiding place at the American soldiers as they passed by and ask herself,” Which one is my father?”

At seven, she was taken into a World Vision Orphanage. Once a week, all the babies were prettied up, and they waited for visitors to come and make their choice of a child. Stephanie knew no one would ever want her; people want babies, not half-grown kids. In walked a big man and his wife. What appeared so strange was that he did not go to the row of babies but stopped and looked at Stephanie. He bent down and put his hands around her. Stephanie spit in his face, not displaying her emotions or knowing how to respond to affection. He simply wiped the spit off and said to his wife, “This is the one.” He took her home and gave her a new home, name, and life.

Such was the case with our heavenly Father, who chose us. We spit in his face; Isaiah said it like this, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted, (Isaiah 53:4).” Yet he said, “This is the one!”

 

 

A Change of Heart

  

Have you ever witnessed someone’s changed heart? We have all seen this, and when it happens, it is stunning. We meet a person with whom we are dealing, perhaps in some transaction, who is very cold toward us; however, somewhere along the line, the person’s heart changes. We believe God touches people and changes them.

It is wonderful to experience a change of heart from unbelief to belief. At the cross, the Roman soldiers experienced such a change of heart. Look at this remarkable picture: When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (Matt 27:54).

What changed these hardened Roman soldiers? What brought them to this place where they concluded Jesus was the Son of God? These men saw the mocking insults hurled at Jesus just hours before. He was told to come down from the cross if he was the Son of God.

The crucifixion had been no more than a routine execution, one these soldiers had routinely performed on many occasions. However, on this occasion, the soldiers concluded that Jesus was the Son of God. He was not the common criminal they believed he was. They had treated him as such by nailing him to the cross and gambling for his robe. But they came to believe he indeed was the Son of God! Matthew tells us what they saw and how they felt. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (Matt 27:54).

Matthew believes their confession followed the divine display of several supernatural signs. There was an earthquake and darkness at midday. Witnessing the quake, the strange darkness, and Jesus’ courageous death opened their eyes.

These soldiers were “filled with awe” of what they saw and heard. They had only moments before nailed Jesus to the cross, but now they have come to believe he is God! They heard him pray: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” They heard Jesus when he answered the thief who asked to be saved, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” They heard him pray, “Father, into your hands, I commend myself.”

At the foot of the cross, these soldiers had a change of heart. The same men who executed Jesus by nailing him to the cross now have the faith to believe that he is the Son of God. These soldiers reacted the same way the disciples reacted when Jesus calmed the sea. They believed that he was the Son of God, and they worshipped him.