brilliantly redeemed

A Brilliant Redemption.

For a long time now I have been reading over the blogs of many of my friends and somewhere along the way, I realized that I too had something to say. It took me a while to actually get this up an running. Probably a few weeks before I actually decided to go for it. So here I was sitting at home trying to think of a name. Something clever and unique, that caught people’s attention and spoke volumes about…something. Yeah I know, that’s a lot to capture in a word or phrase. I searched my Bible, looked at other blogs and books trying to find some kind of inspiration. Came up with some really interesting (yet weird) ideas. Came up with some others that weren’t all that original. Ideas that just didn’t seem to fit for either my purpose or me personally. I got pretty much no where for a few days.

Then all of the sudden, something pops into my head. “You were brilliantly redeemed.”  It was one of those things that makes you look around the room to see who is talking to you before you realize that there is no one there except you. Yeah, one of those where you realize it either came from you or from God. The kind that makes you spend time thinking and processing and wondering.

“You were brilliantly redeemed.”

In all honesty I sat there for a minute…or five trying to understand what that meant. Brilliantly redeemed?  I had no idea what that meant.

What did it really mean to be redeemed? And even more important, how had I been redeemed?

So me being the true nerd I am, I picked up my dictionary.

Brilliant :: shining brightly; distinguished; showing great intelligence; splendid or magnificent.

Brilliantly :: with brightness; in an extremely intelligent way

Redeem :: to buy or pay off; to buy back; to recover by payment; to exchange; to deliver from sin by means of a sacrifice; to set free, rescue, or ransom; to restore the honor, worth or reputation of

Redemption :: an act of redeeming or the state of begin redeemed; deliverance, rescue; salvation’ atonement from guilt; repurchase; paying off debt; recovery by payment

Then it hit me. The moment I accepted Jesus Christ as God and savior of my life and I decided to follow Him and His plan for my life, I was changed. Because of the sacrifice He made on the cross 2,000 years ago, I was set free. Redeemed, exchanged, my life for His.

And the whole point behind the word redeemed is not the being set free part, it is about the price that was paid to set you free. I was reminded of that verse in Hebrews 4.  It says that Jesus is our High Priest, therefore he gave a sacrifice. His was the ultimate sacrifice, His life, which allows us to enter God’s presence daily.

There is something powerful found in that sacrifice. It is redemption. And it was brilliant. None of us were able or are able to set ourselves free, someone else had to do it. Redemption does not come so easily, for no one can ever pay enough. -Psalm 49.8 (NLT) Only God could pay the price and He found a way to make it possible. It was Brilliant. Genius.

I am part of this redemption. Because of what I have been set free from, I should be moved to change my life, my ways. And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, He is the one who has identified you as His own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the the day of redemption. -Ephesians 4.30 (NLT) Every part of me has been affected. Redemption has set me free and should help me move forward from sin, because God called me His own. Because I found grace. Amazing grace that never ceases. It saves, sets free, redeems.

I am part of this brilliant redemption.