REVISITING THE BELIEVER'S POSITIONAL RICHES IN CHRIST

Part II: Applying The Truth That Believers Are Redeemed By Christ's Death

I. Introduction

A. Ever since Adam's fall into sin, mankind has not only gone astray from God, but he is also in a state of enmity against God, leading to a sense of alienation and purposelessness in his existence.

B. The redemption wrought for man by the Son of God on the cross reveals an edifying solution to man's sense of purposelessness and alienation from God (as follows):

II. Applying The Truth That Believers Are Redeemed By Christ's Death.

A. Regarding not only believers, but every individual worldwide, God through Christ on the cross has redeemed (agorazo, John F. Walvoord, Jesus Christ Our Lord, 1974, p. 163-165) the world so that all men are owned by God and are obligated to obey Him by trusting in Christ, 1 Tim. 2:6; [1 Jn. 2:2; 2 Cor. 5:19]; 2 Pet. 2:1; 1 Cor. 6:19-20 [Acts 17:30]. Even lost apostates who deny Christ deny the One Who bought them (2 Pet. 2:1), so every single human being in history has come under God's ownership and is obliged to heed Him! [For this reason, all unsaved people are commanded by God to trust in Christ for salvation. If they disobey this command, they will answer for it to Christ, their OWNER, at the Great White Throne Judgment by ending up being cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity, Acts 17:30-31 with Revelation 20:11-15.]

B. Regarding believers, the redemption of Christ as applied to our souls in salvation secures for us an infinitely eternal, unconditional, positional acceptance by a perfectly righteous, holy God (as follows):

1. By application of Christ's redemption to us believers, we Christians are highly valued by God since we have been acquired by the high price of the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ (peripoieo, Ibid., p. 166-167), Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 1:18-19.

2. By application of Christ's redemption to us believers, we Christians are liberated from a humanly insurmountable, condemned relationship with an infinitely righteous, holy God:

a. We believers in Christ have been bought by Christ's redemption to be freed by God's forgiveness from any accountability to God for our pre-salvation sins (Ibid., p. 169 apolutrosis), Ephesians 1:7.

b. We believers in Christ have been bought by Christ's redemption out from the slave market of sin (exagorazo, Ibid., p. 165-166) for full liberation from God's righteous requirements under the Mosaic Law:

i. We are liberated from having to keep God's righteous requirements in the Mosaic Law to be righteous in the Christian life, Galatians 4:5; 1 Peter 1:18.

ii. We are liberated from the curse of the Mosaic Law for failing to keep all of it in our pre-salvation lives, Galatians 3:13 and 3:10.

3. By application of Christ's redemption to us believers, we Christians are redirected from bad to good works in living: we were purchased for purification from all iniquity and prepared for good works by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Titus 2:14 (lutroo, Ibid., p. 167) with Romans 8:3-4.

4. By application of Christ's redemption to us believers, we Christians are positionally glorified in Christ and will thus be experientially glorified as applied to our bodies: our physical bodies will be unconditionally translated into glorified bodies at the rapture of the Church, and we will then be taken by God into His heavenly, glorious presence, Rom. 8:23 (Ibid., p. 170 and apolutrosis) with 2 Cor. 5:4-5; Eph. 1:3-7.

Lesson: (1) Because of Christ's redemption, God is free and willing to save anyone who trusts in His Son for salvation. (2) Since that redemption brought the entire world of lost as well as saved men under God's ownership, every human being is the possession of God and is obligated to obey Him by trusting in Christ for salvation or be judged to go to hell by the Lord! (3) For us believers in Christ, we are highly valued by God due to the infinite price of our redemption, we are liberated from a humanly insurmountably condemned relationship before a righteous, holy God, being liberated from the Mosaic Law's requirements to be righteous and from its curse for our pre-salvation sins, and we are redirected of God unto good works by the Holy Spirit's power and await the redemption of the body at the rapture.

Application: (1) If we do NOT know Christ as Savior, we need to realize that Christ PURCHASED us at the cross so that we BELONG to HIM and are OBLIGATED to believe in Him for salvation. (2) We believers thus OWE the Gospel of salvation to the lost world that it might be saved. (3) May we believers also live in the liberation from the Mosaic Law functioning as holy and righteous, our only reasonable option, doing so by dependence upon the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. (4) May we hope for the redemption of the body to come!