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Ephesians 1:7, 8
! Introduction
Many of you will remember August 2010 when 33 miners became trapped more than 700 meters underground in a mine in San Jose, Chile?
For over two months they were trapped while those on the surface worked at trying to free them.
First they had to bore a hole down to the mine and then they began to extract the men one by one in a small capsule.
On October 13, Luis Urzua, who was the shift foreman, was the last man freed.
A news article I read said that “President Sebastian Pinera bear-hugged the foreman upon his release, inviting him to stand beside him to join the hundreds of others at the scene to sing the national anthem.
Praising the foreman “a very good leader of the group”, Pinera said, “We’re going to thank everybody from the bottom of our heart”.
Urzua responded with thanks to everybody who has participated in the rescue.
“I am very proud of what you have done,” he said to the president.
As the capsule started lifting up, great joy was seen from everybody’s face and tens of hundreds of rescuers on the surface could not help singing spontaneously: “Let’s go, miners!
Let’s go, miners!
Tonight we are going to rescue you.”
This event tells us several things.
It tells us that being trapped is a terrible thing.
It reminds us of the fear, bondage and restrictions that accompany being trapped.
It also tells us that when you are trapped you long for freedom and the best news is: “There is a way of release.”
We also note that when release happens, there is great rejoicing!
If you have ever been trapped, you understand these things.
In fact, all of us should understand them because the story of being trapped and being released is our story!
Listen to how it is described in Ephesians 1:7, 8.
!
I. We Have Redemption
!! A. Redemption
There are many ways in which we can be trapped.
Many years ago a fellow I knew had a problem with alcohol.
I was invited to be part of his recovery as he went through the AA program and I came to realize just what a terrible entrapment alcoholism can be.
There was a lady I knew who was a wife, a mother and had a responsible job but then she began to dabble with games of chance.
Before long she was trapped in a gambling addiction and I saw how difficult it was for her to admit that she needed help and to break free.
A good friend of ours does seminars to help people with various sexual addictions.
His expertise comes from his own terrible struggle with addiction to pornography.
These are some of the ways in which people can be trapped.
We usually try to hide these addictions but ignore the many other ways in which we are trapped.
Some are trapped in cycles of deception.
Some are trapped in habits of self centeredness.
I recently heard about a very insidious entrapment called “retail therapy.”
It involves being trapped in the thinking that if we can just go purchase something new we will feel better.
Ultimately all of these traps are just manifestations of what really puts all of us in bondage and that is sin.
Being trapped in sin is a terrible thing.
We know that we do wrong things and we can’t seem to stop doing them.
We know that we are guilty for the things we have done wrong.
We also know that there must be punishment for our sin.
If we know what that means, if we agree with the assessment that we are trapped in sin, then the message of Ephesians 1:7, 8 is good news!
The verse begins by saying, “we have.”
Marcus Barth suggests that “we possess” is a better translation.
He says, “’We possess’ is stronger than the trite ‘we have.’”
What we possess is redemption.
What does redemption mean?
Ruth was a foreigner.
She left her home country and came to live in the land of Israel together with her mother-in-law Naomi.
When she came into the country, she had nothing.
She was a widow, a foreigner in a land that was not always kind to foreigners and she had no means of supporting herself.
What hope was there for her?
A relative of her mother-in-law by the name of Boaz redeemed her by marrying her and buying back the land which belonged to her husband’s family.
The language used is the language of redemption because he redeemed her from widowhood, from being a foreigner and from poverty.
It means that she was set free from what trapped her.
That is what it means that God has given us redemption.
Wood says, “Redemption has to do with the emancipation either of slaves or of prisoners.”
We have been set free from the bondage of sin, from the guilt of sin and from the punishment which is upon sin.
Titus 2:14 reminds us, "He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds."
Barth says, “’Freedom’ is the clear purpose and result of redemption.”
!! B. Through His Blood
The image of redemption from sin was familiar in the Old Testament.
It was demonstrated to the people of Israel on the Day of Atonement.
On this day two animals were brought to the temple.
One of them was sacrificed for the sins of the people.
The other was released.
This picture was an image for the people of the two sides of redemption.
On the one side is the release from bondage.
On the other is the price to be paid to secure the redemption.
That price was blood.
Hebrews 9:22 says, "Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”
We have been given freedom from sin and the price that was paid in order for us to have this freedom was none other than the blood of Jesus.
Our text says that “we have redemption through His blood.”
We have committed sin against God and in order to free us from that sin, God gave His only Son Jesus.
He provided the sacrifice.
When Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, he went up the mountain and when Isaac asked, “Where is the sacrifice?”
Abraham answered, “God will provide.”
Well when God wanted to deal with sin, a sacrifice was required.
Once again God provided the sacrifice and the sacrifice He provided was His own Son.
Unlike Abraham who did not have to sacrifice his son, God did sacrifice His Son.
When Jesus came to earth, He came with the express purpose of dying on the cross.
He frequently announced to His disciples, “The Son of Man has come to give his life.”
When it came right down to it, it was very difficult for Jesus to yield up His life and in the garden of Gethsemane he agonized, but in the end He agreed to die for us.
He yielded His life to an unjust trial and to the evils of violent men in order to allow His blood to be shed.
All of this was the price which was paid so that we could be set free from the trap of sin.
We have redemption, or we could say freedom because of the shed blood of Jesus.
What do you think of Jesus?
Is the knowledge of His great sacrifice imprinted on your heart so that you are thankful that you have been set free? Do you love Jesus?
!
II.
We Have Forgiveness
!! A. Forgiveness
There are different words in the Bible for sin.
One of them has the meaning of “a sinful condition.”
In that word, the emphasis is that there is something within us which is so twisted that we prefer sin.
We are guilty for sin in this sense and Jesus came to forgive the sin nature within us.
That is not, however, the word used for sin in verse 7 when it says, “we have forgiveness of our trespasses.”
The word for sin used here has the sense of “deviating from the right path.”
It has a nuance of being deliberate about our sinful acts.
Not only do we have a sin nature, but we have acted on that sin nature in acts that are wrong and break the good of what God intended when He created us.
It seems to me that there is much more blame attached to sin that is a deliberate step off the right path.
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