Bought With the Precious Blood of Christ
Bob Jennings | illbehonest.com
Take my life, my body, my hands, my feet, my lips, my all in all a living sacrifice for You. We’re going to be judged by the things that we have done in our body, every thought we’ve thought, every word we’ve spoken, every step we’ve taken, every penny we’ve spent, every bite we’ve taken. The body is specified here. So our glorious exhortation: to glorify God in us and a specific designation in our bodies.
Now third and the first phrase. “For you’ve been bought with a price:..” Here we have a very binding, gripping motivation. “You’ve been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body”. “You have been bought with a price”. Notice this, Paul puts this motivation before us. It’s not law, it’s love. You’ve been bought with a price in view of what the Lord has done for you therefore glorify God in your body. Love so amazing, so divine demands my life, my soul, my all. He says a price, you’ve been bought with a price.
What is that price? Peter calls it. He says you’ve been redeemed not with corruptible things, like silver and gold. They seem so valuable, they seem so precious, they seem so incorruptible. But yet, he says, not with corruptible things like silver and gold- ultimately, they are corruptible. Ultimately they are nothing compared to what he mentions in the next phrase. He says but with the precious blood of Christ. The precious blood of Christ.
In August, we sent our second son Zachary off to college about two hours away to study to become a mechanical engineer. And Zach, he had been with us for twenty years, in our house, he was with us for twenty years, we sent him off, and I knew that I was going to feel it. I came back and the room, all of his furniture we moved with him, and his room was empty. The only thing that was left was a mirror on the wall with the old scripture verse that Zach has written on that mirror. And I was brought to tears. If that is how a father feels on earth, what was it for the Heavenly Father to send His Son? I mean, I’ve been with Zach. He had been with me for twenty years, but the Son of God has been with the Father for all eternity.
And, thankfully, so thankfully, Zach and I, we’ve had hardly even a rift of difficulty. Real good fellowship, real good friendship with my dear son, but that’s nothing compared with the Heavenly Father and His Son. There was absolutely perfect fellowship, perfect love. The love which I ever had with you before the world began. I sent my son off to get a degree in mechanical engineering. When the Father in heaven sent His Son off to be made sin. It was very real. Very real. It was no piece of theater. It was very real what happened. We’re talking about the price and think of what the Lord Jesus, we can only imagine really what it was for Him. The immortal dies, the infinite becomes finite. He upholds all things by the word of His power and now, held by a mother’s arms? He was so great the heavens couldn’t contain Him and yet, squeezed down into a mother’s womb. God of light in darkness in a mother’s womb! He who built the heavens, now fiddling around in a carpenter shop. And growing up, the patience that the Lord exercised for thirty years. Knowing He was the Savior of the world. Yet, saying almost nothing. Waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting until the time appointed by the Father when He could open His mouth and go forth, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
And then began, more severely, the sufferings. The shame, the rejection, the neglect and then the scoffing, the spitting, the slapping, the spike, the spear, the thorns, dying as an apparent failure, and being forsaken by the Heavenly Father, having been made sin, for us. We have no idea what the Lord went through. The price that was paid. You’ve been bought with a price. Look at this other word, you’ve been bought. Sometimes scripture describes it in terms of justification, for formerly, we were condemned but now we are right with God. Sometimes it talks in terms of forgiveness, for once we were in debt but now it is canceled. Sometimes it talks in terms of adoption, for once we were strangers but now we are sons of God. Sometimes in terms of reconciliation, for once we were enemies but now we are friends. Sometimes in terms of redemption, for once we were slaves but now we are free.
But here the term is “bought”. Yes so simple isn’t it? You know everyone knows what the word “bought” means? Jesus paid it all. He paid our sin-debt! I like that simple term, you’ve been bought with a price. Acts 20, shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. You’ve been redeemed, not with corruptible things but with the Precious Blood of Christ. Worthy are You to take the book and to break the seals for you were slain and you purchased with Your Blood men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. You’ve been bought. Was the body bought? It surely was. Romans chapter eight, it says we are waiting for the adoption to with the redemption of the body. The Lord has bought our soul, He has bought our bodies, He has bought it all. Jesus paid it all. That ram was put in Isaac’s place. That passover Lamb was slain for Israel, not Egypt. I tell you, if you do not come to see that the Lord Jesus personally died for you, personally. You are not going to find the comfort and the assurance that you could have. You have been bought with a price. He loved us. He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession.
