Last Friday as I was doing an 8k training run I was listening to ‘Awakening: Live from Chicago’ by Jesus Culture. The track ‘Break Every Chain’ has a fantastic chorus:
All sufficient sacrificeSo freely givenSuch a priceBought our redemptionHeaven’s gates swing wide
The last two lines stuck in my head as the run continued. When I got home I posted the follow on Twitter & Facebook:
Over the weekend my brother posted a great, simple question: ‘what does that mean?‘I guess it was a bit too abstract to stand on its own. So, in short it means that: redemption is available to all & that the gates of heaven are ready to welcome any & all who have been redeemed.I know, that needs a bit of explaining too. So here goes, stick with it…When you’re given a voucher for your birthday for your preferred shop the voucher you’re given is inherently worthless: it’s a piece of plastic & ink with a magnetic strip (remember when they were just paper?). It’s probably worth about 25p max. But when you hand it over the shop will honour the promise which has been made previously (when the voucher was purchased) and will exchange the worthless voucher for something of value.Think of redemption as the exchange of something which is worthless for something which is expensive (priceless even!).Sinful man (Romans 3:23) was separated from God (Genesis 3) but God made a way for the relationship to be fully restored (John 3:16 & 1 Peter 3:18). The way was open to everyone to return to a full & rich relationship with God forever (Romans 10:9 & John 3:36)To massively over-simplify for the sake of brevity: God exchanged His Son, Jesus, to pay for the voucher which anyone can claim for themselves, and which will buy their place in heaven.Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. [source unknown]Jesus sacrificed His life through excruciating death on a cross in order that you (yes you) could receive the gift of eternal life, at no cost to yourself.
So you will be saved, if you honestly say, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. [Romans 10:9]
Here’s the full song from Jesus Culture:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6ncg2pLYksCheck out these two Gospel presentations if you want to know more: