Jesus, Our Redeemer

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, 

the forgiveness of our trespasses, 

according to the riches of His grace."

Ephesians 1:7

I've been thinking this morning, about Adam and Eve.  When they were created, they came into life having wonderful, sweet, daily, communion with God.  I believe it was Jesus with Whom they walked in the Garden of Eden, it was Christ pre-incarnate.  When they chose to listen to the counsel of Satan, rather than the Wonderful Counselor's, they lost that wonderful, sweet, daily, physical-presence-communion with God.  They gained death - physical as well as spiritual separation from God and their bodies began to age and eventually returned to dust.  How excruciating it must have been, when they began to realize what they had lost.  Choosing not to listen to God gained nothing good, only death, misery, and separation from Him.  Man was created to live by the Word of God.  Suffering is still the consequence when we choose not to walk in the counsel of God.  But Jesus did not leave Adam and Eve without hope.  Before He sent them out of the garden, He gave them a picture of what He was going to do someday.  He killed an innocent animal, spilling its blood, to cover guilty Adam and Eve.  The Creator, Jesus, would come at the fullness of time, as The Redeemer, and pay the price for sin with His blood, restoring relationship.  His death would release His children from the bondage and power of sin.  His death would release His chosen ones from Satan's domain, which Adam had plunged the human race into by choosing to heed Satan's counsel. 


You are I were born into sin.  We were born enemies of God, unable to please God, not even desiring to have communion with Him.  Before the fall, Adam and Eve's hearts must have leapt with joy when they heard the sound of Jesus coming to them.  Don't you think they ran to Him, eager to hear what He would teach them that day?  Not so with us, before Jesus opens our eyes and reveals Himself to us, we do not seek Him.  We do not desire Him.  We do not desire righteousness and holiness.  We do not desire His wisdom and counsel.  We are blind to the goodness and holiness of God.  We are unable to revel in the glory of God.  We revel in self-glory.  We are attracted only to self.  We are born self-pleasers.  We are so sinful, the Father must drag us to Jesus.  


Jesus paid the price to restore our relationship back to what Adam and Eve had in the garden, before the fall.  Jesus paid the price to release us from the bondage and power of sin and the kingdom of Satan.  Jesus paid the price to restore that sweet and intimate communion with God.  We'll never fully comprehend the price He paid, the shedding of His precious blood.  We'll never understand the wrath He bore because we didn't have to pay the price.  Jesus, while on the cross, experienced an eternity's worth of torment - of being separated from the Father, for each of His children, His gift's from the Father.  The Innocent paying the price for the guilty.  We deserved the torment of the Father's wrath and separation from Him.  We deserved the nails driven into our hands and feet.  Instead of it being our hands and feet, Jesus, without struggling, quietly and willingly laid His hands and feet out and took the searing pain of the piercing.  We will never experience God's wrath for the punishment for our sin so we'll never completely understand what Jesus endured, what He bore to accomplish our redemption, but we can choose now to serve and love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  We now hear His wise, sweet voice.  We also now have an eternity with Him,  to thank Him, Thank Him, THANK HIM!