Backstory to Redemption
Note: This is the eighth article in a series called Overcoming the Five Failures of Us. Previous articles are always available at http://www.webbweekly.com.
This is an article about hope. Moral failure will happen, but —
Redemption is always possible. We are all redeemable. God’s grace affects everyone!
Redemption is always predictable. The journey of divine redemption always travels the same pathway. According to Jesus, it is a narrow pathway: Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate, and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7:13-14.
Redemption is always preventable. Because the steps to redemption are known, you can keep it from happening by taking the broad road that leads to destruction.
The backstory to redemption always begins with God’s grace. The Bible makes it clear that you and I are dead in our defiant sins and trespasses. Last I checked, dead can’t do anything. If redemption is going to happen, God must take the first steps to make it possible for us.
Here are the steps in the backstory of redemption:
1. Conviction is a powerful form of God’s relentless grace that causes deep sorrow over moral failure and its destructive consequences. God’s convicting grace is painful, but pain drives us toward healing. It is a good pain.
II Corinthians 7:10 says, Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
Conviction is not guilt. Guilt focuses on failure and its destructive consequences, resulting in regret, self-loathing, and self-destruction. It is bad pain. After betraying Jesus, Judas was overcome with guilt – and he hung himself. See Matthew 27:3-5. Guilt is a tool of Satan.
At this point, it is important to provide a warning: continual rejection of the Spirit’s convicting grace risks the development of a hard heart. A hard heart is unable to respond to God’s grace. It is likely the source of what is referred to as the unpardonable sin.
In Matthew 12:31-32 Jesus says: And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Hebrews 3:12-13 warns us: See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Be careful not to allow your heart to harden. Respond to God’s convicting grace today – tomorrow may be too late.
2. Awakening is a hopeful form of God’s grace, making the fallen aware that they can be reconciled and restored – and the failure redeemed. Jesus clearly describes awakening grace when telling the story of the Prodigal Son. See Luke 15:17-19.
For King David, it was after his sin was exposed by Nathan the Prophet. David celebrates God’s awakening grace in Psalm 51.
Awakening grace provides the powerful hope and strength we need to take our first steps toward redemption. Again, the backstory to redemption always begins with God’s convicting and awakening grace. Once given, we then have the opportunity to respond with confession, surrender, and restitution.
3. Confession is the full description and ownership of the failure. It is the end of cover-up, fixing, blame-shifting, and excuse-making. It is accepting that the failure cannot be fixed, nor the damage undone. It is the death of pride and self-protection. See I John 1:9, Luke 15:21, and Psalm 51. Confession declares to God that we need a Savior. We’ll talk specifically about confession in next week’s article.
4. Surrender is yielding the full control of life and its outcomes to God. Surrender opens the heart to God’s transformational sanctifying grace! See Romans 6:15-23. Surrender declares to God our understanding that we need the Lordship of Jesus Christ over our lives.
5. Restitution is our ownership of the negative consequences suffered by others because of our failures. It is the effort to help make victims whole again. Zacchaeus provides a prime example of restitution in Luke 19. Like confession, restitution is a discipline that helps us to learn the hard lessons of failure – and strengthens our resistance against temptation.
When we have taken these God-empowered steps, God’s grace then carries us towards full redemption.
6. Reconciliation is God making us right with God. Reconciliation is made available through the saving work of Jesus Christ. It is being born again. It is the declaration of God that He is raising a new life. See John 3:1-21, II Corinthians 5:17, and Romans 6:4.
7. Restoration is the transformational process that builds life on a new and solid-rock foundation. See Matthew 7:24-27. It is the renewing of the mind as it yields to God’s transformational sanctifying grace. See Romans 12:1-2.
8. Redemption occurs when God takes the very failures that would have destroyed us and allows them to bring Him honor and glory. It is the joy of watching as God buys us back by utilizing the restored to accomplish His missional purposes.
In Psalm 51:13, David celebrates redemption: Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you.
In I Timothy 1:12-17, Paul celebrates redemption: But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.
Remember, today is the day to take the narrow path to redemption. God’s grace has opened the door for you. You may not have tomorrow. Don’t wait any longer to respond to his grace.
