May 25 - Colossians 1:13-14
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Ok, wow. There is a powerful punch in these words. God made it possible for us to live in the kingdom of light – through nothing we’ve done or accomplished.
Jesus rescuing us – this is all about salvation. The word ‘rescue’ used in the New Testament usually has something to do with deliverance. From the Lord’s Prayer – rescue or deliver us from evil. Deliverance from danger … like the Israelites needing to be delivered from Egypt. We don’t rescue ourselves, our prayers don’t rescue others, our friends don’t rescue us. Only Jesus. Only Jesus.
He rescued us from the dominion – from the authority or power of darkness. We don’t have to submit to that authority! I know that many of us have a lot of trouble with authority figures – we’re generally trying to figure out how to subvert their authority. Maybe it’s just rolling through a stop sign or inching over the speed limit, maybe it’s getting to work a few minutes late or extending lunch; whatever the authority is, we do our best to thwart it. But, when it comes to the power of darkness over our lives we find it easy to allow that. Sin is so prevalent. You know – my father always used to say that when we know what is right to do and we don’t do it – it’s a sin. Whether we act or refuse to act … if we don’t do what we know is right, we’ve sinned. That is allowing darkness to have dominion over us.
But, salvation … rescue. This is what Jesus came to offer. And he did it through redemption. He paid the price.
When I was young, there was a Green Stamps store in our little town. Every time we went to the grocery store, the cashier would give us little green stamps from the amount of the sale. We’d take those stamps home, lick the backs of hundreds of them and paste them into books. As soon as we had a bunch of these books, we could go to the store and redeem those books of stamps for something we needed. Believe it or not … this is how I learned about the word redemption.
There was a price for those fun items at the Green Stamps store and we were willing to pay the price. We had the books of stamps, we turned them over and received an item.
Jesus’ life was turned over so that we could receive salvation – rescue. Redemption so that we could be rescued from darkness’ power over us. Now, if we could just figure out how to live every day like we have been rescued!
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Ok, wow. There is a powerful punch in these words. God made it possible for us to live in the kingdom of light – through nothing we’ve done or accomplished.
Jesus rescuing us – this is all about salvation. The word ‘rescue’ used in the New Testament usually has something to do with deliverance. From the Lord’s Prayer – rescue or deliver us from evil. Deliverance from danger … like the Israelites needing to be delivered from Egypt. We don’t rescue ourselves, our prayers don’t rescue others, our friends don’t rescue us. Only Jesus. Only Jesus.
He rescued us from the dominion – from the authority or power of darkness. We don’t have to submit to that authority! I know that many of us have a lot of trouble with authority figures – we’re generally trying to figure out how to subvert their authority. Maybe it’s just rolling through a stop sign or inching over the speed limit, maybe it’s getting to work a few minutes late or extending lunch; whatever the authority is, we do our best to thwart it. But, when it comes to the power of darkness over our lives we find it easy to allow that. Sin is so prevalent. You know – my father always used to say that when we know what is right to do and we don’t do it – it’s a sin. Whether we act or refuse to act … if we don’t do what we know is right, we’ve sinned. That is allowing darkness to have dominion over us.
But, salvation … rescue. This is what Jesus came to offer. And he did it through redemption. He paid the price.
When I was young, there was a Green Stamps store in our little town. Every time we went to the grocery store, the cashier would give us little green stamps from the amount of the sale. We’d take those stamps home, lick the backs of hundreds of them and paste them into books. As soon as we had a bunch of these books, we could go to the store and redeem those books of stamps for something we needed. Believe it or not … this is how I learned about the word redemption.
There was a price for those fun items at the Green Stamps store and we were willing to pay the price. We had the books of stamps, we turned them over and received an item.
Jesus’ life was turned over so that we could receive salvation – rescue. Redemption so that we could be rescued from darkness’ power over us. Now, if we could just figure out how to live every day like we have been rescued!
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