Auxano Ministry
By the grace of God I am what I am:
1 Cor. 15:10a
Romans
Part 2
Redemption
Check your average dictionary and you will find redeem and redemption to mean, to buy back, to release from captivity upon payment, an action of regaining a possession upon payment, buying one’s freedom, reconciliation and other phrases along the same lines.
The biggest problem in understanding redemption is for humanity to see redemption from God’s point of view. God laid out man’s need for redemption beginning in Genesis chapter three after Adam sinned (although Eve also had her part in the transgression 1 Timothy 2:14). In Genesis 3:21 God brings Adam and Eve back into fellowship with Him by the temporary sacrifice of an innocent (without spot or blemish) animal. Because of sin Adam and Eve should have died (Romans 6:23) but God substituted an animal. Adam was God’s steward of the Paradise Administration as described in Genesis chapter two when Adam was instructed to dress and to keep the Garden. Adam’s act of disobedience placed all of humanity under the death penalty of sin.
In the Patriarchal Administration it was the father’s, the spiritual head of the family that were responsible to teach the Truth of God’s plan of redemption (Genesis 18:19 Abraham will teach his children, eight children from three women). To accomplish this God gave His Word written in the stars. One of the few people who has studied and gained an understanding of God’s Word written in the stars was Rev. Ethelbert William Bullinger, D.D. or as we have seen him on this website, Dr. E.W. Bullinger.
“The First Book. The Redeemer.
(His First Coming.)
“The Sufferings of Christ.”
The First Book is occupied with the PERSON of the Coming
One. It covers the whole ground, and includes the conflict and
the victory of the Promised Seed, but with special emphasis on
His Coming. The book opens with the promise of His coming,
and it closes with the Dragon cast down from heaven.
Chapter I. The Sign VIRGO.
The Promised Seed of the Woman.”
These are the opening words of chapter one of The Witness of The Stars. God’s witness of the stars laid out God’s course of redemption for humanity.
Now, when it comes to the spiritual side of life all of humanity was under the leadership of Adam as God’s steward upon earth and with his surrender to God’s enemy, all of humanity became slaves, the property of God’s enemy.
Luke 4:6
And the devil said unto him,
All this power will I give thee,
and the glory of them:
for that is delivered unto me;
and to whomsoever I will I give it.
The word delivered is the Greek word paradidomi and in this context it is better translated surrendered. However, the Garden in Eden belonged to God, Adam was God’s steward in the Garden not the owner (Eze. 28:13) of the Garden. As God’s steward in the Garden Adam shared dominion over the earth with Eve (Gen. 1:26-28). Adam was to perform his stewardship in the Garden and exercise his dominion over the earth through the gift of holy spirit God had created within him.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Once God had arranged the heavens and the earth as He desired, He formed, made, and created the man whom He placed in the Garden, it was God’s personal Garden. This explains why God had the right to work with man before he left the Garden and why God had the right to expel man and close the Garden.
This man was given the responsibilities of protecting the Garden and serving God in the Garden (Gen. 2:15-17). Later, that same day, God made the man a woman to help him have dominion over the entire earth and to subdue the earth as together they filled the earth with their children and their children’s children.
You know the couple, Adam and Eve. They were perfect physically and spiritually. They had plenty of time to fill the earth with their children because they were immortal. No need to be concerned with getting to other continents because earth was one continent in those days (Gen. 1:9-10). They lived in the only Kingdom that existed, the Kingdom of God.
Now there was another occupant on the earth, in God’s Garden (Eze. 28:13; Rev. 12:3-4) of whom Adam was warned by God to ignore and avoid his ways. For the consequences would be overwhelming (Gen. 2:17). But Adam did not take God’s warning seriously, he did not place appropriate value on the words God had shared with him (Rom. 5:12).
Romans 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death
by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
The Greek word translated world is kosmos and it refers to the arrangement of the world. At the end of Genesis chapter one God had the world arranged the way He desired. By the middle of Genesis chapter three Adam had changed that arrangement completely but not permanently. Sin here is hamartia and it means to miss the mark. Earlier I said Adam and Eve were physically and spiritually perfect, their weak point was mentally.
Adam heard the words of God without respecting them, he stepped alongside of God’s Word (Rom. 5:14). When he stepped alongside of God’s Word he fell alongside of God’s Word as God had warned him (Gen. 2:17). There is a principle in life that you will recognize immediately. You are a servant to that which you obey. Who do you serve? It is a valid question for every life, not just those who use a drug.
Romans 6:16
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death,
or of obedience unto righteousness?
The Greek word for yield is paristemi (also used in Romans 12 concerning renewing of the mind) and it means to place yourself or set yourself alongside or near something. The word servants is doulos which is a servant by choice, a choice made in love. Obey is the Greek word hypakoe which means you hear the words and place yourself under those words, you obey. Consider the difference between hypakoe and Adam who parakoe the words of God. Do you see why one is translated obey and the other disobedience?
This principle works when you obey God or obey his enemy. Adam obeyed God’s enemy. Therefore, Adam walked away from the Kingdom of God and invented the kingdom of the Adversary by giving him power and authority in the earth. Adam lost his perfection as he embraced imperfection. He lost his immortality as he laid hold of sickness and death. He lost his fellowship with God, the God of Light, Life, and Love as his mind entertained darkness, death, and defeat. Adam made a chasm of sin separating man and God. Then, like the leader of the army who surrendered, Adam made all of humanity born in his likeness and image, born into servitude to the Adversary. The chasm of sin was passed on to all of humanity, generation, to generation, to generation.
Genesis 5:3
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years,
and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image.
and called his name Seth:
All of humanity is in the image and likeness of Adam. Having Adam’s sin nature that is prone to rebellion against God and rejection of God’s thoughts and words. A sin nature that produces sins.
Due to what happened with Adam in the Garden, we are all in need of redemption from sin. Let me remind you once again of the definition of the words redeem and redemption: to buy back, to release from captivity upon payment, an action of regaining a possession, buying one’s freedom.
Because all of humanity is in the image and likeness of Adam, we all lack the payment to redeem ourselves, let alone anyone else. Why? Because the payment requires perfection for the sacrifice concerning our sins. We need the chasm removed that separates us from God! We need reconciliation with God. We need to be elevated into our original position in the Kingdom of God. Before Adam and Eve left the Garden God gave them, and humanity, a substitute of the animal sacrifice. The animal died in the place of the human. But the animal was required to be without spot or blemish. The animal had to be perfect to pay the price even temporarily. Literally, to redeem all of humanity it would require a perfect man. Someone who was born with pure blood (Romans 5:14 the Type), who always did the will of God, someone who always obeyed God.
Hebrews 10:1
For the law having a shadow of good things to come,
and not the very image of the things,
can never with those sacrifices which they offered
year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
The animal sacrifice was not only temporary forgiveness, but it was also an incomplete forgiveness.
Hebrews 10:5-7
5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world,
he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me:
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
thou hast had no pleasure.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the
book it is written of me,)
to do thy will, O God.
A body was required for the perfect sacrifice for sins, for redemption, for reconciliation. This sacrifice was required to always do the will of God, I come to do thy will, O God.
Hebrews 10:10
10 By the which will we are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Man committed the original sin, man needed to be the sacrifice for that sin. A perfect man of body, soul, and spirit. A perfect man like unto Adam (Romans 5:14 a Type) who committed the sin. Perfect in his soul life.
Leviticus 17:11
11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood:
and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an
atonement for your souls:
for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.
The Hebrew word for atonement is kapar in the imperfect meaning it is incomplete and therefore is continuous, year after year as declared in Hebrews chapter 10. Kapar means to pacify. The animal sacrifice pacified the continuous call for the death of the sinner until the body of Jesus Christ would satisfy the sacrifice forever, for all of humanity. Jesus Christ sacrificed himself, he gave his perfect blood upon the altar for the redemption of humanity. Jesus, by the figure of speech metonymy, poured out his pure blood to pay for sins.
Luke 1:26
26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel
was sent from God unto a city of Galilee,
named Nazareth,
In the sixth month of Elisabeth’s pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel to speak with Mary.
Luke 1:27-30
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph,
of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said,
Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee:
blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him,
she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind
what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary:
for thou hast found favour with God.
The angel of God spoke of the great grace Mary had found with God. Favored is the Greek word charis meaning grace. Grace is God freely extending Himself, His favor, His grace, His presence, His gift of Love to an individual.
Luke 1:31-33
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb,
and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest:
and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever;
and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Such great grace that has been given to Mary, to carry and deliver, to bear the son of God. God will create within Mary’s womb an embryo, ready to grow.
Luke 1:34
34 Then said Mary unto the angel,
How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
To know a man was to have had sexual intercourse with a man. Mary’s question was simple but understandable. How can I be pregnant without having intercourse with a man? Obviously, Mary was not aware of the verse in Isaiah chapter 7 that stated the Messiah would be born of a virgin.
Isaiah 7:14
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign;
Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
God would create within Mary’s womb an embryo whose only contributor to the DNA of the embryo is God. Not a superhuman, but a normal human with perfect blood and the words and spirit of God to guide, direct, and instruct. The super part comes with walking in the inherent power of God’s Word and God’s gift of holy spirit that was upon him.
Why do I say God created an embryo within Mary? Because to create is to bring something into existence from nothing and this is what God did with the embryo. Something, the embryo, from nothing. No egg, no sperm, just God creating an embryo. This gives us a better understanding of God’s promise in Genesis chapter 3.
Genesis 3:15
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Women do not have seed; women have the egg. But with Mary’s pregnancy God omits the seed of the man and the egg of the woman by creating an embryo in the womb. This clarifies what God meant by “her seed.”
In answer to Mary’s question about how she will become pregnant without sexual intercourse with a man, the angel responded with verse thirty-five.
Luke 1:35
35 And the angel answered and said unto her,
The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:
therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God.
The Greek word episkiazo translated overshadow in this verse is indicative of the presence of God or a work of God. Once the embryo was implanted in Mary’s womb her pregnancy would have progressed like any other pregnancy. At the end of the third week or the beginning of the fourth week of Mary’s pregnancy the blood and circulatory system would begin to develop. The blood, like Adam’s before he sinned, would be pure, perfect, untouched by sin.
1 Peter 1:18-19
18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, as silver and gold,
from your vain conversation received by tradition
from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ,
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
John 1:29
29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming
unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world.
Matthew 27:4
4 Saying, I have sinned
in that I have betrayed
the innocent blood.
And they said,
what is that to us?
see thou to that.
The blood of Jesus remained pure through his sacrifice on the cross because he always obeyed his Father.
John 14:30
30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you:
for the prince of this world cometh,
and hath nothing in me.
In John chapter 14 Jesus is telling the apostles that the Adversary is coming to arrest and kill him. But he, the Adversary, has nothing in him, meaning he has committed no sin.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.
Jesus Christ is our redeemer. But what does that mean for us?
The Greek word translated redemption is apolytrosis. It is a compound Greek word consisting of the prefix apo and the stem lytron. Apo means away from and lytron means the price paid for slaves, for captives. Together they are speaking of the price paid to take us away from slavery, from our captivity. We were the captives of the Adversary through sin. Humanity was in slavery to the Adversary through sin. Jesus Christ paid the price of sin so that we can have forgiveness.
Forgiveness is the Greek word aphesis. It has the prefix of apo and the stem of hiemi and means to send away. Our sins are gone, they have been paid for in the blood of Christ. The perfect man who always did the will of God. The sinless man who died in our place.
Romans 3:24
24 Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
With redemption comes our justification, so that, it is as if we had never sinned against God. Justification is in the present tense meaning it is a present tense continuous reality. God did this FOR us freely. Freely is the Greek word dorean, a gift from God.
Redemption is the Greek word apolytrosis, which is a releasing effected by payment, this is our deliverance. Apo means away from and lytron is the price paid for slaves or captives. Apolytrosis is to pay the price to bring someone out of slavery or captivity. It is used ten times in the New Testament, seven of which pertain to the Administration of Grace. It is used of our gathering together unto our Lord.
Romans 8:23
And not only they, but ourselves also,
which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption,
to wit, the redemption of our body.
Ephesians 1:14
Which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession,
unto the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:30
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God,
whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
It declares our sins are gone in the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ is the figure of speech metalepsis, which is a double metonymy. First, it is the shedding of his blood is put for his death. Then his death is put for the merits, what his death accomplished, as in redemption, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Ephesians 1:7
In whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.
Colossians 1:14
In whom we have redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sins:
Apolytrosis is our deliverance from slavery to sins, our captivity in the Adversary’s kingdom of darkness and evil. But buying a slave makes you a slave of the one who purchased you and God was not looking to force people to be with Him.
Romans 8:15
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;
but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
God did not want people bound to him through slavery, so He used a second Greek word to describe our redemption, exagorazo. The prefix is the preposition ek meaning out from, and the stem is agora the marketplace. This word tells us we were purchased out of the agora, the marketplace. It is only used four times in the New Testament, all four times with the Administration of Grace.
Ephesians 5:16
Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Colossians 4:5
Walk in wisdom toward them that are without,
redeeming the time.
Both occurrences are speaking of how we spend our time. What are you buying with each moment that passes?
Galatians 3:13
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us: for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree:
Galatians 4:5
To redeem them that were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons.
I know what you will say, we were not under the Law, and you are correct. We were Gentiles under the bondage of slavery just as Israel was under the bondage of the Law. We were both in bondage and Christ redeemed those who believe God’s declaration pertaining to His son.
Galatia had a thriving marketplace, the agora. Their main items for sale were wool, slaves, and opium. The picture with exagorazo is that Christ purchased us out of the marketplace, then God adopted us as His children.
An adopted child became a member of the family as though he had been born of the same blood as the adopting family. A slave that was adopted became a freeman and a citizen and could then share in the inheritance. That is this second word God uses for redemption. It is about our manumission! We are purchased out from the slave market, declared a free man or woman. We are adopted as a child of God into the family of God, declared to be a citizen of heaven, and a joint heir with Christ. This is but a portion of our redemption.
With apolytrosis we are purchased and owned by God while receiving forgiveness for all sins. With exagorazo we are adopted into God’s family given our freedom, citizenship in heaven, and the ability to inherit.
Romans 3:24-25
24 Being justified freely by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.
Faith is the Greek word pistis more accurately translated believe. What do you believe?
Romans
Foundation of the Administration of Grace
