Are you redeemed?

REDEE’M v.t. L. redimo; red, re, and emo, to obtain or purchase. To purchase back; to ransom; to liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage, or from any obligation or liability, to suffer or to be forfeited, by paying an equivalent; as, to redeem prisoners or captured goods; to redeem a pledge.

When I was a kid, I remember going to the grocery store with Mom and Dad and when they paid for the groceries they received Green Stamps; how many they received was based on how much money they spent. Many gas stations at the time as well as grocery stores gave out Green Stamps and Gold Bond Stamps as well. We would go home and put them in “stamp” books that the store furnished and then, when we would fill a book, we would check the catalogue (also furnished by the store) to see if we had enough complete books to redeem for a gift.

The closest catalogue store to where we lived (in the Anderson/Goodman, Mo., area) was in Joplin, Mo., and it was so exciting to go to the store and get the gift(s) that we had picked out. Even when we were married in 1969 there were many places still giving Green or Gold Bond stamps and we would earnestly save books of stamps until we had enough to get that certain gift we so wanted.

Now, I realize those things that we redeemed for stamps were not really free. The store bought the stamps, the books and the catalogues and even the gifts in the catalogue store, all in an effort to get people to shop at and spend money in their stores, and for awhile, it worked.

Eventually though, stores and gas stations decided to stop giving stamps; letting people know that the program was winding down and was no longer going to redeem stamps as of “this particular date” and then the catalogue store was going to close down on a “certain date” after the program ended. This left people with several books not complete and I remember getting with my mom and grandma and trying our best to get enough together to finish out a book so it could be redeemed. I seem to remember we let my grandma have them as she had the most stamps and we did not want to let them go to waste. However, there were some people who did not believe that the program was really going away and so were left with unredeemed stamps.

I was thinking of that word redeemed and what it means to me is that is what Jesus did for us. He bought us back from our sin. He paid the price of the whole program and it wasn’t free. He gave us a great gift of salvation and gave us His Holy Spirit to help us throughout our lives and it cost him his life and even though it’s a gift, we have to accept it.

In a way, it’s like those stamp books — we’ve been put into the Book of Life and eventually, when the time is right, He comes back for the redeemed by His Blood. Like the Green and Gold Bond stamp programs, when the end comes, there will be no more gifts redeemed, no more chances to “fill the book.” There will be no more redemption.

Unlike the ending of the stamp program however, we aren’t given a date or time when it ends; instead we are told “But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is” (Mark 13:32-33) and like the stamp program, there are many who don’t believe that will be the end; there will always, they believe, be another chance to “make it.”

Yes, many do not believe in the need for redemption by the blood of Jesus and that’s a real shame for unlike the stamps given as a “reward” for purchases, there are no purchases necessary; the price has already been paid for us by the blood of Jesus — we just have to accept the redemption.

Have you accepted His redemption plan, confessed your sin and asked forgiveness? If not, why not? What are you waiting for; someone to tell you the program is about to end? That’s already been done.

••• Editor’s note: Charlie Newman is pastor of Avoca Christian Church. To contact him, e-mail pastor@ pastorcharlie.net.