After completing the lesson the student will be able to:

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  Define the meaning of Christ’s second office as Priest.

  
  


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  Explain the purpose of Redemption

  
  


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  Describe the means (how) Christ redeemed you

  
  


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  Answer if Jesus redeemed all of mankind when he died and was resurrected.

  
  


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  Explain that not everyone will be saved.

  
  

When we think about Christianity, the main focus or central teaching is the death of Jesus. But it begs the question… why?  Do you remember how we emphasized the fact that Jesus was both fully God and fully man? When we talk about Christ dying, we are talking about God dying. We know this is the critical point of the Christian faith for a couple reasons.  

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  First, all four Gospels climax at Jesus’ death. 

  
  


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  Second, the testimony of the Apostles all agree.  Peter preached about Christ’s crucifixion in his first sermon on Pentecost (Acts 2) and Paul writes to the Corinthians “I determined to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified,” and “I delivered to you as of first importance: that Christ died in accordance with the scriptures.”  

  
  

We are all sinners, hopelessly lost, condemned by God for our sin. The Law of God demands perfection, which means even the “smallest” of things we do wrong condemn us. Christ’s death, and the blood He shed on our behalf, is what redeems us. If you remember from last lesson, redemption means “to buy back.” And that is what Christ accomplished when He died: He bought us back from our slavery to sin. This little phrase “was crucified, dead and buried” is the Gospel! While you sin and rebel against God, Jesus died and forgave your sin. He Redeemed you!

Christ fulfills three offices: 

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  The first is that of Prophet: Jesus didn’t just speak the Word of God… he IS the Word of God! And the word he spoke forth was that of life and forgiveness through His own death on the cross.

  
  


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  The third (yes… this is out of order) is that of King. We will discuss that in upcoming lessons.

  
  


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  And the second office is that of Priest.

  
  

The Old Testament Priests stood in front of God for the sake of the people and offered sacrifices to atone for their sins. Instead of paying for their own sin, the priest would make the sacrifices for them, and God promised to work through the priest to forgive their sin.

As Priest, what Jesus is really accomplishing for you is Redemption. So how does that work? Allow me to illustrate: One of my most fashionable t-shirts came to me by way of ‘redemption’. By cutting out several box tops from my favorite cereal, Captain Crunch, and mailing them all in, I was able to receive a Captain Crunch t-shirt in exchange. Basically what I did was ‘redeem’ them--the company offered to buy back my box tops by exchanging them for something of value (my new Captain Crunch t-shirt).

In a theological sense, redemption works much in the same way. It means to buy back and set free; or to pay a ransom and gain something of value. In the New Testament it referred to the buying back of a slave in order to free him/her, or to buy back from captivity in order to set free or release. 

Given this information, how does this apply to the Second Article of the Creed and Jesus? Simply stated, because of our sin, we had shut ourselves out of God’s house—our sin closed the door of access into heaven and fellowship with God our Father. We had to be ‘redeemed’—we were bought back in order that our relationship with God could be made right again. That is what Jesus did on our behalf—He bought us back through His life, death, and resurrection. He redeemed us from the grip of death and brought to us the gift of life.