Have you ever given much thought into how website names get chosen? Ultimately, it needs to convey exactly what the site is about. Therefore, when I created this site, I chose ransomed and restored because that’s the message that I want to convey: Jesus paid the price for my sins and restored me back to a right relationship with God.
Read on as I explain in more detail what it means to be ransomed and restored.
We’ve All Messed Up
To start off, if you think about the things you’ve done wrong, it won’t take you long to get a list going. Sure, you may not have made major, life-changing blunders (or, maybe you have like me), but everyone has done something wrong.
That’s what the Bible means when it says in Romans 3:23 that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We’ve all messed up and done something wrong.
Think about it.
Have you ever told a lie?
Did you ever thought or done something in anger that was hurtful toward someone else?
Have you ever broken the law? Maybe, driving over the speed limit?
The answer is easy. Of course, you have. Nobody is perfect. We’ve all done something that goes against God’s commands. It’s human nature. More importantly, it’s sinful nature, and we are all born with it.
Separation From God
Unfortunately, our sins damage the original relationship God intended to have with us.
When God created mankind, He created us for a relationship with Him. He made Adam and Even and placed them in the garden of Eden. In the midst of the garden, God would meet with them. Except, one day Adam and Eve broke the one law God gave them.
God told them they couldn’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Unfortunately, they sinned by breaking this law, and their relationship with God was severed. In their shame, they hid from God.
In the Bible, it says, “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’”
When God came looking for them to spend time with them, they hid from Him. Thus, the relationship was broken.
How does that affect you and me?
Because we are all descended from Adam and Eve, we are all born into sin and make wrong choices for ourselves. In other words, we are born with a sinful nature and break God’s commands within our own choices.
Jesus Paid the Price
Thankfully, God didn’t want to leave the relationship broken. He provided a way to restore the broken relationship. In fact, to restore the broken relationship, God required that mankind seek forgiveness for their sins.
It makes sense. As a kid, when I hurt a classmate, my teacher made me say “I’m sorry”. Also, I was constantly having to ask forgiveness from my mother when I did something she didn’t want me to do.
Therefore, we can understand how God would require us to seek forgiveness for our sins. To do this, God required that blood had to be shed to cover our sins.
Romans 6:23 tells us, “The wages of sin is death.”
Furthermore, Hebrews 9:22 states “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.” You see, we sinned against God and needed to atone for that sin. Since we sinned against the highest authority, the God of the whole universe, the price had to be severe: our lives.
Thankfully, God loves us so much that He went even one step further. Jesus paid the price for our sins with His own life.
Jesus Gave Himself as a Ransom
That’s right.
God Himself stepped down from heaven and came to earth as a man to take our place and atone for our sins.Jesus paid the price for our forgiveness. Since the price was so steep, out of His love, God paid the price for us.
Jesus, who is fully God, came down to earth, and became a man to shed His blood for all of mankind.
Jesus Himself speaking about His own act of sacrifice said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His live as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
Interestingly, the word for ransom in the original Greek is lutron. It means the liberty price to free a slave. In our sinful state, we are slaves to sin. It controls us, and we can’t get free on our own.
Instead, Jesus paid the price by sacrificing Himself and dying on the cross to pay the ransom for our sins.
God Restores the Relationship
Once Jesus paid the price by dying on the cross, that caused the original relationship between God and man to be restored. The sin was covered, and atonement had been performed.
To complete the transaction, one more event had to occur. It was not enough for Jesus to have died. He had to be raised from the dead.
Yes, His death covered our old sins, and our old self died with Him on the cross. If God stopped there, we would just be dead. We require a new life lived in relationship to Him.
Therefore, after three days in the tomb, God raised Jesus from the dead. In Jesus’ resurrection, God gives us new life, too. Now, we can live in fellowship with God.
We believe this because the Bible says this in Romans 6:4 says, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
The Blessings of the Restored Life
Along with this restoration of relationship with God, we also receive many blessings from God through Jesus. For example, we are no longer strangers to God. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
Plus, we have hope in Jesus. In our old sinful life, we were without hope. I don’t know about you, but my life before Jesus was empty and dark. Now, I wake up with hope because my relationship with God gives my life meaning and purpose.
Finally, my restored life in God provides me with access to communion with God. Apart from God, I never knew what I was missing. I just knew that there was something missing.
Through Jesus, I realize God’s love was missing in my life, and God’s love overwhelms me. It is a perfect love that “drives our all fear” (1 John 4:18).
Why Ransomed and Restored?
As you can see, I chose ransomed and restored as the name of this website because that’s what Jesus did for me. He ransomed and restored me when He paid the price for my sins.
He did the same for you. You just have to believe it and accept Him.
Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved.”
After that, enjoy the relationship you were created to have with God and experience His love.
It’s one thing for me to talk about His love. It’s a completely different matter to experience it.
If you’re reading this, and you haven’t confessed Jesus as Lord, it’s my prayer that God stirs your heart to do so.
If you already have, I pray that you grow closer to God in your relationship with Him.
Either way, thank you for reading this post and may God bless you.
If you’re needing someone to talk to or pray with you, contact me.
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