The cost of redemption is everything.

The video is by an Australian guy called Glen Stewart. I love the way it looks at sacrifice, redemption and the more dour side of what Jesus accomplished for his people. Sin is such a sticky web. There’s no hope of a way out, untangled-up, without one from outside the mess rising to meet our huge need. He bought our complete redemption. Jesus paid it all. As I considered these things, I pondered Abraham’s story in the Genesis narrative and I was struck by what this revealed about the nature of God’s justice and mercy – get this:

“We must not miss the meaning of the command [God gave Abraham to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice]. God can and must require of Abraham not only the dedication of all that he has is, but also the full satisfaction due to God’s holy justice. For Abraham to give the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul would not be too great a price; indeed, his own life was forfeit as a sinner, deserving death as the judgment of God. The cost of redemption is everything. [...] Abraham’s faith was tested when God asked him to give everything. Faith cannot be less than total. [...] In that agonizing moment when his son asked where the sacrifical lamb was, Abraham had flung himself upon the faithfulness of God. [...] The cost of redemption was total, but what God required He provided. The faith of Abraham points us away from Abraham to God, to the God who sees, the God who provides.” (Clowney, The Unfolding Mystery, p54-56)

What God required He provided. Our lives are a free gift! Let’s be living sacrifices.