 Yes, we will be doing the doctrine of redemption and sanctification today, this is like a follow-up after having done the doctrine of salvation and regeneration. So in the moment of salvation, we are regenerated, we are born again into a new creation. And along with that comes a whole set of privileges because now we have been born into the kingdom of God. So once we have made our entry into the kingdom of God, along with that we gain a whole lot of divine privileges and we gain spiritual blessings which we did not have earlier. So in that context, we are also granted redemption and sanctification. So we will be looking at these two concepts in greater detail today. So just to get started on the doctrine of redemption, if we could have someone read out from the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 5 verses 9 and 10. Revelation 5, 9 and 10. Revelation 5, 9 and 10. And they sang a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and pupil condition and have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth. It says over here that Jesus Christ has purchased people from every tribe, from every language, from every people, group and nation. So it talks about how he had to purchase them with his blood. Why was it necessary for him to purchase people with his blood? And we are kind of familiar with this, but let's look through the background in greater detail so that we have a clarity of what we mean when we talk about Jesus purchasing us with his blood. So as we all know, Adam and Eve, they were under what law? Were they under the mosaic law? The law of Moses did not exist at that time. Adam and Eve were under the law of God himself. And in fact, the Lord had only one law for them. Of course, they had, there were positive laws in the sense they were meant to take care of the garden. They were meant to, you know, attend to the creatures that had been created on their behalf. They had all of those laws, but when it came to, you know, restrictions, there was only one law. They were not supposed to eat of that tree, you know, the fruit of that particular tree of knowledge. So they were under the law of God. And when they broke that law of God, basically two things happened in us. They were spirit beings who were connected to the God. And so they were spiritually alive because they were connected to him, but they lost their connection with him. They were separated from him when they broke his law. And so in that sense, they became dead spiritually. And when they did that, Satan was able to take advantage of them as long as they were completely under the covering of God. Satan did not have any kind of control over them. He's like a ghaster, a bully. So he had no chance to come anywhere near them as long as they were under the covering of God. But now that they have separated themselves from God. Now the bully can attack. Now he can take advantage of them. So they kind of exposed themselves to the work of the evil one, which is what we see described in our Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 and 2. If we come and read out for us Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 and 2. And he made a life who worked in trespasses and sins, in which he once walked according to the curse of this word, according to the prince of the power of the air. The spirit who now works in the sense of disobedience. In these two verses, we see these two aspects that we touched upon. We see that they were dead, spiritually dead all people because of what Adam and Eve did. They were born spiritually dead in their transgressions and sins. And another thing that we notice about these spiritually dead people is that the ruler of the kingdom of the air, which is basically the devil, he is at work in them. He can interfere in their lives. He can take advantage of them. So we see these two factors operating in all human beings. So in that sense, they seem to have become slaves. God did not formally turn them over to the bully and say, okay, now you can have them. No, but they chose to come out of the covering of God's protection. And they were separated from God because they were now law breakers who had broken this law. So when they were separated from him, then Satan was able to take advantage of them, take control of them because they are now in this exposed condition. So it's not like as if legally Satan was given any authority. He grabbed it. He took hold of the authority because now he was in a position to attack. He was in a position to take over. So if we look later on, much later, God decides to give his written law to Moses. So the written law is given to Moses and the Israelites are asked to follow this law. So the Israelites, as they continue down the generations, which law are they breaking now? They are breaking the law of Moses. That's the law which is getting broken. But what about all the other nations around them who have not been given the law of Moses? They too are breaking the law of God and they are the breaking the law which is just written on their hearts. All human beings are programmed with these basic moral absolutes. They all know that certain things are wrong and that certain things are right. So the rest of the nations may not have been breaking the law of Moses, but they are still law breakers. Why? Because they are breaking the law which God has written out in their hearts. This is basically what is explained in Romans chapter 2 verses 12 to 15. So if we could have someone read out Romans chapter 2, 12 to 15. It talks about the two categories of people, the Jewish people and the Gentile people and the way in which each of them is breaking the law. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things in the law, these although not having the law are allowed to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness. And between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them. Alright, so it very clearly explains over here that the Jewish people are law breakers of the mosaic law. On the other hand, the rest of the Gentile peoples, they also are law breakers. They are not breaking the mosaic law, but they are breaking the law which God has programmed into their hearts. The law which is written in their hearts, even though they know it is good, they are breaking it. So in this sense, all the people groups of the world, whether they are Jewish people or whether they are Gentiles, all of them are now exposed to Satan and his work. So they are now under the working of the ruler of the kingdom of the air. So everyone has now come under the control of Satan. So in their heart, in their spirit, they are slaves of sin. Sin is making them sin and they have no control. Some of them are able to resist to some extent, but nobody is able to keep the law of God perfectly because they have become slaves of sin. They are enslaved in their spirit and moreover, they are being controlled by Satan. So it's basically sin and Satan which have gained control over them because of their separation from God. So in that sense, these people are all slaves. So what Jesus does is, he sheds his blood and like we saw in the Revelation passage, he has now purchased all of these slaves in the sense, he is trying to set them free from the sinful nature which has been controlling them so far and plus he is also trying to save them from this control of Satan which has come upon their lives. So Jesus is purchasing these people. So if we were to take this example a little further and we were to think about Jesus Christ shedding his blood, making the payment of blood to buy the people, whom is he making this payment to? Is he making the payment to Satan or is he making this payment to God? Who is actually the legal owner of the human beings? God is the creator. All human beings belong to God and God gave them his law and Adam and Eve broke that law. So Adam and Eve chose to separate themselves from the Lord but legally speaking, human beings still belong to God, isn't it? They never ever were legally belonging to Satan. Satan took advantage, he was the gangster waiting in the sidelines and the minute he could gain control, he gained control but he was never the legal owner of the human race and so you see when it says that Jesus purchased, when he talks about Jesus paying the ransom, the ransom was paid to God because God is the one under whose anger and judgment the human race is now living. It is God who has been betrayed in that sense. God trusted Adam and Eve but instead of being loyal to him, they chose to rebel against him. So it's basically God who is angry, it is God who wants to bring judgment and at the same time of course it's beautiful, the beautiful thing is that God is also the one who wants to save so he has sent his son to be able to achieve that. So Jesus pays the ransom to God and that is why it talks about, it refers to what he did as the atoning sacrifice and those of you who are reading NKJV, you would see the word propaciation. That's basically Jesus Christ atoning for what has been done. He is making the payment and saying, God, you have been angry with the human race but now I have taken that anger and that judgment upon myself and so with my blood, I am now purchasing these people so that they can be set free from the control of sin and Satan. So Jesus has paid the ransom to God and therefore now God is no longer angry with those people who come under the covering of this blood. There are many people who choose not to make that choice. They say, no, we don't need Jesus Christ, we can manage on our own so the blood of Christ, even though it has been shed even for such people it will not apply to them because they do not want that free gift. It's a free gift you have to choose. So there are people who do not make that choice but for everyone who makes this choice to accept the free gift of the shed blood, all such people, God is now at peace with them because the judgment which was supposed to come on the people has been atoned for, the payment has been done. So when we are talking about this word redemption we are thinking about all of these aspects. So it's good for us to understand what we mean when we talk about us being a redeemed people. These are the background factors to keep in mind when we talk about being redeemed. We have now been redeemed from the control of sin from the working of Satan and we are no longer under the broth of God. We are no longer separated from God. God is at peace with us because Jesus Christ has paid the ransom to him by shedding his own blood and now God, his anger has been unleashed upon Jesus so now he's no longer angry with us. These are all the spiritual dimensions involved in the Redemptive Act of Jesus Christ. So coming more specifically to some very specific points which are mentioned in your notes I have not taken them in the same order but just to touch upon those things. So we are very, very specifically redeemed from the law and maybe we could read out a couple of verses which talk about that. Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5 if someone could read out. But when the fullness of the time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. So it says here that we were redeemed from under the law. I thought we were redeemed from sin and from Satan so why is the law poking its nose in over here? What is it saying over here? You see the law declared that once our law the law of God is broken and we no longer are following the law but we are rebelling against the law then the anger of God the judgment of God is upon us. That's basically what the law declares. The law declares if a person breaks even one single law of God even one single time then automatically they are under the judgment of God. That is the declaration which the law makes. The law is a good thing. The law is a godly and holy thing and the law declares even if a person breaks one single law of God even one single time automatically they are under the judgment of God. So in fact the entire human race came under that judgment and so we all were literally under judgment no hope, no future, no hope of any kind of rescue and then Jesus Christ steps in and he rescues us from under that declaration which law has made. So you see in that sense we are redeemed from under the law. The law had declared that we are now under the judgment of God and we were redeemed from that declaration from that judgment which the law had passed against us. So we were redeemed from that and then if we can also look at Galatians 313 which talks about something very similar Galatians 313. So here it says that we are not just redeemed from under the law it also says that we are redeemed from the curse of the law. So that's basically what we looked at just now the judgment which the law has passed against the human race that is basically like a curse because the law has declared that even if one single law is broken even one single time then the curse comes upon them. What is the curse? The curse is that now you are separated from God and his anger is upon you there is no hope for you, there is no future. So the law, the judgment which the law has passed is actually almost like a curse which has come upon the people who have broken the law and so Jesus Christ hangs there on that tree because all crosses were made out of wood, out of trees which is why they say he who is hung on a tree so they would take a tree they would chop off the branches they would just use the main trunk and they would use that for the cross. So Jesus Christ was hung on that tree and even as he was hanging over there all of this anger and judgment which has been declared by the law all of these curses which the law has spoken upon the law breakers all of that was released upon Jesus Christ he became the curse we should have been hanging there that should have happened to us but rather the curse comes upon him so we have been redeemed from under the law and we have been redeemed from the curse of the law and so over here the word that is used in these verses is that Greek word exagorazo so when we look to the revelation passage the basic word the basic word for ransom that would be agorazo so agorazo is the Greek word A-G-O-R-A-Z-O agorazo is the basic word which talks about something being purchased so in Revelation 5 we saw that Jesus Christ purchased us with his blood he agorazo us so agorazo is basically a shopping term so when you go to the mall and you buy yourself a new t-shirt you are basically agorazoing the t-shirt you are purchasing it it's something that you are purchasing but sometimes this word was also used in a deeper sense it's not just you buying a commodity or a product you are actually buying back something which belong to you so in that sense something is being redeemed for instance for some unknown reason let us say the people at the mall they have taken hold of your t-shirt now they are saying they are holding it now you want to buy that back so you are not just simply going to the mall to buy a new t-shirt you are redeeming the t-shirt which they have taken control of so then in that deeper sense agorazo is also used and so just to make that more clear they kind of came up with this extra Greek word which would be agorazo so these are all just the final details regarding the Greek and I don't know much Greek anyway so so over here the sense that is being brought out is you are not just purchasing something you are purchasing back you are redeeming you are taking back what once belonged to you so the human race was God's children they were part of his family is what he had originally wanted for Adam and Eve so now he is buying them back to himself in that sense so that term agorazo is used over here in both of these verses Galatians 4 and Galatians 3 so what exactly have we been bought back for what has been achieved through this buying back if we could read out Romans chapter 5 verse 11 and not and not only that what we also read out in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received the reconciliation yes it says over here we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation so what have we received when Jesus Christ purchased us when we were bought back what did he buy us back for he bought us back for this thing called reconciliation the greek word that is used for that is katalage or however on earth you pronounce that it's there in your notes I'm pretty sure it's there in your notes so that basically that word is saying again it's a kind of what we can tile term so it's talking about money changers who would basically use this word let's use the example let us say of people who would come from all over the world on pilgrimage to Jerusalem year after year so you would have these people who have settled down in Babylon who have settled down in Egypt they never came back when the exiles return back they didn't return back with the exiles they continued living in those places but once a year at least they will make sure that they come to Jerusalem to the temple and make their offerings because they are still following Yahweh their commitment is still towards Yahweh so at least once a year they would come from all of these other places to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices so when they come over here from another place the coins in their hand are the currency of another nation the currency which is used in those areas is the currency they would be holding in their hands but the currency which is being used over here in Jerusalem right now would be the Roman coins, the Roman currency so they would basically go to the money exchange guy and the money changer he would take this foreign currency from them and he would give them an equivalent amount whatever you have in the Roman currency of Jerusalem he would give them the equivalent amount we do that right even today you want to go abroad you want to go to Japan so you would exchange your rupees and you would get an equal amount of the Japanese currency an equivalent amount would be given to you that is basically your Katala where there is an exchange of equivalent values so what Jesus Christ has done for us to whom we have now received reconciliation so Jesus Christ paid by taking upon himself the anger of God the wrath of God, the judgment of God all that was released upon him and in the exchange the favor of God the the acceptance of God which was there upon him earlier that he gave it to us it was like an exchange he took the anger which we should get and we were given the favor which he had so there was a kind of reconciliation there was a Katala process which took place because of what Jesus Christ did for us so now no longer is God's anger upon us it was put upon him and the favor of God which was upon him was given to us we were able to become partakers of the favor of God and the peace of God is now with us God is no longer against us so we see that in Romans let's look at another term that is used for redemption if someone could read out Colossians 1 13 and 14 Colossians 1 13 and 14 he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the son of Islam and in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins so over here the word used over here for redemption is another complicated word apolutrosis okay so now this word has a slightly different meaning you are not just redeeming something after having purchased it you are now releasing it you are setting it free in that sense so let us say you see a bunch of pigeons in a cage in a cage somewhere no one would buy pigeons they are all over the place anyway so let us say daus some daus and you want to release them so you purchase them after having purchased them what do you do you go out to the park and you release them so what you are actually doing would be apolutrosis so this is what Jesus Christ did for us he took us from this domain of darkness we were stuck we were slaves of sin and we were stuck in the kingdom of Satan in the domain of darkness so Jesus Christ he purchases us out of that kingdom and he releases us into a new kingdom into the kingdom of the sun where we will have new rights new privileges and entirely new way of life so apolutrosis happened for us when we were transferred we were set free from one terrible kingdom and we were released to be free into another kingdom the kingdom of the sun let us look at another word for redemption which is also actually derived from the same lootrosis root word so if we could read out 1 Peter 1 18 and 19 1 Peter 1 18 and 19 so here it says you were redeemed from the empty way of life so we were redeemed from the domain of darkness and we were released into the kingdom of the sun why so that we will not continue having that old lifestyle that empty way of life which we led when we were in the domain of darkness that should no longer be our lifestyle because you know this word intro is talking about being released, being set free so we were purchased from one kingdom and released into another kingdom not just for us to be over here but also to get away from the old way of life so over here we see that it says you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors generation after generation had been living in sin living in a way which will lead to no destination it's empty a way of life in the sense it doesn't result in any reward it doesn't lead to any any fruit it's just an empty meaningless way of life you just end up losing all your days you end up wasting all of your energy on something which has no eternal results and you gain nothing at the end of it so it's an empty way of life so Jesus Christ has not only brought us out of that domain of darkness he has now released us into the kingdom of the sun so that we can have a new way of life so that we no longer need to live according to the old empty way of life that we led earlier coming to another verse which talks about redemption so we have been redeemed from an empty way of life what else have we been redeemed from? Titus chapter 2 verse 14 Titus 2 who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless need and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works okay so he has also redeemed us you know released us set us free for another purpose to set us free from an empty way of life and also to set us free from all lawlessness all wickedness and what kind of people are we supposed to be? people who are his very own eager to do what is good so earlier when we were in the domain of darkness there was no real desire to do what is good what is righteous and holy but now we have been set free from that empty way of life so that now we will be eager in the same way we used to be eager for sinful things now we are meant to have the same kind of eagerness for godly things so this whole redemption thing was meant to achieve something more than just setting us free you see we are being introduced to a new way of life and if we don't embrace that new life which is being offered to us the whole redemption is just wasted we choose to continue living in the old empty way of life what has been achieved what has been accomplished all we are doing is we are spitting on the one who has redeemed us and that should not be right so he has set us free so that we can joyfully get a new start with a clean slate where we can walk into new things where we can enjoy an entirely new abundant life that he has for us that is the whole point of redemption and if we don't embrace those things and we continue living in the past it would be a rather pointless thing for us to do so that is why redemption the word redemption is used in so many different you know senses to bring out different aspects so that we will actually catch what redemption is really about what it is meant to accomplish and so we need to make sure that we are really making use of this redemption that Jesus Christ has done for us let's look at one more scripture Galatians chapter 1 verses 3 and 4 Galatians 1 3 and 4 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver as from the present according to the will of our Father God and Father that God has redeemed us from that he has rescued us from it is the present evil age that we are living in people who are under the control of the ruler of the air he can do anything that he wants to to them you know he can harm them of course even there are limits that God has set he cannot cross the limits which God has set but he is able to interfere in their lives to a greater extent able to bring destruction into their lives to a greater extent but we have been redeemed we have been redeemed and rescued from this current evil age so you know if you ever find yourself in a time of trial and difficulty where the world is really harming you and your family you can always go to the scripture and say Lord we know that based on scripture what you have said you have said that you have rescued us even from this current evil age that we are living in so therefore our redeemer Lord please you know help my family help me in this situation where this current evil age is attacking me and my family this is a claim that we can make in front of the Lord because he has made this promise to us that as part of his redemption package he has also redeemed us from this current evil age now I am not saying that anything absolutely nothing bad will ever happen to us nor am I saying that you know we will not suffer persecution because Jesus Christ himself said that there would be trials and difficulties but what does he say? he says take courage because I have overcome the world he says so yes there would be hardships there would be persecution but the Lord says I who have overcome the world I can help you in these things so I will guide you and your family through these situations so his strength will be there his help will be there so these are things that we can actually claim for ourselves coming to one more scripture Hebrews chapter 2 verses 14 and 15 inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood he himself likewise said in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death that is the devil and release those who throw fear of death were all their life time subject to wonders yeah so here again one more different word is used you know in your notes all the Greek words are mentioned so here it talks about how we have been set free how we have been released you know from from slavery to the fear of death because as long as we were in the darkness as long as we were slaves of sin all we could ever look forward to is physical death and then eternal death in hell but now because of what Jesus Christ has done we have been set free from death from the fear of death so it says over here it's interesting that it says to free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death so it doesn't literally say that we have been delivered from death itself because we all undergo the physical death we all undergo that experience but we don't have to be afraid of that physical death experience simply because there's something even better waiting for us you know beyond death we have eternal life with God so it doesn't literally say over here that we have been redeemed from death itself but we have been redeemed from the fear of death because physical death can no longer harm us it can no longer you know take us away from the eternal future which God has for us that is covered that is preserved you know under the Lord so we still have access to eternal life so we don't have to be afraid of death anymore so these are all the different aspects of redemption that we need to remember so that basically was just a brief summary of the doctrine of redemption let's in the time that we have left before the break if we can just quickly get into the doctrine of sanctification okay so now when people talk about the salvation experience they talk about initial salvation that's basically when you make a commitment to the Lord Jesus you choose to submit to Him and in that moment regeneration happens redemption happens justification happens all those things take place in that moment of initial salvation and then for the rest of our earthly life we have this ongoing salvation process which we go through which would be sanctification which word where I have an Apollo so in my over here and I have an Apollo process over here Apollo basically both from the same root word where you're not only being purchased but you're also being set free being released like we use the example of those doubts you purchase them you set them free from their captivity I mean you purchase them and then you release them out into the freedom of something new you know where they can fly around and do what they want and so when we apply that to believers we were now we were earlier we had a former way of life but now we are being released into a new way of life where we would have liberty in Christ Jesus so it's just basically that so that we Apollo for Lutrosis and also that word Lutro that's basically the thing yeah coming back to our sanctification so sanctification is an ongoing salvation process we had the initial salvation experience now we have the ongoing salvation experience where on a day-to-day basis sanctification is happening what does that mean what exactly is sanctification one verse which tries to bring out the you know the two aspects of salvation is Hebrews 10 14 so if someone could read out Hebrews 10 14 for why one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified so by one offering you know his offering his atoning sacrifice on the cross through sacrifice he has perfected forever so legally we have been declared as righteous legally we have been justified that is our legal status so it talks about justification the first portion of that verse he has perfected forever that is talking about justification but the something else which is still going on he has perfected those who are being sanctified so sanctification is still going on justification happened in a single moment where we were legally declared as righteous but the sanctification process is a continual process so basically sanctification is the process which is trying to bring us you know bring our everyday life our thoughts our attitudes it's trying to bring us in line with our legal status because legally status wise we have already been declared justified but in our behavior we are not behaving like justified people we are still living in the old way of life in the empty way of life out of which god redeemed us why did he redeem us he redeemed us so that we can start a new way of life in the kingdom of the sun so we are actually expected to be changing on a daily basis and becoming like this justified person who is living in righteousness who is living in holiness so sanctification is basically the process which is trying to bring us in line with our legal status so that not only just status wise are we righteous but even in our actual behavior in our thoughts in our attitudes we are growing into this righteousness growing into this legal status which has already been given off to us free you know so that is the difference that we see between justification and sanctification and your notes has got a very nice table which brings out the contrast between justification and sanctification and it's quite good actually so it says over there justification is the legal standing that we have you know the legal standing where we have been declared righteous justified by god sanctification on the other hand has to do with the internal condition so internally am I becoming really righteous am I really growing in holiness that's what sanctification focuses on and then justification happens once for all in the sense once you have come under the covering of Jesus Christ he has declared us justified he has declared us righteous but sanctification is a continual daily process where everyday you are becoming more and more righteous and becoming more like Christ so one is a once for all experience justification sanctification is an ongoing continual process and then it says the justification is entirely God's work which is so true because in that moment when we place our faith in him and submit to him he says yes you know you are now declared just so we didn't do anything from our side except to trust him and it says right even that faith which we received to trust in him was given by God as a gift we would never have been able to trust him on our own so it's entirely God's work justification is entirely God's work but sanctification on a daily basis we have to cooperate with him so God is working in us but we need to cooperate with him and you know by by choosing to set aside the worldly things and choosing to be godly on a daily basis so here in sanctification we would require active cooperation God needs our active participation and then the other point that is made in your notes is that justification makes us perfect in status only so in status wise we are declared perfect but it is sanctification which makes sure that we start becoming like Christ okay so not only status wise are we perfect but sanctification makes sure that even in our lifestyle we are becoming more and more like Christ and the last point that is you know mentioned in the table over there in your notes it says that justification is the same for all Christians every single person has been declared righteous all our cloth in the righteousness of God so all are equally righteous it's the same status wise we all have been given the righteousness of Jesus Christ so it's the same for everyone but when it comes to sanctification there are people who have chosen to humble themselves submit to God and actually become more holy in their thoughts in their attitudes and their behavior and there are some who have not even bothered to do that so the level of sanctification will differ from person to person depending on how much they value what has been given to them and depending on how much they want to take hold of it and actually see it achieved in their lives that will depend on their spiritual hunger that will depend on the desire that they have to honor him and be loyal to him so that will differ from person to person so when we look at sanctification we could basically say that there are two aspects to it okay we look at that maybe after we come back from the break so at 10 o'clock if you know those who are online can log back in we will continue at 10 and I would need someone to take me over here with the camera because after that it was cut off