Courtney Gilmore “You shall take the Levites for Me—I am the Lord—instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel.” (Numbers 3:41)
God was preparing the people for the future redemption of Jesus through the Levites. Israel had given their firstborn sons to the Lord, but God allowed them to buy them back, by giving the Levites to Him instead. That is what redemption really is: the buying back of something that belonged to you in the beginning. This word is often used for a slave who was buying back his freedom – something he had in the beginning but lost along the way.
We’re all created by God & have belonged to Him from the beginning. But we gave ourselves over as slaves to our sin. “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16) Because of this, Jesus sacrificed Himself to redeem us for God. He bought us back; paid the price required; exchanged His life for ours. “For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:20)
Redemption can be thought of like a coupon. Someone else already paid for the item & gave us the coupon. Then we give that coupon to the store in exchange for the item. Jesus paid the price for our sins & gave a coupon to every person on earth. But to receive the salvation He purchased for us we have to offer God His blood on behalf of our specific sins. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19) Wouldn’t it be a shame not to exchange that coupon? “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?” Hebrews 10:26-29
It could also be like a receipt. We buy an item from the store, then decide that we don’t want it anymore. So, we take it back, along with the receipt, & they buy it back from us. But they won’t buy it back unless it is in the same condition as it was when they sold it. It has to be like new. Yet Jesus buys us back even if we are completely used up, damaged, destroyed, & broken. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Then He makes us whole, complete, & righteous before He gives us back to God. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) So, when we enter His eternal Presence, we are in perfect condition. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Because of what Jesus did for us, we should live worthy of His sacrifice. “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)
“As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:” (John 1:12) Like the Levites, we belong to the Lord & we too should dedicate our lives to Him. “Be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:9-14
