The Call of God

Oswald has repeatedly referred to "redemption" in the last few entries, so I thought it might be helpful to review the meaning of the word. The definition from Tyndale's New Bible Dictionary includes the following:

• "Redemption means deliverance from some evil by payment of a price. It is more than simple deliverance. Thus prisoners of war might be released on payment of a price which was called a 'ransom' . . . In this circle of ideas Christ's death may be regarded as a 'ransom for many' (Mark 10:45)."
• "Sinners are slaves. Sinners are doomed to death. Either way the ancient world would have regarded the situation as crying out for redemption. Failing redemption, the slavery would continue, the sentence of death be carried out. The cross of Christ is seen against this background. It is the price paid to release the slaves, to let the condemned go free."
• "Redemption not only looks back to Calvary, but forward to the freedom in which the redeemed stand. 'You were bought with a price,' Paul can say, 'so glorify God in your body' (I Cor. 6:20). Precisely because they have been redeemed at such a cost believers must be God's men."

Again, Oswald stresses that our personal holiness is not the main point. Christ's work on the cross, by which he draws all men to himself, is the main point.

"The one passion of Paul's life was to proclaim the Gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreaks, disillusionments, tribulation, for one reason only, because these things kept him in unmoved devotion to the Gospel of God" -- Oswald.

I pray that the circumstances of my life will drive me deeper and deeper into relationship with him and that I might live in moment-by-moment gratitude for the price he paid to make that possible.

Barbara