6  The Wonder of Redemption  (1 Peter 1:18–21)

knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1:18–21)

The Puritan Thomas Watson rightly observed that redemption was God’s greatest work: “Great was the work of creation, but greater the work of redemption; it cost more to redeem us than to make us; in the one there was but the speaking of a Word, in the other the shedding of blood. Luke 1:51. The creation was but the work of God’s fingers. Psalm 8:3. Redemption is the work of His arm” (Body of Divinity [reprint; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979], 146).

Redemption is a term that describes one of the essential features of salvation. It deals specifically with the cost of salvation and the means by which God received payment. Because all people are helpless slaves to sin and condemned by the law, if they are to be forgiven and reconciled to God, He has to purchase them back from their condition. Only then can He release them from sin’s bondage and curse.

Redeemed is the key word in this passage. This term (lutroō) means “to purchase release by paying a ransom, ” or “to deliver by the payment of a price.” To the Greeks the word was also a technical term for paying money to buy back a prisoner of war.

Rather than the typical Greek sense of the word, referring to slaves and prisoners, the apostle Peter’s imagery describing redemption derives from several Old Testament passages. Undoubtedly a primary one was the narrative of the first Passover:

The lamb’s life was the price required to spare the life of the Israelite family’s firstborn child. The lamb was a divinely ordained illustration, and its sacrifice typified the sacrificial death of an innocent substitute that redeemed those in bondage. This Passover event immediately became the symbol of substitutionary redemption (1 Cor. 5:7–8). God further decreed that Israel annually celebrate Passover to perpetually remind the nation of His powerful deliverance of her from Egypt (Deut. 16:2–3, 5–7) and to point the people toward the true Lamb who would one day die and rise again as the perfect and final substitutionary sacrifice to redeem sinners with His blood (cf. Matt. 26:28; John 1:29; 1 Cor. 11:25–26; Heb. 9:11–12, 28).

The Israelites remembered the first Passover as God’s greatest display of redeeming power up to that time: “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed” (Ex. 15:13; cf. Deut. 7:8; 2 Sam. 7:23; Pss. 78:35; 106:10–11; Isa. 63:9). But as great as that redemption was, the one about which Peter wrote infinitely surpassed it. As if to reemphasize the greatness of God’s salvation (cf. 1:1–12), this passage provides believers with a theology of redemption by answering four crucial questions: What did God redeem believers from? What did He redeem them with? By whom did He redeem them? And, for what did He redeem them?

WHAT DID GOD REDEEM BELIEVERS FROM?

From your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers (1:18b)

Scripture makes clear the truth that all believers were once in bondage to sin and wrath, and that only Christ’s redemption broke that bondage. Romans 6:6, 17–18 says,

In light of that reality, Peter set forth four features that characterize every-one, including the redeemed, prior to their redemption.

The first feature of all unredeemed sinners is what verse 14 of this chapter calls “the former lusts.” “Lusts” (epithumiais) are compelling, driving passions, usually for what is evil (cf. 4:2–3; Matt. 5:28; Rom. 1:24; Eph. 4:22; 1 Thess. 4:5; Titus 3:3; James 1:14–15; 2 Peter 1:4; 1 John 2:16; Jude 16, 18). The term imagination, often used in older Christian literature but seldom in contemporary writings and Bible translations, sheds additional light on the meaning of lust. The King James Version’s rendering of Genesis 6:5, the description of pre-Flood society’s gross sinfulness, is an example: “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” “Thoughts of his heart” clearly refers to the mind, and all sin—especially lust—originates in the mind and its “imagination.” James 1:14–15 describes the work of the sinful imagination: “But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” Jeremiah 3:17 says, “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart” (KJV; cf. Jer. 7:24; 9:14; 11:8; 13:10; 16:12; 18:12; 23:17 in the KJV).

The flesh controls the imagination of the unredeemed (cf. 1 Cor. 2:14; 2 Cor. 4:3–4), and if not kept in check, it can also affect the believer’s imagination (cf. Mark 14:38; Rom. 13:14; Gal. 5:24; Phil. 3:3). When the flesh feeds a sinful thought into the imagination, the imagination concocts a sinful fantasy scenario, that scenario excites lust, lust moves the emotions, the emotions activate the will, and the will initiates sinful conduct (see again James 1:14–15). The sinful imagination consists primarily of lies and distortions about oneself, personal relationships, personal fulfillment, the general nature of things, and God (cf. Jer. 17:9; Mark 7:21–22; Rom. 7:23; 8:6–8). Such false perceptions lead people to all sorts of sinful behavior, which results in miserable guilt feelings. Therefore, since God has redeemed believers from an evil, lustful imagination, then they ought to guard their minds (Pss. 25:20; 39:1; Prov. 4:23; Luke 21:34; 2 John 8) from all the destructive influences that seek to draw them back into such sinful desires. As David concluded his praise for the people’s generous offering for construction of the temple, he offered this model prayer:

Verse 14 secondly identifies the unredeemed’s bondage as “ignorance, ” which refers to the absence of spiritual understanding. The Jewish leaders’ spiritual ignorance prompted Jesus to rebuke them this way:

The apostle Paul perhaps best summarized such benightedness in Ephesians 4:18 when he said the unredeemed are “darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart” (cf. 2:1–3, 12; Rom. 1:28; 1 Cor. 2:14; Gal. 4:8). Paul testified to his own former state in that condition: “I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:13).

The opening verse of this passage refers to the third feature characterizing the unredeemed, their futile way of life, which identifies a vain, useless, and worthless existence. No matter what they may think, every unredeemed man or woman is living a futile life. Even the grandest accomplishments unbelievers seem to achieve are pointless from eternity’s perspective. Jesus made that clear by means of two penetrating questions to His disciples: “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matt. 16:26).

Paul recognized the futility of the unredeemed life when he forbade the people at Lystra from worshiping Barnabas and him. “Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them” (Acts 14:15; cf. Rom. 1:21; 6:20–21; 8:20; 1 Cor. 3:20). Paul also exhorted the Ephesian believers to forsake such futile ways: “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind” (Eph. 4:17).

Here also is a fourth feature of the unredeemed’s lost condition, namely religious tradition, identified as ideas inherited from their forefathers. The Pharisees and their followers were prime adherents to such worthless tradition, which prompted Jesus’ harsh rebuke of them: “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men’” (Matt. 15:7–9; 23:1–4). Traditional religion, whether it is apostate Judaism or paganism in its multitude of forms, is a feature of sin’s bondage (cf. Isa. 29:13; Matt. 15:3, 6; Mark 7:8–9, 13; Gal. 1:14; Col. 2:8) from which people need redemption.

Paul’s words to Titus summarize well this total bondage of the unredeemed: “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another” (Titus 3:3; cf. Jer. 2:22; Rom. 1:18–32; Gal. 5:19–21; Eph. 5:5; Col. 3:5–7). From this bondage only God can free souls. Psalm 107 pictures this dramatically:

WHAT DID GOD REDEEM BELIEVERS WITH?

Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold … but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. (1:18a, 19)

Psalm 49:7–8 says, “No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him—for the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever.” Indeed the price “for the redemption of [a] soul is costly.” Peter appealed to his readers’ basic knowledge that there was nothing available to mankind that could meet that price. Knowing emphasizes that believers know that they were not redeemed with perishable things. Redemption’s price was not some valuable earthly commodity—like silver or gold. But why did Peter in this context even mention those prized metals? In this instance he quite possibly recalled the Old Testament passage about the ransom money God required the Israelites to pay (cf. Ex. 30:13, 15) for the action of numbering all males of military age:

The taking of a census was a sin and considered as a lack of trust in God. On that one occasion when God ordered a census, He required a purification ceremony for cleansing. By that the Israelites would cancel the punishment implicit in the census. When Israel took a census in direct disobedience to God’s command not to do so, signifying an act of sinful distrust in His power, as David did in 1 Chronicles 21, Scripture records that he fell to Satan’s temptation to gratify his pride in the nation’s military strength. David’s failure to trust and obey God in dealing with his enemies incurred the Lord’s fury and moved Him to punish Israel with a lethal plague brought by a destroying angel (vv. 11–17).

Peter knew that, unlike the temporal redemption with money that God permitted the Israelites to purchase in Exodus 30, no amount of money could redeem people’s souls from the bondage of sin. The prophet Isaiah saw the true nature of God’s ultimate redemption of His people when he wrote, “For thus says the Lord, ‘You were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed without money’” (Isa. 52:3).

Having stated what believers were not redeemed with, Peter declared the means by which God did redeem them—with precious blood. He used blood as a vivid synonym for sacrificial death involving the shedding of blood. The blood was not just any blood but precious because it belonged to a lamb unblemished and spotless. Peter’s words implicitly picture the immense sacrifice the owner of such a lamb made when he killed his flock’s finest, purest, most perfect animal, the very kind of animal God always required for sacrifice (Lev. 22:19; Num. 6:14; 28:3–4; Deut. 15:21; 17:1; cf. Ex. 12:5; Lev. 22:17–25). No sacrificial lamb or any other animal sacrifice could ever really take away sin, as Hebrews 10:1–10 makes clear:

Those sacrifices all showed the deadly effects of sin and pictured the idea of an ultimate substitute taking the sinner’s place—fulfilled in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ “once for all.” That Jesus was absolutely and perfectly unblemished and spotless is the clear testimony of Scripture, especially concerning the doctrine of imputation, as contained in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” :

Since all sin is a violation of God’s holy law and a debt incurred to Him, He is the One to whom the price must be paid. Only the creditor can determine the terms of ransom or redemption. The price was not paid to Satan as some have suggested, as if he had been offended and needed to be compensated for sins against him. All sin is against God, and He sets the terms of redemption. The price He required as payment was the life of His own Son (Acts 20:28; Rom. 3:24–25; Gal. 4:4–5; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:13–14; Titus 2:13–14).

The blood of Christ is the most precious blood of all because He was the only utterly perfect person who ever lived (cf. John 1:14, 27; Heb. 4:14–15; 7:26–28). The writer of Hebrews captured the essence of Christ as the perfect Mediator and High Priest of the new covenant, made possible by His death as the perfect sacrifice:

In many other passages the New Testament affirms the same truth of the uniqueness of Jesus’ atoning death (3:18; John 1:29; 1 Cor. 1:30; Gal. 3:13; Rev. 1:5; cf. 1 Peter 2:4; Rev. 5:6–9; 14:4).

The blood of Christ refers not to the fluid in His body, but to the whole of His redemptive death. Scripture speaks of Christ’s blood nearly three times as often as it mentions the cross, and five times more often than it refers to the death of Christ. The word blood, therefore, is the chief term the New Testament uses to refer to the atonement.

Peter wrote that election is “unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1:2, KJV). The “sprinkling of the blood” is what sealed the new covenant (cf. Heb. 9:1–18). “Without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (v. 22). If Christ had not literally shed His blood in sacrifice for believers’ sins, they could not have been saved. This is one reason crucifixion was the means God ordained by which Christ should die; it was the most vivid, visible display of life being poured out as the price for sins.

Bloodshed was likewise God’s design for nearly all Old Testament sacrifices. They were bled to death rather than clubbed, strangled, suffocated, or burnt. God designed that sacrificial death was to occur with blood loss, because “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11).

The literal blood of Christ was violently shed at the crucifixion. Those who deny this truth or try to spiritualize the death of Christ are guilty of corrupting the gospel message. Jesus Christ bled and died in the fullest literal sense, and when He rose from the dead, He was literally resurrected. To deny the absolute reality of those truths is to nullify them (cf. 1 Cor. 15:14–17).

The meaning of the crucifixion, however, is not fully expressed in the bleeding alone. There was nothing supernatural in Jesus’ blood that sanctified those it touched. Those who flogged Him might have been spattered with blood. Yet that literal application of Jesus’ blood did nothing to purge their sins. Had the Lord bled without dying, redemption could not have been accomplished. If the atonement had been stopped before the full wages of sin had been satisfied, Jesus’ bloodshed would have been to no avail. If blood per se could redeem sinners, why did Jesus not just bleed and not die? He did not because the “shedding of blood” in Scripture is an expression that means more than just bleeding.

The biblical meaning in this matter is readily apparent. Romans 5:9–10 clarifies the point; those two verses side by side show that to be “justified by His blood” (v. 9) is the same as being “reconciled to God through the death of his Son” (v. 10). The critical element in salvation is the sacrificial death of Christ on sinners’ behalf. The shedding of His blood was the visible manifestation of His life being poured out in sacrifice, and Scripture consistently uses the term “shedding of blood” as a metonym for atoning death (Heb. 9:22; 12:4; cf. 9:12, 14; 10:19; 11:28; 13:12, 20; Ex. 12:7, 13, 22–23; 23:18; 30:10; 34:25; Lev. 16:27; 17:11; Deut. 12:27; Matt. 26:28; Acts 20:28; Rom. 3:25; 1 Cor. 11:25; Eph. 1:7; 2:13; Col. 1:20; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 John 1:7; Rev. 1:5; 7:14).

So the blood of Christ is precious—but as precious as it is, that physical blood alone could not and did not save. Only when it was poured out in death could the penalty of sin be paid (Luke 24:46; Acts 17:3; Rom. 5:8–11; Eph. 2:13–16; Rev. 5:9; 13:8; cf. John 11:50–51).

It is important to note also that though Christ shed His blood, Scripture does not say He bled to death; it teaches rather that He voluntarily yielded up His spirit (John 10:18). Yet even that physical death could not have brought redemption apart from His spiritual death, whereby He was separated from the Father (cf. Matt. 27:46) by bearing the full guilt of all the sins of all who would ever be saved.

Clearly, though Christ shed His literal blood, many references to the blood are not intended to be taken in the literal sense. A strictly literal interpretation cannot, for example, explain such passages as John 6:53–54: “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” It would be equally hard to explain how physical blood is meant in Matthew 27:25 (“His blood shall be on us and on our children”); Acts 5:28 (“[You] intend to bring this man’s blood upon us”); 18:6 (“Your blood be on your own heads”); 20:26 (“I am innocent of the blood of all men”); and 1 Corinthians 10:16 (“Is not the cup of blessing … a sharing in the blood of Christ?”).

Trying to make literal every reference to Christ’s blood can lead to serious error. The Roman Catholic doctrine known as transubstantiation, for example, teaches that communion wine is miraculously changed into the actual blood of Christ, and that those who partake of the elements in the mass literally fulfill Jesus’ words in John 6:54: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Some claim that Christ’s blood was never truly human. Yet they insist on literalizing every New Testament reference to Jesus’ blood. They erroneously teach that the physical blood of Christ was somehow preserved after the crucifixion and carried to heaven, where it is now literally applied to the soul of each Christian at salvation.

Believers are not saved by some mystical heavenly application of Jesus’ literal blood. Nothing in Scripture indicates that the literal blood of Christ is preserved in heaven and applied to individual believers. When Peter here said saints are redeemed by the blood, he was not speaking of a bowl of blood in heaven. The apostle meant they are saved by Christ’s sacrificial death.

In the same way, when Paul gloried in the Cross (Gal. 6:14), he did not mean the literal wooden beams; he was speaking of all the elements of the redeeming work. Just as the Cross is an expression that includes all of Christ’s atoning work, so is the blood. It is not the actual liquid that cleanses believers from sin, but the work of redemption Christ accomplished in pouring His blood out in death.

BY WHOM DID GOD REDEEM BELIEVERS?

For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times … who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, (1:20a, 21a)

In this section Peter more fully describes the uniqueness of the precious Lamb, Jesus Christ. The first aspect of that is His predetermination. That He was foreknown (proegnōsmenou), literally “he having been foreknown, ” clearly indicates that God planned to send the Son as the incarnate Redeemer before the foundation of the world. The Father did not react to the Fall with a last-minute fix; before the Fall—even before the creation—He predetermined to send His Son as the Savior (Acts 2:23; 4:27–28; 2 Tim. 1:9; Rev. 13:8; cf. Isa. 42:1; Rom. 8:29–30; Eph. 1:5–11). Even Jesus’ enemies from among the Jewish rulers, as they stood sneering before the cross, seemed to acknowledge that God had a predetermined Messiah, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One” (Luke 23:35). Sadly for them, those leaders refused to recognize that Jesus was that One chosen to be the sacrifice for sin.

The precious Lamb, secondly, is unique because of His incarnation. The verb rendered has appeared (phanerōthentos) contains the idea of making something clear or manifest and is an aorist passive, which denotes a historical event—in this context, the Son becoming human (cf. Gal. 4:4–5). In his rich passage on the humility of Christ, Paul summarizes the incarnation:

The phrase in these last times is a familiar expression referring to the entire period between the birth of Christ and the Second Coming (cf. the synonym “last days” in 2 Tim. 3:1; Heb. 1:2; James 5:3; 2 Peter 3:3; and “last hour” in 1 John 2:18). The Greek for times (chronōn) refers to a chronological point in God’s calendar of events. Years earlier, Peter used a similar expression when he quoted from the Old Testament to describe the Day of Pentecost miracle of the coming of the Holy Spirit: “This is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind’” (Acts 2:16–17; cf. 1 Tim. 4:1; Heb. 1:2).

The third feature of the Son’s uniqueness is His resurrection. God raised Him from the dead in unmistakably powerful proof that He was the sacrifice for sin and had accomplished God’s redemptive work (Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15; 4:10; 13:33; 17:31; 26:23; Rom. 4:25; 1 Cor. 15:20–26). In his opening salutation to the Romans, Paul concisely summarizes the resurrection’s significance: “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:4).

Fourth, Peter reminds believers that Christ is unique because in ultimate, culminating affirmation, God gave Him glory. That phrase points to the ascension (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:50–51; Acts 1:9–11), when Christ returned to the heaven of heavens and the glory He had enjoyed with the Father from all eternity (3:22; Luke 24:26; John 17:4–5; Eph. 1:20–21; cf. Ps. 68:18). Writing of the superiority of Christ, the author of Hebrews referred to His ascension as the reward for His perfect redemptive work: “But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor” (Heb. 2:9; cf. 9:24; 12:2). Philippians 2:9–11 assigns Him absolute lordship over all:

FOR WHAT DID GOD REDEEM BELIEVERS?

for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, … so that your faith and hope are in God. (1:20b, 21b)

As if to underscore an already clear truth, Peter reiterated for his readers that Christ’s redemptive work was for the sake of you, meaning all the redeemed. This emphasis that Jesus died on behalf of the redeemed is further explained in this volume in comments on 2:24 and 3:18 chapters 15 and 19 respectively (cf. Isa. 53:4–6; 2 Cor. 5:21; 8:9; Eph. 1:6).

Since redemption is through Him alone (Acts 3:16; 4:12; cf. John 3:36; 10:7, 9; 1 Cor. 1:4; 1 Tim. 2:5; 1 John 5:11–12; 2 John 9–11), there is no other way to God (John 14:6). This marks the exclusivity of the gospel as the only way of redemption. People cannot be believers in God apart from acknowledging the death, resurrection, and sovereign lordship of His Son. In fact, all who do not believe the gospel cannot know God at all and are subject to eternal destruction.

It should also be considered that the phrase through Him may not only indicate the way to saving belief in God, but the power to believe the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 3:5, Paul wrote that he and Apollos were “servants through whom you believed” on the human side; yet, clearly, since all people are helpless, blind, and dead in sin, divine power is required. That is why Paul goes on to say “even as the Lord gave … to each one.” Christ Himself, by the Holy Spirit, is the agent of believers’ salvation. Peter knew this, as some Jewish believers in Jerusalem acknowledged to him years earlier, while agreeing with his teaching, “‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life’” (Acts 11:18).

Since redemption through Him produces believers in God, it is obvious that salvation is appropriated by faith (Mark 1:15; 16:16; John 6:29; 20:31; Acts 11:21; 13:39, 48; 16:31; 20:21; Rom. 3:28; 5:15; 10:9–10, 14–15, 17; Eph. 2:8–9). Saving faith includes both belief in the one, true, and living God (Heb. 10:39; 11:6) and belief through His Son, Jesus Christ (John 6:40). Contained in the phrase believers in God is all that is implicit in genuine saving faith.

The end of verse 21 reveals the ultimate, twofold blessing of redemption—so that believers faith and hope will be in God. Faith enables believers to trust God for necessary grace in the midst of life’s present circumstances, struggles, and anxieties (5:7; Pss. 5:11; 31:1; 37:5; 56:11; Prov. 29:25; Isa. 26:3; Nah. 1:7; Phil. 4:6), and hope enables belief in future grace, to be revealed for them in heavenly glory (see the discussion of 1:4, 5, 13 in chapters 2 and 5 in this volume; cf. Ps. 146:5; Acts 23:6; 24:15; Rom. 5:2; 8:18, 25; Gal. 5:5; Titus 2:13; Heb. 6:11, 19). The psalmist links hope and redemption this way: “But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will receive me” (Ps. 49:15). Believers have an unshakeable hope that one day God will raise them from the grave and welcome them to final glory. The apostle Paul reminded the Romans that believers’ sure hope includes redemption of the body: “We ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:23; cf. Phil. 3:20–21; 1 John 3:2). By faith, saints presently enjoy the redemption of the soul (“the first fruits of the Spirit”), and by hope they anticipate the redemption of the body from all remaining effects of the Fall.