Jesus, S&H Green Stamps & Heaven

The New Testament tells us that Jesus is our (redemption.( For many years, I could have chosen that as the correct answer on a multiple choice test, but I didn(t fully appreciate what it meant. My heart would quietly rejoice when the psalmist wrote: (They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer( (Psalm 78:35). Yet, I didn(t fully appreciate what it meant that God promised to be our redeemer and would one day send His only begotten Son to become our redemption.

While the concept of redemption was very understandable to the Jews, my experience with redemption was limited to using coupons in the grocery store and going to the S&H Greenstamp redemption center with my mother as a child. My mother would receive the Greenstamps each time that we checked out of the grocery store. I remember my younger brother and I pasting the stamps into books. If we pasted in the stamps, we had some influence in deciding what we would get at the center when we (traded in( or (redeemed( the stamps. One particularly fond memory is of the time when we got a blender. It seemed to me like we had truly entered the space age then: we could make milkshakes in our own home. This wouldn(t be a big deal today. But, to me as a nine-year-old kid, it was fabulous!

The Jews on the other hand, had a very practical understanding of redemption. It was part of the law that governed their society. In a general sense, redemption meant to buy back something that formerly belonged to the purchaser but had passed into the ownership of another. Although he didn(t still own it, he had the right to buy it back for a particular price. We see that this process applied to property:

When a piece of property was sold, it was only to remain in the possession of the purchaser until the time of the next jubilee (every fifty years). At the time of the jubilee, the land or house was returned to its ancestral owner. The price that the land was sold for would be calculated the same way that a lease is calculated today. A house would sell for much more money when the jubilee was 30 years away than two years before the jubilee.

Redemption didn't only apply to property; it also applied to persons. In Exodus, the law spoke of what was to happen to the owner of an ox that (gored( someone. If the ox had a previous history of doing this (can you believe an ox with a (rap sheet?(), and the person died, the penalty was severe: (the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death( Exodus 21:29. There was, however, one last chance for the owner of the bull: (However, if payment is demanded of him, he may redeem his life by paying whatever is demanded( v.30. The owner and his family could reach a settlement with the family of the deceased and buy back or redeem the man's life.

There were times when a Jew would sell himself into slavery to a foreigner living in Israel. This would be during a time of grave financial hardship for his family. The book of Leviticus describes the process of redeeming a family member from slavery:

If an alien or a temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells himself to the alien living among you or to a member of the alien's clan, he retains the right of redemption after he has sold himself. One of his relatives may redeem him: An uncle or a cousin or any blood relative in his clan may redeem him. Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. He and his buyer are to count the time from the year he sold himself up to the Year of Jubilee. The price for his release is to be based on the rate paid to a hired man for that number of years. (Leviticus 25:47-50)

While the Jews were slaves in the land of Egypt, God promised that He would (redeem( them from their slavery. He sent Moses to bring this message to the people:

Through sin, mankind was sold into the slavery of a fallen existence. We are each born into this fallen state of (original sin.( In this state, man cannot experience the fullness of the presence of God. Scripture tells us that we all are in the same condition: (for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...( (Rom. 3:23 ). For man, there is no way to pay his own price of redemption to escape the slavery of sin: (Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of his life is costly, and can never suffice, that he should continue to live on forever, and never see the Pit( (Ps. 49:7-9 RSV).

Man, of his own doing, cannot overcome the state of sin that separates him from God. It is impossible. We see this in the words of Jesus: (When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, (Who then can be saved?( Jesus looked at them and said, (With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible(( (Matthew 19:25 26). These words of scripture bring to light one of the most beautiful contrasts of our existence: man(s inability to reconcile himself to God and God's ability and willingness to provide a way for man to be redeemed and reconciled to Himself. We see this also in Romans 6:23: (For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.(Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical On Jesus Christ Our Redeemer, writes of man(s hopeless struggle to overcome the separation of sin, the promise of the Father to send a Savior, and the fulfillment of that promise in the person of Jesus:

While man was unable to pay the price to redeem himself from slavery to sin and ultimate damnation, God sacrificed His only begotten Son as the payment for our redemption: (for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus( (Romans 3:23-24). It is in this that we can see how completely God loves us. He loves us sacrificially:

(For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life( (John 3:16).

(But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us( (Romans 5:8)

Jesus freely gave of His life as a payment to redeem us from our sin: (The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord...( (John 10:17 18 ). The payment for our sin was made complete with His death on the cross. This is shown in Jesus( last statement before He died: (When he had received the drink, Jesus said, (It is finished.( With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.( (John 19:30). With His death, He destroyed the power of sin. With His rising, He restored life. This is why we pray as part of the Memorial Acclamation during Mass: (By Your dying You destroyed our death; by Your rising You restored our life; Lord Jesus, come in glory!(
Pope Leo wrote of the great work of redemption:

When Jesus Christ had blotted out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, fastening it to the cross, at once God(s wrath was appeased, the primeval fetters of slavery were struck off from unhappy and erring man, God(s favor was won back, grace restored, the gates of heaven opened, the right to enter them revived, and the means afforded of doing so.
Truly the gates of Heaven have been opened! The price for our redemption has been paid! We can receive God(s forgiveness and be reconciled with Him by believing in what Jesus has done for us. This is why it is said that we are (saved by faith.( By faith, or believing in what Jesus has done for us, we can personally receive Him as our Redeemer, our personal Savior from sin. God shows us this plainly in His Word: (For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God not the result of works, so that no one may boast( (Ephesians 2:8-9, NRSV).
Have you ever received this personally? Ephesians 2:8 promises: (for by grace you have been saved through faith.( God gives it to us as grace, a gift freely given from His goodness, not as something we earn. You can receive it by praying: (Jesus, I thank you for dying for my sin. I repent of all my sins. Forgive me. Be my Redeemer, my Savior from sin. Change my life and help me to live as a child of God. Amen.(
I think of it as reaching out to receive the most precious gift of all, saying, (Lord, you died to bring me this forgiveness. I receive it.( I think of it as a small child reaching to hold a precious gift, such as the newborn kittens our girls found in our pickup truck today. It is with the same sense of beauty, awe, and wonder that we should reach out and receive the precious gift of salvation that Jesus died to bring us.
When you accept Jesus as your Savior from sin, you become God(s child:
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." (Galatians 4:4-6).
We can begin to live as a child of God: (Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God---( (John 1:12).
Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, you have been given the opportunity to be reconciled to God. Freed from the slavery of sin, you can become part of the kingdom as a child and an heir: (So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir( (Galatians 4:7).
You don(t have to wait until after death to receive the benefits of being a Christian. You can live as God(s child and an heir to His kingdom now. That is what God desires for you. He wants to have a close, intimate relationship with you. He wants to give you a full and abundant life. He wants to change your life so dramatically, that you will become a (new creation(: (Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!( (2 Corinthians 5:17).
That is why Christians talk about being (born again.( When you are redeemed from slavery to sin and made a child of God and an heir to His kingdom, your life becomes different in quality and substance. God wants to share good things with you. Jesus will even share his throne with you in heaven. Open your heart and receive all that He has to give you:
(Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne( (Revelation 3:20-21).