One of the biggest arguments on our family trips growing up was over getting lost. It usually started with a lack of preparation coupled with a healthy dose of stubbornness. Arguments broke out, not on what the map said, but the correct route to take there. It led to comedy, tears, and a call to my grandfather for clarification. He would get going in the right direction. Jesus redeemed us from the empty way. Before Him, we were lost.
1 Peter 1:18-19
For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.
In Debt Over Our Heads
The word redeemed is a financial term in the Greek. It means to settle a bill or pay in full someone’s tab. Before we met Jesus, we were in debt with no way of paying the bill, and he came to our rescue and paid our debt for the sin we have committed. He also spared us from an empty way of life. It is something all of us inherit from our ancestors. Jesus came and paid a price no one else could pay with a payment more valuable than silver or gold, His blood.
The Empty Road
I love how this verse and translation interprets it as an empty way of life. So much of what we strive in life leads to emptiness. Probably the thing that leads to the emptiest feeling is striving for others’ approval and acceptance. We can kill ourselves trying to win the favor of other people only to have them yank it away at the slightest whim. With Christ, we are not only redeemed but accepted and loved without condition.
Redeemed From the Empty Way
You have been redeemed from the empty way. He can set you on the right path and be the light you need to see where you are going. His Spirit will fill you, and soon you will start to notice the purifying process He is taking you through is starting to bring change in your life. Yield yourself to His work. Let the circumstances of life strengthen your dependence upon you.