The Power of Redemption

By Odon Bulamba (summary only - 6th Sept, 02)

What is redemption? What do you understand by redemption? Each day we sing about redemption and we read about redemption, so what is it?

Redemption means that someone is a guarantor to pay your debt and God accepts to take all the problems you have. Even if the price of these problems are life; He will give His life for you.

One day there was a hunter in the forest hunting and when he was hunting he saw a monkey and there was a baby sitting on his chest. And the hunter said it’s a good opportunity to eat monkey today. He took his gun, he aimed at the monkey and the monkey saw the man. And the monkey made noise. The female monkey arrived and when she came, she took the child. She put out her hand toward the man and showed him her baby and touched her breast to show that she was breastfeeding. So it means that if you kill me, it’s over for my baby. The male monkey came in front of his wife and hid her and his baby and he showed that he was ready to be killed. I assure you that this man didn’t kill this monkey. He left and said it’s incredible to see a monkey ready to give his life because of his family and little baby. Isn’t this something important?

When I (Odon) watch TV there’s a programme about animals on it and often when the Lions are hunting animals, they often attack the small animals and the adult animals always sacrifice their life to protect them.

When I was 12, we had a hen and this hen had chicks. I named her Jociah because she knew how to protect herself. One day I wanted to get one of her chicks, although I had a stick in my hand, the hen didn’t fear the stick and attacked me to protect the chick.

Doesn’t this teach us something? A hen that is ready to take many risks to protect her chick and the monkey to take many risks to protect his family.

We have more value than all these animals but for us human beings it’s often impossible to protect our brothers and sisters. Animals can do it, so why not us humans? And from that, God saw that mankind was not on the right way. We started sinning against God. Men started killing one another and from that God said that everything we do is sin. Satan is here with a weapon and is destroying us spiritually.

God really wanted man to find a redeemer. He looked at man who had so much value on earth and there was nobody to redeem them. So He said it would be good if someone sins that they kill an animal to redeem the price of a life. So the animal was used to protect the life of a man and man started sacrificing dove, cows etc to try to redeem their souls.

But God saw that the value of the blood of these animals was not equal to the value of the blood of man. The value of the blood of these animals did not have the value of the soul of a man. Because God remembered that He said to man that he has to dominate over everything on earth and how would it be possible for the life of an animal to be more valuable than the life of a man? Is it possible for a slave to be master of his master?

And God said “no, it’s not possible”. The only thing left that has more value than man is me, God. So I have to go down to give my life. As I created man the first time that I gave them life, I want to give him life again. And God asked, “Who is ready to go and save man?” From that time God made the decision to leave Heaven and come to earth and the only aim of leaving Heaven was to give us redemption.

One day I was in the 7th day Adventist Church and the preacher said that Jesus was a tourist, that Jesus left Heaven to do some tourism on earth. But Jesus didn’t come to sightsee. He came to give us redemption. He came to redeem us and pay the price of our life. So Jesus was born, grew up and worked and one day, the day came when he had to die. What happened? He already said that he would die. “I will die and my death won’t be a normal death, because I’m here to bear all your burdens. I will die so that you will have life. I will die so that your souls will be redeemed. I will die so that you won’t be a slave anymore. I will die so that you will be completely free”.

And Jesus gave his life. He said, “Here I am, take me”. And men who thought they were strong arrested Jesus. They flogged him and spat on him. They took his clothes off. He was completely humiliated. As you know, prisons here are better. But visit prisons in Asia or Africa and you will see the value of a prisoner. Each morning you are woken up with a whip. During the day you are tortured and when night comes, you say thank God because now you can have a rest. And on top of that you cannot eat. You sleep on the floor and there’s water on it. Maybe that’s the place where the prisoner’s go to the toilet. Sometimes you have to eat it. It’s really a life of misery, problems and difficulties. And Jesus Christ said He would take everything. So He was made naked and said He would pay the price for the people.

He knew tortures of all kinds and after being whipped a crown was made and put on his head. It was not a crown that kings and queens put on their heads. It was not a crown of diamonds and gold. It was a crown of something else. What was it? A crown of thorns. A crown that made blood flow. A crown that would humiliate the presence of Jesus. It was a crown of suffering and Jesus was there and he was patient. He was paying the price of my murders. He was paying the price of your pride, your slanders, your hatreds and disorders.

And it was not enough. Man said there are still people doing evil things on earth and if Jesus has to pay the price for everybody, he must be tortured more. So he had to carry the cross. I tried to do some research. The cross that Jesus bore was 99kgs in weight and himself, was about 72kgs. And he bore His cross for three hours. Imagine how heavy it was. After being flogged and whipped He had to bear this heavy cross. He was taken to the place of the skull and that’s where He’d be finished.

The soldiers arrived with nails and hammers. Imagine yourself coming with a hammer and nails and you are asked to nail Odon onto the table in front of you. Do you think it would be possible after crying and shouting to now nail me (Odon)? Who can do it amongst us? Could you do this to someone else? Even if it’s your enemy I assure it’s not something easy. You can give the first hit but the shout of this person will touch your conscience. And your conscience will tell you that what you are doing is not good. But this man nailed Jesus to the cross. Although Jesus was crying and shouting, they said “We don’t care, He has to pay the price”.

His feet too were nailed and us Christians today nail Jesus on the cross again. We don’t have any pity on all that He has known of suffering, and we keep making Him pay the price of our sins.

So Jesus was nailed on the cross and after this He was raised and said He was thirsty. What was He given to drink? He was given vinegar. It was a vinegar with added bitter herbs to the point where Jesus tasted it and he couldn’t even swallow it. It was very bitter and He said it’s better to be thirsty and die, than to drink that. And man would just laugh. They didn’t even feel like they were killing someone. And how many times do we take pleasure in other people’s misery.

And at the end Jesus said it’s all finished. It is finished. Just one more thing, I must find the key of redemption. I must find the power for redemption.

Jesus left his body. He was buried and remember, He promised that after three days, they would see him again. The promises of God are always fulfilled. It might be 10 or 100 years but it will always happen. So don’t lose faith, don’t stumble in your faith. Always trust God and you will see what God will do. It’s just a question to do what He asks you to do. What you have to do, just do it.

Because after three days He said He’ll be alive, they put soldiers in front of His tomb and Jesus went down and the Bible says that first of all He went to free people. The people that had been captured for a long time. He went to set them free. Secondly, He took back the key of life to give us freedom.

SUMMARY
- Redemption means someone pays the price of our debt for us
- Our soul is so important that God Himself left heaven to redeem it
- Jesus sacrificed His life in order for us to live for eternity
- Every time we sin we crucify Jesus again
- Jesus took the keys of death and hades to set our souls free

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