The Ransom Was Paid

A redemption price for my sin is something I cannot accomplish as I don’t have the adequate currency to complete the transaction to satisfy a holy God. A perfect blood sacrifice was required. When I saw this week’s Five Minute Friday word, I immediately thought of a song we sang at the Bible Baptist Church in Naperville Illinois when I was a boy. The song was “Redeemed.”

Lyrics for Fanny Crosby’s hymnn REDEEMED

Redeemed’s Author was Fanny Crosby

Fanny Crosby has written many hymns but perhaps the first one that comes to my mind from my childhood is Redeemed. Fanny, if you did not know it, was blind. But she saw in ways that many do not. And what she saw is reflected in the hymns she wrote.

Fanny Crosby was famous in her day. Here are some interesting quotes I grabbed from Wikipedia regarding her life: “At age eight, Crosby wrote her first poem which described her condition. She later stated: ‘It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me.’ She also once said, ‘when I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior’. According to biographer Annie Willis, ‘had it not been for her affliction she might not have so good an education or have so great an influence, and certainly not so fine a memory’.

Though physically blind, Fanny Crosby had sight that many do not.

Her Incredible Memory Influenced Her Poetry

“Crosby memorized five chapters of the Bible each week from age 10, with the encouragement of her grandmother and later Mrs. Hawley; by age 15, she had memorized the four gospels, the Pentateuch, the Book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, and many of the Psalms.” – Wikipedia

Redeemed! Proclaim it!

There are few words in the scriptures that can bring such relief, calm, and peace than the word “redemption.” When you add justification, sanctification, adoption, forgiven, and reconciliation, the goodness of God is too great to fully appreciate. If you have been redeemed, rejoice! Rejoice in ways that help others see redemption’s story.

Romans 3:21-25 “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.”

Ephesians 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.”

Hebrews 9:22 “Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Five Minute Friday

This post is part of the weekly Five Minute Friday link-up.

All scripture passages are from the English Standard Version except as otherwise noted.