Who is your redeemer?

Regardless of what is going on on anyone’s life, everyday is day with a chance. What is the most important chance of life? Believing in God and receiving His Salvation. Yesterday I read a tweet from Rob Robinson (@FairMinded Faith) saying the following:

“Imagine that for some, at the end of their life when it's too late, they will discover that they had the key to eternal life all along. In Luke 16, Jesus told the man in hell that he should have believed the Bible, he could have been saved. Today is the day of salvation. Believe!” https://twitter.com/fairmindedfaith/status/1396093558168330240?s=10

One of the purposes of this blog is to facilitate yet another channel to share the Good News. God has put in my heart the desire to provide means for many to reflect. I really hope that through reflection, many will come to believe in the truth of the Salvation that God offers us through His Son.

Many of us have struggled with how gracious God is. It’s difficult to understand that God redeems us. I personally used to think that I had to make effors, it would have been easier to understand it if salvation had a price each one  had to pay. During the last days I’ve been reading again the book of Job, and there are a couple verses that stirred my thoughts about the grace of God. The first one is Job 1:8, where God brings up some of the qualities of Job:

8 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” Job 1:8 NIV

It is likely to conclude Job was a person free of sin, if this verse was read in isolation. It could be counted as a contradiction in the Bible, as other verses seem to spread a different message:

“ Everyone has turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.” Psalm 53:3 – NIV

“He [Jesus Christ] committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” - 1 Peter 2:22 NIV

And in my head I started to think how confusing it could get for anyone. On one hand God said Job was blameless. But the through David it was revealed that no one is righteous. And finally through Peter God conveys to us that only one human being committed no sin: Jesus when he was incarnated.

I kept on reading the book of Job, and then on chapter 19 it’s stated Job said:

25 I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. 26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; 27 I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! – Job 19:25-27 NIV

I was glad when reading again this verse, as I was reminded once again of the most important message of the Bible: Grace. You see, in Job’s heart, God was his redeemer. He understood through the Holy Spirit that God somehow would be paying the debt for his sins. Job was a sinner like you and I, and he realized he had done wrong to God many times (see Job 42:3-6). However God brags about Job for being blameless and upright. Looking a bit deeper into this, I found that the original two words in hebrew – tam & yashar – have a meaning which may provide a thorough understanding. “Tam” -translated in the NIV as “blameless”- means also complete, wholesome, sound, morally innocent and ethically pure. In a similar way the word yashar, is used to refer to a someone right, pleasing, correct and even righteous.

Based on what we’ve seen, it is clear that God bragged about Job because Job was a man of faith. Like with Abraham, God counted Job’s faith as righteousness. But it’s also quite important to know, that God knew Job’s trusted Him as his redeemer, even before being submitted to all the tribulations Job had to live. Job did not learn that God was his Savior after living all the tests he underwent. He had a relationship with God through faith long before.

It’s never too early nor too late to believe. Only God can justify us and make us blameless, righteous. My blog declares outright that God offers you Salvation. And His word says it was done through the blood Jesus shed on the cross. I wish and pray you can receive this truth and believe it.