In the late nineties, two relatively unknown movie directors, Larry and Andy Wachowski, created one of the most popular movies America had ever seen. They called it “the Matrix.” Set well in the future, the basic premise of the Matrix is that machines which humans created to do their work for them became so intelligent that they have now taken control over the humans. Not only that, the machines now keep humans imprisoned in small capsules in order to harvest the small amount of electrical current which the human body produces. Of course, humans would not be to keen on this idea of being living batteries for machines if they knew, so the machines engineered a computer program of an artificial world called the Matrix which the human brain is then plugged into. The human brain assumes that this world is real, but it isn’t. Instead, this artificial world exists to convince humans that they are free, while in reality they are being held captive to the machine that are using them as energy.  

The movie itself follows a small group of humans who have been freed from the Matrix and are now at war with machines. At one point in the movie, one of the main characters, named Morpheus attempts to explain the nature of the Matrix to the movie’s hero. Morpheus says “[The Matrix] is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes… Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch.”

As we sit here today, we are in an identical situation as those in the Matrix. We think we are free, but in reality we are prisoners in a darker and far more subtle prison than we realize. Our freedom is imaginary, we are actually held captive. But it isn’t the Matrix…it’s the power of sin. Ironically, the directors of the Matrix, having made a movie about a subtle captivity are known in Hollywood for their own captivity to sin and addiction.

We too are captives to sin. Like the inhabitants of the artificial Matrix, we try to rationalize it. “I’m not like those movie directors. I’m not captive. I’m not addicted to drugs, or pornography, or alcohol.” Yet even those statements demonstrate our captivity to pride, a deep belief that we are better than we really are. We are just as captive to selfish attitudes in our marriages, pride and arrogance in our views of others, and a lack of grace and mercy to those who wrong us. We are held captive. We are sinners, hopelessly trapped in the guilt and shame of our sin. We cannot escape it. It’s there in the mirror when we get up the morning, reminding us “You aren’t good enough. You are a sinner.” We try to make up for it, by serving in soup kitchens, coaching little league, or helping elderly women cross the street. Thousands will lie on their death beds and ask “Was I good enough” when they already know the truth. “We can never be good enough.” We are trapped in the reality that our sin is always there, “like a prison we cannot taste or see or touch.” We are prisoners, condemned by our own sinfulness, trapped and held captive by the power of sin.

But it is precisely in this context of hopeless imprisonment that Paul writes the one verse we are looking at today. To a people once in captivity to sin Paul writes in Ephesians 1:7 through the first part of verse 8 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us”

Paul says that “in him,” that being in Christ, God has redeemed us. The word “redemption” could bring to mind several images from the Old Testament, such as the sacrificial system or the kinsman redeemer from the book of Ruth. While these certainly play a large part in our understanding of redemption as a whole, the word that Paul uses here rarely occurs in the Greek Old Testament but was common speech at the time. Paul uses a word that his Greek readers in Ephesus and the rest of the Asian churches would have understood to mean deliverance or rescue. Even Jews at the time of Paul understood this particular Greek word not in terms of the sacrificial system but in reference to Israel’s deliverance and exodus from Egypt by the hand of God. The use of this word implies a captivity or imprisonment, which is why Paul uses it to speak of our salvation. We have already seen that we are imprisoned to sin. But now in Christ, we have been delivered, we have been freed, we have been redeemed, rescued from our captivity.

In describing this redemption, Paul goes on in the verse to tell us that not only have we now been redeemed, delivered from our captivity, God has redeemed us at a great cost for good.

First, let’s look at the great cost which God paid to deliver us. Paul in verse 7 says “In him, [that is Christ], we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”

Naturally, as humans we tend to view God’s forgiveness in light of our forgiveness of others. Even when we as humans forgive others it costs us a great deal. Oftentimes it means forgiving a debt, in which case we never receive the money we are owed. In cases where someone has wronged us, forgiveness means giving up any claim to retribution or revenge, giving up the right to hold the fault against someone, or giving up the assumed entitlement to feel angry and bitter toward our debtor. Human forgiveness is not free for the one who gives it. There is a price tag, perhaps financial, perhaps emotional, maybe even socially as we strive to treat the person who wronged us nicely.

ILLUSTRATION: Michelle and I are often responsible for arranging group presents for our parents at Christmas time or for birthdays. We often pay for the gift ahead of time and then have all of our siblings pay us back. Sometimes it takes a few days for them to pay us back, sometimes it takes a few months. While no one has ever asked, in many ways, forgiveness of a sibling’s debt wouldn’t seem to cost us very much. We could easily tell them not to worry about paying us back. The present is already paid for, the credit cards have already been paid off, and the gift has probably already been given. But the reality is that there would still be a great cost for Michelle and me. We would have to give up the hope of ever getting that money back. Not only that, the sibling who gave the present with us still got credit and thanks for giving the gift even though they didn’t even pay for it. We paid for it; how is it fair that they get thanked for it? You see, forgiveness of a debt still costs greatly. It costs financially, emotionally, and we know they might do it again next Christmas.

In light of our human understanding of forgiveness we are automatically aware that forgiveness costs God greatly. Yet, it cost Him more than just financially or emotionally. The cost which God paid for our redemption is beyond our comprehension. Paul writes in our passage that we have “In Him (speaking of Christ) we have redemption through His blood.” The Israelite sacrificial system was based on the shedding of blood. Israelites would bring their sacrifice to the temple, lay their hands on that sacrificial animal, and slaughter it before the LORD. They understood that they themselves deserved to be slaughtered for their sin but that this animal was killed in their place. This is the picture that Paul uses here in Ephesians. It is through the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross that our sins are forgiven. God’s justice demanded the shedding of blood for sin and He willing laid down His son’s life in place of ours. God’s forgiveness of our sin cost Him the life of His own son.

On the cross, with all of our sins on Christ, God the Father turned His back on His own Son. God the Father could not look on the sinfulness which Christ had taken upon himself. Father and Son were separated, for the first and only time in all eternity because of our sin. That perfect relationship which had existed in perfect harmony for all time was ripped apart like the curtain in the temple. Christ endured Hell on the cross, separated from the Father who had never forsaken Him. Christ died bearing our sins and the divine wrath and anger which our sins deserved.  God redeemed us at such an unfathomable cost well beyond the cost of human forgiveness. It cost Him more than just financially or emotionally. God’s forgiveness of us cost us the blood of His own son. But now, we have been redeemed, delivered from our captivity. In chapter 2 Paul says that God took the hostility that existed between us and Him and killed it with Christ. We no longer have sin looking over shoulder, condemning us, reminding us that we don’t measure up. The invisible prison which held us captive has been removed. We are free from the guilt and the shame and the condemnation of our sins. In Christ, we have been delivered, rescued, freed from the prison of sin. We have been forgiven.

We have been redeemed at a great cost because we couldn’t free ourselves. No matter how hard we worked, no matter many “good deeds” we did, we could never free ourselves from the ever present prison of our sins.

“In 1872 the German-nationalist author Lorenz Diefenbach used the expression, "Arbeit macht frei," (or work shall set you free). By the time of Nazi Germany, it had become a slogan for Germany nationalism because of the idea that endless labor brings a kind of spiritual freedom. Nazi Germany believed that they could gain spiritual freedom through their work. The futility of this perspective was especially poignant during World War 2 when that Nazi slogan, work shall set you free, appeared over the entrance to Nazi labor concentration camps, such as Auschwitz or Dachau. The prisoners who were held captive in those camps scoffed at the slogan. Every day was a painful reminder that work cannot set one free. How ever long they worked, they would never find freedom from their Nazi captors through their labors. Freedom would have to come from the outside, not from within. Eventually, it was the fighting of the Allies that would liberate the prisoners, not their daily labor.

And yet, we are often convinced of that same idea as the Nazi’s, work can set you free. Of course, we would never say it that way. We spiritualize it. If I just pray more I can defeat this sin. If I just read my Bible more, I can escape the prison of pride. If go to more Bible studies I can and we fill in the blank. While these are great, they are great because they drive us to the truth that our freedom is our forgiveness in Christ and His death on the cross. Work cannot set us free. Our freedom rests in the great cost which God the Father paid by sacrificing His own perfect son for us on the cross, enduring the Hell of the separation of Father and Son, so that we could be freed, redeemed, and forgiven, delivered from the prison of sin. It is not because of our work, but because of the great cost which was paid that our sins are forgiven.

Not only did God redeem us at a great cost because we could not free ourselves, we have been redeemed, forgiven at a great cost so that we might forgive others. When we understand the great cost which God paid to forgive us of our sins, the cost of human forgiveness pales by comparison. Human forgiveness is not free; it costs us quite a bit. When our spouse says or does something hurtful, we don’t want to forgive and give up the right to feel bitter about their actions. When our kids keep disobeying us over and over again, we don’t want to forgive because we know they will probably do it again. Or when a sibling acts spitefully towards us or a boss or a teacher treats us unfairly, we don’t want to forgive them. We want retribution. But Paul at the end of chapter 4 says that we should be “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” This isn’t always easy, in fact, it is often seem impossible. In the end forgiving others is only possible when we stop and realize the great unfathomable price which God paid to forgive us, the sacrifice of His own son. When we understand that great cost, how can we, who have been forgiven at such a price, refuse forgiveness to those around us?

In 1944, one of the most famous captives of Nazi concentration camp, Corrie Ten Boom, was granted her freedom. Over the course of her time in concentration camps, her father had died of disease and her sister had literally been worked death. Corrie had lost her entire family to the labor camp. In 1947, after the war, Corrie returned to Germany to tell her story and to speak to the believers there. At one seminar she was approached by one of the cruelest former guards from the concentration camps, who asked her for forgiveness. It was difficult for her to forgive this man who had tortured her as a prisoner, who had been part of a group who killed her sister. But Corrie understood something very important. Corrie knew that she had been released from the prison camp, but more than that, she had an understanding that she had been forgiven of her sins by the great cost of Christ’s death on the cross. And it was because of that forgiveness that she was able to forgive the guard. She says “For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.”

That is what happens when we understand the great cost at which God redeemed us. We realize that it is not because of work, not because of labor, but because of the great cost paid by God to forgiven us. And when we grasp that incredible cost for our forgiveness, we respond by extending that forgiveness to others. Forgive one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Not only does Paul says God redeemed us at great, unfathomable cost, Paul also says that God redeemed us at a great price, for good.  

ILLUSTRATION: Several years ago, man named Jason Kubin made the news by publicly forgiving his son’s murderer and lobbying for a lessened sentence. Jason’s son had been found murdered at home, killed by Jason Kubin’s ex-wife’s boyfriend. While at first angry, Jason found it in his heart to forgive his son’s killer and lobbied for him not to be placed on death row. While this is a wonderfully touching instance of human forgiveness and certainly helped Mr. Kubin feel better, it changed the situation very little. The murderer of Mr. Kubin’s son is still on death row. The forgiveness of the crime, while inspiring, failed to change the fact that a crime was committed and a punishment had to be paid. Human forgiveness, while costly and crucially important, does not remove the offense.

That, however, is not true of God’s forgiveness. While human forgiveness cannot remove the sin itself, God’s forgiveness frees us from our sin for good. When God punished Christ on the cross for our sins, turning His back on Him, and subjecting Him to death, God satisfied the requirements of His own justice. The debt has now been paid. The penalty of death which we owed for our sin has now been removed because Christ paid it for us. If there were a ledger somewhere which recorded all of our sins it would have a giant stamp on it “Paid in Full.” God in His justice and His act of redemption does not only remove His anger and wrath for our sin, He removes the sin itself. It is gone, forever.  That is the whole point of this verse. Paul says that we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Normally, Paul prefers to use the phrase “forgiveness of our sins,” but here Paul uses a word which focuses not on sin as a whole, but on each of the individual sins or trespasses. Every sin we have ever committed or ever will commit has been forgive through the death of Christ on the cross. God’s forgiveness of all of our sins has given us redemption, delivering us and rescuing us from the captivity of sin. Our sin is gone.

This is not just the point of this verse but it is the point of all of chapter 2 of Ephesians. We were dead, but now we are alive. We were alienated, now we are brought near. The hostility is gone, the condemnation is gone, the separation is gone because our sins are gone, for good, forever. When Christ died, the hostility between us and God died with Him, as did all of our sin. Paul can then truly say “we have been made alive together with Christ.” Our sins are gone for good, we are free!

Unfortunately, we forget that God has redeemed us for good. When we sin we feel guilt and shame at our shortcomings. Maybe we feel shame at our inability to forgive others. We begin to believe the lie that God is displeased with us because of our sin. We listen to the lies of our accuser when he says “See how despicable you are, God doesn’t love you.” Even though we have been brought near by the blood of Christ, we distance ourselves from God, thinking “He doesn’t love me anymore.” Not only that, we forget that Christ’s death and the forgiveness of our sins made us a part of Christ’s body. His death united us not only to Himself but to each other. But when we forget that we have been freed from our sin we focus once again on ourselves as individuals rather than members of the body. We withdraw from church and interaction from other believers. We think “I can’t go to church, I’m a sinner, what would everyone think of me if they knew?” Our failure to remember that God has redeemed us for good causes us to separate ourselves when the reality of our separation is gone for good.

ILLUSTRATION: Several years ago, my Dad had a friend that he would meet with for prayer. When they first began to meet, my dad’s friend made some assumptions about my dad that hurt their relationship. My dad’s friend found it very difficult to meet with my dad for prayer because of the assumptions he had about my dad. Finally, after several months, my dad’s friend confessed to my dad the reason he struggled to pray with him. At that point, my dad was able to explain to him that his assumptions were not true. The barrier that had affected their prayer times did not even exist. It only existed in the friend’s mind.

But that is exactly what we do with God and each other. We allow sin which has already been paid for and removed by the cross to cause us to withdraw from God and each other in guilt and shame. We believe the lie that He does not love us or that He will not forgive us. What we need to realize is that God does love us and has already redeemed us, for good, and a very great cost. When we remember that we have been forgiven for good, then even our failure to forgive others drives us to the cross where we are reminded again of the forgiveness we have in God, purchased at a great cost purchased for good.

By the end of World War 2, all of the Concentration Camps were liberated. The cost was a high one too, by the time the Russian Army began to liberate from the East, the war effort had cost them nearly ten million soldiers. The Allies moving in from the West also had sacrificed untold millions.  But the cost was enough to save millions of survivors from the concentration camps. Today, those concentration camps that have not been torn down have been turned into museums. Part of us might think that this is a cheap commercialization of such a ghastly horror, but the opposite is true. The museums stand today with their cremation ovens, gas houses, and torture chambers on full display as a testament and a reminder of the horror that occurred there. The prisoners of those camps will never again be held captive there, but the prisons themselves still remain as a reminder of what those prisoners have been freed from and to prevent prisons like them from ever being used again.

We too have been freed from a prison, the prison of sin. And while our sin will never be made into a museum, we too need reminders that we have been freed from that prison. We get those reminders daily when we continue to sin. We are reminded of that prison and its lingering effects on us. But we must treat it like a museum, remembering that while it may still exist, it has no power of condemnation over us. We have been freed and forgiven of our sins at a great cost, and we have been released from the shame of that sin forever. Never again will we hear that we are worthless sinners. Instead, we have the reality of the cross and the testimony of God’s word which serve to remind us that we were once captive, but now we are free for good, free to live as the body of Christ, free to forgive one another.