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| PentecostalTheology.comJesus Our Ransom – He Looked Beyond the Cross – From Ray E Horton’s Notes on Pastor Jim Dumont’s Message
When we think of prophetic scriptures in Isaiah about the suffering of Jesus, we usually think of the end of Isaiah 52 and Isaiah 53. But Pastor James Dumont at Erie Christian Fellowship Church shared from Isa. 50:6-7:
“I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face…
from disgrace and spitting.
But the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.”
Jesus looked beyond the pain and suffering and separation that was coming – that is what brought Him through. We can personalize this: I know I shall not be put to shame, for the Lord God helps me. We too can look beyond as we worship Him, come into His presence, and experience His Living Word, and it will bring us through what we are facing.
“Even as the Israelites in Egypt put the blood of a sacrificial lamb on their doorposts, and the death angel passed over them, Jesus became our Passover Lamb once and for all. Passover is all about a substitute Lamb bringing redemption.”
Teaching on “Jesus Our Passover,” Pastor Jim said that “Even as the Israelites in Egypt put the blood of a sacrificial lamb on their doorposts, and the death angel passed over them, Jesus became our Passover Lamb once and for all. Passover is all about a substitute Lamb bringing redemption.”
Jesus was our ransom. A ransom is what is given in exchange, a price paid to liberate. That’s what it took to deliver us from the power of sin and give us the abundant life. “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all…” (1 Tim. 2:5-6). “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Pet. 3:18). “For you have been bought with a price…” (1 Cor. 6:20 and 7:23).
When I look to the Blood of Jesus, I am cleansed, refreshed, reminded that I have been redeemed. When, instead, I look to myself, I never measure up, and the enemy of my soul will remind me of that. We overcome “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of [our] testimony” (Rev. 12:11). We use our mouth to remind ourselves and the devil when he lies, that we are redeemed. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). The sin problem has been dealt with at the cross – “It is finished.”
We get to finish the job of spreading the Word, the Good News.
And, since the message of reconciliation with God has been committed unto us, we get to finish the job of spreading the Word, the Good News. “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). And the Good News is summarized in Vs. 21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
“Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:1-2).
So, we go forth and spread the Word, allowing Christs life in us to overflow to all those around us.
Ray E Horton
“When I look to the Blood of Jesus, I am cleansed, refreshed, reminded that I have been redeemed. When, instead, I look to myself, I never measure up, and the enemy of my soul will remind me of that.” This is a write-up from my notes on a good message from my former pastor, Jim Dumont.