Escape from the Slave Market: True Story of Redemption

You and I were a mess from birth.

By the very fact that God sent Jesus to redeem man proves that fact. A number of references to our spiritual condition are given throughout the New Testament, but there’s no better, plainer way to say it.

First, the Bible says we are in Adam, and we needed to be transferred to being in Christ. Second, our father was Satan, and we needed to change families to make God our Father. Third, we were spiritually dead, and we needed to be made alive. Fourth, and finally, we were slaves to sin and Satan, and we needed to be made free.

When you were born into this world, you were born separated from God, spiritually dead. Outside of Jesus Christ, there is no hope for you or anyone else. You may think, “It’s not my fault.” You are right—it was Adam’s fault, and all the blame goes back to him. For once in your life you can truly say, “I was a victim.” But here is one good thing about your situation in Adam and Satan. In Adam, you had no choice to be born under a curse. Adam chose for all mankind. But you do have a choice to be taken from the curse and find eternal life.

Neither Adam nor Satan gave us a choice, but God is a perfect gentleman and gives us a choice to be redeemed or not. If we choose for God, Satan and all of hell cannot stop us. What reigns as supreme in our salvation and every day afterward is our will. We can choose to accept Jesus, and then afterward, choose to serve Him daily. We are all sinners by birth. To remain a sinner is also choice.

The Greek words for redemption, the noun apolutrosis and verb exagorazo, both imply the same thing about redemption—to purchase out of slavery by a ransom payment. In spiritual terms, it is the price paid on the cross for our salvation to buy back mankind from the slave market of sin.

We Are Also Born Slaves

Redemption views mankind as born into the slave market of sin through Adam’s original sin. Our slavery was not God’s fault but the fault of original human father who listened to Satan and disobeyed God. Adam become a slave and, thus, threw all mankind into slavery. God had to find a way to buy us back, to redeem us.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1:26,27).

Both Adam and Eve were created and made by God in perfection. Their spirits were created in God’s image and their bodies were made or fashioned in God’s likeness. Because God is a Spirit, He created their spirits in His exact image. The bodies of both were made in God’s likeness. Although God does not have a physical body, He does have arms, hands, feet, and eyes. So He made their physical bodies with arms, hands, feet, and eyes. Their bodies were made in God’s likeness.

But in chapter three of Genesis, we have the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve. God had told them if they did eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die (Genesis 2:17). The word surely is mentioned because the word for die appears twice. Instead of saying, “you will die, die,” the translation says, “you will surely die.” The margins of some versions say, “dying (present tense) you shall die (future tense).” Two deaths came to Adam and Eve when they disobeyed God and ate the fruit. They died spiritually and it set in motion physical death, which caught up to them hundreds of years later. Had they never sinned, they would never have died spiritually or died physically.

Had they never sinned, they would have produced children in their image and likeness, which was God’s image and likeness—spiritually alive and physically eternal. But they never had children in innocence. The children they had were after the fall and born into spiritual death and resulting physical death. Their children were born in their fallen image and likeness.

Adam’s Image and Likeness

This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man [his spirit], He made him [his body] in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness [body], after his image [spirit], and named him Seth (Genesis 5:1-3).

Because Adam and Eve came from God, they were created and made in God’s image. But because Seth was born after the fall, he was created and made in his parents’ image. Seth was born with the nature of the flesh, which is the source of all our sins and the temptation to sin. The flesh nature would also one day bring about physical death. He was also born spiritually dead, separated from God’s presence, and born into slavery to Satan.

The Slave Market

A slave market was present in the Garden from the time Adam and Eve were placed there. The entrance into the slave market was disobedience to God—eating of the forbidden tree. If they obeyed God, they would never face the double death presented by rebellion. But because they did obey the voice of Satan, they both entered into the slave market of sin.

The slave market has a door that can only be opened from the outside. Once they walked in, the door was closed and only someone on the outside could let them out. They were trapped, and all their descendants would be born inside the slave market. Satan must have thought he had pulled a great one over on God—no one else was on the outside to let them out. Adam and Eve alone were in the Garden, and all born after them were slaves and incapable of redeeming man. No one born on the inside could redeem mankind.

Jockeying for Position in the Slave Market

Children of slaves are slaves. They do not grow up to be slaves; they are born slaves and thus live in slavery from birth until death. Everyone is born into spiritual slavery from our original father, Adam—in Adam all die (1 Corinthians 15:22).

Slaves cannot free themselves. It takes currency to free a slave, a ransom price, and a slave gets paid nothing, zero. A slave cannot say, “I will work harder than the other slaves around me, in fact ten times harder. Then I can be set free.” What is ten times zero? It’s still zero. You cannot be redeemed by your good works. A nice slave is in the same slave market with angry and evil slaves. The issue is not how hard you work or how nice you are. The issue is you are a slave.

One slave cannot free another slave. Inside the slave market are Buddha, Mohammed, and Joseph Smith. They all have declared they can redeem mankind, but they are slaves trying to free other slaves, the blind leading the blind. Only someone born outside the curse on mankind, outside the slave market, can open the door.

We are surrounded by slaves of all nationalities and colors, male and female, factory workers and bank presidents. A few slaves are local and national government leaders, diplomats and presidents of countries. As we try to outdo the person beside us for position and authority, we are simply slaves jockeying for position in the slave market. The issue is not your position, gender, authority, color, or political or business influence. The issue is you are a slave.

Born Outside the Slave Market

Immediately after the fall, God foretold Satan of His plan to redeem man (Genesis 3:15). He would send a Redeemer into the world, born of a woman, without a man, and thus qualified to redeem mankind and be born on the outside of the slave market. Adam and Eve were created free. Jesus would be born free. By bypassing the seed of a man to produce the child, God could impregnate a woman by His Holy Spirit and thus the child would be both God and a member of the human race, a God-Man. To attack the virgin birth of Jesus is to attack Christianity at its roots. The angel told Mary the child in her would be conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:31). In this way, Jesus would be born outside the curse on all mankind. During His life, He never committed a sin; He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Because He did not commit a sin, as Adam and Eve did, He was qualified to pay the price for mankind and open the door of the slave market from the outside.

The Price Is the Blood of Jesus

The blood of Christ was the ransom price paid for our redemption and applies to three aspects of salvation we are yet to study—redemption, propitiation, and reconciliation (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1 Peter 1:18,19). The blood of Christ does not refer to the physical blood in His veins but to His life. The life is in the blood. A blood covenant between two people represented the exchange of lives and all goods attached to it. Jesus gave His sinless, spotless life for our sinful and cursed life. His blood represents this.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul (Leviticus 17:11).

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28 KJV).

The Door Is Now Open

Once Jesus died, was buried, and rose again from the dead, the door to the slave market now stands wide open. This is the simple and “good news” of the gospel—the door is open. Your sins are not keeping you in slavery. Jesus died, judged, and paid for all your sins except for one. Only one sin is keeping you in the slave market—your attitude toward Jesus. Jesus left that one choice with you, and it is the only sin that will separate you from God’s life on earth and in eternity.

The issue is not your adultery, prostitution, homosexuality, lying, or stealing. It is simply to say “yes” or “no” to the gospel, accept the ransom payment of Jesus or not. All you have to do is walk out. Jesus took the keys of death and hell and opened the door to the slave market as He was raised from the dead. One of the most stupid things you can do is stay in a prison cell when the door to freedom stands wide open. Just walk out. Jesus is not imputing your trespasses against you and neither can anyone else (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). Your trespasses have been paid for. What is keeping you in the cell is your choice. I know it sounds too good to be true, but it is true. Jesus took what you deserve so you can have what He deserves. He voluntarily accepted your sin, and all you have to do is voluntarily accept His righteousness. This is grace.

The Judgment

Redemption emphasizes we are sinners, not only by choice and deeds but long before. We are born in sin as sinners. We are condemned before we are saved. Our condemnation came from Adam; our redemption comes from Jesus Christ.

For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:21,22).

Because redemption is simple, so is God’s judgment of those who are righteous and those who are not. The issue in eternity will not be the good deeds or sins a person has committed but whether or not they received Jesus’ atoning work. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15).

Which Tree Are You In?

Most people think when they stand before God they will be judged as an individual, completely separate from anyone else standing around them. Like a separate stalk of wheat, they will be judged for their own production and stature against everyone else. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In eternity, a person will be judged as a branch attached to a tree, not a separate stalk. You are either “in Adam” or “in Christ.” You are either a part of a dead tree or a living tree. The branch has no life of its own. If the branch is attached to a dead tree, it is dead also. If the branch is attached to a living tree, it is alive also. You are born attached to a dead tree, Adam. If you received the life of Christ, you walked out of Adam and became attached to Christ. Your individual accomplishments mean nothing for your entrance into God’s eternal plan; it is who you are attached to. “In Adam” all die. “In Christ” all are made alive.

The Only Redeemer, the God-Man

Jesus Christ is the only qualified redeemer of and for mankind. In order to become our redeemer, Christ had to become a member of the human race. Jesus Christ is both humanity and deity in one person, united forever. He could satisfy the claims of God because He is God, and He could satisfy the claims of man because He is man. He is not 50 percent God and 50 percent man, but 100 percent God and 100 percent man, the unique member of the human race. He is different from God in that He is man and different from man in that He is God. He is undiminished deity. By becoming a man, God did not lower Himself. He remained the eternal, righteous God by becoming a sinless man. But as only God, Christ could not save us. To become our redeemer, He must be judged for the sins of the world by becoming our sin and bearing our sins.

The Barrier

The barrier between God and man was sin and all the individual sins sin produced. The barrier was placed between God and us by Adam’s transgression. For Christ to become sin for us, He could not do it as God; He had to become a man to become sin and die for us. As God, Christ could have no contact with sin. Like the other two members of the godhead, Christ was:

1. Absolute Righteousness. As God only, Christ could have no contact with sin. Yet the Redeemer had to become sin as well as bear our sins.

2. Eternal Life. For Christ to save us, He would have to die. How does eternal life die? How do you drive a nail or spear into God?

3. Omnipresent. How does omnipresence reduce itself to one spot, the cross, and die?

4. Omnipotent. How does all power weaken itself and die?

5. Immutable. If, as God, Christ died, He would change. Yet He is immutable, unchangeable. He declared, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6 KJV).

In other words, death contradicts every aspect of God. As God, Christ could not die for the sins of the world. He had to become a man to die. But He could not die for us as a common, fallen man who would have sin like all of us do. He had to be a man to die for us, but He must be a sinless man to take our sins and pay the ransom price by giving His blood and His life for us. To be a sinless man, a spotless man, He must come into the world apart from Adam’s curse. He must come through a woman without the seed of man being involved. God must impregnate a woman through the Holy Spirit. This means the virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:27). To deny the virgin birth is to attack Christianity at its roots. Without the virgin birth, Jesus is no better off than anyone else. He too would be born inside the slave market and unable to open the door from the inside.

Only three people have ever come into this earth outside the slave market. Adam and Eve were created outside the slave market and Jesus was born outside. Adam and Eve walked into the slave market by sin and Jesus refused every temptation to sin and remained outside. He did not sin to go to the cross, but voluntarily on the cross received our sins and died for them. After three days in Hell, He had paid for our sins and could not be held any longer. He had no sins of His own and was then raised from the dead after judging ours. He did this as a human being. But not just any human being—a spotless, sinless human being by birth and lifestyle.

As a human being, Jesus could die, have nails and a spear driven through Him, and accept our sins. It was not deity who died on the cross but a spotless, sinless human being. The work of the cross was substitution. It was perfect humanity dying for cursed humanity.

Even if God could have died on the cross for us (this is blasphemy, of course) it would do us no good. Whoever the Redeemer was, He had to be our substitute. How could God substitute for mankind? He had to come into this world as a human being to die for us. God manifested Himself as a man without sin to take away our sin.

You know that He was manifested [became flesh] to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin (1 John 3:5).

It would have to be a man dying for mankind, spotless flesh dying for cursed flesh. We could identify with Jesus on the cross because He was a man. God could identify with Jesus on the cross because He was spotless, righteous from birth to death. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He destroyed sin and Satan and handed us eternal life for anyone who will receive it. It is the gift of righteousness. You had no choice being in Adam but do have a choice to be transferred into Christ.

Jesus Christ the Mediator

Truly I know it is so, but how can a man be righteous before God? If one wished to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one time out of a thousand (Job 9:2,3).

Job had a problem when he thought of himself compared to God. God was righteous and perfect, and Job found himself sinful and imperfect. Job might think himself as somewhat smart, but nowhere near as smart as God. God could ask Job one thousand questions that could not be answered by a man. The answer was, God is God and Job was a fallen and frail man.

For He is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both (Job 9:32,33).

Job figured out that if he ever got into an argument with God, or even taken to court by God, he could never win. He was not as smart as God and there was no mediator, “daysman” (KJV), or umpire to stand between him and God and place his hands on both of them.

And there is only one mediator—Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5). He can place His hands on both God and man because He is God and He is man. Only Jesus can unite the two impossibilities— infinite and all-knowing God with finite and limited man. Because Jesus is the only mediator, we can only come to God through Him. Man can come to Buddha or Mohammed but cannot get to God. Jesus is the only way.

Removing the Barrier

By becoming sin for us on the cross and removing the barrier of our sins, Jesus has now become the barrier to eternal life and freedom from the slave market.

If our sins are the barrier between us and God, we are stuck. God cannot cross the barrier; He cannot touch sin. But on the other hand, we cannot cross the barrier; we are fallen man and cannot overcome sin. The sin is impossible for God to conquer and us to overcome. Only a human being can undo what a human being did to us. But only a perfect, spotless human being can remove the barrier of sin. Jesus Christ is the One who put one hand on God and one hand on man and brought the two of us together in judgment.

The barrier is no longer sin; Jesus conquered the barrier. The barrier is now Jesus Christ. He stands between God and all mankind as the only mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). When presented with the question by the Philippian jailer, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul did not tell him to stop beating people and start leading a respectable life and God would accept him. Paul told him to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and he would be saved (Acts 16:30,31).

The same message has been given to us today to take to the world. The gospel is simply to come to God as you are, accept the free gift of His Son Jesus, and your sins that were judged on the cross will now be forgiven. The door to the slave market stands wide open, and all you have to do is walk out. No one, including Satan, can stop you. The choice is yours.