Preparing for Christmas #17: Redeemer

   What kinds of things can we buy with money?  Do you think you could buy a person?  Today people cannot be bought or sold in our country because we do not have slavery.  Sadly, though, some places still practice slavery.  People are treated cruelly and can be bought and sold.

   When Jesus lived on the earth, some people were slaves.  There was a way for these slaves to be set free.  If a friend or someone kind wanted to make a slave into a free person, he had to pay the owner a certain price.  This price was called a ransom.  When the ransom was paid, the slave would be free.  The slave would be so happy!

   One time when Jesus was teaching the people, He told them that He had come into the world to serve others and to “give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).  Jesus did not mean He was going to set ordinary slaves free by paying the ransom price for them.  No, He meant that He was going to give his life so that we could be free from being a slave to what sin wants us to do.

   We call Jesus our Redeemer because he bought us from a life of slavery and paid our ransom.  Now we are free to serve him and do what is right.

            “Silent Night”, verse 3

            Silent Night!  Holy night!

            Son of God, love's pure light;

            Radiant beams from Thy holy face,

            With the dawn of redeeming grace.

            Jesus, Lord at Thy birth (2x)