You are bought with a price

… Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends, I have it on my heart to just read one verse of the first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 6. First Corinthians, chapter 6, and we read the last verse, verse 20. There it says, For ye have been bought with a price, glorify now then God in your body. This verse is the conclusion of the teaching of this chapter concerning the practical holiness of the Christian. And it sets forth two very important points. The first point is that it shows us, this verse, what the Lord Jesus has done for us. He has bought us with a price. And we would like to consider two things. First of all, what does it mean that we have been bought? And secondly, what is the price that has been paid in order to buy us? The second part of this verse shows us the practical consequence of what has been given to us. Paul says, glorify now then God in your body. And again, we would like to consider two things. First of all, what does it mean to glorify God? And secondly, what does it mean in your body? So first, we have what we could call our position. We have been bought with a price. And secondly, we have the practical outcome of our position. And by the way, this is how God deals with us. Always in the New Testament. First of all, God is giving something to us. He is blessing us. And then He is asking us to walk according our position. To walk according to the blessing that He has given to us. In Christianity, it does not say, do something in order to obtain something. But it says, do something because you have obtained something. So God is the first to bless us. And then He is asking for us to respond to the blessing He has given to us. Now let us first of all consider the blessing or the position that is put before us in this verse. We have been bought. What does it mean? Scripture in the New Testament speaks or gives us different expressions which we have to consider. Which we cannot divide but which we should distinguish. The first expression is that we have been redeemed. The second is that we have been saved. And the third is that we have been bought. These three thoughts are found in the New Testament very clearly. We have been redeemed. 1 Peter 1 speaks of our redemption. And it also speaks about the price, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been saved. Ephesians 1 speaks of salvation, speaks of forgiveness of sin. And again the price is mentioned, it is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we have the thought that we have been bought. Now redemption has to do with slavery. We were slaves of Satan. We were slaves of sin. We were under the yoke of the law. So we had to be redeemed. Redemption was necessary because we were slaves. And we have been redeemed. We have been set free from the slavery of sin, the slavery of Satan, the slavery of the law. Redemption has another thought. The one is slavery. The other thought of redemption is that a price had been paid in order to pay our debts. We all had debts. And no one of us could pay for those debts. No one could redeem. No one could pay the ransom. There was only one who could pay the ransom. That was the Lord Jesus Christ. This is also the thought connected with redemption. We have been redeemed. The second is we have been saved. Salvation generally has to do with a danger. When somebody is in danger, he needs salvation. He needs to be saved. So we all were in danger. The greatest danger is to be lost. So we were in need of salvation. And we have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood shed on the cross of Calvary was the price that He paid not only for our redemption but also for our salvation. We have been saved. Now here the thought is ye have been bought. What does it mean? Ye have been bought. When I go to a car shop in order to buy a car. I sign a contract. I pay the amount of money agreed upon. And I get the car. What happens with the car? The car will change his owner. And that is the thought here before us. Ye have been bought. It's a change of ownership. That is the thought involved here. We have got a new owner by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. We no longer belong to ourselves. That is what is said in the verse before. Ye are not your own. We do no longer belong to ourselves. We do no longer belong to Satan. Because by nature we belong to Satan. He is the boss of everybody. He is the master of the unsaved. He was our master. He was our boss. He told us what to do. Now there is a new owner in my life who tells me what to do. When to do it. How to do it. Where to do it. I have got a new owner. A new head. A new master. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been bought. What a wonderful blessing. What a wonderful privilege dear brothers and sisters to have the Lord Jesus as our master. He is a good master. He is a good head. He is a good Lord. We have been bought. Let us consider for a moment the price that has been paid. We have been singing in our hymn, Thou gavest all that love could give. You remember the simile in Matthew 13, the parable in Matthew 13, where this merchant was looking for good and precious pearls and when he found one he sold everything he had in order to obtain this wonderful pearl. The Lord Jesus has given everything that he had. 2 Corinthians 8, he was rich. Yes, he was rich. But he gave up everything. He became poor for our sakes that we might be rich through him. He gave up everything. When he came on earth, he came as the son of God. He came as the son of David. He came as the son of man. With all the rights involved with these titles. But he gave up everything and died on the cross of Calvary. And the Lord Jesus did not only give everything he had, all his rich and wealth, but he did more. He did more than the merchant in Matthew 13. The Lord Jesus Christ gave himself. He gave himself. We have different references in the New Testament about this wonderful fact that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself. Galatians 2.20 The son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Very personally. Ephesians 5.2 Even as the Christ has loved us and given himself up for us. Ephesians 5.25 He loved the assembly and gave himself up for the assembly. Galatians 1. He gave himself in order to take us out of this present world. And there is another reference in Titus chapter 2. Which says that the Lord Jesus gave himself. 1 Peter 1. We are redeemed. Not with silver. Not with gold. Not with all this earth could give. No, we have been redeemed. We have been saved. We have been bought with that wonderful price. The precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it mean for us that we have been bought with that wonderful price? Why have we been bought? Why have we been saved? Why have we been redeemed? What would be our answer tonight? I think we all would give the first answer. We have been bought to be one day with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. To not end in everlasting destruction in the hell. But to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. Yes, that's right. We have been redeemed for that purpose. We have been bought for this purpose. We have been saved for this purpose. But this verse here says something else. It is one thing to be very grateful for what the Lord Jesus did on the cross of Calvary. In order that we might one day and forever be with him. But it is another thing that this wonderful blessing that is here before us has a practical consequence on our practical life. And this is what Paul puts here as a conclusion when it comes to the holiness of the Christian life. Ye have been bought by a price. Double point. Glorify now then God in your body. When and where? Here on earth. Here on earth, of course. Not in heaven. We will glorify God in heaven. But here it is on earth. It is in our daily business. In our daily relations. In our daily doings. That we glorify God in our body. Now, what does it mean to glorify God? This is an expression at least we in Germany use very frequently. And I think you do the same. What does it mean to glorify God? Who glorified God here on earth in a perfect way? So if we want to know what does it mean to glorify God, we have to look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He has glorified God in His life. And particularly on the cross of Calvary. John 17. I have glorified Thee on earth. John 13. Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in Him. What does it mean that the Lord Jesus has glorified God? The answer is that He displayed all the wonderful characters and virtues. If I may express myself in this way. Of God. He has shown in a perfect way who God is. God is love and God is light. 1 John. And if the Lord Jesus Christ has glorified God. And He has glorified God. He has fully shown who God is. Light and love. In His life. And particularly on the cross of Calvary. If you want to see how much God is light. Then go to Calvary's cross. And you will see how holy God is. When the Lord Jesus was hanging on the cross. And was crying, my God, my God. Why hast thou forsaken me? There was no answer. God was so much light. God was so holy that He did not answer. At that very moment to the cry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, He had forsaken the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. Because He is light and He could not see, He cannot see sin. God glorified in being light. But the other side is true as well. If we want to see how much God is love. Go again to Calvary's cross. Go again to Calvary's cross. Romans 8. He has not spared His own Son but has given Him up for us. John 3.16 God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He gave Him. Not only as man on earth. Yes, He did it. He gave Him up as sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is no longer on earth. And it is our part now to glorify God. What does it mean to glorify God? To show who God is. If people around see us. Would they see something of the characters of God? Of these wonderful virtues of God? Our colleagues at school. Our colleagues at university. Our friends. Our neighbors. Our collaborators. Our business partners. Our customers. Our suppliers. Our colleagues at work. What would they see? When they see us? Something of that great truth that God is light and that God is love. That is the very practical consequence that comes out of the fact that we have been bought with a price. We should now show forth who God is. Not only by talking to them. But by our lives. By our everyday lives. Glorify then God. And Paul adds, in your body. What does that mean in your body? I would just maybe like to turn to Romans 6. Romans 6 verse 19 speaks of our past. For even as ye have yielded your members in bondage to uncleanliness and to lawlessness unto lawlessness. Now comes the present. So now yield your members, the members of our body, in bondage to righteousness unto holiness. In your body means with the members of our body. What members of our body? Do I glorify God with my ears? With what I hear? With what I listen to? Do I glorify God by the music that I listen to, for example? Just a practical question. Give the answer for yourself. Do I glorify God with my eyes? With what I see? If I switch on television? If I look a movie? If I go online? Do I glorify God with what I am doing on the internet? Again a practical question. Particularly for young people, but not only for young people. Do I glorify God with my mouth? With what I say? Do I glorify God with my hands? With what I do? Do I glorify God with my feet? The ways I walk? Where do I go? To which places do I go? Is it to glorify God? Or to glorify somebody else? Ye have been bought with a price. Yes. We are very grateful for what the Lord Jesus has done. And we say, yes, thank you Lord Jesus. But then we turn around and say, okay, now I want to live my own life. No. Glorify now God in your body. Show in your everyday life what God is and who God is. That is the very short message that comes out of this verse. …