We’re still meditating on First Peter. Today let’s think about 1 Peter 1:18-19:

… knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Peter focuses on the fact that we are a redeemed people. Then he describes what we were redeemed from and what we are redeemed with. To “redeem” means to gain or regain possession of something by means of a payment. If your car gets towed because you were parked in the wrong place, you often have to pay to get it back. One time we were parked overnight at our son’s apartment building and we had failed to get the proper permit. Late that night we heard some commotion outside and a tow truck was getting ready to tow our car away! Tim hurried out there to find out how much it would cost to have them put the car back down in its spot. He redeemed our car. Christians are redeemed people. Peter tells us that it was Christ’s precious blood that was the redemption cost. He paid it willingly and graciously to buy us back. He loves us that much!

The redemption of our car got it back from a potential lockup in some impounding lot somewhere. Peter tells us our redemption is from our aimless conduct we inherited from our forefathers. Peter was writing primarily to Jewish believers who had inherited the traditions of Judaism. Some of us received godly, basically Christian traditions from our ancestors. Some of us received the traditions of lost, non-Christian ancestors. Either way, we are all born in sin having inherited the lost condition that every human being is born with. Every one of us, no matter our traditions, needs to be redeemed from our lost and fallen condition. Peter is letting us know that our natural state is one of lostness and aimlessness. We need to be bought back and brought back into the right relationship with God. It is the precious blood of Christ that was the payment God made to accomplish that redemption. For that we all ought to be exceedingly grateful. It might seem like a trite comparison, but if my car had been successfully impounded, I would not have been able to have the right relationship with my car as its owner until I had paid the redemption price. For God and us to have the right relationship with each other, God also had to pay a redemption price, but it wasn’t with money (i.e. silver or gold), it was with the precious life-blood of His son.