“For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.”
Peter has just finished reminding us that we are to be holy as our God is holy; he now moves on to strike the final nail in the coffin by stating to us that the way we lived before Christ was empty. What does it mean to have an empty way of life? When you look at the original Greek, the word translated empty is μάταιος(mataios) which means to be devoid of truth, success or force, to be useless or to be in vanity.
Peter clearly states that our old way of living was dead and pointless towards the goal of success or keeping our lamps full (Matthew 25:1-13). We must continually reflect and assess our lives and compare them to the ways we used to live before encountering God and compare them to the practices of our ancestors (people from the countries we are from). The Greek word λυτρόω(lytroō), which is translated as redeemed, means to be liberated from a ransom and to be delivered from every kind of evil.
So what is it we have been liberated from? What was holding us for ransom? The answer to this question is easily found in the book of Exodus. The Hebrew people, who were liberated from the slavery of Egypt, were complaining about missing the things of their former lives (while slaves). They missed the garlic, onion, meat and freshwater they continually had.
They missed the comforts of living in a system based on working and getting rewarded. The old way of life is living under the bondage of needing physical rewards here on earth. The shackles that held us were the desires the world rewards us with, comfort, luxury, recognition, authority, stature and a fixed home (to name just a few). We see these things during the exodus and their time in the wilderness when the Hebrew people all fell to God’s righteous judgment.
Due to God’s mercy, we have been set free from those shackles and desires, which is why Peter reminds us that we have been redeemed from those pointless goals. The payment we were all under, due to the sinful life we used to live, was death and eternal punishment because we did not walk with God or in the ways of God. The punishment due to us has been fully paid by the spilt Blood of Christ Jesus.
The Blood of our King was spilt upon the earth to pay the price for us so that we can be fully released from those shackles under which we used to live. The Blood of Jesus is the most powerful and expensive substance, and we can claim it. The key thing to understand is what you can claim the Blood over. I recommend you reflect today and analyse the truth of your heart in all that you do.
Check your heart motives over everything, and then check if your life reflects the reality of that heart motive. If, for example, you check your relationship with food and you feel your heart say, “it is okay, food is not an idol for you, and you are happy with simple meals”, but when you look at your life, it is filled with spending on expensive meals, you do not share your food with the poor, and most of your focus is around what you eat, then your “heart motive” and your actions do not align.
So if you see similar things in your life, sit with God until the truth is revealed and then plead the precious Blood of Jesus to set you free from the bondage and then step out and make sure your life has the action that demonstrates the truth of your heart.
Always remember the Blood of Christ will set you free from anything to do with the former way of life, which leads to death.
