Why does redemption take so long?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. As you may know, we have been working our way through the book of Jeremiah, paralleling what Jeremiah says and what he experienced to the story of the Bible at large. Um, how we were created good, but we fell, but God works uh, to redeem us and one day will restore all things.

This last week in the book of Jeremiah, we finally um, arrived at the promised redeemer, Jesus Christ, who comes to save us from our sins, um, by giving us his righteousness, taking on himself um, all of our sin, darkness, guilt, and shame. Um, that of course parallels the biblical story of that Jesus was promised from the very beginning, um, the long-awaited savior, um, to to pull us out of darkness into light.

So, the question this week is, why does redemption take so long? Why does it take so long in the history of the world? Why does it take so long in our personal lives? You know, we’ve said in the sermon and we’ve experienced, even if we’re Christians, we have Christ’s identity, we are seen as perfectly righteous, but our actions have not yet caught up with our identity.

We still struggle in our sin. You know, why why is this not completed yet? Why are we not at restoration yet? Um, and you know, we are not told. It’s a great question. Um, it’s one, it’s a longing of our hearts. We cry out, we wonder, how long do we have to wait, oh Lord? Um, and that’s a that’s a question that people um, under the altar in Revelation 6 are asking.

They’re asking, how long, Lord, until there’s justice on the earth? These are people who have died um, as martyrs and they seem to be in heaven and they even there they’re asking, how long, Lord, until this is completed? Um, and so we have the same question. We know, why why did why do we have so many years of law leading up to Jesus?

Why did the Israelites struggle for so long? How many thousands of years was there this human history, you know, post-Adam, post-Abraham, post-Moses? Why why so long? Um, the the glimpse of the reason that we are told, um, although I don’t think it satisfies all the questions that we have, is 2 Peter um, 3:9, um, or 2:9, um, of um, God is not slow in how some of you uh, understand slowness.

He is patient with you, wanting everyone to come to repentance. Um, so the answer that we’re given, part of the answer, is that that God’s waiting for us to turn to him, come to him. Um, wanting all the all the people who he will save to come to salvation. There are people, presumably, yet to be born who will come to a knowledge of him.

He’s waiting for all of them to come in. You know, we’re all going to cross the finish line together. We living today, believers in Christ, have more redemption than people before Christ. Um, they were waiting for the savior. We didn’t have to wait for the savior, but but we together with them are waiting for the final conclusion of all things.

So there’s people uh, that we were ahead of, there’s people who are uh, who will be ahead of us, closer to the end than we are. But we will not we will not cross the total, you know, the final last finish line until we all cross it together. Um, and we do wait for that day and it does seem like a long time.

It does seem like God’s slow. But 2 Peter tells us, God is not slow as we would understand slowness. He’s waiting patiently for what? For us uh, to come to repentance so that we can all cross the finish line together. The hope of that is that it will happen. We will not wait forever. Um, this one day will be concluded.

As they waited so long for the savior to come, and then he came. So we now wait for the end to come and it will come. Right? So we pray, right? Um, as the bride, we pray, come, Lord Jesus, come. Uh, we hope that’s helpful. We’ll see you next time.