There was a little boy who bought a piece of wood and spent hours carving it into a toy sailboat.  After he had carved it just the way he wanted it to look he painted it red, took an old handkerchief, and made a sail, mounting it to a mast he had formed from toothpicks.  After the paint and all the glue had dried he couldn’t wait to try it out.  He tied about twenty feet of kite string to the boat so he wouldn’t lose it then went to the creek for her initial launch.  At the creek he carefully placed his little boat in the water and was amazed that it worked better than he had imagined.  His face glowed with pride as he watched his little boat sail with the current. 

            Then the current got stronger and he let out the string attached to the boat until he could no longer keep up and had come to the end of the string.  Somehow it got caught on a branch and the strength of the current snapped the string in two.  His joy was replaced with sadness and worry as he ran along the creek watching his little boat float further and further until it was completely out of sight.  He shed a few tears for his boat then slowly made his way back home.

            Time passed and he gradually forgot about his boat until one day, walking home from school he passed the toy shop.  He had done this many times before, stopping to peer through the window and let his imagination run wild as he admired all the new toys.  Suddenly he froze in his tracks.  As he starred through the shop window he saw on a little perch a red sailboat.  It looked amazingly like the one he had made.  The boy wasted no time going in to the shop to get a better look and upon inspection found out that it was indeed his lost red sailboat. 

            The boy ran home, broke open his piggy bank with all his savings and ran back to the toy shop paying the full price without hesitation for his little red sailboat.  As he walked from the shop he hugged the boat close to his chest and with a smile on his face exclaimed “Now you are twice mine!”

            This story is a wonderful illustration of our own redemption by Christ Jesus.  Paul wrote in Galatians 4:3-5, “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.  But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”  That was the mission of Jesus.  The word “redeem” means to “pay a ransom price.” 

            Going back once again to the Garden of Eden, when Adam sinned by eating of that which God had told him not to eat, God was forced by man’s action to curse the entire earth and everything in it.  This is why there are disasters, dangerous, wild animals, and wickedness in the hearts of mankind.  It all stems from the curse.

            But even while man was sinning God was waiting in the wings with a plan to get it all back.  He set up the law of redemption.  Beginning with the slaying of animals to provide clothing for Adam and Eve, the entire animal sacrifice system of the Old Testament was a type of what God was going to do through Jesus Christ.

            The rules of redemption were these:  (1)  The redeemer had to be a near kinsman.  God became that through Jesus Christ being born into this world as a man.  (2)  The redeemer had to be able to pay the redemption or ransom price.  In the case of mankind the price that was required was that a sinless man be sacrificed in the place of all others.  Jesus willing allowed the rulers of the temple and the Roman Government to crucify Him in order to pay the blood sacrifice.  Only Jesus was sinless because first He was born of a virgin girl (Mary) and He also completely fulfilled the law God gave on Mount Sanai.  He was the only one worthy of making the sacrifice.  (3)  He had to be willing to do this on His own accord.  God didn’t make Jesus die on the cross.  He laid down His life willingly.  Yes He arose from the grave but that wasn’t enough to cause Him to want to die such a horrible, monstrous death.  He was willing because of His love for the human race.

            Only Jesus could meet these requirements.  And once He arose had he wanted to He could have lovingly hugged creation up to His chest and exclaim, “Now you are twice mine!”

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.?  Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.