Verse 18 says, “Knowing that you were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers.” According to grammar, verse 18 is related to “pass the time of your sojourning in fear” in verse 17. This indicates that in order to pass the time of our sojourning in fear, we need a deep realization concerning the redemption of Christ. Today many Christians are living in a loose way because their understanding of Christ’s redemption is shallow.
When I was a child studying in the elementary school of a Baptist mission, I heard much about the cross of Christ and Christ’s redemption. However, nothing that I heard touched my heart, for that teaching regarding the redemption of Christ was shallow. I do not know why the missionaries and the Chinese ministers did not say something weighty from 1:18 and 19. I cannot recall hearing any teaching from these verses while I attended that school. All the preaching concerning Christ’s redemption that I heard there was very shallow.
Peter’s way of speaking about redemption in these verses is far from superficial. I believe that anyone who would read these verses by concentrating his entire being on them would be touched when Peter says, “Knowing that you were redeemed...with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ.”
According to verse 18, the blood of Christ has redeemed us from our vain manner of life. This vain manner of life is in contrast to the holy manner of life in verse 15. According to most other references in Scripture, the blood of Christ redeems us from sins, transgressions, lawlessness, and all sinful things (Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:15; Titus 2:14). Here is an exception: Christ’s blood has redeemed us from our old, vain manner of life, because the emphasis here is not on sinfulness, but on the manner of life. The whole chapter emphasizes the holy manner of life which God’s chosen people should have in their sojourn. Not only is the Spirit’s sanctification for this; even Christ’s redemption is for this—to separate us from our vain manner of life handed down from our fathers. Knowing that this was accomplished with the highest price, the precious blood of Christ, we pass the days of our sojourning in fear.
Our old manner of life, a life in lusts (1 Pet. 1:14), had no meaning and no goal; hence, it was vain. But now to live a holy life, to express God in His holiness, is our goal (vv. 15-16).
Many precious biblical terms, terms which are very important in the Word, have become common and religious. We may even say that they have been spoiled. The word “redeemed” is an example of a biblical term that has become religious because of the way it is commonly used. Therefore, when we read this word in the Bible, we may not have much feeling within us concerning it. However, when Peter wrote 1:18 and 19, he was full of feeling.
I prefer to translate the Greek word for “redeemed” as purchased. Actually this is the meaning of the Greek word. We have been purchased by the precious blood of Christ.
As fallen human beings, we were in a dreadful situation before we experienced Christ’s redemption: we were merchandise up for sale in an unclean marketplace, the marketplace of the vain manner of life. If the spiritual feelings within you are tender when you are in a shopping center, you will realize that such a place is unclean. Outwardly, it may be very clean; however, spiritually speaking, it is very dirty. Furthermore, nearly everything in a shopping center is related to the vain manner of life. Formerly, we were merchandise up for sale in Satan’s shopping center, in his unclean, worldly market. Today all of human society is an unclean market.
Although we were items on sale in Satan’s shopping center, Christ came to purchase us, to redeem us. He paid a very high price to buy us—the price of His precious blood. Satan did not want Christ to buy us. Satan’s plan was that we would be bought by someone else. Therefore, when Satan realized that Christ had come to purchase us, he caused a great deal of trouble. Unwilling to release us, to let us go, he raised up many obstacles and barriers to frustrate Christ from purchasing us. Nevertheless, Christ died on the cross and shed His precious blood to redeem us. From our side, we were purchased, but from Satan’s side, we were redeemed.
The blood that redeemed us was an extraordinary kind of blood—the blood of the God-man, Jesus Christ, the Man whose life reached the highest standard. The Lord Jesus is a Man mingled with God. Therefore, when this Man died on the cross, God also passed through death. No human words are adequate to explain this.
Only the blood of Christ was qualified and sufficient to redeem us, to purchase us. We had been put on sale by the enemy Satan, our usurper. But Christ, our Redeemer, paid the highest price to purchase us. Peter speaks of this in verses 18 and 19.