JESUS OUR KINS-MAN-REDEEMER
Ruth 2:20c She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kins-man-redeemers”
After Naomi and Ruth had lost their husbands they had no one to take care of them. Naomi was living in a foreign land where she didn’t have any relatives and when her daughter-in-law Ruth moved to Bethlehem she didn’t have any relatives to take care of her. But the good news was that the ladies were in a perfect situation that caused them to depend on the Lord for help.
In some ways this reminds me of the Beatitudes. The word beatitudes is a word that is used in the English Bible to replace the Latin version of happy or blessed. Often people still look to what Jesus said in Matthew 5:1-12 as these things should make a person happy. I personally don’t think that this was Jesus’ intention for these verses at all. Why should anyone person of sound mind want to be poor in spirit, mournful, meek,persecuted or insulted. If this would become the call for becoming a Christian, then there probably wouldn’t be very many Christians. People want to be set free from these negative things.
I believe what Jesus was saying was while the above listed are undesirable, they can be beneficial. They are beneficial from the standpoint that they can cause a person to seek God. A person is much better off in the long run to have needs and seek God, rather than have a life without problems and never seek God and experience his reality and salvation. God will use problems like with Naomi and Ruth to draw us closer to him when we are far away or going away from him. In the case of Naomi and Ruth, God provided in his law the means of a close relative to come to their aid or rescue. The closest male relative would pay the indebtedness or take care of the problem of their relative, in order to keep them from losing their inheritance from God and taking away all hope from them. If the situation changed for that person they could repay their relative and get their home, land or whatever back.
All of humanity has been and will continue to be in this dilemma of needing a spiritual kins-man-redeemer ever since Adam and Eve. Our sinfulness caused by our rebellion from God caused us to have a debt that we couldn’t pay. Because when we do what is right to pay God back for our sinfulness, we are only doing what we should have been doing from the beginning. We can not undo our sinfulness and liability for punishment by God. This is why before creation God made a plan. I Peter 1:20,21 says, “He (Jesus) was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” Then in II Samuel 14:14 it says, “But God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him.”
You see this is why God sent us our Kins-man-redeemer in his only begotten Son Jesus Christ! We owed a debt we couldn’t pay, and Jesus paid the debt that he didn’t owe! Without Jesus being divine he could not have been able to take one person’s sins upon himself let alone all of humanities, because he would have had to pay or be punished by God for his own sins. But because he never sinned and was divine he is more than able to bring forgiveness and reconciliation with himself, the Holy Spirit and the Heavenly Father. All anyone has to do is to put our trust in him by having faith in the grace he offers us because of his atonement. No one including Satan and the hordes of hell can take that forgiveness and reconciliation away from us. Because of our free will we can turn away from Jesus, but why would we ever want to do that after all he did for us?
If you have never asked Jesus to become your Kins-man-redeemer, saving you from eternal punishment in hell because of your sins I encourage you to do it right now! All you have to say is, “Jesus please forgive me of my sins, and please come into my heart.” Remember, our salvation is not matter of our being good enough, but rather Jesus being good enough! His ability to forgive your sins is greater than the sins you can commit. Won’t you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior today, if have not already?
Prayer: Thank you Lord Jesus for dying for our sins on Calvary’s cross. I thank you Lord that you will not only forgive us, but that you will remember our sins no more! We love you Jesus, and it is in your name we pray this.
