Precious Blood

“knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

1 Peter 1:18-19 · NKJV

Peter reaches for the most valuable things his readers could imagine, silver and gold, and dismisses them as corruptible. Too cheap.

Redemption language is purchase language. You were bought out of an old, aimless way of living, and the currency was the blood of God's own Lamb. Nobody spends that on something they consider worthless.

We price ourselves all day long. A good review at work and you feel worth something. A cold shoulder from a friend, the balance in your checking account, a comment from your father that still echoes twenty years later, and the value drops. You were raised on that market, and Peter's phrase fits it: the aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. But God never shopped there. He did not wait to see how you would appraise and then decide what to offer. He named the price first, and He paid it in blood.

Your value was set at the cross, and it does not float with your performance like a market price. When you wonder what you are worth to God, the answer is fixed: the precious blood of Christ.

God paid the highest price in existence for you. Your worth to Him is settled, not fluctuating.

Go deeper: The Receipt Says Paid →