Followed By Mercy

Redemption, Forgiveness, And The Restoration Of All Things In Christ

• W. Austin Gardner • Season 3 • Episode 31

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A broken world keeps telling us to try harder, fix ourselves, and be our own source. But in Ephesians 1, God speaks a better word. In Christ, we are redeemed, forgiven, and drawn into a restoration story that stretches from Eden to eternity. This episode explores three anchors: redemption, forgiveness, and restoration, and demonstrates how they transition from theology to lived reality.

Redemption isn’t a slogan; it’s a purchase. We examine what “through His blood” truly means, how the Exodus foreshadows freedom, and how Ruth and Boaz point to a Redeemer who gives us His name and His future. You’ll hear how God doesn’t recruit servants but adopts sons and daughters, and how belonging silences the lie that we have to be our own rescue.

Then we move to forgiveness, grace-rich, shame-breaking, and final. It ends the fear of condemnation and gives us bold access to the Father. We unpack what it means to be washed, sanctified, and justified, and how a secure identity leads to lasting transformation. Finally, we widen the lens to restoration: God gathering all things in Christ, healing relationships, and beginning even now what He’ll one day finish in a renewed creation.

If you’re tired of shame, craving belonging, or longing for a world made right, this conversation offers a steady foundation and real hope. Listen in, share it with someone who needs encouragement, and remember, He’s already making all things new.

Short Summary:

 Ephesians 1 reveals three truths that rewrite our story: we are redeemed through His blood, forgiven by grace, and included in God’s plan to restore all things. From Exodus to Ruth, we see how Jesus redeems us, gives us His name, and initiates the renewal of creation in us.

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Austin Gardner:

Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1, and we're going to start in verse 7. Ephesians chapter 1, and we'll start in verse 7. In the Bible, the Apostle Paul is writing a letter to the church of Ephesus. He's writing to the saints, to those who have been saved by the grace of God. And he's going to give them three words we want to look at today. He's going to give them redemption through his blood. Look at verse 7, in whom we have redemption through his blood. And then there's the remission of sins, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ. I have a ringing up here. I don't know if that can be fixed. That in dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. Father in heaven, I pray you would help us to just understand who you are and what you're doing, and how you've had a plan all the way from the very beginning to save us and to restore things. And I pray, God, that today your name would be glorified in the lives of all your people. Bless your children, bless your people, bless everyone that's here. I pray God you'd bless them physically and spiritually and emotionally and financially in every way that you would bless your children for your honor and your glory today. In Jesus' precious name, amen. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 10, there's restoration. That's the third word that we'll look at this morning. Now, I really want to show you something that's crazy. The entire truth is that everything that happens in Ephesians 1 happens to those that are in Christ. So in Adam, that's who we were. That's the sin nature. That's where we were. That's when we rebelled against God and did our own thing. And in Christ, that's when we trust Him. In Adam, all was lost. In Christ, all is restored. The original sin from the very beginning with Adam and Eve was a desire to be independent from God. It's a, it meant separation from God to Himself. Adam and Eve chose, we'd rather make our own decisions. We'd rather do our own thing. That's what the devil said to him in Genesis 3.5. He said, For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods. You shall be as gods, and you will know good and evil. That's what the devil said to them. And so the human race decided they wanted to make their own decisions about what's right and wrong, what's good and evil. They don't want God telling them. They don't want God deciding what's true and what's not true. They want self-rule, not God rule. They want to be their own source. They want to break the relationship with God. That's what they did. It's kind of like your kid, when your kid reaches that age and one day he just wakes up and says, I'm tired of mom and daddy telling me what to do. I'm leaving home. That's kind of what Adam and Eve did. They broke the relationship, they declared their independence. They didn't need God. They said, Man can live on his own. Man doesn't have any need for God. All the time in the garden, they were depending on grace. Everything had been a gift from God. But they decided they'd rather live their life their way. And that's the main sin we all commit when we want to become our own God. And Adam and Eve had walked with God, they'd received his word, they'd found their identity in his presence. That's how we're supposed to live. The Bible says in Acts 17, 28, for in him we live and move and have our being. In him we live and move and have our being. We're supposed to. We were designed to walk with God for us to be in God and God to be in us. But the sin was not open rebellion. It was not like I'm going to tell God to drop dead. It's just I'm going to be what I can be. I want a self-determination. The root is I want to live by my own resources, and I don't want God telling me what to do. And it's so self-sufficiency, an illusion that I can be my own source, my own boss. And that plunged our entire human race into slavery, a slavery to sin and slavery to death. But Jesus came to buy us back. Jesus came to fix that relationship. In fact, it's the third word, restore, that we looked at in verse 10. From the very beginning of time, God's had a plan to get it all back together. Let me read verse 10 with you one more time. Go back to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 10. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, when the times right, he said, he will gather together in one all things in Christ, both the things in heaven and the things which are on earth. And he'll put it all back together in him. So God separated from man, man separated from man, the creation and man, it's everything is separation. And God's going to put it all back together in Jesus. But it starts with, well, at least the verse that we'll look at today, verse 7, redemption through his blood. The Bible says in Ephesians 1, 7, we have redemption through his blood. So what that means is he's going to buy back that which was lost, buy back that which was taken captive, buy back that which is widowed, buy back that that's in debt. He's going to buy us back. That's what redemption is. God comes to us, sin owns us. We own us. We've gone and rebelled. We've done our own thing. And God's here to say, I'm going to buy you back. I'm going to protect you. I'm going to pay your debt so that you can live. That's what happened in Egypt. You see, it's just a picture. It's one of the first times the Bible uses the word redeemed. The children of Israel had been free, been walking with God, been God's people. God's been directing them. They've gone down to Egypt. Egypt has slowly conquered them and made them their slaves. And now they're going to spend 400 years, basically, as slaves in Egypt. And that's not where God wants his people. God doesn't want you living in slavery. God doesn't want you living in bondage. God doesn't want sin taking advantage of you. God doesn't want the devil hurting you. God loves you. And so he redeemed them. Look at what it says in Exodus chapter 6 and verse 6. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord. I'm God. I am the I am Yahweh. I am. And I will bring you out. I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will rid you of their bondage. I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm and with great judgments. And so God redeemed his people. He bought them back out of sin and he took them to where he wanted them. He took them to a promised land. He took them to a place of great blessing because that's who God is and that's what God does. He pays a price that we could never pay on our own. He doesn't make us servants. God's not looking for you to be a servant. God makes us sons and daughters. We're no longer bound. Our past doesn't define us. We have been bought with a price. We belong to him now. And he bought you and he brought you back to him. You can have victory. You have been rescued by his blood. Rescued by his blood. In other words, he paid the supreme price to buy us back. We couldn't free ourselves. We couldn't get out of all the trouble we were in. We couldn't do it. But Jesus died on a cross for us. The price he paid for us was God Himself dying for us on a cross. God taking his creations, sin, and going to the cross. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1 18, you were not redeemed with corruptible things. You weren't redeemed with things that lose value, like silver and gold, from your wasted, vain conversation that you learned from your parents, but you were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Every Jew knew it's always blood. It's always blood. That's how God had set it up and showed them and he taught them all through the Old Testament. If you've read the Old Testament, Adam and Eve sinned, and skins of an animal covered them. Blood was shed. Noah gets on an ark, and there are animals to sacrifice, shedding of blood. They set up the whole sacrifice system, the shedding of blood. But no animal could ever pay our sin debt. No animal could ever make things right. But God, taking on human flesh, he could die to give us life. He didn't just die, by the way. He died and he was buried. And he rose again to conquer death and to be who he was meant to be. And for us to be who we were meant to be, sin brings death. Jesus dies. For the wages of sin is death. And what did Jesus do? He died. He paid our debt. Sin and addiction says you'll never be free. His blood says, I have paid the price. I have paid the price. God saw your worth, God saw your value and decided you were worth dying for. Jesus gave his life so you could have his life. You are no longer owned by sin, by addiction, by shame. You belong to him. That was a real quick story. We've already gone over it in the church here. It's a story of Ruth and Boaz. And Ruth was a Ruth was a Moabitist. She was a stranger to the people of God. She had lost everything. Her husband had died. Her father-in-law had died. And she's a nobody, and life is over for her. She's a widow in a country that has no help for widows. The worst thing you could be would be a single woman. A single mom, that didn't work in Israel. You had no way of income. You had no way of living. And that's who Ruth was. Ruth was a nobody. And all of a sudden, Boaz marries her. He takes and pays all of her debt. Instead of her living by her name now, she lives by his name. Instead of living by who she is, she lives by who he is. And so one day she's the poor Moabite, the foreigner, the alien. And the next day she's the wife of the great man in the city. That's what God did for us. God looked down and said, Austin, you messed up. You're not worthy. You can't do things. You're a nobody. You're a nothing. You've sinned against the holy God. And then Jesus comes and says, But I'll pay your price. And you don't have to live in the name of Austin anymore. You can live in the name of Christ. And that's what we do. We're redeemed. So before I go to the next one to look at just real quickly, are you redeemed? Have you accepted the gift of God? Have you told God, thank you for dying for me? Have you told him, I realize I need you. I can't save myself. Have you realized you can't get out of the bondage you're in? And you are going to trust God. Have you done that? Have you done that? The second word I wanted to show you is the word remission. Look, if you would in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 7. That's for forgiveness of sins. The Bible says, it says, in whom we have redemption through his blood. He paid the supreme price. But then it says the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins. Now that's a massive thing. And it's easy to kind of slide over it. We're redeemed by his blood to forgive us of sin and keep on reading. But sins are forgiven. They're gone. He releases you from everything that you've ever done. Before I kind of dive into that with you, I want you to notice it's according to the riches of his grace. You need to underline that if you got it in your Bible. It's not about how good you are. It's not about you being a member of a church. It's not about you doing enough good to make up for it. It's not like you're going to try to do, I'm going to turn over a new leaf and live a new life. He said, No, I forgive you because I'm good. I forgive you because I give that to you. You don't deserve it. You didn't pay for it. You didn't earn it. I just love you and I give that to you. For the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we're saved not by what we do, not by who we are, but by what He did. I want you to look at this: the forgiveness of sins. God looking at us and saying, I don't know if you lived like this, but I grew up, boy, I was terrified of dying. Because I said, Man, when I die, they're going to put that big old screen up and they're going to play every sin I've ever done. They're going to show me cheating in school. They're going to show me sneaking behind the bus and kissing that girl. They're going to show all the things I've ever done. And my mama and my daddy and my brothers and my sisters and everybody's going to be watching. Because that's kind of how they raise us, you know, teaching us that kind of stuff. But our sins are forgiven. They're gone. They're erased. They're at the bottom of the sea. They're under the blood of Jesus Christ. They're nailed to the cross. Our sins are forgiven. In fact, is we could go one better than that, but we won't today. But in 2 Corinthians 5.21, he didn't just take your sins. He changed your record for his record. He changed your life for his life. And he that had knew no sin was made sin so that we could be made the righteousness of God. That's what happened when he forgave sin. So here, watch this. Romans 8.1. Did you know once you're a born-again believer, once you're in Christ, there's no condemnation. There's no condemnation. You and I, as born-again believers, never have to worry when I get to heaven. Is God going to bring up that thing I did? Is God going to bring up what I did? Because Jesus paid it all. Jesus took care of our sin debt. There is therefore now no condemnation. He cleans it up. He removes the stain, the shame. He removes the stain. And it doesn't matter how bad the sins I've committed I've been. It doesn't matter how bad the failure. I mean, I kind of grew up, I kind of grew up sheltered. I mean, my daddy was a Baptist deacon. My mom was the president of the WMU. And I mean, that's who I grew up with. I grew up being in the royal ambassadors. I grew up with all of that. So I didn't have the big bad shame, but I had the sin of being rebellious, the sin of being independent, the sin of being selfish. But look at what he says in Isaiah 118. He says, Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be ascarlet, I don't care how red, how flamboyant, how out there your sins are, they shall be as white as snow. How bad is it? How bad is it? Jesus washes it clean. He covers all the stains and makes it as white as snow. The Bible says, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. And here's the beautiful thing about the forgiveness of sins when you're talking about Jesus. He doesn't just forgive sin, he makes you family. It isn't like he said, Well, I forgive you. You just go live your life. I forgive you. I'm not going to hold it against you. Just go live your life. He says, Move in. Move in. I'm your dad. Your family. You're free. This is your house. I'm your father. I will live with you. I'll never abandon you. I'll always be there. Because when he forgives, he doesn't just wipe away your sin. He says, Move in with me. And he calls us his very own children. Then he gives us peace. We have peace with God because I know now that all my sins are forgiven. I know that God said, Hey, Austin, don't worry about it. I took care of all your sin and all your failure. Not only do I have the peace with God, but I know in my heart that I have something because of him. You know what he does? He gives us a new identity. In the Bible, a lot of times the Bible characters, they change names. They change names. It's like I used to be this guy, but now I'm this guy, and it's like they get a new name. I used to be Jacob, who wrestled with God, and now I'm Israel, Prince with God. I used to be called Saul, which is just a Hebrew name, and then Paul, which is a Greek name, but it there's these name changes. These name changes. But you know that uh in the book of Revelation, you know what he says? He said, when you get to heaven, there's a new name written. It was on a stone, it's your name. Only person that knows it's you and him. He changed your name. You are not who you were. You're not, you say, Boy, I have messed up. And God says, Well, I made it all new. I give you a new identity. Then he gives us access to him. Did you know when he forgives? You know how most of us forgive? Can we be honest? We forgive like this. I'll forgive you, but I ain't forgetting. I'll forgive you, but bless God, if I ever get a chance, I'm getting even. I'll forgive you. I won't even try to get even, but I pray God gets you. That's kind of how we do it. You know, it's like, I'll forgive you. And I won't even hurt you. God, kill him, please. I know what God does. He says, Come on in, your family. Then he says, and if you ever need anything, just come on in like you own the place and talk to me, because I'm here for you. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. Let's come boldly unto the throne of grace. I don't know how many really important people you know, how many really big shots you know, but you know, you're kind of timid to call them. Like if they're really big shots, it's like, hey, do you mind letting him know I want to call him if it's okay, maybe he'd let me call him? Or you go to their dolphin's door and you knock, it's like, I hope he's got time to see me. No, the Lord said to you, because he forgave our sin, he said, Y'all just come on boldly. Just come on in here, like you own the place. Just open the door. You don't have to knock. Just come on in to the throne of grace that you may obtain mercy and find grace in time of need. Your debt is canceled. Your debt's canceled. Maybe uh I just do want to share one more verse with you. I just want you to know what happened to you to your debt and your past. You see, when he forgave sin, this is what he said in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 9. He said, Do y'all not know that wicked people, not good people, not saved people, they will not inherit the kingdom of God? And then he starts naming them. He said, Yeah, the people that have sex sin and people that have had idols and people that uh have have abused themselves of other humans and thieves and and and people that want what other folks have, and drunkards. He said, None of them getting into heaven. You're like, what in verses? You're like, excuse me, Lord. None of them are getting into heaven? He said, No, they're not. And then it's what he says, and such were some of you. That's how you used to be. Remember? That's who you used to be. Such were, not now, were in the past. That's who you were. But you are, here's what it says right in the verse, you are washed. You are washed. He he takes our sin. We got sin like red, like uh crimson, scarlet, and he washes us white as snow. He washes us, he cleans us up. You'd never know we stepped in the mud puddle. You'd never know we stepped in the cow manure. You'd never know we fell down where we weren't supposed to fall down. You'd never know, because he washed us. That's all he did. Then he sanctified us. You know what he did? He made us holy. He made us separated unto him, he made us for him. All of a sudden now we're not just clean, but he said, You're mine. That's what sanctified means. He said, You're mine. Not only did he do that, then he justified us. That means he cleaned us up and changed our identity so much that we're more like Christ than anybody we ever were. We were made like we had never committed the sin. And so we walk in. And by the way, it's not just like I never sinned, it's like I am now like Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. He took my past, he wiped it all away. Jesus took it on him and made me holy, made me his. You are not what you were. So we are purchased from sin. Jesus has rescued us from our past, rescued us from our failure, rescued us from the bitterness, rescued us from the hate. He's rescued us. That's redemption. And then he has forgiven our sins. He's wiped it all away. He's not holding anything again. You know how you are. You know how I am. We hold things against people, don't we? And we we still remember what mama did. We still remember what daddy did. We still remember what our friend did. We're still angry about this and still angry about that and still got hurt feelings. But Jesus said, No, I cleaned all that up. And then here's the beautiful, most beautiful part of the verse, in my opinion. He's gonna put it all back together. He's gonna restore it in Jesus. Go with me to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 10. Look at it. That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, and in other words, in the right moment, see, for 4,000 years, for 4,000 years, they were taught about God and they didn't understand God. And we got 39 books of the Old Testament, but at the right time, God came down as Jesus and was born of a virgin and lived among men and died on a cross. Now look at what he says to gather together in one all things. Now stop a minute. Go back with me to the garden. In the Garden of Eden, it was perfect. What an environment. What a relationship. God and man were friends. Animals didn't even eat animals. Animals didn't even eat animals. Nobody had to worry about if a snake was going to bite them. Nobody had to worry about that. Adam and Eve could go out and play with a snake one day, and they could go play with a lion the next day, they could go play with a giraffe the next day. It was all beautiful, it was harmony, because that's how God wants it. That's how God wants it for you. That's how God wants it for me. But in the fall, or when Adam and Eve sinned, everything broke. Everything. The relationship with God was broken. The reputation of all of us was broken. Sin shattered it all. And Jesus is here in this verse to put it all back together again. Sin came, death followed, and even the creation groans. Did you know that if you believe the Bible, that right now all of creation is groaning and like childbirth pains, wanting it to be like it used to be. Nature doesn't think things are right. The Bible says in Romans 8.22, we know that the whole creation groans and travaileth in pain together until now. So God, Jesus wants to put it all back together. He wants the relationship between you and the Father to be back together. He wants the relationship between you and your wife to be back together. He wants the relationship between you and your children to be back together. He wants the relationship between you and your parents to be back together. The devil's a slanderer and a liar who wants to destroy you and make you think about you. And Jesus is like, no, I'm about putting it all back together. So since the beginning, God had a plan. In verse 9, he said, having made known unto us the mystery of his will. We didn't understand. We had no idea that all the Bible was leading up to this. Did you know that if you keep reading the Bible to the book of Revelation in the end, he's going to put it all back together again like it was in the beginning? And there'll be no dirt in there, there'll be no light in there, there'll be no sin in there. It'll be a clean place in heaven and harmony and relationship once again. He's putting it all back together in Jesus. He's putting it all back together in Jesus. Now all of a sudden, now all of a sudden, God and man will be together. All of a sudden, human relationships can be together. Because until you understand the love God has for you, until you get the God relationship right, it's hard to do the other. Now, I'm going to give you three things to close real quickly. But let me just say this to you. It's already started. You see, he's already putting it back together because you and I are new creations. See, we're not who we used to be. We're already new in Christ. Any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. We're new. We're not like the old guy. We're new. We're different. Behold, he's a new creature. Old things are past. We're not like we used to be. All things are made new. We're new. Now we have that relationship. John 17, 3, Jesus said that eternal life was to know the Father and the Son. And we get to know the Father and the Son. Not only that, God moved into us and lives in us, and we now live in Him. And though we may still live in a broken, messed up world, this relationship is already real to us. Your eternal life has already begun in Christ. He moved in. He bought you out of sin. He forgave you your sin. And now he's restoring that complete, beautiful, wonderful relationship. He sent the Holy Spirit to live and dwell in us. Used to be you went to the temple. Now you are the temple. Used to be you went to God and took an offering. And then God came and made himself an offering to save us. And we are just thankful for it. So we have been brought and bought back from the slavery of sin. We don't have to live in sin. We have to do wrong. We can honor God because He paid our sin debt. He brought us back. Then He cleansed our sins. He washed them. He cleaned us up. We have been forgiven. Forgiven. On this earth, I don't know what your opinion is of me, but I know what his opinion is. Of me. I don't know what the opinion of my family might be, but I know what his opinion is. Because you see, through Jesus, he cleansed us up. He made us new creatures. He forgave us. And that relationship is totally, completely, 100% restored. And now Jesus is in the process of putting it all back together again. So I mean, it won't be long, maybe the rapture will happen and we will be taken out of here. It won't be long until there'll be a millennial kingdom when he starts to show us a little bit about what it could be like, but man will still mess up there. But then he's going to make a whole new earth, a whole new solar system, if you want to say it that way. He's going to fix it all, clean it up, and put us back here, and we're going to enjoy that presence. He will be the sunshine in our world. And we will go in and out with him because he restores it all. He's putting it all back together. The things in heaven, the things in earth. He's bringing us all back together because it's all supposed to be in Jesus. Now, are you in him? Are you in him? Do you know that your sins have been forgiven? Have you trusted Christ? Have you have you acknowledged his salvation? If you haven't, do that today. And if you have, let's live like the new creation he made us. Father in heaven, I love you, and I thank you for the chance to serve you, and I pray that you're not going to be able to do

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Austin Gardner

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