Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers. 1 Peter 1:18
An archaeological team from Dumlupınar University in Turkey was working on an excavation project in the province of Kutahya when they encountered a container filled with lentil seeds. They were able to come up with an estimate that the container had been there for some four thousand years. Most of the seeds were burnt or otherwise damaged, but some appeared to be in good condition. So the scientists tried to get some of the seeds to germinate. And one of the seeds did! It sounds amazing that a seed from so long ago would still be able to grow. Seeds found in Egyptian pyramids have also germinated when planted, but would not have been as ancient as the lentil seeds found in Turkey. And yet, those seeds from long ago would have eventually lost their ability to reproduce. Because no seeds, or any other type of life on earth, is incorruptible. All must die. And as our text declares, even the silver and gold found on our planet is corruptible and will not endure forever. That is why we are glad that we are not redeemed with these.
Our redemption, as the next verse declares, is based on the precious blood of Christ. But there was a time when we were depending on something much less, just as the world around us depends on much less. We once depended on good works for our salvation. But good works, apart from the works of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer, don’t exist. ‘But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away’ (Isaiah 64:6). We might also have once depended on religion, as so many in our world are doing. But God is not looking for religion from us, because religion represents only the misguided and feeble efforts of sinful people. The Lord Jesus made it clear that the empty prayers of empty hearts had no value when He said, ‘But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking’ (Matthew 6:7). How thankful we are that our salvation is not based on anything like the mindless, pointless rattling off of unscriptural ‘Hail Marys’ like the Roman Catholics do.
You and I rejoice every day that we have been redeemed. Once we were helplessly marooned on the dunghill of sin and abiding under the wrath of God. Our moral bankruptcy prevented us from satisfying the righteous claims of a holy God Who cannot overlook sin. The corruptible things of this world could never redeem us; they are of too little value to God. But we are redeemed, because God provided the redemption price for us, the incorruptible, eternal, and infinite blood of His own Son. -Jim MacIntosh