Retrieved 01-04-11 from – http://www.diningwithsinners.org/2011/01/03/god-is-the-author-of-redemption/
 
What are the moments in your life that have shaped you the most? Periods of transformation, times when your eyes were opened, decisions were made that affected the rest of your life.
How many of them came when you were at the end of your rope?
How many of these moments came when you were confronted with your own powerlessness?
When there was nothing left to do but cry out?
For many, it is the moment when there is nothing left to do but cry out, the moment of desperation, the moment they acknowledge the unmanageability of their own life that redemption begins.
Redemption.
But what motivates God to act redemptively? To pay our debt on our behalf?
We find the answer in Exodus 3:7.
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I know about their sufferings.
Not only does God hear the cry of His people, but he also sees their misery. And out of hearing and seeing, God knows the suffering of His people.
So God comes down at the moment of their greatest need and revealed Himself to Moses as I am who I am (Ex 3:14).
This is not evasiveness on God’s part or a refusal to answer. Nor is this answer to Moses philosophical. Rather in revealing His name as I am who I am God is saying: “I am he who is there for you – really and truly present, ready to help and act.”
This is the author of redemption’s response to the people’s need of His presence to overcome their hopeless situation. By revealing His name, God has made Himself accessible to people.
Once again we are reminded that we do not worship a God who is distant and far off but a God who draws near, a God who sees our afflictions, a God who hears our cries, a God who knows our suffering, a God who cares about us, a God who comes down in a personal way to deliver us from the power of those things that keep us in bondage.
John Goldingay comments that:
God is not such a transcendent being as to be exalted above engagement with people … God gets involved with their suffering… Acknowledging the reality of Israel’s affliction is a start to taking action to change things.
God came near. Sound familiar?
God has come near to us in a way that Moses could have never imagined. God made himself nothing, took the form of a servant, and was born in the likeness of man.
God not only sees, hears, and knows our suffering; He cared enough to do something about it.
God is the author of redemption.
He is the one who “will deliver you … free you from slavery … redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment … will take you as [His] people and will be your God” (Ex 6:6-7a).
All that to say, redemption is not about doing something for God. What had the Israelites done? Redemption is about what God has done for us. God has turned the “wills” of Exodus into the “done it” of the gospel.
The God who revealed Himself to Moses is the very same God we cry out to for salvation today. The exodus from Egypt reveals the pattern of salvation in Christ.
If we are to be rescued from the bondage of sin, God has to stoop down to redeem us. And this is exactly what He did through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Jesus came down from heaven to pay a debt we could never pay. Jesus is calling you saying, “I will save you. I will deliver you. I will redeem you. I will make you my own. It is finished.”