Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
— Isaiah 43:1

… you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
— 1 Corinthians 6:20

Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, didn’t one morning think to himself, “I am going to bring J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece to the big screen,” get up, and put on his pants, and start scripting. Why? He didn’t own the rights. To bring his movie-making magic to the box office, he would first have to negotiate with the Tolkien Society to purchase the rights to the book. Then, once secured, he (as I suppose all movie makers do) began adapting the book to the big screen, creating a cinematic masterpiece, a multi-billion dollar blockbuster. He owned the right to work the script any way he chose.

In the same way, when we open our hearts to receive God’s gift of salvation, coming to faith in the Lord, the ownership of our life is transferred (immediately and eternally) from darkness to light, from Satan’s rule to new life in Christ. Jesus now owns the rights to who and what we are. With his very blood, he purchased us that he might begin the work of adapting our story from a people enslaved and subject to the desires of the evil one to becoming the redeemed children of God, enabled to know and take refuge in the hope-filled words of Romans 6:6, which tell us:

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
— Romans 6:6

Sing with me…

You split the sea so I could walk right through it
My fears are drowned in perfect love
You rescued me so I could stand and sing
I am a child of God

No Longer Slaves, Bethel Music