A Walk Through Ruth (Chapter 4)

In Ruth 4, Boaz goes to the city gate and meets the closer kinsman-redeemer. After negotiating, the kinsman declines the responsibility, allowing Boaz to redeem Ruth and the land of her deceased husband. 

Boaz marries Ruth, and they have a son, Obed, who becomes the grandfather of King David. The chapter concludes with a genealogy, linking Ruth to David’s lineage, highlighting God’s providence in weaving a foreign widow into Israel’s story.

Pointing to Jesus:

Ruth 4 points redemptively to Jesus as the ultimate Redeemer. Boaz’s willingness to redeem Ruth and her land mirrors Christ’s redemption of humanity and the earth from sin’s curse. The legal transaction at the gate foreshadows Jesus fulfilling the law to secure our salvation (Galatians 3:13). 

Ruth, a Gentile, entering David’s line (Matthew 1:5-16) prefigures Christ’s role as Savior for all nations, fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3).

Devotion:

“Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer… He shall be to you a restorer of life…”

Reflection: 

Ruth 4 showcases God’s grace, orchestrating redemption through Boaz for Ruth and Naomi. This reflects God’s love, choosing even a Moabite to be part of His covenant people. 

The birth of Obed points to Christ, our ultimate Redeemer, who restores life through His sacrifice. We are saved by grace alone, resting in God’s eternal decree (Ephesians 1:4-5), not our merit.

Prayer: 

Heavenly Father , we praise You for Your redemptive plan, seen in Ruth and fulfilled in Christ. Thank You for choosing us in Your grace to be Your own. Restore us daily through Your Spirit, that we may live for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, 

Amen.

A Look At Salvatio... Part 2

As we look into the Scripture about salvation, this second blog will be on the second part of salvation that involves the death of Jesus Christ. In the last blog, we looked at the first aspect of salvation which was the eternal phase, God's choice of who He would save from eternity. This next phase which we will call the legal phase involves Christ's work to make our salvation possible.

Since God is a righteous judge (Psalm 7:11) "God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day", He cannot save someone from sin without that sin being paid for. Either sinners must suffer eternally in hell and pay for their own sins or a substitute must be found to pay for those sins. God cannot over look wickedness. In (Exodus 34:7) we read, God "will by no means clear the guilty" God is so righteous and so just that all sin and transgression must be punished either by the sinner themselves or in a substitute.
This is the second phase or legal phase of salvation where Jesus provided a legal basis for which people could be saved.

Look at (Romans 3:24-27), "and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
The main component of the legal phase is justification. Justification is based on the shed blood of Jesus. (Romans 5:9), "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God."
Christ must justify us, and the reason Christ must justify us, is because God must punish somebody for sin. It is Christ's life, death, and resurrection by which man must be saved. God could not have saved us without this legal payment to be paid on our behalf.

Look at (2 Corinthians 5:21), "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Notice in this verse a legal transaction took place, God charged or imputed Christ with our sins and God charged or imputed us with the righteousness of Christ.

So this second phase of salvation is God's work to satisfy His holy nature and perfect justice for the salvation of His elect. Because every sin must be punished, He sent a Substitute to die for their sins.