1

Redeemer Bible Church

Unreserved Accountability to Christ. Undeserved Acceptance from Christ.

The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History

Exodus 13:17-15:21

Introduction
There are certain events in the history of nations that seem to leave an indelible mark
on their respective cultural memories. Sometimes these events are tragic like December 7,
1941—“a date which will live in infamy”—the surprise attack of Pearl Harbor by the
Japanese during WWII. In recent history, the destruction of the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001 has become such a significant day that commentators and political
leaders the world over refer to pre- and post-9/11 life.

And there are other events that though they do not carry with them the grim specter
of national tragedy; instead, they mean great steps forward for civilization—landing a man
on the moon, for example. “That’s one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.”

As you can tell, the occasions to which I’m referring are limited to the United States,
a relatively young nation. We could multiply examples if we were to take into account the
history of western civilization. And we could go even further if we included the entirety of
human history.

All this is to say that there are events that change everything. There are events that
cannot and must not be forgotten. One such event is the exodus of God’s people from
Egyptian slavery. It is impossible to read the Old Testament and miss the centrality of the
events of the Exodus. Indeed, the most significant rituals of the Jewish calendar are rooted
in that episode of God’s spectacular deliverance.

The Passover reminds us how the Lord delivered his people from the plague of death
by the provision of an animal substitute whose blood would cover the doorways of every
Israelite dwelling. The Feast of Unleavened Bread reminds us that the departure of Israel
from Egypt was swift; so swift, that there was no time for the people to leaven their bread.
And the consecration of the firstborn sons reminds us that God had destroyed the Egyptian
firstborns and spared his own so that Israel could escape out from under the oppression of
the cruel regime of the Egyptian Pharaoh.

And although there is no liturgy associated with the departure of Israel through the
Red Sea, or better, the Sea of Reeds, the event recorded for us in Exod 13:17-14:31 and not
those represented in the liturgy, is the climax of God’s work of deliverance for his people.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 14 and read vv 21-31 with me so you can see just
how remarkable God’s deliverance was.

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 2

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD swept the
sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the
waters were divided. 22 The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the
dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
23
Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit, and all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and
his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea. 24 At the morning watch,
the LORD looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and
cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. 25 He caused their
chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians
said, "Let us flee from Israel, for the LORD is fighting for them against the
Egyptians." 26 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so
that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their
horsemen." 27 So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to
its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the
LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 28 The waters returned and
covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh's entire army that had gone
into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. 29 But the sons of Israel
walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to
them on their right hand and on their left. 30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day
from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31
When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians,
the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant
Moses.

These are no novices. This is the army of the greatest superpower in the world, led
by six hundred select chariots and their officers. This is a skilled team of soldiers ready to
destroy a nearly helpless band of weak, desert wayfarers. Not only that, but these slaves—
still slaves in the minds of the Egyptians—these slaves have foolishly avoided the quickest
and easiest route for their departure in favor of meandering in the wilderness. Israel has
played a fool’s game and instead of finding themselves enjoying the benefits of freedom,
they are now trapped in the desert between a pursuing army on the one side and impassable
waters on the other.

And in spite of insurmountable odds, the greatest army in the world follows the
Israelites into the land between the water. What?! What could have made Egypt do such a
thing? Is it normal to see a large body of water produce a passageway to accommodate
600,000 men and supplies, aside from children? Of course, not. But Egypt follows anyway.

And the reason for their foolish pursuit can only be explained by the Lord’s direct
involvement. Verse 24 says that the Lord looked down through the pillar of cloud and
brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. Verse 25 says that the Lord caused
their chariot wheels to swerve (or become stuck; or come off) and He made them drive
with difficulty.

There is no battle; no blowing of the trumpet; no clashing of swords; no throwing of

spears. There is just a wall of water on the right and on the left; confusion and panic amidst
the best soldiers in the world; mechanical malfunctions; and finally the crashing of the sea
over every pursuing Egyptian. When Moses told the Israelites to stand by and see the

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 3

salvation of the Lord back in 14:13, he meant stand by and see. All they had to do is
watch while their God fought for them. Their deliverance was all of God and none of them.
The Lord alone gained their emancipation.

Even the Egyptians themselves could not help but infer Yahweh’s intervention. In v
26 they say, Let us flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the
Egyptians. What is recorded here in Exodus cannot be accounted for by any other
explanation except that Israel’s God was fighting for his people. It is inescapable.

Rehearsing the Exodus in the Old Testament

What a remarkable story! What an extraordinary turn of events! What an
astonishing deliverance! No wonder, then, that we find the events of the Exodus rehearsed
throughout redemption history. Beginning immediately with Ch 15, we see its impact on
Israel’s music begin to take shape:

Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, "I
will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has
hurled into the sea. 2 "The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my
salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will extol
Him. 3 "The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name. 4 "Pharaoh's chariots and
his army He has cast into the sea; And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the
Red Sea. 5 "The deeps cover them; They went down into the depths like a stone. 6
"Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power, Your right hand, O LORD,
shatters the enemy. 7 "And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those
who rise up against You; You send forth Your burning anger, and it consumes them
as chaff. 8 "At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters
stood up like a heap; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 "The enemy
said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be gratified
against them; I will draw out my sword, my hand will destroy them.' 10 "You blew
with Your wind, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11
"Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness,
Awesome in praises, working wonders? 12 "You stretched out Your right hand, The
earth swallowed them. 13 "In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom
You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy
habitation. 14 "The peoples have heard, they tremble; Anguish has gripped the
inhabitants of Philistia. 15 "Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; The leaders of
Moab, trembling grips them; All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 16
"Terror and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless
as stone; Until Your people pass over, O LORD, Until the people pass over whom
You have purchased. 17 "You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of
Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your dwelling,
The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. 18 "The LORD shall
reign forever and ever." 19 For the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his
horsemen went into the sea, and the LORD brought back the waters of the sea on
them, but the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea. 20
Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the
women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing. 21 Miriam answered them,
"Sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and his rider He has hurled
into the sea."

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 4

But this is only the beginning. Even more than rehearsing the events of the Exodus
throughout its history, the Exodus represents the inception of Israel’s existence as a people.
It is more than an event that leaves an indelible mark in a certain nation’s cultural memory.
It is more significant that Pearl Harbor and 9/11 and the lunar landing.

The Exodus does not simply deliver God’s people from slavery; it is not simply an
emancipation proclamation. It is the event that forms them. It is the seminal event in their
history. It gives them their beginning. And because of the foundational character of the
event, it becomes a paradigm for understanding other acts of God’s deliverance throughout
Israel’s history and right into the New Testament era.

Let’s begin with an example from the book of Joshua. Turn with me to Joshua 3-4.
This text contains at least six parallels to the crossing of the Red Sea.

1. Like the people under Moses, the Israelites under Joshua find themselves in a
waterfront encampment. Read v 1:Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and he
and all the sons of Israel set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan, and they
lodged there before they crossed.

2. Though the people are not led by a pillar of cloud and fire, they are led by the Ark of
the Covenant, which like the pillar, represents God’s presence with his people.
Notice v 3: And they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of
the covenant of the LORD your God with the Levitical priests carrying it, then
you shall set out from your place and go after it.”

3. Like Moses, Joshua promises that God will intervene on the people’s behalf. Look
down to v 5: Then Joshua said to the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for
tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you.”

4. Just as Exod 14:31 suggests that the Lord parted the Red Sea in order to encourage
his people’s faith in him and his servant Moses, here in Josh 3:7, the Lord explains
that this miracle is intended to do the same. Read with me: Now the LORD said to
Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may
know that just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you.”

5. And, of course, the most obvious parallel is the parting of the water. Notice vv 12-
17: “Now then, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man
for each tribe. It shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who
carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the
Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing
down from above will stand in one heap” So when the people set out from their
tents to cross the Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before
the people, and when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet
of the priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan
overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), the waters which were flowing

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 5

down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam,
the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down toward the
sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the people crossed
opposite Jericho. And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the
LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel
crossed on dry ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.

6. As we move into Ch 4, we find our last parallel. Read vv 4-7 with me: So Joshua
called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man
from each tribe; and Joshua said to them, “Cross again to the ark of the LORD
your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his
shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. Let this be a
sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these
stones mean to you?'’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the
Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed
the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a
memorial to the sons of Israel forever.” It is hard to miss the connection here
between the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the consecration of the
firstborn sons. Like the events of the Exodus, succeeding generations of Israelites are
to remember this crossing as well.

Now even though the Lord will not part water for every succeeding generation, the
foundational event at the Red Sea nevertheless becomes the predominant paradigm for
subsequent acts of God’s deliverance in different ways. Turn ahead in your Bibles to Isa
43:16-17: “Thus says the LORD, Who makes a way through the sea And a path through
the mighty waters, 17 Who brings forth the chariot and the horse, The army and the mighty
man (They will lie down together and not rise again; They have been quenched and
extinguished like a wick).”

The context of this passage is Israel’s Babylonian captivity. Israel has been unfaithful
to the Lord; but God is merciful. He will deliver his people from Babylon in spite of their
stubbornness. Look up to v 14: Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, “For your sake I have sent to Babylon, And will bring them all down as fugitives,
Even the Chaldeans, into the ships in which they rejoice.”

So what we learn from vv 16 and 17 is that what God has done before he will do
again—the departure from Babylon will be another Exodus.

For a third Old Testament example, turn ahead again in your Bibles—this time to
the prophet Micah. And read 7:15-20 with me:

As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt, I will show you
miracles." 16 Nations will see and be ashamed Of all their might. They will put their
hand on their mouth, Their ears will be deaf. 17 They will lick the dust like a serpent,
Like reptiles of the earth. They will come trembling out of their fortresses; To the
LORD our God they will come in dread And they will be afraid before You. 18 Who

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 6

is a God like You, who pardons iniquity And passes over the rebellious act of the
remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He
delights in unchanging love. 19 He will again have compassion on us; He will tread
our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea. 20
You will give truth to Jacob And unchanging love to Abraham, Which You swore to
our forefathers From the days of old.

Instead of engaging in a discussion about precisely when the events described in this
passage are fulfilled, what I want you to do for now is to point out the obvious allusion to
the Exodus in v 15: As in the days when you came out from the land of Egypt, I will
show you miracles. Here God promises a restoration, a deliverance of his people from their
enemies in terms of the Exodus. Like the passage we read in Isaiah 43, through this text the
Lord is saying, “I’ve done it before. Count on me doing it again!”

So you see, there is a pattern of divine activity established by the Lord himself. God
delivers his people from the hands of their enemies, acting completely on his own, needing
no help to accomplish his salvation. What we see is Moses’ call in Exod 14:13-14 coming to
fruition over and over again: Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which he will
accomplish for you today…the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.

Rehearsing the Exodus in the New Testament

Since we see this pattern throughout the Old Testament, there is a sense in which we
as Christians ought to expect to see it come to full flower in the person and work of Jesus
Christ. After all, the Lord Jesus himself has said that if a person truly believes Moses, such
a person would believe him, because Moses wrote about him (John 5:46).

And on the road to Emmaus, Luke reports that Jesus taught his disciples the Old
Testament. He says that “beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, [Jesus] explained
to them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27). And as Jesus gave
explanation to his disciples he said, “‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was
still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the
Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the
Scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).

Having come to know Jesus, the veil which prevented us from seeing him on every
page of the Old Testament has been lifted. So there is now a reasonable expectation that
every theological point of the Hebrew Bible will be find their ultimate meaning in Christ.
And this is precisely what we see with regard to the pattern of the Exodus.

We begin with Matt 2:14-15: “So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother
while it was still night, and left for Egypt. 15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This
was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘OUT OF EGYPT I
CALLED MY SON.’”

The prophet about whom the evangelist is speaking is the prophet Hosea—the text is
Hosea 11:1. In its original context, the statement, “Out of Egypt I called my son” is
reminiscence about how God brought about the Israeli nation, about the formative event in

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 7

their history. He goes on to say that although he delivered his people with great power, they
nevertheless continued to go after false gods, to commit idolatry.

But under the inspiration of the Spirit, Matthew sees much more, he sees the events
in Jesus’ infant life as the surprising fulfillment of that divine recollection. Christ himself
lives out Israel’s experience, the events of the Exodus therefore find fulfillment in Jesus’
personal journey. For Matthew, Jesus is the ultimate Israel, the faithful son, who in Chapter
4, like Israel, is led into the wilderness, tempted for forty days (not years), and yet does not
sin. Now that the resurrection has taken place, Matthew sees Jesus himself as the
fulfillment of Israel; all of God’s promises to Israel that they would have obtained had they
remained faithful to God are obtained by Christ and bestowed upon all who believe in him.

But more than Jesus functioning as the fulfillment of Israel, more than the fact that
he is the new Israel coming out of Egypt, he is also the new Moses leading his people out of
Egypt. Turn ahead to Luke 9:28-36 to see this connection made more explicitly.

Some eight days after these sayings, He took along Peter and John and
James, and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And while He was praying, the
appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and
gleaming. 30 And behold, two men were talking with Him; and they were Moses and
Elijah, 31 who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure which He was
about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and his companions had been
overcome with sleep; but when they were fully awake, they saw His glory and the
two men standing with Him. 33 And as these were leaving Him, Peter said to Jesus,
"Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles: one for You, and
one for Moses, and one for Elijah "-- not realizing what he was saying. 34 While he
was saying this, a cloud formed and began to overshadow them; and they were afraid
as they entered the cloud. 35 Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My
Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!" 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was
found alone. And they kept silent, and reported to no one in those days any of the
things which they had seen.

Here Jesus, Moses, and Elijah have a conversation, the significance of which is lost
in English. Look closely at v 31: who, appearing in glory, were speaking of His departure
which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. They were together speaking of Jesus’
departure that he was about to accomplish (literally, “fulfill”) at Jerusalem. Jesus and
Moses and Elijah were talking about the departure that Jesus was about to fulfill upon his
arrival at Jerusalem. I hope that this strikes you as a bit odd—the juxtaposition of departure
and arrival here in this passage; for it gives you a clue into the theological significance of
this conversation.

The word translated departure is e;xodoj, which is certainly no accident on the part of
the gospel writer. There is a powerful theological connection that is being made here;
namely, that Jesus’ discussion with Moses and Elijah is not merely about the fact that he will
die and rise again at Jerusalem, but it is about the significance of his death, nicely
summarized by the word e;xodoj. Jesus’ death is his departure, his Exodus leading the way

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 8

for God’s people to enter a new mode of existence. He is the new Moses leading a renewed
people to a new and greater Promised Land.

For those of you studying Hebrews during the Sunday school hour, what I am saying
here should come as no surprise. Jesus is better than Moses. And the “betterness”—
“betterness,” not bitterness—the “betterness” of Jesus with respect to Moses depends upon
the theological parallel between Jesus and Moses. Jesus is the prophet like Moses promised
in Deuteronomy 18, but he is also the prophet better than Moses just as a builder of a house
has more honor than the house he built.

From the perspective of the New Testament, the prophet like-and-better-than Moses,
Jesus, has come to complete what the first Moses could not. The new Moses not only leads
his people out of Egypt, but like Moses’ successor, Joshua, delivers his people to the
Promised Land (need I remind you that Jesus is the Hellenistic version of the name
Joshua?).

So taking the book of Hebrews to its logical conclusion we see that Jesus is the new
Moses who has come to deliver his people from a country far more sinister than the
Egyptian state (the present world order, characterized by sin and death and hell) and
governed by a ruler far worse and far more antithetical to God than Pharaoh (the prince of
the power of the air, Satan himself).

Now then, before we move on, I’d like us to observe one more parallel between the
Exodus and God’s salvation in Jesus Christ. It’s found in 1 Cor 10:1-2. Turn there with
me.

Paul is recalling the Exodus for the benefit of his Christian audience: For I do not
want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all
passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
Paul describes Israel’s experience as in terms of being under the cloud and passing through
the sea, but he also describes their experience in terms of baptism. He says in v 2 that all
were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. What does this mean?

Well, of all that could be said about it, the very least is that Paul is drawing an
analogy between the significance of what happened to the Israelites and the significance of
Christian baptism. When we are baptized we give visible expression to our faith in the
crucified, buried, and risen Savior and our union with him in death to sin and resurrection
to a new life. Put differently, baptism is a picture of our deliverance—our deliverance from
the slavery sin and death and hell to the freedom of eternal life.

The original Exodus was a kind of baptism, a kind of departure from an old way of
life characterized by slavery and death to a new way of life characterized by freedom and
life. Like the Israelites, we have passed through the Red Sea. We have begun a new mode
of existence in a new land with God as the supreme ruler. We are living in an ultimate
spiritual sense what the Israelites experienced in a physical way.

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 9

Applying the Exodus to Our Lives

This, then, is one of the appropriate applications of Exod 13:17-15:21 for the
Christian life. It is a precursor, a theologically rich forecast of our final deliverance in
Christ. This is why God would want it indelibly etched in the memory of his people. This
is why this divine pattern finds continual expression throughout redemption history. Only
something of this magnitude could prepare his people for what he would accomplish in
Christ. And by the grace of God alone through faith in Christ alone, we have experienced
what the events of Exodus 13-15 could only anticipate.

Too many people want to see in the events of the Exodus something of personal
deliverance, not in terms of salvation, but in terms of deliverance from adversity, suffering,
and other difficulties. We must avoid this. I love the advice of one commentator. Take
heed to what he says:

What God did for Israel some 3,500 years ago is not something we can do
with as we please….It is not a story that will be duplicated in the lives of individual
Christians anytime they get into trouble, but a story that gives us a glimpse of the
underlying battle between God and evil, well beyond our circumstances, a battle that
has eternal ramifications. The fact of the matter is that whatever circumstances we
find ourselves in, we must remember not that we are awaiting God’s deliverance, but
that that deliverance has already come, in Christ. We are not to say, “What I am
going through is like Israel’s Egypt experience,” but, “My Egypt is behind me. I am
on the other side of the sea, so how am I expected to behave?”1

Our Egypt is behind us in Jesus Christ. We have been set free from the bondage of
sin and death and hell and we have entered into new life with Christ. We have entered our
salvation rest and are no longer held captive by the devil to do his will. We are the ultimate
liberated people.

And yet, knowing you’re like me, you probably don’t often feel liberated. I can say
that I personally don’t remember a time recently when I have felt the exuberance of a person
liberated from the slavery of sin and death and hell and the world and the devil. Whenever
I come to the Lord in prayer I feel so helpless to do anything about the sins in my life. I
want to be free from them. I want to know by experience the liberation of the Exodus, but I
can’t seem to shake the sins that so easily beset me. I know you’re the same.

This is one of the perils of the Christian life. Though we have certainly been set free
from the bondage of sin, we will often feel defeated, oppressed, and trapped by the sins
which no longer master us. What, then, are we to do when we feel as if our sins encompass
us like cords of death? The answer is simple: remember the exodus. We need to remember
that we are standing now on the other side of the sea, having seen our enemy vanquished in
a powerful display of the power of God. We need to remember the truth; we cannot believe
lies.

1
Peter Enns, The NIV Application Commentary: Exodus (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000), 291, italics
in original.

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 10

It is one thing to be liberated; it is another to know that we have been liberated. If you
were to have been freed from slavery apart from your knowledge, what good would your
liberation do you? You would continue to behave and emote and experience life as a slave
irrespective of the reality of your condition. True liberation, then, is more than actual
liberation; it is known actual liberation. You cannot be truly set free from bondage of any
kind unless you come to terms with the reality of your liberation. You need to know that
you are no longer in bondage.

And yet, this is something that we so often forget. We forget that we have been set
free. We forget that we have passed through the sea. We forget that we are standing on the
other side in the Promised Land of our salvation. We forget that sin is no longer our
master. And forgetting a truth is tantamount to being ignorant of a truth; for when we
forget we no longer know something. And unless we appropriate the reality of our
liberation from sin and death and hell and the world and the devil, we will never step out to
experience in our lives the benefits of such liberation.

This is, in part, what prompts the Apostle Paul to say what he does in Rom 6:17-23.
Turn there with me in your Bibles:

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became
obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and
having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in
human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your
members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so
now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. 20
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21
Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now
ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed
from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification,
and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God
is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The phrase found in vv 18 & 22 occupied my heart and mind like a deaf person
trying to be understood by a signless world. It was begging me to appropriate it, begging me
to come to terms with it. I kept hearing these words in my mind: having been freed from
sin. What this means very simply is that through the gospel, by the grace of God, our
freedom from sin is something that is our present possession. It says having been freed
from sin, not “since you will be freed from sin.”

Our deliverance has already taken place. In v 17 Paul says, “But thanks be to God
that though you were slaves of sin…” The past-tense nature of our slavery from sin is
what is being emphasized in this passage. This is why the phrase having been freed from
sin so plagued my mind.

You see, what Paul is saying to us here is that freedom is now possible. What used
to be utterly inescapable and utterly enslaving is no longer our fate. Because we are under
grace and not under law, sin is no longer our master (Rom 6:14). Because of our grace

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 11

deliverance in the gospel we have been freed from sin. So when I am believing that I am
unable to shake off my sins, I am believing a lie straight from the pit of hell. It is a devilish
lie because the net result of such thinking is that it keeps me from complying with the Lord’s
demand.

When I am feeling hopelessly defeated, my tendency (I think our tendency) is to get

despondent and say, “What’s the use?!” But we must cut through this mentality to see the
sinister truth of it. We need to remember that even though sin is no longer our master, it is
still happy to be our manipulator. It still works within us to entice us to turn away from the
living God. We can still be enthralled by its charms. When we believe the lie that we can’t
help sinning in the ways we’re sinning, we subtly and sinfully excuse our failure to offer up
our members as instruments of righteousness in accord with Rom 6:19.

This is perhaps the most sinister form of self-deception in that we choose to believe
that we are still in bondage in order that we can enjoy a few passing moments of pleasure in
the land of Egypt. This makes it all the more necessary to appropriate and to meditate upon
the truth of the Exodus, the truth of liberty from sin and death and hell. So we need to be
reminded of this truth for at least two reasons: first, we need it to keep us hopeful as we
strive toward Christ-likeness; and second, we need it to keep us from falling to fleshly
indulgence.

I need to remind myself of my new status as a delivered child of my heavenly father.

I need to remember that I am standing on the other side of the Red Sea. I need to look out
over the waters and see not a single enemy of the Lord (and of me) left alive. I just see dead
bodies strewn across the shore and a placid liquid surface. And I am awed that though I
was a slave of sin, the Lord has freed me to love and to follow and to honor him.

To a congregation that is struggling to say no to sin, Paul brings a reminder of God’s

deliverance from the slavery of sin. He believes that a reminder of what Christ has done to
procure our redemption will work to motivate us to act appropriately to our new status as
freedmen. So in the spirit of Paul and as we reflect on the centrality of the Exodus in
redemption history, may I remind you that you have been delivered? May I remind you
that you are no longer the slaves of sin? May I remind you that because of what Christ has
done for you apart from the Law you can live to God?

Redeemer Bible Church

16205 Highway 7
Minnetonka, MN 55345
Office: 952.935.2425
Fax: 952.938.8299
info@redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.solidfood.net

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn
 12

Exod 13:17-15:21: The Centrality of the Exodus in Redemption History © 2004 by R W Glenn