Have you heard a sermon that uses an illustration about a soda bottle? It’s a great way to explain redemption, but a little back story is in order to fully understand.

In some areas consumers pay an extra five cents for every bottle and can of soda, beer, or other beverages. The bottles can be returned to a redemption center and the nickel returned. Many organizations use bottle drives to collect empty cans and bottles (because everyone has about a hundred emptys in their sheds or garages. No one dares throw them away because that’s money sitting there! Yet they don’t take the time to return them either) and fund their projects this way. The idea was to reduce landfill and encourage reusing materials.

So this sermon illustration works like this: The old, dirty bottle is returned to a facility that cleans it up. It is sterilized and filled with new product and used again. That’s what used to happen, anyway. I remember I always had to check for chips and cracks around the bottle tops when buying my orange soda in glass bottles. Older bottles got a little beat up after a while. Now everything is ground up, melted, and formed into new items.

Either way, the story works as a picture of the Christian life. We are cleansed and filled with the Spirit. Or you could say we are a whole new creation and given a new purpose. Either way we see an example of how the Christian is changed by God.

Except that’s not redemption.

I can understand how people confuse the issue. We always talk about redeeming our bottles and take them to the redemption center. But the bottle is not redeemed.

It’s the nickel.

The nickel is taken from us and isn’t ours anymore. It belongs to someone else. We must purchase it back. The only price that can be paid is in the form of a bottle that gets crushed, melted in intense heat, and is seen no more.

We are the bottle and the nickel is our soul. The bottle cannot survive the process and retrieve the nickel. If the bottle tries to redeem the nickel and is consumed, no one will be there to get the nickel and the redemption center then keeps both the bottle and the nickel. We need an outside force.

That’s where Jesus redeems us. He paid the price with his own body, enduring pain and separation from God on the cross. He arose victorious over death and claimed us as his own. Then He washes us and sets us apart for new purpose.

As with all analogies this fails on some levels and may seem silly. But as we gear up for Easter and celebrate that victory remember that as Christians we are redeemed, that Christ has paid for our sins and that we are no longer destine for destruction.

Rejoice!