"But nothing that a man owns and devotes to the Lord... may be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the Lord."

Leviticus 27:28.

Nothing devoted to the Lord can be redeemed. But what does that mean? In chapter 25 of Leviticus, God tells Moses that the Israelites are to be His servants, and therefore are not to be slaves to anyone else (v. 42). Sound familiar? "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness" (Romans 6:18); "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money" (Matthew 6:24). Once we have been bought by Christ, we cannot be bought back.

Now, we have to be careful when we use the word redeemed in this context. Leviticus 27:28 does not mean that, once we have devoted ourselves to God, we cannot be saved. That would be ridiculous. Leviticus 27 talks about the redemption of possessions dedicated to God, which was when an Israelite would dedicate something to God's purposes and then buy it back so that, although God would be using it, it would still be in their possession. But in certain situations, possessions could not be redeemed; they belonged completely to the Lord. And that is the context in which we are to read verse 28.

Here's what that means for us: When we devote our lives to Christ—when we realize our spiritual poverty and sell ourselves to Christ out of desperation, like the poor countrymen described in Leviticus 25:35-43—we cannot be bought back by our former master, sin. We are God's permanent slaves, but He does not treat us like slaves (v. 39); He treats us as His sons (Galatians 4:7).

So thank God that sin no longer has power over us, that we belong to Christ and can never be bought back—our salvation is secure!—and that we are bought into His family—adopted as sons, heirs to the full inheritance of God that is eternal life!