“Why not sell me the tires from your old bike?” asked Travis. “I told you I wanted to buy them, and my dad said it was okay.”

“Oh, that’s right! I forgot,” said Brett. “My dad okayed it, too, so it’s a deal!”

Travis paid Brett for the tires, and Brett bought his video game. For a while, the boys played the game almost every day.

As the weather turned warmer, Brett and Travis played less indoors. They began

to take bike rides around the neighborhood. One day, Brett ran over a broken bottle and slashed his front tire. “Oh, no!” he exclaimed. “This whole tire is ruined! Now what am I going to do?” He frowned. “I guess I should have kept those bike tires I sold to you.”

“Well, I only used one, so I’ll sell the other back to you,” offered Travis. “I don’t need it.”

“Really?” asked Brett. “Cool!” So the boys got the tire and went to Brett’s house

to put it on the bike.

“What happened?” asked Brett’s dad when he came home and saw the boys at work.

“My tire got ruined, so I bought this one back from Travis,” explained Brett.

Dad smiled. “You redeemed it,” he said. “That word is used often in the Bible. What you did with the bike tire is a good example of the meaning of the word. Redeemed’ simply means bought back.'”

“But . . . why is that word used in the Bible?” asked Travis.

“God created people, so they belonged to Him,” began Dad. “But Satan came and tempted them to sin–and they did. So all people became sinners, enslaved to Satan and sin. But when Jesus died on the cross for us, He paid the price to buy us back. When we trust in Him, we no longer belong to Satan, but to God.”

Travis grinned as he looked at the tire on Brett’s bike. “I never thought I’d have something in common with an old bike tire–I’ve been redeemed!”

HOW ABOUT YOU?
Have you been redeemed? Jesus said that anyone who has sinned—that’s you—is a slave to sin (John 8:34). He paid a great price to buy you back out of that slavery and free you from the curse of sin and the power of Satan. Will you trust Him as your Savior today? (See the ABCs of Salvation at the end of this book.)

TODAY’S KEY VERSE: 1 Peter 1:18-19 (KJV)
You were not redeemed with corruptible things . . . but with the precious blood of Christ.