The word redeem in the English has
three meanings: To buy back,
to compensate for, and to
release.
To buy back could indicate a normal business transaction; but the
thrust of the meaning is the return
of property back to its original owner by means of an appropriate
payment. Recover
by payment.
To compensate means to offset a wrong
by means of a counteraction, or pay back a debt by an acceptable payment.
To release is to set free from some
form of obligation or confinement.
To redeem therefore,
is to recover property which was given as security or forfeited as a penalty,
and to release it for its original owners use.
W.E.
Vines’ expository dictionary of New Testament words shows that the English word
‘redeem’ is used in place of the
Greek words:
1.
Exagorazo,
which is a strengthened form of agorazo ‘to buy’. The prefix ex or out, gives the meaning to buy out, and especially of
purchasing a slave with a view to his freedom.
In the middle voice it is used in Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5 for
redeeming, or buying the time.
2.
Lutro`o,
or to release on receipt of a ransom. It
is used in the middle voice and it signifies to release by paying a
ransom. To redeem in the natural sense
of deliverance (Luke 24:21).
Lutrosis and Apolutrosis
are extensions to lutro`o and depict the completed action; e.g. redeemed and
redemption.
The
English words redeem, redeemed and redemption are therefore more than adequate
to convey the truth of God’s great work on man’s behalf. We have been redeemed from the penalty of sin
so that we might be to the praise of our Creator’s glory.
Biblical usage:
Colossians
1:4. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of
sins:”
1
Peter 1:18-19. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not
redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain
conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious
blood of Christ (of Messiah), as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:”
Galatians
3:13. “Christ (Messiah)
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it
is written, CURSED [IS] EVERY ONE THAT HANGETH ON A TREE:”
Note:
Christ is from the Greek
word Christos meaning
‘anointed’.
Messiah is the English
transliteration of the Hebrew word for ‘anointed’.
Messiah and Christ are therefore Hebrew and
Greek equivalents
A
literal rendering of the name and title of our Lord would be, the Lord [Jehovah] Jesus [Yeshua or Joshua i.e.
saviour] Christ [Anointed]:
The Lord Jesus Christ or Jehovah, the Anointed Saviour.
The
Law is perfect and good and has its foundation in God’s righteousness. God cannot accept or embrace anything less
than His righteousness, for to do so would adulterate it and it would cease to
be perfect. The Law becomes a curse,
only to those without righteousness equivalent to Gods and is the negative
result of God maintaining His righteousness.
God maintains His righteousness by not allowing it to be compromised and
separates those creatures without it, from Himself. This is the curse. God’s righteousness is absolutely perfect, and in point of
absolute truth there is no other righteousness, therefore the Scriptures say: “There is none righteous, no not one…” (Romans 3:10; Psalm 14:1-3). God’s righteousness cannot be compromised and
all unrighteousness must be excluded. The wages or the results of unrighteousness,
(the Bible describes this as sin) is separation from God and death.
It
was by the action of the man Adam that sin and subsequently death entered into
the world, so that death passed upon all men (Romans 5:12). Death passed to us directly from Adam,
therefore was ours from our very conception, a fact that David recognised when
he wrote Psalm 51. “…in sin did my
mother conceive me.”
It
is interesting to note that David, a sinner, was of the seed of Jesse while
Jesus of Nazareth, who was without sin (John 8:46; 2Corinthians 5:21) was the seed of a woman and that woman was
a virgin. From this we can confidently
state that sin and death pass to sons and daughters, not from the woman but
from the man. Mary was born a sinner for
she had a human father, but she
did not pass that nature onto her children.
Her first born, Jesus, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and so was free
from the Adamic nature because He was literally The Son of God and not
the son of Joseph.
Because
the rest of us are born sinners, we are spiritually dead from the moment of
birth and no amount of keeping the law can overcome that. We are dead in trespass and sin and separated
from God from birth. We need to be born
of God’s Spirit, we need to be born again (John 3:3-6).
(Children,
who die before they are able to understand the gospel of Christ, are
automatically saved. An example of this is found in 2Samuel 12:23).
This
nature from Adam is a barrier to God’s righteousness, it is a cage from which we are not able to escape and we
are held captive by it. We are slaves to
it (Romans 7:14; 2Peter 2:9). We are
slaves to it and need to be set free; we need to be redeemed.
Christ
Jesus was made a curse for us, or was cursed on behalf of us (Galatians 3:13), He was made to be
sin for us, or a sin offering for us (2Corinthians 5:21) and He made, of
himself, an offering to bear the sins of many (Hebrew 9:28). He paid the only appropriate ransom - His
sinless life (Matthew 20:28) and He paid it in substitution for our
unrighteousness “…that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him.”
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation
[received] by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of
Christ (of Messiah), as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (2Corinthians
5:21B).
We
have redemption because we have
been redeemed; we have been bought with the price of Christ Jesus’
own blood and have been released
or freed, to serve God in our
bodies.
Redemption
of the Body
Romans 8:23
“And not only [they], but ourselves also, which have
the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for the adoption, [to wit], the redemption of our body.”
Those
who have been born of God and have the first fruits of the Spirit, that is,
have experienced the reality of salvation; look with longing to the
resurrection of their bodies.
Old Testament Redemption Fulfilled
Hebrews
9:14-15
“How much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
And for this cause he is the mediator of the New
Testament that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that
were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise
of eternal inheritance.”
"The
redemption of the transgressions
that were under the first covenant"
is the paying of the ransom for
the transgressions that were designated as sin by the covenant of Moses. Those believers of this first covenant, who
in faith made the necessary sacrifices for sin, had their sins atoned for, or
covered; for that is the meaning of the word atone. They were only covered until Messiah (Christ) came to take away sin and to introduce the
new covenant with His blood, not
the blood of bulls and goats. The book
of Hebrews deals with the sacrificial system and its fulfilment in Christ’s
death on the cross.
All
mankind, as slaves and subject to the old sin nature, have been purchased by
their original owner and been potentially set free. Mankind has the option to believe and to step
free from sin and death or remain subject to his own works. He will not be judged for sin, this has
already occurred on the cross, he will be judged according to his works (Revelation
20:12).
The
Outworking of Redemption
We as Christians have the option to remain
subject to our old nature in carnality or bond ourselves to our new master as
did Paul in being a bondservant, gk. Doulos,
to Jesus Christ.
Exodus
21:5-6
“And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my
master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall
bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the
doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall
serve him forever.”
Romans
1:1
“Paul, a servant (doulos) of Jesus Christ, called [to be] an apostle, separated unto the gospel of
God…”
Forgiveness: Gk. Aphesis
Release
from bondage, in this context from the bondage of sin. We are not to be bound by sin in allowing it
to dominate our lives, nor are we to be bound by the memory of past
failures. We must press on to the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Recap:
In
Jesus Christ we have been purchased from the bondage of sin, both inherent sin
(old sin nature) and personal sins (misdeeds) and have been forgiven. Christ was free from the inherent nature of
Adam because of the virgin pregnancy.
God was His father not Joseph and the sin nature is past down through the
male. His humanity was perfect in both
His birth and His life and in this perfect life we see the payment necessary
for our redemption; A perfect, sinless life in exchange for our sinful lives.
