Redemption
Synonyms: Liberation, ransom, freedom purchased
Greek References: lutrosis 3085 (Strong)
with apo apo- 629, cf 080-3086 and 3089
Scriptures: Mrk 10:45, Rom 3:23-24, 1Co 1:30, Eph 1:7, Col 1:14, Heb 9:12
Related ideas: blood, enslavement, price
Synopsis: Satan deceived us into selling our souls for a fool's price, and we became his slaves. Our redemption, however, came at a price determined by God, without asking Satan's agreement or approval. The price had to be right, in order that the transaction be just. But we could not pay the price. So Jesus paid the price for us. With his own blood he redeemed us. So we have now become the slaves of God who treats us as his very sons and heirs.
Consider the heart of the gospel of Christ crucified. There you behold the right reasoning of God. In God's mind, everything must be fair and square, no compromises, no loose ends, no pretenses, no cosmetic fixes, no legal loopholes, no sneaky deals that make things look right when they are not. Things have to be right, absolutely right and just.
For example, when we were studying the word "justification", we saw that God demands perfection. We saw that God, by nature, cannot tolerate sin, and therefore demands punishment.
Consequently, God required of his only Son that he become one of us and live the human life to perfection, although no one else had ever done so. Then God demanded that Jesus suffer terrible punishment as a wrongdoer, even though Jesus had done no wrong. Only in this way could Jesus be our substitute so that by virtue of him we might be counted worthy of being accepted with God as righteous.
In this lesson, we are thinking about "redemption". This is the word we use for another thing which God demanded: the payment of a price. Let's start by establishing what this price was for, and why it had to be paid.
When a person becomes a sinner, that person passes out of God's ownership. God's loss is Satan's gain. The person now belongs to sin. We must say with Paul, "I am carnal, sold under sin" (Rom 7:14).
Of course when Paul says "sold" he does not mean that God ever sold anyone who belonged to him. We sold ourselves like the people of old who "sold themselves to do evil"
In God's judgment, having sold ourselves to sin, we must be regarded as belonging to Satan. That's why God would send us into the eternal punishment prepared for Satan and his angels (Mtt 25:41). Why should we share Satan's destiny if he does not own us? We became his possession when we sinned, and God recognises that, although he wishes it were otherwise.
Now God can make it otherwise. However, God will not fight injustice with injustice. God will not steal from Satan what belongs to Satan, no matter how deceptively Satan came by that ownership. We can be transferred from Satan's ownership to God's ownership only upon payment of the proper price. That God demands, and nothing will change his mind.
We sold ourselves for a fool's price, "the pleasures of sin for a season" (Heb 11:25). But we cannot buy ourselves back, because that requires an impossible price. There is no realistic answer to the question, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mtt 16:26). That is our predicament. We sold ourselves for a fool's price, yet to buy back our freedom requires an impossible price. We cannot blame God for this mess. He is not the offender. We are the offenders, and God is the offended.
Our only hope would be to find someone who could pay the price for us --someone who knows the answer to the enigma, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" and can give that price in exchange for our soul instead of his own.
That only hope we just mentioned is not forlorn, because there is such a one who can pay the price for us. It is Jesus, and the price is his blood.
Jesus does not have to give anything in exchange for his soul, because he is perfect, so he was in a position to give his own "precious blood in exchange for the souls of others
Although we sold ourselves to sin, and thus we belong to Satan, he has no bargaining rights in establishing the price. God is not interested in satisfying Satan. God is the one who must be satisfied. If God deems that a suitable price has been paid, then God feels justified in cancelling Satan's claim upon us, regardless of Satan's opposition. How fortunate we are that Satan's approval is not required!
God saw a suitable price that could be paid for us --the blood of his only begotten Son, and God so loved us that he gave his only begotten Son (Jhn 3:16). The gospel says, "You have been bought with a price"
The heavenly song praises Jesus, "You purchased for God with your blood men from every nation" (Rev 5:9). As Jesus faced his own death, he spoke of his "blood... shed for many for the remission of sins" (Mtt 26:28).
The Bible says, "Behold the kindness and the severity of God" (Rom 11:22). God's severity demands that a price be paid. But God's kindness pays the price for us that we could not find. And such a price!
We use the word "redemption" for this paying of our purchase price. Christ is our "justification, sanctification, and redemption" (1Co 1:30). This redemption, or buying of freedom, is ours by virtue of the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. He paid the price for us which we could not give in exchange for our own souls.
We must understand that when God redeems us from slavery to sin, he owns us and we become his slaves. We are freed from sin only to become slaves of God's righteousness (Rom 6:15-23). It is true, of course, that to be God's slave is to be free indeed, for God treats his slaves as his adopted children, and makes them his heirs (Rom 8:15-17).