Redemption (III)

In my first posting in this series I put forth my thesis. I said:

"Redemption does not consist merely, however, in the one act of Christ paying the redemption price, in his sacrificial death upon the cross, but includes actual deliverance of the redeemed from the effects of their debt or imprisonment."

I think that such has been proven and shown to be in keeping with what sound bible teachers have said on the subject of redemption. What needs to change in people's minds, however, is their lack of understanding and realization in regard to how the second coming of Christ and the resurrection of the saints completes redemption. They need to understand that redemption is not yet accomplished, that it is largely still a matter of hope and expectation.

In my second posting I cited from the learned J.A. Seiss on this point, and showed how redemption is largely a future reality, though it has its basis in the past, in the work of Christ in paying the price of redemption as the sinner's near kinsman.

Redemption (Greek apolutrosis) is dealt with in over 150 different passages of Scripture, in both the old and new testaments. Reference has already been to a couple of the major OT passages. In ancient times it was primarily a secular word that was in everyday use. Our English word is derived from the Latin, "a buying back," which is its primitive meaning in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Baker's Evangelical Dictionary says (emphasis mine):

"In the Old Testament, redemption involves deliverance from bondage based on the payment of a price by a redeemer...Redemption means to free someone from bondage. It often involves the paying of a ransom, a price that makes redemption possible...Redemption always means the payment of a price to secure release. People who sin become slaves of sin (John 8:34); they cannot free themselves from that slavery. Christ’s death on the cross was the payment of a ransom price (Mark 10:45) by which sinners are set free. Now that they are redeemed they must live as free people (1 Cor. 6:19-20; Gal. 5:1)."

That is what I am emphasizing, that "redemption involves deliverance from bondage," and seeing that salvation is progressive, or in stages, then so is redemption. Baker gives a simple and yet accurate definition of what is redemption, yet I would dissent from saying that "redemption always means payment of a price to secure release." It does often denote payment, but it also often denotes the actual "release" of the redeemed. People are said to be redeemed both when

1) their release from bondage and restoration of loss is affected, and
2) when the price for that release has been paid. 

These do not occur at the same time, though both are acts of redemption. Redemption is "accomplished" if we view it as the payment that secures freedom and salvation. Redemption is not "accomplished" if we view it as that actual freedom and salvation. Redemption is not all objective, so far as the sinner is concerned, but is also subjective.

We have already noticed that Jeremiah 32 and the story of Ruth and Boaz are places where the elements of redemption are seen. The former passage shows how "sealed" scrolls are involved in the work of redeeming. Another passage from the OT is Leviticus 25: 23-28 where God says:

"The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; Then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it; that he may return unto his possession. But if he be not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the year of jubilee: and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession."

When Lord God says "the land shall not be sold for ever" he means "the inheritance shall not be lost for ever." The reason for this gracious provision is because Lord God did "grant a redemption for the land." This "redemption," gained either by payment or by the coming Jubilee, involved salvation from the loss of possessions, and from bondage and poverty, where the redeemed one may "return unto his possession" and all be "restored."

Barnes' Notes on the Bible says - "The land belonged to Yahweh, and it was He who allotted it among the families of Israel for their use. No estate could therefore be alienated in perpetuity, by any human authority, from the family to whose lot it might fall."

Redemption means recovery by expenditure or liberation through payment. It brings restoration and involves reclaiming, repossessing, and deliverance. It implies dispossession, some loss of property or inheritance. Also implied is the idea of previous possession (thus a "buying back" as stated). Likewise, some kind of bondage is implied.

Although the use of the word "redeem" and "redemption" have largely gone out of fashion in common everyday language, the concepts behind those words are still very much still with us as previously observed, but the concepts behind the words are not as well understood today as they did in ancient times. Commercial practice, like other aspects of life, became fitting symbols of religious concepts, made use of by God to teach people about sin and salvation.

Redemption has four basic components:

1. Bondage or loss
2. Redeemer
3. Ransom
4. Freedom from bondage (salvation and restoration)

Sin has brought man eternal loss of all good

This loss involves

- loss of rights and privileges
- a dispossession and a foreclosure on what was originally given
- forfeiture of the land (being now a squatter) and a disinheritance
- losing freedom and becoming a slave under hard bondage
- loss of all joy and pleasure

All temporal good is an act of mercy and intended to give man opportunity for redemption and do not disprove the proposition. Although man is not dispossessed from the earth, yet he is dispossessed of much. His present possession of earth and blessing is not his due, but is an act of mercy.

"For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money." (Isa. 52: 3 KJV)

What we have lost by sin is not only possessions, of both body and soul, but have lost ourselves. We are "lost" souls who are bankrupt and in debtor's prison. We got ourselves into this condition - "you sold yourselves." But, it will take the goodness, power, and riches of another to redeem and deliver them. Sinners are "sold under sin." (Rom. 7: 14)

Redemption and Atonement

How is redemption connected with atonement? Through sacrifice! The price paid for release from sin's losses is the life of the sacrificial victim, Jesus "the Lamb of God." As there is no remission or forgiveness of sin apart from "shedding of blood" (Heb. 9:22) so there is no redemption without payment in blood by a competent redeemer.

In scripture it is redemption that secures forgiveness. But, though the legal requirements for redemption and salvation have been met, the effects of such a transaction are not immediate. Not till there is actual release from the bondage and the recovery of what was lost or disinherited is redemption fully effected.

When Christ said "it is finished" while expiring on the cross, he did not mean to imply that redemption or salvation was then completed. Redemption and salvation is first a legal matter, something objective, being something done for the person, but then it is subjective, something done to the person. Both the objective and subjective elements of redemption and salvation create change. In the one case there is a change of legal standing and state, but in the other there is a change of the person's soul or spirit, and eventually of the body. Notice how redemption and forgiveness are tied together in these words from Isaiah the prophet.

"I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee." (Isa. 44: 22)

In what sense is redemption past or already accomplished? In what sense is redemption not yet accomplished? Let us elaborate further.

Redemption is just like salvation in that there is a past, present, and future aspect to it. Several verses in the NT demonstrate this truth.

Instances of deliverance are often styled as instances of redemption.

1. The salvation of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage was an act of redemption.

(Exodus 15: 13; Deut. 7: 8; 13: 5; 15: 15; Psa. 106: 10; Micah 6: 4)

2. Individual deliverance from various troubles

(II Sam. 4: 9; I King 1: 29; Job 5: 20; Psa. 25: 22; Psa. 44: 26; Psa. 72: 14; Isa. 63: 9)

"Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2: 14 KJV)