How often do we use the terms redemption, atonement, grace, and salvation when talking about Christian things? Yet how many of us can sit down and explain each one of them in a way that would be understandable to a new Christian or an unbeliever? Over the next several months, as time and inspiration permit, I would like to explore some of these terms in such a way so that we can all understand them, be able to explain them, and really appreciate them as representations of our faith. The more we know about God, the closer we will draw to Him, and love Him for who He is. Comments are always welcome, especially if my feeble mind fails to explain something clearly or correctly!
The word redemption comes from the Greek word agorazo and means “to purchase in the marketplace.” Frequently it had to do with the sale of slaves in the marketplace. The word is used to describe the believer being purchased out of the slavemarket of sin and set free from sin’s bondage. The word presupposes slavery; it also presupposes sin. The purchase price for the believer’s freedom and release from sin was the death of Jesus Christ. Because the believer has been bought by Christ, he belongs to Christ and is Christ’s slave. Paul Enns in his Moody’s Handbook of Theology states, “The redeemed are paradoxically slaves, the slaves of God, for they were bought with a price….Believers are not brought by Christ into a liberty of selfish ease. Rather, since they have been bought by God at terrible cost, they have become God’s slaves, to do His will.”
A second word related to the believer’s redemption is exagorazo, which teaches that Christ redeemed believers from the curse and bondage of the law that only condemned and could not save. Believers have been purchased in the slave market (-agorazo) and removed from (ex-) the slave market altogether. Christ set believers free from bondage to the law and from its condemnation (Gal. 3:13; 4:5). Enns states, “A curse rests on everyone who does not fulfill the law; Christ died in such a way as to bear or be a curse; we who should have been accursed now go free…(moreover, this is) a legally based freedom.”
A third term that is used to explain redemption is lutroo which means “to obtain release by the payment of a price.” The idea of being set free by payment of a ransom is prevalent in this word, in such passages as Luke 24:21. Believers have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18) to be a special possession for God (Titus 2:14).
Now let’s notice a few things here. Redemption assumes slavery. You can’t be redeemed if you are not a slave. As a slave to sin, you are the property of sin. It owns you. You sin because it is in you and that is your nature. A slave is helpless; they have no means by which to remove themselves out of their slavery. A slave can’t free themselves no matter how hard they try. They need someone to free them. It is hard for us as 21st century Americans to imagine slavery, and being owned by someone, even despite our history and skin color, because we have generally all lived in this country for so long that we become accustomed to the laws and rights we usually take for granted that protect us from such a condition.
Because of our sin, we were under the sentence of death. We were helpless to save ourselves. God’s righteousness demanded that the debt of our sin must be paid if we were to return to the land of the living. We were without hope apart from a Redeemer. But God provided a substitute to die in our place. Through the blood of that innocent substitute, we were spared. And now we belong to God. He has paid the price of redemption for us.
The result of redemption is that we are free. Redemption, by its very nature, is a very liberating doctrine. We don’t need to ever feel guilty again. And we don’t need to play the “holier than thou” game. God doesn’t grade on the curve. He has already graded on the cross.
