REDEMPTION

What Does It Mean to be REDEEMED?

REDEEM - to recover ownership of by paying a specified sum.

We all learned in school about the history and horrors of slavery in the early years of our nation.  Slavery was already institutionalized in the earliest civilizations of Mesopotamia (around 3500 BC) and was listed as such in the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BC).  The Hebrews were subjected to slavery before God called on Moses to bring them out of Egypt and lead them to the Promised Land. 

In Jewish culture, there were two types of "slaves".  One is a person who was bound to a master with no rights of their own.  Another is a person who works for someone but they're free to come and go.  It would be like someone in this day and time who would leave home, go to work, and then come home after their shift was over.  This was called a "bondservant".  The Greek word for slave is "doulos" and it is used interchangeably for "slave" and "bondservant".

Click here for further reading about slaves and bondservants.

When slaves were put on the slave auction block, there were two types of people who were there for the auction:  slave masters who would purchase slaves for themselves or those who would purchase their freedom.  The idea of redemption was used specifically in terms of buying a slave's freedom.

In Hosea, God told him to take the prostitute, Gomer, as his wife.  Hosea showed love to Gomer and treated her well, but at one point, Gomer leaves Hosea, goes back to prostitution, and is taken as a slave to a harsh master.  We read that eventually, Gomer is taken to the slave auction to be sold, and Hosea goes and pays the price to "redeem" her back to himself.  In this story, Hosea represents God and Gomer represents Israel.  God wanted to show Israel's unfaithfulness, but also how faithful and loving He is in spite of her unfaithfulness.  But it is also a picture of what happens in our own conversion experience.

In modern-day America, we forget the Bible was written with the perspective of the Jewish culture in view.  And because we don't live in a society like the ancient Jewish culture once was, we've lost what it means to "redeem" something.  I remember my mother getting S & H Green Stamps every time she bought groceries.  She had a book she would put the stamps in and once a book or books were filled, she would take them to a Green Stamp store and turn them in for a household item.  It could be anything from a lamp to a toaster.  The value of the item she picked out was based upon how many books she "redeemed".  The more books she redeemed, the higher in value item she could choose.

The Bible says we are slaves to sin (John 8:34, Romans 6:16).  We know slaves have no freedom.  They are under the control of the one who owns them.  They are told when to eat, what to eat, where to go, when to go, when to work, and when they can stop working.  Their lives are not their own.  As unredeemed sinners, we can only act according to our nature and that nature is sin.

Before coming to Christ, we are like Gomer.  We are owned by satan.  We are slaves to sin.  But God, in His mercy, sent His Son to pay the "ransom" to "redeem" us from our harsh master.

But here's the kicker.  God doesn't redeem all.  He redeems those whom He loves.  See, Hosea didn't pay the slave price for ALL the slaves to be redeemed, he paid the slave price for Gomer ONLY.  He redeemed the one he loved.  In Scripture we read, "We love because God first loved us."  It was because of His love for His Elect that He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay our debt.  We could do nothing on our own to pay for our sins.  It took the sacrifice of Jesus to satisfy that debt.

The Bible says that God wrote down the names of those whom He would save before the foundation of the world.  Read here in Revelation 13:8:

"and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain".

So, God has chosen those whom He loves and would redeem, and wrote their names in the Lamb's Book of Life BEFORE the foundation of the world, and sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay their "ransom" so they may be "redeemed" from the slavery of sin, and be reconciled to God, just as Hosea paid the ransom for Gomer and brought her back to himself.  God will do that with His nation, Israel, and He's doing it with the Gentiles through His plan of salvation.

What does it mean to be redeemed?  It means that God, in His mercy, chose u before the foundation of the world to be set free from the guilt of our sins so that we will live a life wholly devoted to Him as an adopted son/daughter and spend eternity with Him.  We were born slaves but were redeemed to be reconciled and become children of God.