Living in Redemption
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
God Wants Us to Live in Redemption
Redemption is an older English term that is not used as frequently today. It’s not a common word today.
Redemption is Rooted in the Old Testament
When a concept is rooted in the Old Testament, you have to look at it in light of the ancient Hebrew understanding of words. In Hebrew, and in the Eastern way of thinking, it’s quite a bit different from how we think of it in our culture.
In our culture, we want a specific definition of what a word means. But in the Hebrew way of looking at a concept, it’s not static; it has a movement to it.
You can say we have been redeemed, we are being redeemed, and we will be redeemed. There’s a constant flow of what redemption is talking about.
God truly desires for us to understand that, when He uses the word “redeemed,” He is referring to a continuous process of being redeemed.
Let’s look at this past-present-future idea in three different verses.
Past:
Ephesians 1:7 KJV:
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Present:
Titus 2:14 KJV:
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Future:
Romans 8:23 KJV:
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
We have redemption, and we are in a process of redemption, and we will have full redemption in the future.
Redemption is from Something to Something
It’s not enough to know what we were redeemed from; we need to know what we are redeemed to.
- We are redeemed from death to life.
- We are redeemed from slavery to freedom.
- We are redeemed from being strangers and foreigners and without hope in this world to citizenship and sonship.
- We are redeemed from darkness to light.
The point is to get to the “to” part.
Colossians 1:12–14 KJV:
12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet [adequate] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: 14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
You can think of redemption as a five-step program.
Step 1: We were bought with a price.
Galatians 4:3–5 KJV:
3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
When Israel was in Egypt they were in bondage. So were we:
Ephesians 2:2 KJV:
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
1 Peter 1:18–19 KJV:
18 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; 19 But with the precious [costly] blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
Step 2: It had to be performed by a kinsman redeemer.
The price couldn’t be paid by just anyone.
In the Old Testament, Naomi told Ruth that she needed to find a kinsman redeemer who could buy back for them the land that they had lost. She finds Boaz, who is the picture of the kinsman redeemer. Boaz is a type of Christ. He has the ability, as a kinsman, to redeem the land. He’s willing to redeem the land. And he is willing to pay the price. But in the process of redeeming the land, he also redeems Ruth. And Ruth becomes the grandmother of David.
Ruth was redeemed from being broke with no inheritance, a gentile having no hope in this world, to a blessed daughter of Israel with a beautiful marriage and becoming part of the Christ line.
Step 3: We were snatched out and rescued.
One of the definitions for the word “redeemed” in the Old Testament is “to snatch out.”
Psalm 34:1, 4 KJV:
1 I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth…. 4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalm 107:6 KJV:
Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
Imagine being on a fast-moving train that has just derailed, and just before it plunges over the high mountain cliff, you are snatched away, out of the train. That’s snatched. And that’s how God snatches us out of our stress.
Colossians 1:13 KJV:
Who hath delivered [snatched] us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
2 Corinthians 1:9–10 KJV:
9 But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
Again, we see the past-present-future quality of this deliverance or redemption.
Step 4: We are brought into sonship.
We received forgiveness of sins, a wiping out of the reason we were in bondage and separated from God.
Galatians 4:5–7 KJV:
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
We were redeemed from slavery into sonship. “Adoption,” in the Roman culture, was stronger than sonship.
When God says that we can use the name of Jesus Christ, it’s as though we have his signet ring.
Step 5: To have a life of freedom.
This is also ongoing.
We should not stop in the process.
When Joshua crossed over the Jordan, that was a type of our getting born again. What’s the first thing they saw when they crossed over? Jericho! And it caused them great fear. They also saw all the different tribes of people that occupied the lands. Those people in the land, the “ites,” were similar to what we face. We need things, healing, financial deliverance, and so on. We could just stand there, look at the problem, and throw up our hands, much like Israel did when they saw Jericho. But God told Joshua to be strong and of a good courage because wherever they stepped was already given to them.
Hebrews 13:5–6 KJV:
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
In Aramaic, it is “I will not leave you and my hands will not relax hold of you.” It also means that His hands will not hang down and do nothing.
We can wander around in the wilderness, mumbling and complaining like the Israelites did, or we can live in our redemption.
YouTube Redeemed By the Blood of the Lamb:
Romans 8:31–39 KJV:
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are no longer in the course of this world, under the authority of the prince of the power of the air.
We were bought by a kinsman redeemer who snatched us out of the train wreck, and put us in a relationship with God as our Father, and with Jesus Christ as our big brother, for a life of freedom. That’s redemption!
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