Redeemed

We don’t use the word “redeemed” very often these days. Years ago it was used to to describe the process by which we earned money in exchange for returned glass bottles. Now that’s called recycling. But the word redeemed was used in the horrifying process of slavery.

A slave could have been redeemed for cash and set free. The dictionary definition of redeem is 1) compensate for the faults or bad aspects of something, and 2) gain or regain possession of something in exchange for payment.

The Bible explains that Jesus is our Redeemer. We have all sinned, our bad aspects for which He paid the price for us on the cross. So believers become His possession through His redemption.

Some people consider faith in the redemption by Jesus death on the cross to be restrictive and constraining. But the opposite is true, faith in Jesus brings true freedom. Galatians 4:4-7 says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father! So you are no longer a slave, but a son, then an heir through God.” This redemption sets us free from our old slavery to sin. It sets us free from condemnation. It gives us freedom to come boldly to God with our requests.

We can live in this freedom or we can remain dead in our slavery to sin. Galatians 5:1 says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”