Redeemer

Redemption involves a payment for something. It is an idea that is prominent in society and it is also a common biblical emphasis. Two common ideas from society are mentioned in connection with Jesus. 

First, Jesus redeemed those who were in debt because they had failed to obey God’s commandments. The debt meant that they were liable to divine punishment. Jesus had to pay the penalty of their debts, which he did on the cross, and the penalty was his life.

Second, Jesus redeemed those who were enslaved to a state of sin. It was common for wealthy persons to purchase slaves and redeem them from bad owners. We were slaves to sin and had to be set free from its power as well as its state. Jesus liberated his people from their sins, not by letting them become their own masters, but by him becoming the best Master they could have after he had purchased them by his death.

A third feature of redemption, one that is stressed in the Old Testament, was that of the responsibility of a relative to redeem a family member who had fallen on hard times. The family member may have fallen into poverty because of debt. The relative was known as the kinsman redeemer. Jesus became our kinsman when he became a man. He is our relative who fulfilled his responsibility to be our redeemer.

So the redemption provided by Jesus is an aspect of his work that we should think about because it says a great deal about what he did for us.