What is the meaning of Christian redemption?

If, however, God is able to justify the believer in righteousness and grace, there must be some adequate ground for God to thus act. This is now brought before us; it "is through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". Redemption is the act which, through the payment of a price, frees the sinner from all the liabilities under which he has fallen. Redemption does a great deal more than set us free from our sins; it includes the setting free of the body from death and disease, and this involves a body of glory like Christ's. Redemption in its fulness frees from guilt, judgment, death, and the power of the enemy, and brings us back to God in glory, with and like Christ. In that glory, when the work of redemption is complete, the assembled hosts will say to Christ "Thou art worthy … for Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood". (Rev. 5:9).

We are also REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD of CHRIST. This is repeatedly set forth in the word of God. "In whom we have redemption through His blood," etc. (Eph. 1:7.) "Forasmuch as ye know," says Peter, "that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold … but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Peter 1:18-19.) The Lord Himself expresses the same truth when He says, "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life [for the life is in the blood] a ransom for many." (Matt. 20:28.) The meaning of "ransom" is, a price paid for redemption, while redemption signifies the buying back, and consequently deliverance from a state of captivity or bondage. Redemption, therefore, effects a complete change of state, and thus we are reminded of what we were, and of what through grace, in the provision of the precious blood of Christ, we have become. This truth may be illustrated by the redemption (whatever the difference of its character) of the children of Israel out of Egypt. They were under the iron yoke of Pharaoh; their lives made "bitter with hard bondage" — type of the natural condition of man. But God interposed on behalf of His people, and He smote the land of Egypt with plague after plague. At last judgment was pronounced upon all the first-born, whether of man or of beast, in the land. The question of sin having been raised, Israel was as liable to the judgment as Egypt. How then could God righteously screen His people while smiting the Egyptians? The answer was found in the blood of the lamb, type of the blood of Christ, which by God's own command was sprinkled upon their houses. "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." (Ex. 12:12-13.)

After man's sin, and before God's judgment of him and it, at the great white throne, Christ steps in, bears sin, and is made sin on the cross; sustains God's judgment in respect thereof, fully satisfies all the claims of God's righteous throne, makes propitiation, or atonement, and effects redemption for every poor sin-stained soul that trusts in Him. Mark, redemption and purchase are not the same. If I buy a slave, the slave is mine, and is still a slave. If I redeem a slave I take him out of the condition in which he was a slave, and the moment I redeem him, he is a slave no longer, but a free man through the redemption which I have effected — perhaps at a great cost to myself — but which he now rejoices in. Mere purchase would still leave his fetters on him, but redemption means their being for ever knocked off and the man set free.

Now this is exactly what the Gospel does: it delivers the sinner who believes from the righteous judgment of God — Christ having borne it — and from the present power of Satan — Christ having overcome him. What a blessed Redeemer! and what a redemption! Who would not have Him and it when both are to begotten by faith?

Verse 14 is just as absolute as to present, accomplished blessing as are verses 12 and 13. All believers "have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Redemption is the total liberation of the person from bondage by means of a price paid, the price of the blood of Christ. Forgiveness of sins is a complete discharging of those things by which we had offended our Creator. Nothing is held against us, for the blood of Christ has answered for it all.

Redemption is the other line of truth, closely akin to "purchase", but applicable only to those who have in repentance and faith, received the Lord Jesus as Savior. "We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1:7). This is much more than "purchase." lf a slave has merely been bought, it usually means that he becomes the slave of the purchaser. However, if he is redeemed he is not only bought, but set fully free. Believers have been liberated from the guilt of their sins and from the bondage of sin by the precious blood of Christ. Simply by receiving Christ into the heart, this liberty becomes effective. Wonderful liberty of grace!

The sin-bound sinner must therefore look outside of himself for deliverance. A Redeemer has stepped forward in the person of the Only-begotten Son of God, the redemption price being His own most precious blood. This having perfectly satisfied the claims of God's throne, gives the Redeemer the right to set free all who look to Him in the simplicity of faith. Believers are entitled to say, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1). Over all such, sin has lost its power, and Satan his authority. They delight to yield themselves servants to righteousness to holiness, and have become the willing bondservants of God and the Lord Jesus. They serve in liberty of spirit, love being their governing motive from first to last. Perhaps the finest example of this in the New Testament is Paul the Apostle.

Christ's redemption includes the body as well as the soul; but for its application to the body the believer has to wait until His return from heaven. Hence the groaning of which we read in Rom. 8:23, which has reference solely to the present condition of the body. Even though the Father's love be fully enjoyed, and though identification with Christ in His present glory be sweetly experienced; still the Christian is constrained to groan. The body is yet unchanged, it is liable to suffering and death; and it clogs the spirit in its aspiration after full conformity to Christ's image. In a moment this will cease at Christ's coming, and the believer will find himself, body, soul, and spirit, before the throne of God, from every hindering influence set free for ever.

It is not only satisfaction made by Christ for sins committed, and glorifying God in His work — the basis, indeed, of all — but the deliverance of the person who was in sin, even as when Israel was brought out of Egypt. The blood had stayed the hand of God in judgment; the hand of God in power delivered them for ever at the Red Sea. Whatever they may have been, they were for that time with God who had guided them to His holy habitation.

Doubtless, when we come to the characteristic truth of the New Testament, redemption has another sphere; and where is this found? Unquestionably it is believers, Jew or Gentile, the church of God. Hence, whether you take up the Ephesians or any part of the later scriptures, where redemption is treated of as a present thing, this is the language: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" or offences (Eph. 1:7). It is not, therefore, merely a manifestation of grace which may be despised and ineffectual; it is an unfailing work, a delivering operation, a blessing that is actually conferred and possessed: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." It is not merely that we have been purchased through the price paid, which may or may not be owned by our souls. That is, there may be persons bought that are unrenewed, and they may turn out rebels against His rights Who bought them (denying, as it is said, the Master that bought them). It is not so with redemption; here it is an actual, known, and enjoyed blessing, if you speak of the soul. It is true, however, that it is not confined to the soul. In the same chapter of the same Epistle to the Ephesians we read of the redemption of the purchased possession. Here it looks at the inheritance, when the body also shall be changed in the day of redemption. Compare Eph. 4:30. As believers in the Lord Jesus now, through His precious blood we have our sins as completely gone as in the day of judgment. It is a mistake to suppose that only then will be the decision of the great question. He that believes on God's Son is not judged; but he that believes not is already judged, because he has not believed on the name of the Only-begotten Son of God. "And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, for their works were evil." The object of that day will be to manifest all, and to execute judgment on the unbelieving. It is now or never that in Christ we have life and forgiveness. "By Him," as it is said, "all that believe are justified from all things," not merely shall be. If you speak of life, it is just the same thing: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." It is a present thing. So redemption, the forgiveness of sins, is an actual state of possessed deliverance through faith in Christ and His work.

Observe, moreover, before we have done with this, that later on we have another redemption, that "of the purchased possession," and a very different thing. We have redemption as far as the forgiveness of sins is concerned: we are waiting for redemption as concerns the inheritance, which depends on the coming of Christ in order to take it actually under His government. The purchased possession has to do with the inheritance, not merely with what affects our souls. As for the soul, we have redemption now as completely as we ever can have it; which we do well to bear in mind. The believer cannot be more forgiven than now, nor could God do more to put away sin than He has done already. He has given His Son, and the blood of His Son is shed, and it is impossible that God Himself could do more to blot out sin from before His face. What a comfort for our souls! If we think of our sins, we may also enter into the comfortable assurance that all our guilt is gone from before God. We may fall into sin, for it does exist; but it remains a source of self-judgment, instead of a fearful looking for of judgment by and by.

In tracing the narrative in our chapter, we shall see that all is accomplished by the power of God. It is redemption by power. In Egypt it was redemption by blood. In Christ crucified, risen and ascended, we have both. "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." The blood must be the basis of all our blessing. "Without the shedding of blood is no remission." But we want more than remission of sins; we need to be brought to glory, and it is the work of Jesus to "bring many sons to glory." It needed the power of God to bring those who had been sheltered by blood, not only clean out of Egypt, but to deliver them from Pharaoh and the Egyptians, by bringing them through death and judgment on entirely new ground. Just as we are now, in Christ risen, not only rescued from this present evil world, but delivered from the dominion of sin and Satan, and put on entirely new ground, the other side of death. Looking back upon the cross, we see it has all been accomplished through death and judgment-, so that death and judgment are now behind us; risen life in Christ possessed by us, for we are risen with Christ; and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We, who were of the world, in our sins, in the flesh, and it may be under law, are now spoken of in Scripture as "not of the world," "washed from our sins," "not in the flesh," "not under law," but "in Christ." All this may be traced in this scene of the Red Sea, the waters of death, forming to man's eye an insuperable barrier to his ever entering the land. But by the power of God the waters of the Red Sea were divided so as to form a dry path, with a liquid wall on either side. The children of Israel were commanded to "go forward." All now that was needed was faith, in order to avail themselves of the value of this work of God, to pass through according to His word. This they did. "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land." They gladly accepted God's way of deliverance. "The children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand, and on the left." Thus they crossed the Red Sea. But what of their enemies which they so feared? The very work of God that was to His people their deliverance and salvation, was the very work that for ever put away through death and judgment their enemies from their sight, so that they never saw them living afterwards. And does not all this bring home forcibly to our soul's remembrance the accomplished work of Jesus? When we think of deliverance from sin and Satan, death and judgment, where do we look? Did He not "through death destroy him that had the power of death," which is the Devil? Was not our "old man" — the flesh, with its mighty hosts of affections and lusts, crucified with Him? And now, having life in Him who is out of death, risen with Christ, cannot we see death and judgment behind us, as surely as Israel saw the tumultuous waves of the Red Sea rolling behind them instead of before them?