Redemption

Miles McKee Ministries

PO Box 541, Kingston Springs, TN 37082

REDEMPTION

By Miles McKee

“Redeemed ones are no more their own.

Your time is redeemed; use it as a consecrated talent in His cause.

Your minds are redeemed; employ them to learn His truth and, to meditate on His ways.

Your feet are redeemed; let them trample on the world.

Your tongues are redeemed; let them only sound His praise, and testify to His love, and call sinners to His cross.

Your hearts are redeemed; let them love Him wholly, and have no seat for rivals.

Henry Law

"I believe that, at this present time, we are in great danger of being burdened with a crowd of so-called converts who do not really know anything as it ought to be known. They attended a meeting, were much excited, and thought they were converted; but just ask them to explain to you the simplest truths of the gospel, and you will soon discover how little they know. Could they explain the three R's, ruin, redemption, and regeneration? Do they know what the ruin is? Do they know what the remedy for that ruin is? Do they understand at all what it means to be born again? Do they comprehend what the new nature is, or what "justification by faith" means. Perhaps someone says, "They do not comprehend your theological terms." I do not mind whether they know the meaning of the terms that are familiar to many of us; but do they know the truths themselves? There is a certain degree of Christian knowledge which is absolutely necessary to salvation."
Charles H. Spurgeon

“Through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom.3: 24)

Another one of God’s really big words is the word redemption. We have already discussed, in chapters 1 and 2, Justification and Propitiation. Both these, like redemption, are salvation words and by looking at them we learn that salvation is so immense that one word alone could not possibly explain the breadth, depth and height of the work which God has undertaken on our behalf. As John Angell James said,

“Salvation! What a word! And what a blessing! One word—but containing millions of ideas. It is the whole Bible, condensed into a single term. God's eternal councils; Christ's redeeming work; the Spirit's sanctifying power; all the riches of divine grace, and all the blessings of eternal glory, are in substance comprehended in those few syllables. That one word is a boundless, fathomless ocean of blessedness—like the love that originated the wondrous fruit of redeeming mercy, it passes knowledge. All that preachers have said; all that authors have ever written; all that Christians have ever felt, imagined, hoped for, in regard to salvation, leave its full meaning yet to be explained. It can be comprehended only in heaven! It can be developed only in eternity!”

John Angell James: Cpt 5, Christian Hope, 1859

Viewing salvation in it’s totality, we see it as the work which God does in bringing man from his lostness to his final destiny in grace and glory. Redemption is a vital part of this undertaking and it shines like a sparkling jewel in the treasury of God’s grace.

CREATION AND REDEMPTION

In the Old Testament, God’s picture book, there are many passages of scripture from which we learn about this wonderful subject of redemption. Not the least of which is God’s instructions to Moses about the building and functions of the Tabernacle. Indeed God spent forty days directing Moses how to make the Tabernacle and a further thirty days were added to tell him how to arrange its redemptive services. It should be remembered that it took only six days for God to create the heavens and the earth. Would it then be unfair to say, along with some of the puritans, that Redemption is therefore a more glorious work than Creation? Think of it like this, is it more important for a man to have his sins forgiven than for him to have nice scenery to look at and a pleasant world to die in? What, after all, is the point in being buried on a beautiful hillside somewhere, underneath an oak tree, overlooking a lazy river if you have died and gone to Hell?

WHY READ THE OLD TESTAMENT TO FIND NEW TESTAMENT TRUTH?

Why indeed? If the Old Testament is only God’s picture book why even bother to stop and contemplate its pictures, types and shadows when we have the reality in Christ? Why, in fact, bother with shadows when we have the full light of the gospel?

Many reasons can be given. Not the least of them is the fact that the New Testament tells us explicitly that, “whatsoever things were written aforetimes (the Old Testament) were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). Among other things it should also be remembered that in the ancient ceremonies of the Old Testament we see the beginnings of redemptive truth. In fact, it could be argued that just as the Old Testament cannot be understood without the New so the New Testament cannot be understood without the Old. Concerning the two Testaments, the old adage has it, “The New is in the Old contained and the Old is in the New explained.”

PAYMENT FOR DELIVERANCE

Among the many and varied meanings of redemption in the Old Testament is the idea that redemption was a deliverance by the paying of a price. In Leviticus 25 we read of how people upon getting into financial trouble could sell their property to pay their debt. They could then, at a later date, buy themselves or their property back or if unable to do so a near relation could pay for them. In other words, their relative or kinsman could make a payment for their deliverance. This was a form of redemption.

THE KINSMAN REDEEMER

The person who paid for the impoverished relation was called a kinsman redeemer. In the book of Ruth, one of the most delightful stories of the Old Testament, we encounter a vivid picture of how such a kinsman redeemer performed this function.

The story is as follows. A lady called Naomi and her husband Elimelech fell on hard times and left Israel to resettle in the land of Moab. All went well for a while, then tragedy struck. Elimelech died and Naomi was left a widow. However, all was not lost for they had had two sons who were young, healthy and of marrying age. These young men eventually married taking two of the local Moabite girls as their wives. Then, just as they all thought they had turned the corner, disaster suddenly struck when the grim reaper of death un-mercifully took the brothers Mahlon and Chilon. Broken-hearted and impoverished, Naomi decided to return to Israel and much to her surprise one of her daughters-in-law Ruth pleaded to be allowed to go back with her. And that is only the beginning of the adventure.

So far there is not much delight in this story but if we consider these things and what happens afterwards we will find the story is packed with gospel truth that gives us much insight about this important matter of redemption.

MEANWHILE...BACK AT THE RANCH..,

While all these things were befalling Naomi and Ruth there was back in Bethlehem, in Judea, a man called Boaz. Boaz was a wealthy and influential business man but more than that he was a near kinsman to the unfortunate Naomi and Ruth. Now to be a kinsman redeemer, a man needed three things.

1. The right or authority to redeem - He needed to be a kinsman....someone who was related by blood...a family member.

2. The power and ability to redeem - He needed to have the wherewithal to perform his task.

3. Willingness to redeem - There was no absolute obligation on anyone to redeem the unfortunate so the qualified kinsman had to also be willing to undertake the task.

A PICTURE OF CHRIST

Boaz, then, as kinsman redeemer is an obvious type or picture of the Lord Christ. Christ had these same three qualities. He had the right, power and willingness to redeem His people. He became our near kinsman at His birth. Of course this birth, or incarnation as it is properly called, had been prophesied and alluded to many times in scripture, (see Isa. 41:14 “I will help thee saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer”, Isa 43:14 “Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel”, Isa 44:6 “Thus saith the lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts I am the first and I am the last and beside me is no God”, Isa 44:24 “I have redeemed thee”, Isa 49:7 “Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer”, see also Isa 54:5, Isa 59:20, Isa 60:16, etc ).

Perhaps, these scriptures do not at first reading immediately suggest the Incarnation but each time, in these passages, when God is referred to or refers to Himself as the Redeemer, the word used is the Hebrew word for kinsman redeemer -- “go’el”-- whose work it was to pay the ransom. To be qualified, then, to redeem, the Lord, as prophesied, had to become one of us. He became a human being and this gave Him the relationship and thus the right to redeem as the kinsman redeemer.

Christ also had to have the power to redeem. Isa 60:16 makes it clear that he had all the power he needed for he says, “I the Lord am thy savior, and thy redeemer (go’el), the mighty one of Jacob” Jesus was well able to redeem His people as their kinsman redeemer. He is The Mighty One. All authority has been given unto Him in heaven and on earth (Matt.28:18). He has been given a name above all other names (Phil.2:9-11) and He is seated in cosmic authority (at the Fathers right hand) as Governor of the universe (Heb1:3).

Christ also had the willingness to redeem; but just as with Boaz, Christ had no obligation to redeem any one. How many times have we heard preachers say, “If you had been the only one here on earth, Christ would have had to come for you.” WRONG!!!!. He didn’t have to come for anyone. After all we had made the mess and had dug our own graves. We were in total opposition to God and opposed His salvation. If He had stayed in heaven He would have remained perfectly just. Rather, He came because He wanted to come. To redeem His people was not an expression of His sense of duty, but rather an outworking of His great love, mercy and kindness.

RUTH

Poor Ruth! She had nothing. She was a childless widow in a penniless family. More than that she was a Moabitess and these Moabites were known for their hatred of God’s people. Children of Lots incest, they had always despised Israel. One of their kings had even once gone as far as to hire the renegade prophet Baalam to curse the people of the Lord. This was Ruth’s heritage. She was a child of sin, living in the midst of a God hating people. She didn’t know about Boaz. She didn’t even know he existed. But in God’s ordering of events she and Boaz were destined to meet and become one.

It is much like us really, “you who were far off hath he brought nigh (Eph 2:13) Each one of us were at one time separated from God. We hadn’t got a clue. We were “without Christ, being aliens....and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the World” Eph 2:12

BETHLEHEM

Back to our story, Ruth and Naomi eventually made their weary way to Bethlehem and upon arrival, Ruth went out to the nearby fields and began the work of gleaning. In ancient times in Israel, the law demanded that not all the crop be taken out of the field but that there should be some deliberately left for the poor and the strangers (Lev 19:9, Deut. 24:21). They (the poor and the strangers) were to be allowed to glean from the crop by taking the surplus which had been left for them.

As it happened the field in which Ruth chose to glean belonged to Boaz. In much the same way that the sinner is ignorant of Christ, she was, at this stage, ignorant of the fact that the owner of the field was the very one who could legally help her. Boaz now noticed her and asks who she is, and is informed she is Naomi’s daughter-in-law. He hears her story, is impressed, asks her to stay in his fields and assures her that by doing so she will be well provided for.

Later Ruth informs Naomi of all that had happened and Naomi in turn tells her that Boaz is a near kinsman. She goes on to instruct her that that evening she should go and lie down at Boaz feet and ask him to spread his raiment over her. Literally in the Hebrew she was to ask him to spread “thy wing over me”. The judicious commentator Adam Clarke says, “The wing was an emblem of protection and is a metaphor taken from the young of fowls which run under the wings of their mothers that they may be saved from the birds of prey.” (Clark’s Commentaries on the Bible)

In the Hebrew culture, this was, in reality, a marriage proposal. Ruth proposed and Boaz accepted.

TROUBLE WITH THE IN-LAWS

However, a problem arose in that, there was a kinsman more closely related to Ruth than Boaz. It was he who would have first claim to her. If he wanted to, he could redeem Ruth’s dead husbands lost inheritance and take her into his family.

A meeting was called the next day with ten elders as witnesses and Ruth’s story was told to the nearer kinsman. This gentleman however, announced to the assembly that he was in no position to carry out the function of a kinsman redeemer. “I cannot redeem it” he declared and thus the way was left open for Boaz.

GOSPEL GLASSES

The careful reader will find all manner of Gospel instruction in that scene. The law had a prior claim to the sinner just as there was someone with prior claim to Ruth. Also, 10 elders judged Ruth’s case much in the same way as the 10 commandments judge the sinner. Finally, the law could not redeem anyone related to it (Rom 8:3) just as the nearest kinsman could not redeem Ruth.

The law can redeem no one. It is a kinsman condemner not a kinsman redeemer. No amount of legalized behavior can redeem a lost inheritance. We need a kinsman redeemer with the will, ability and power to redeem us and we have Him in the Lord Jesus Christ.

WHAT BOAZ DID FOR RUTH

1. He gave her an earnest or down payment (3:15).

Boaz gave her six measures of barley. The number six is significant in that it falls just short of the number of perfection--- 7. We as believers are neither perfected nor glorified yet. We have not yet attained total victory over sin. Our perfection resides in Heaven in the person of the Lord Christ.

2. He finished the work 3:18-4:1-11

Boaz pledged to redeem Ruth and that is exactly what he did. The Lord Christ came to save His people from their sins and that is what He did. He hung upon the cross and paid for the redemption of His people with His own blood. He accomplished His work of redemption and finished His work.

3. Boaz made Ruth his own and gave proof of their union. (4:13)

Ruth started off at Boaz’s feet and was then by his side. We start off at Christ’s feet and are raised to sit together with him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6). Out of the union between Ruth and Boaz a child was born. They called him Obed, a name which means worship. Worship is always born out of the union with Christ and the believer. (Rom 12:1-2, Phil 3:3, John 4:23)

Ruth’s experience in Moab was first plenty, then death, then bitterness, barrenness and poverty. Sin is always pleasurable for a season but IT ALWAYS ENDS UP IN DEATH (James 1:15, Heb 11:25, Prov. 14:12).

She met a kinsman redeemer who delivered her by paying a price and this brought her to a place of plenty. Likewise Christ became flesh and blood to become our near kinsman so that He could redeem us and bring us to a place of plenty.

A BAG OF ORANGES AND HALF A DOZEN SLAVES PLEASE!

Of course the kinsman redeemer gives us only one aspect of the truth of redemption. There are many other pictures of redemption not the least of which has to do with a slave market. One of the instructive words for redemption in the New Testament is “Agorozo” which means to purchase in the market place. In the ancient world you could go to the market place, buy fruit and vegetables and when that was done you could go over to the corner of the market place and buy a slave to cook them.

Christ, as it were, has walked into the slave market of life and paid for us with His own blood (see Rev.5:9 “for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by Thy blood”, and 1Cor 6:20 “for ye are bought with a price”)

Romans 7:14 says “I am carnal sold under sin” so when John says of Christ “Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by Thy blood” (Rev.5: 9) the picture is one of Christ walking into the slave market and buying or ransoming people who were slaves of sin. He purchased our freedom with His blood so that we no longer are slaves. Redemption brings freedom. But consider this, many a slave on the auction block found himself being bought only to remain a slave to a new and more wicked master. He was purchased but not redeemed. When Christ, however, redeemed us we walked away free men. We are now the Lords freemen and no longer slaves to bondage.

RANSOM

We cannot fully understand this business of redemption without coming to terms with the idea of ransom. In the ancient world a Greek slave could obtain his freedom by paying a ransom for himself. This did not happen frequently as it involved the slave taking what little money he had and depositing it in the local temple. Eventually after years of scrimping and saving he would collect enough cash to pay the ransom. At that time he would take his master to the temple, where his money was on deposit, and there the priest paid the master the purchase price of the slaves freedom. This was the ransom. From that time on the slave became the property of the god of that temple and was declared free from all men. He was free from service to anyone other than his god.

BROKE AND BANKRUPT

Similarly the Apostle Paul constantly refers to himself as the servant (bond slave) of Jesus Christ. Like Paul, the believer is no longer the servant of men. He is the servant of the One who purchased and paid his release with a ransom. We had been “sold under sin” but, unlike the slave of old, no amount of labor or effort on our part could pay the ransom needed for our release. There was nothing we could contribute.....we were broke and bankrupt. But Christ came and gave, “His life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). He, “redeemed” (ransomed) us not with “silver and gold” but with HIS OWN BLOOD (I Peter 1:18).

There is further insight in the Matt 20:28 statement, “The Son of Man----came to give His life a ransom for many.” The word, ‘for’ is the Greek word “anti” and means “in place of” or “instead of”. Christ therefore gave His life in place of and instead of those He redeemed. He paid Himself as a ransom!

RANSOM PAID TO WHOM?

Now this raises a question. To whom was the ransom paid? This is a question able theologians have argued about through the years and among them many good points have been raised.

There have been many and varied suggestions offered most of which we don’t have to mention. There is, however one ludicrous suggestion that has been made which says that the ransom was paid to the devil. I beg to disagree. The devil owns nothing, created nothing and never had a new idea in his life. He is not sovereign. He is not the Almighty...why anyone should think of him as being anything other than a doomed rebel is beyond me.

THE GOSPEL HAS THE ANSWER

Well then, to whom was the ransom paid? I believe the answer is found in the gospel. If you remember, in Chapter One of this volume, on Justification, you might recall how we related that God’s Law said kill the sinner while God’s Love said save him. The question then was how could both the Justice and the Love of God be satisfied. The Law of God justly demands a penalty for sin and the Love of God provides it. The Justice of God says the sinner must die unless a substitute dies in his place and the Love of God provides the substitute. God’s dilemma was solved at a place called Calvary where the justice of God shot bolts of judgment into the God/Man Jesus Christ. The Love of God absorbed these bolts. Our substitutes’ blood was poured out and God’s love ransomed our lives from the law of God. And that is why God can now declare us righteous apart from the law.

THE VERY HEART OF THE GOSPEL

The ransom has been paid and God’s justice has been satisfied. Romans 3:26 says it this way, “that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” This word, “just” conveys the very heart of the Gospel. It shows us that God could not flippantly abandon His standard. Sinners could not be forgiven on a mere whim and a wave of the royal scepter. Indeed, the death of Christ shows us that God’s law could not be violated without awful consequences. If guilty sinners were to escape their just deserts a substitute must be found to take their full punishment. Otherwise they must certainly die.

The cross shows us that God has never backed down on His threats. He hasn’t changed. He is still The Holy God. He still hates sin. However, the cross of Christ and its payment of ransom demonstrate very clearly that God has remained true to His character and has refused to violate His integrity. God, because of the doing and dying of Christ, can treat the unworthy sinner as being innocent and fully righteous and yet can retain His pure and Holy character in doing so.

NOT FOR RESALE

There is yet another word for redemption. It’s the Greek word Exagorazo (Gal.3:13,4:4-5) Just as Agorozo means to purchase, Exagorazo means to purchase and take out of the market place. When the item was purchased or redeemed in this manner it was not for resale.

On the cross Jesus Christ cried out “It is finished.” This means the purchase was made once for all. The ransom has been paid and will never again be demanded. We are taken off and out of the market and will never be offered up for sale again. Is it any wonder then that St. Paul wrote, “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor death, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.” Rom 8:38-39.

We are redeemed because someone paid the price for us. We are redeemed, not because we felt something or experienced something. We are redeemed because the Lord Christ bought and paid for us with His own blood. We are His purchased possession. He owns us. We have been bought with a price. We have been redeemed. Is it any wonder then that the hymn writer can declare

“Redeemed how I love to proclaim it,
Redeemed by the blood of the lamb:
Redeemed by his infinite mercy,
His child and forever I am”.

CHRIST OUR REDEMPTION

Finally, Romans 3:24 tells us that our redemption is “in Christ Jesus”. He didn’t just come to pay the ransom, He came to be the ransom. He came not only to be the Redeemer, but also to be our actual Redemption. In Ephesians 1:7 we read again, “In whom we have redemption through His blood.......” and we see that in 1 Corinthians 1:30 Christ is made unto us .....redemption” . These are powerful scriptures for again they tell us that we have redemption, not because we have had an experience, but because we have a Redeemer who gave Himself as an acceptable sacrifice in our stead. Our redemption, is not because we had something wonderful happen to us, our Redemption, in reality, is objectively found in Christ. Christ became our redemption when He took our sins and paid our ransom with His own blood by the sacrifice of Himself. He is our ransom and our redemption. The weakest saints can now look to Him and see that their redemption is accomplished and secure. God’s people can cease from striving for the Holy Judge of all the earth continually looks on the person of His Beloved Son and is well pleased. Christ now stands before the Throne as our mediator and does so as the acceptable redeemer, Himself the ransom, who purchased His own people with His own blood.

Permission is given by the author, Miles McKee, to copy this article if it is done in its entirety without any changes.

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