Australia’s Largest Christian News Site

We need to consider what a real redemption story looks like.

Of late, the media – or at least the Australian media – has been talking a lot about ‘redemption stories’. They all seem to involve people in the news who may have had a shady past, but have turned things around. Three quick examples can be mentioned:

I just read this headline on an online newspaper: “‘Looking for redemption’: Hawthorn WAG’s fiery finals message to Jai Newcombe”. I don’t really know what that is all about, and wouldn’t know, as it is behind a paywall. And then, former AFL great Ben Cousins got into all sorts of strife for some years, including problems with drug addiction.

Recently, he had been invited to be a guest speaker somewhere, but not everyone was pleased with that, so his speaking engagement was cancelled. Talk shows went back and forth, with some talking heads saying he should not be allowed to speak, while others spoke about people like this being allowed to turn over a new leaf and be given a second chance, and so on.

Perhaps one of the more talked-about episodes concerns a newly appointed One Nation political candidate. It seems he, too, had a shady past, including drug use. Even though he now seems to be a new man, and his grown-up children are supporting him, because he dares to be part of that ‘evil’ One Nation, the sides have been firmly taken.

Lefties, of course, say he is unfit for office and must resign immediately. As usual, double standards abound here. Consider just one case in point: the husband of Federal Labor MP Tanya Plibersek is a convicted heroin smuggler! But no one says she must go because of this. Hypocrites much?

Anyway, with these and other ‘redemption stories’ being discussed in the media and at dinner parties, it is time to remind my readers of what redemption is really all about. And the Bible gives us the full story on just what genuine redemption is, entails, and can do.

Redemption Is More Than Self-Improvement

Before examining the biblical and theological data, a few quick words about what we do NOT mean by redemption. We do not mean becoming a better you. We do not mean lifting yourselves up by your own bootstraps. We do not mean trying harder to be nicer or better. We do not mean ‘having your best life now’ as some dodgy televangelists proclaim.

Self-improvement is simply not on the cards, and that, for the simple reason that we are all selfish sinners who are incapable of properly and fully turning our lives around. Given that the Bible insists that we are all dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1, for example), we need much more than reform or a make-over or self-improvement – we need resurrection. That is something only God can provide.

And given that we are by nature – our fallen nature, that is – at war with God, a declaration of complete and unconditional surrender is our very first need. As C. S. Lewis famously put it in Mere Christianity:

Now what was the sort of ‘hole’ man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who needs to lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the right one—that is the only way out of our ‘hole.’ This process of surrender is what Christians call ‘repentance.’

Or as he put it elsewhere: “Non-Christians seem to think that the Incarnation implies some particular merit or excellence in humanity. But of course, it implies just the reverse: a particular demerit and depravity. No creature that deserved Redemption would need to be redeemed. They that are whole need not the physician.”

The Biblical Meaning of Redemption

First, let me look at the term in question. In the New Testament, various Greek words are used. Here are some of them:

Lutron = ransom (noun), from luo, to loose

Mark 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Antilutron = substitute-ransom (noun)

1 Tim 2:5-6 – For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men – the testimony given in its proper time.

Lutroo = to ransom, redeem (verb)

Luke 24:21 – but we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

Titus 2:14 – who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.

Agorazoo = to buy, purchase (verb)

Matthew 13:44 – The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.

1 Corinthians 6:20 – you were bought at a price. Therefore, honour God with your body.

Exagorazo = to buy up, to redeem (verb)

Galatians 3:13 – Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

Galatians 4:4-5 – But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

As can be seen, an essential feature of the term is the notion of making a payment. A few brief quotes tease this out a bit:

“Redemption points to the payment of a price that sets sinners free. It referred to the practices of warfare. After a battle, the victors would not uncommonly capture some of the vanquished. The poorer ones would almost certainly finish up as slaves, but the men of rank, men who mattered in their own country, would be held to ransom. When the people in the homeland had raised the necessary sum of money, they would pay it to the victors, and the captors were set free. The process was called redemption, the price was called the ransom.” (Leon Morris, Galatians: Paul’s Charter of Christian Freedom)

“The idea of redemption must not be reduced to the general notion of deliverance. The language of redemption is the language of purchase and, more specifically, of ransom. And ransom is the securing of a release by the payment of a price.” (John Murray, Redemption – Accomplished and Applied)

“[W]hen the New Testament speaks of ransom with reference to the work of Christ, the idea is not one of transaction, as though a deal is arranged and a price paid. Rather, the focus is on the power (I Co. 1:18) of the cross to save. … There is no need, then, to ask the question posed so often in the past: To whom was the ransom paid? It is not possible to consider payment to Satan as though God were obliged to meet Satan’s demand or ‘asking price,’ And since the texts speak always of the activity of God in Christ, we cannot speak of God paying himself.” (R. W. Lyon, “Ransom”, in Walter Elwell, ed., Evangelical Dictionary of Theology)

“It would seem best to understand the biblical term ransom as a figure of speech indicating that our redemption is costly.  We sometimes speak of the price which a mother pays when she brings a child into the world, but it would be absurd to ask to whom she pays the price.” (Charles Horne, Salvation)

For those wanting a bit more than just theological definitions, I finish with some impactful, practical and devotional quotes:

• “Jesus Christ is both the only price and sacrifice by which eternal redemption is obtained for believers.” — Jonathan Edwards
• “The heart of the Gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.” — Charles Spurgeon
• “I thought I could have leaped from earth to heaven at one spring when I first saw my sins drowned in the Redeemer’s blood.” — Charles Spurgeon
• “If man had his way, the plan of redemption would be an endless and bloody conflict. In reality, salvation was bought not by Jesus’ fist, but by His nail-pierced hands; not by muscle but by love; not by vengeance but by forgiveness; not by force but by sacrifice. Jesus Christ our Lord surrendered in order that He might win; He destroyed His enemies by dying for them and conquered death by allowing death to conquer Him.” — A. W. Tozer
• “God’s purpose in redemption is to make worshipers out of rebels.” — A. W. Tozer
• “Death reveals that the world is not as it should be but that it stands in need of redemption. Christ alone is the conquering of death.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• “Mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people.” — C. S. Lewis
• “God’s global aim in creation and redemption is not only the glory of his name, but also the gladness of the peoples.” — John Piper
• “We must not offer people a system of redemption, a set of insights and principles. We offer people a Redeemer.” — Paul David Tripp
• “In salvation, we are not only saved from sin and damnation; we are saved unto holiness. The goal of redemption is holiness.” — R. C. Sproul
• “After creation, God said, ‘It is finished’ – and He rested. After redemption, Jesus said, ‘It is finished’ – and we can rest.” — Timothy Keller
• “God undertook the most dramatic rescue operation in cosmic history. He determined to save the human race from self-destruction, and He sent His Son Jesus Christ to salvage and redeem them. The work of man’s redemption was accomplished at the cross.” — Billy Graham

Yes, it is at the cross that we find the one great redemption story.

___

Republished with thanks to CultureWatch. Image courtesy of Adobe.