Transcript

When A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the church carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, “Son, where did you get those birds?”

The boy replied, “I trapped them out in the field.” “What are you going to do with them?” “I’m going to play with them, and then I guess I’ll just feed them to an old cat we have at home.” When Gordon offered to buy them, the boy exclaimed, “Mister, you don’t want them, they’re just little old wild birds and can’t sing very well.”

Gordon replied, “I’ll give you $2 for the cage and the birds.” “Okay, it’s a deal, but you’re making a bad bargain.” The exchange was made and the boy ran off happy.

Gordon then walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the birds soar into the blue.

The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ paying for our sins with His own precious blood.

“That boy told me the birds were not songsters,” said Gordon, “but when I released them and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, ‘Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!” That’s what Christ did for us.

We were caged up in our sin and heading for eternal death. But when we believe, Christ, by His shed blood, purchased us and set us free, and we are redeemed!

As we continue our series of key words of our faith, in this episode we’ll take a look at the word “redemption.”

Colossians 1:14 reads, “In Whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

The heart and soul of our faith is that it is a message of redemption. Herbert Locker said it this way, “Redemption is chief among the doctrines of grace for from it all the rivers of grace flow.”

Our Savior has many titles and names. One of the most precious is “Redeemer.” When we say Redeemer, we remember what it cost for Him to save us.

When we say Redeemer, the cross comes into our view and we recall what Christ did when He paid for our sins with His own blood at the Cross.

When we looked at the word “Justification,” the scene for that term is in a courtroom. The word “redemption” takes us to the scene of a slave market.

In the ancient world, men, women and children were regularly bought and sold in slave markets. People were owned, traded, purchased, and put to work.

The word “redemption” was used in relation to the purchasing of slaves in a slave market. In the New Testament, four Greek words are used for the doctrine of redemption. We learn about our redemption in Christ through understanding their meanings.

The first is “agorazo.” This word comes from the Greek word “agora,” which means market place. When Paul was in Athens, Acts 17 records how he disputed “in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the MARKET [or agora] daily with them that met with him” (17:17).

Agorazo in its secular sense, meant to go into the marketplace and to buy something. Applied to redemption, meant to go in and purchase a slave who was on the auction block.

Agorazo is used of the redeemed in 1 Corinthians 6:20: “For ye are bought [agorazo] with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” God has purchased us from the slave market of sin and is now our rightful owner.

The second Greek word used for redemption is “exagorazo.” It simply added the prefix “ex” which means “to take out of,” such as in our word “extract.”

When you add it to agorazo it meant to go into the slave market, to pay the price and to take somebody “out of” the slave market altogether.

In regards to our redemption, it means that once Christ purchased us at the market, He then took us “out of” the market, never again to be put up for sale in any slave market.

Galatians 3:13 uses this Greek word: “Christ hath redeemed [exagorazo] us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”

The curse of the law is death, condemnation, and wrath. As sinners, we are all under the curse of the law. Unable to redeem ourselves we are in a hopeless state under the wrath of God, helpless to satisfy the just demands of the law to gain acceptance with God.

But Christ redeemed us by His Cross. He was made a curse for us by taking all our sins on Himself and dying for us. He paid the price and satisfied God’s just demands, paying the penalty in our place.

We are bought by Christ and “taken out of” the slave market of bondage to the law and being under its curse. Once we belong to Christ, “exagorazo” teaches us that He will never again return us to the slave market. We belong to Christ and we are His forever!

The third Greek word used for redemption is “lutroo.” This word means “to loose, set free, or deliver somebody from captivity through the payment of a ransom.”

The price of a slave’s freedom was called the ransom price. With this type of redemption, the ransom price of a slave was paid on their behalf, and they were then set free, liberated, delivered from bondage and a slave no longer.

Titus 2:14 teaches that Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem [lutroo] us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

Christ paid the price, He “gave Himself for us,” and we have been set free from the bondage of all our sins by His Cross. By the price Christ paid, we are no longer in bondage to our sins. We are free from the penalty of all our sins. He has set us free.

In redemption, the sinner stands before God as a slave, and he receives his freedom by the price Christ paid for our sins.

Christ purchased our freedom at the Cross. Placing your faith in Christ as your Redeemer, Christ tells the believer: “You are no longer a slave. Go free.”

And Titus 2:14 teaches that we have been set free to experience in our lives that for which God created us: fellowship with God and service to God, “that He might…purify unto Himself a peculiar [or special] people, zealous of good works.”

The final Greek word used for redemption is “apolutrosis.” This word has the same root as the last, “lutroo,” but it is strengthened by the prefix “apo,” meaning “away from.”

Christ paid the ransom to set us free the bondage of our sins, and that price He paid and the freedom He has given us takes us far, far “away from” our slavery. We are slaves no more! We are liberated; we are free forever from the penalty and bondage of our sins.

This word is used in Romans 3:24: “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption [apolutrosis] that is in Christ Jesus.” And it is used here in Colossians 1:14: “In Whom we have redemption [apolutrosis] through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

A missionary in West Africa was trying to convey the meaning of the word “redeem” in the Bambara language. So he asked his African assistant to express it in his native tongue.

The assistant replied, “We say, that God took our heads out.” The perplexed missionary asked, “But how does that explain redemption?”

The man told him that many years ago some of his ancestors had been captured by slave-traders, chained together, and driven to the seacoast. Each of the prisoners had a heavy iron collar around his neck.

As the slaves passed through a village, a chief might notice a friend of his among the captives and offer to pay the slave-traders in gold, ivory, silver, or brass.

The prisoner would be redeemed by the payment. His head then would be taken out of his iron collar and he would go free.

Christ died on the cross to purchase our freedom from the bondage of sin. Have you put your trust in Christ as your Redeemer? Let Him take your head out of the enslaving collar of sin and set you free.

As we come into this world, by nature we come in sinful. We are all by nature slaves to sin. Sin is a heavy chain around our neck. It weighs us down; it holds us back. Sin enslaves you and me.

John 8:34 tells us this, “Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant [or slave] of sin.”

Romans 7:14,23 says, “I am carnal, sold under sin…But I see another law in my members…bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

Sin is the captor that holds all people. All are sinners and all are slaves to sin. We are all in the slave market of sin, helpless and hopeless, unable to pay the price to set ourselves free. We need someone to pay the price for us.

Sin demands a price to be paid to release its victim. The price, or the wages, of sin is death, Romans 6:23 says. Ezekiel 18:20 reads, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

And the redemptive price was blood. Hebrews 9:22 tells us, “and without the shedding of blood is no remission.”

The ransom price that had to be paid to set us free from the slave market of sin and forgive our sins was the shedding of blood and death. Someone had to shed their blood and die.

Colossians 1:14 tell us that in Christ we have redemption through His blood. Christ redeemed us. He was our Substitute. Instead of our death, there is His. Instead of our blood, there is His. He paid the price of sin to free the slave, to set us free. He shed His precious blood for us. He died for us.

1 Peter 1:18-19: “…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.”

Paul wrote in Colossians 1:14 “In whom we have redemption” which refers to the previous verse where Paul refers to “His dear Son.” “His dear Son,” means the Son of God’s love.

Our Redeemer is the Son of God’s love. God means for us to feel the weight of that. We receive redemption freely by grace. But our redemption came at great cost to God.

God gave His Son, the Son whom He loves, as the payment for our sins. He sacrificed Him for us. And Christ willingly shed His blood to purchase our redemption.

The bondage of sin holds us captive, and in love and grace, Christ came to this world to buy us out by paying the price for our sins at the Cross. That’s redemption.

Then there’s the redemptive result of Christ shedding His blood, “even the forgiveness of sins.” Since Christ paid the ransom price for all our sins and set us free from them, we have the redemptive result of the forgiveness of all our sins.

What a blessing this is, to be forgiven by God, forgiven of all sins, past, present, and future. Colossians 2:13 says we are forgiven “all trespasses.”

Being set free and forgiven of all our sin means no more need to dwell in the past. No more guilt or shame to haunt you. No more fear of hell. No more dread of answering to God for them. No more price on our heads, no more debt to be paid.

The debt of sin is canceled, the chains of sin are broken forever. The bonds of sin that had bound us and held us back and held us down, are destroyed, shattered, and gone forever.

Colossians 1:14 reminds you of the scapegoat under the law on the Day of Atonement. On that high day, two goats were brought before the high priest. One goat was killed and offered as a sin offering, and its blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat.

The other goat, the high priest put both his hands on that goat’s head and he confessed the people’s sins, and, as it were, he laid all the people’s sins on the head of that goat.

That goat, laden with the sins of Israel, was then taken out and sent into the wilderness, where it could never find its way back again. It symbolized the taking of sin and sending it away, where it would never, ever be seen again. Israel never saw that goat again, and thus never saw its sins again.

That’s what our forgiveness in Christ is like, when we trust Christ as our personal Savior, our sins are sent away, never to return.

Thus, we can never be in bondage to our sins ever again, we can never re-enter the slave market of sin, because our sins have been sent away in Christ, never to return. We are forgiven forever in Him.

Exodus 6:5-8: “And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.

“Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:

“And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

“And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.”

We see a picture of redemption in Israel’s deliverance from bondage in Egypt.

Israel had been in Egypt nearly 400 years after being invited to live there by the Pharaoh of Joseph’s day. Over that period of time, Israel had multiplied and grown strong.

Fearing this foreign people and a possible uprising, Pharaoh oppressed the children of Israel and made them slaves. And he set up harsh task masters over them, “and made their lives better with hard bondage” (Ex. 1:14).

Israel was a nation of slaves, in hard bondage under a harsh task master in Egypt. In their oppression, verse 5 speaks of the “groaning” of the children of Israel and being under the burdens of the Egyptians in verse 7.

But the Lord told Moses to tell the children of Israel that He would bring them out, and rid them, or rescue them out of their bondage.

He said, “I will REDEEM you with a stretched out arm, and with great [or mighty] judgments…I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God.”

Israel needed a redeemer to pay the price necessary to free them from their slavery.

And it was the Lord who would do this for them. They could not free themselves from their harsh bondage. He told them “I will bring you out,” “I will rid you out” of your bondage, “I will redeem you.” There are seven “I will’s” in verses 6-8, which marked God’s personal involvement in Israel’s redemption and certain deliverance to the promised land.

Israel was promised redemption, which consisted of three things: 1) being liberated from slavery, 2) being made God’s own people, 3) being brought to the promised land.

Her redemption had a price, and it was something very familiar: blood and death.

God sent Moses to Pharaoh, to say, “Let my people go.” When Pharaoh refused to free the slaves, God sent “great judgments” or ten mighty plagues on the Egyptians.

The tenth plague resulted in the DEATH of every firstborn male in Egypt. The Israelites were saved from the plague, as God instructed, by shedding the BLOOD and the DEATH of a lamb, and applying its blood to the doorframes of their houses.

The night of the plague, the angel of death “passed over” the houses with the blood applied on the doorframe.

And as a result of this judgment, the Lord “brought them out” of their slavery in Egypt with His outstretched arm, which speaks of His almighty power and strength.

The final step of her deliverance from the Egyptians was the outstretched arm and salvation of the Lord in parting the Red Sea for Israel to cross over on dry land.

After they crossed over, Moses and the children of Israel sang unto the Lord. In that song, they sang, “Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed” (Ex. 15:12-13).

They were redeemed and set free from their slavery. They belonged to the Lord God. And they had the hope of their future in a new home in the promised land.

All this pictures redemption from our sins by the Redeemer. Like Israel, we are all in slavery to sin, in hard bondage under a harsh task master.

Sin is a harsh task master. It is hard bondage being a slave to sin. Sin results in pain and groaning and being under a heavy burden.

It was the Lord that provided their redemption. And as a result of the death and shedding of the blood of a lamb, they were redeemed.

At the Cross, the Lord Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, provided our redemption, and He shed His blood as the payment for our freedom from sin’s bondage.

The Lord brought Israel out in power. Likewise, the Lord brings us out of our slavery to sin with His outstretched arm, by His almighty power and strength in conquering sin and death by His full payment for sin at the Cross and His glorious resurrection.

The blood had to be applied to the doorposts for the firstborn to be saved from the judgment of death. Likewise, the blood of Christ has to be applied to our hearts by faith for us to be redeemed and delivered from the judgment of eternal death.

When we place our faith in Christ, that He died for our sins and rose again, that blood is applied and we are redeemed. We are set free from the powers of sin, death, and darkness.

In Israel’s redemption, they were set free from their slavery. They then belonged to the Lord God. And they had hope of their future in a new home in the promised land.

In our redemption, we are set free from our slavery to sin. We too belong to the Lord God forever. And we have the hope of our future in a new home. But the promised land is not our hope. Heaven is the hope for the Body of Christ. As a result of our redemption, we know we are heaven bound and God will bring us there one day.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Dale Galloway wrote the following: The boy held his little boat and said, “It’s mine, I made it.” But he suffered a keen disappointment.

One day, with exuberant anticipation, he carried his boat he made to the shore of the lake and sailed it on the clear, blue water. The little boat skimmed along as the gentle breeze blew its sails across the rippling waves.

Then suddenly, a gust of wind caught the little boat and snapped the string the boy was holding. Out farther and farther the little boat sailed until at last it vanished from sight. Sadly the boy made his way home—without his prized possession. It was lost.

The weeks and months went by. Then one day as the boy passed a toy shop, something caught his attention. Could it be? Was it really? He looked closer. It was. There in the display window was his own little boat.

Overjoyed, the boy bolted into the store and told the owner about the boat on display. It really belonged to him. He had made it. “I’m sorry,” the shopkeeper said, “but it’s my boat now. If you want it, you’ll have to pay the price for it.”

Sad at heart, the boy left the store. But he was determined to get his boat back, even though it meant working and saving until he had enough money to pay for it.

At last the day came. Clutching his money in his fist, he walked into the shop and spread his hard-earned money on the counter top. “I’ve come back to buy my boat,” the boy said.

The clerk counted the money. It was enough. Reaching into the showcase, the storekeeper took the boat and handed it to the eager boy.

The lad’s face lit up with a smile of satisfaction as he held the little boat in his hands. He looked at it and said, “You’re mine, twice mine. Mine because I made you, and now, mine because I bought you.”

That’s the truth of our redemption. We are twice God’s. We are the Lord’s both by creation and redemption.

We are His because He made us and we are His because we have been bought with a price by the blood of Christ which He shed as the payment for all our sins at the Cross.

The truth about our redemption is also very practical. We have been purchased at a tremendous cost. We are to remember the price of our redemption, and the love of our Redeemer, as a motivation to live for the Lord out of gratitude.

Our life is not our own. All of us, body and spirit, have been bought and belong to God. So our purpose should be to glorify and honor God in our body and spirit, which are God’s.

The grace of God in our redemption should transform our lives.