I’ve been thinking about the word “redeem” lately. Its primary meaning is to gain or regain possession of something in exchange for payment. The Bible makes it clear that the job of the redeemer is to regain, to buy back, to make secure. We see an example of a family redeemer in Boaz, who made Ruth and Naomi secure when he married Ruth. He also secured her first husband’s lineage and inheritance (Ruth 4).
Boaz and Ruth’s grandson was King David. There were many years between David’s anointing as Israel’s next king and his coronation. During that time, he and the men who followed him lived among the Philistines. One day the men returned home to find that their enemies, the Amalekites, had raided their town and destroyed it. They carried off the women and children and everyone else. As the men wept over their lost families, David turned to God for guidance:
Then David asked the Lord, “Should I chase them? Will I catch them?” And the Lord told him, “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!” 1 Samuel 30:8
We, too, have an enemy, a thief whose goal is to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10). You don’t have to live very long on this earth to know that he’s good at it. God sent David’s descendant, Jesus, to go after the enemy and recover everything that was taken. In Him, God made payment to our captors in order to regain possession of those who belong to Him. He extricated us from bondage to sin (Romans 6:6) and released us from the debt that we owed. His life was accepted in exchange for our lives (Mark 10:45). He made our future, our inheritance, secure (1 Peter 1:4). It’s not a temporary situation that can change at any moment. What He has purchased cannot be taken from Him (John 10:28).
Jesus then goes with us to regain possession of everything that has been lost. He helps us recover what we have given away. He goes with us to each enemy who stole from us, and He pays the ransom for what they took. He goes with us to each pawn shop where we traded pieces of our hearts in an effort to gain the world, and He makes payment for what we left there.
After we gather all the scattered, bartered, broken pieces of our hearts, we lay them before the Redeemer to be made whole. Because Jesus doesn’t just pay back, He restores. He puts us back into the condition God intended for us from the beginning. He exerts His unstoppable power to make up for the bad things we’ve done, and to overcome the bad things that have been done to us.
To redeem is also to make good on a claim. To exchange something for its value. When we redeem a coupon, or a gift card, we exchange it for something of value in return. God gave us incomparable worth when He redeemed us with the most precious, most worthy thing in all of the universe. Jesus transfers the value of His life to our account.
This is what it means to be redeemed.
I will tell of the Lord’s unfailing love. I will praise the Lord for all he has done. I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel, which he has granted according to his mercy and love… In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years. Isaiah 63:7,9