What is redemption?
Question 07029
Redemption is one of the richest words in the New Testament’s vocabulary of salvation. It draws on the world of the marketplace and the world of slavery to describe what God has done for those who trust in Christ, and it carries the weight of a completed transaction that cannot be reversed. To understand redemption is to understand something of the cost at which the gospel came and the completeness of what it accomplished.
The Background: Slavery and Purchase
In the ancient world, redemption meant release from slavery through the payment of a price. The word group Paul uses draws on three related Greek terms. Agorazo means to purchase in the marketplace. Exagorazo means to purchase out of, to buy out of the slave market entirely, removing the person from the system. Lutroo means to release through the payment of a ransom, with the corresponding noun lutron referring to the ransom price itself. Each carries a specific nuance, but together they paint a consistent picture: people are in bondage, a price has been paid, and those for whom the price was paid are released.
The background in the Old Testament is equally significant. The Hebrew root ga’al, translated “redeem” or “kinsman-redeemer,” describes the practice of a close relative buying a family member out of slavery or purchasing back what had been lost through poverty. Boaz fulfils this role for Naomi and Ruth in the book of Ruth, and the practice is encoded in Mosaic law in Leviticus 25. The kinsman-redeemer had both the right and the responsibility to act for the one in need. Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of this pattern: the One who, having genuinely shared our humanity, had both the standing and the will to act as our Redeemer.
What We Were Redeemed From
Scripture describes the bondage from which believers have been redeemed in several related ways. Galatians 3:13 speaks of redemption from “the curse of the law,” the condemnation that falls on all who have failed to keep it perfectly. Colossians 1:14 describes “redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” tying redemption directly to the removal of guilt. Galatians 4:5 speaks of redemption from being “under the law,” released from the system of condemnation to receive the standing of adopted sons. 1 Peter 1:18–19 frames redemption as release from “the futile ways inherited from your forefathers,” pointing to the more general bondage of a life lived apart from God.
The ransom price in each case is the same: “the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Peter 1:19). The imagery of the Passover lamb and the sacrificial system lies behind the language. The blood that secured redemption was not an ordinary price; it was the blood of the Son of God, which is why the redemption it accomplished is permanent and complete.
Redemption: Past, Present, and Future
Scripture uses redemption language in a way that spans the whole of the Christian’s experience. There is a redemption already accomplished and received: Ephesians 1:7 says “in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” The tense is present and completed. The redemption is not a hope still outstanding; it is a possession already held. Romans 3:24 describes believers as “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
There is also a redemption still to come. Romans 8:23 speaks of believers groaning inwardly as they wait for “the redemption of our bodies.” The resurrection at the last day is the completion of the redemption that began at conversion. What was accomplished at the cross for the spirit will be realised in full for the body when Christ returns. Ephesians 4:30 points to “the day of redemption” as the final consummation of what God began at the moment of saving faith.
So, now what?
Paul draws a practical conclusion from redemption in 1 Corinthians 6:20: “you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” The fact of redemption is not an abstract theological datum; it is the basis for a whole way of living. The person who has been purchased by the blood of Christ does not belong to themselves. They belong to the One who bought them. This is not a burden but a liberation: life ordered by ownership that is both perfect in its authority and perfect in its love.
“You were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:20
