Redemption

Redemption is rescue at a price. The word carries the image of buying back something that has been lost or enslaved. In Scripture, the foundational act of redemption is the Exodus: Yahweh delivering Israel out of slavery in Egypt through the death of the Passover lamb and the power of his outstretched arm. This event is so central to the Old Testament that it becomes the pattern against which every other act of divine rescue is measured.

The Hebrew concept of the goel, the kinsman-redeemer, adds personal dimension to the act of redemption. The goel was the nearest relative with both the right and the responsibility to redeem what had been lost: to buy back land, to free a relative from slavery, to preserve the name of the dead. Boaz acts as goel for Ruth and Naomi. Yahweh describes himself as the goel of Israel. The image is of someone who intervenes at personal cost to restore what was lost.

The New Testament declares that Christ is the ultimate Redeemer. Paul writes in Galatians 3 that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. Peter writes that we were ransomed “not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ.” Redemption is accomplished at the cross: the price is paid, the captive is freed, the debt is cancelled. The articles below trace this theme through several of its most significant passages.