REDEE'M, verb transitive [Latin redimo; red, re, and emo, to obtain or purchase.]
1. To purchase back; to ransom; to liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage.
2. To repurchase what has been sold.
3. To rescue; to recover; to deliver from.
4. To compensate.
5. To free by making atonement.
6. To pay the penalty of.
7. To save.
8. To perform what has been promised.
There are words in the Christian life that ought to stop us where we stand, words so full of mercy that we should not be able to say them lightly.
Redeemed is one of those words.
Webster’s 1828 dictionary gives the word weight. To redeem is to purchase back. To ransom. To liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage. To repurchase what has been sold. To deliver from. To compensate. To free by making atonement. To pay the penalty of. To save. To perform what has been promised.
Read that slowly and tell me your soul does not begin to stir.
That is what Christ did for me.
I was not misplaced. I was lost.
I was not merely struggling. I was in bondage.
I was not morally wounded and in need of a little improvement. I was dead in trespasses and sins, headed toward the wages I had earned with my own rebellion.
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:23
Death was what I was owed.
Judgment was what I had earned.
Hell was not too severe for a sinner like me.
It was just.
And then Christ stepped into the place of the guilty and offered Himself.
He purchased back what sin had sold.
“Ye are bought with a price.”
1 Corinthians 6:20
What price?
Not silver.
Not gold.
Not anything corruptible.
“Forasmuch as ye know that 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.”
1 Peter 1:18-19
The blood of Christ was the ransom.
The Holy One paid for the unholy.
The sinless Lamb paid for the guilty soul.
He did not bargain with death.
He conquered it.
He did not owe the debt.
He paid it.
He redeemed me.
He liberated me from captivity.
Sin had not merely stained me.
It had mastered me.
The flesh always promised freedom while fastening another chain around the soul.
But Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36
Free indeed.
Not pretending to be free while still serving the same old master.
Not dressing up bondage until it looks less shameful.
Free by the power of the Son of God.
He rescued me from what I could not survive.
He delivered me from what I could not escape.
He recovered what seemed already ruined.
He took the slave market of sin and walked out with His purchased possession.
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
Colossians 1:14
Through His blood.
That is where my redemption lives.
He compensated me with what I could never have obtained.
Eternal life.
Peace with God.
A robe of righteousness.
A place in the family of God.
A name written where no enemy can blot it out.
I brought Him sin and He gave me salvation.
I brought Him guilt and He gave me grace.
I brought Him a debt and He gave me pardon.
“He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21
He freed me by making atonement.
There is no redemption without blood.
There is no cleansing without sacrifice.
There is no sinner walking clean before God unless Someone holy stood in the sinner’s place.
Christ became the atonement.
His body bore the stripes.
His blood answered the debt.
His wounds speak for me.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.”
Isaiah 53:5
He paid the penalty of my sin.
Every wicked thought.
Every selfish choice.
Every word that should have never left my mouth.
Every secret thing.
Every proud motive.
Every failure from childhood to this present hour.
He knew them all before Calvary, and still He went.
“Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.”
1 Peter 2:24
My sins.
His body.
That tree.
I am redeemed.
And this redemption was no emergency plan.
It was not heaven scrambling after Eden fell.
It was promised before the world ever knew the sound of a human voice.
The Lamb was “slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:8
From the first promise in the garden, when God spoke of the seed of the woman bruising the serpent’s head, the story was moving toward Christ.
He performed what had been promised.
He is the promised seed.
He is the Lamb.
He is the ark that held judgment outside and carried those inside safely through the flood.
When the whole world went under, there was one door of safety, and God shut them in.
He is the manna in the wilderness, the bread from heaven for starving men. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” John 6:35
He is the smitten rock that gave water to a thirsty people.
Paul tells us plainly, “and that Rock was Christ.” 1 Corinthians 10:4
He is the Passover Lamb, whose blood makes judgment pass over.
“For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7
He is the brazen serpent lifted up, the One upon whom dying men must look and live.
Jesus said, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” John 3:14
He is the fulfilment of the law, the prophets, the sacrifices, the shadows, the promises, the altar, the blood, the priesthood, the mercy seat.
All the lines run to Him.
All the promises find their yea in Him.
“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen.”
2 Corinthians 1:20
He performed what was promised.
He came.
He bled.
He died.
He rose again.
He redeemed.
And now, because of Him, I do not stand before God trying to explain myself.
I do not stand there holding my little handful of good works as filthy rags, hoping they outweigh the mountain of my sin.
I stand in Christ, bought by blood, sealed by the Spirit, covered in righteousness that is not mine by merit but mine by grace.
“Titus 2:14” says He “gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.”
All.
What a word.
Not some.
Not the respectable sins.
Not the sins I am comfortable naming.
All iniquity.
The deep stains.
The old shame.
The things I remember with grief.
The things I have forgotten that He never did.
All placed under the blood.
That should put a song in the mouth of every saved sinner.
“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.”
Psalm 107:2
Say so.
I am redeemed.
Say it when the accuser comes whispering about your past.
I am redeemed.
Say it when your failures make you feel unworthy to lift your eyes.
I am redeemed.
Say it when the flesh reminds you of what you once were.
I am redeemed.
Say it when the grave looks near and eternity feels closer than it used to.
I am redeemed.
One day we will stand in the congregation of the righteous, not because we were righteous in ourselves, but because the Redeemer made us clean.
One day every burden of flesh will be gone.
No more sin nature clawing at the soul.
No more accuser.
No more shame rising up from old memories.
No more battle between what we are in Christ and what we still feel in this body.
And then the redeemed will sing.
A song the angels cannot sing in the same way.
They may praise Him for His glory.
They may cry holy before His throne.
But they have never been pulled from the pit by the blood of the Lamb.
They have never had chains fall from a sin-bound soul.
They have never stood guilty and then been washed clean.
But we have.
And I imagine the sound of it, saints from every age and nation, voices gathered into one holy refrain, trembling with wonder, strong with gratitude, rising before the Lamb who was slain.
I am redeemed.
I am redeemed.
I am redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
Biblical Womanhood
“Feminine Needs, Wants, & Flaws”
I want every resource I create to serve a purpose.
Not merely to be read once and forgotten, but to help women think biblically, live soberly, love rightly, and return again and again to the Lord’s design.
That is my hope for “Feminine Needs, Wants, and Flaws.”
This is a fundraiser style pre order. You may give the preferred (but not required) minimum of $10, or whatever amount you feel led to contribute.
Larger gifts will be a tremendous blessing in this particular season, but smaller gifts are deeply appreciated as well.
