Redeemer

REDEEMER

14TH DECEMBER 2020  |  JONO PRIESTLEY

“And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.”
Job 19:25.

Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Titus 2:14

Redeemer is not a word we use very often to refer to a person. Often the only thing we’re redeeming is a gift card. So, what exactly does it mean to redeem? Well, think of the gift card; you’ve bought it and now it’s yours, but you can’t actually get any use out of it until you use or ‘redeem’ it.

To redeem simply means to buy back or exchange. But in the Bible this word has a much deeper meaning that extends well beyond simply paying for something. When we buy the gift card it actually means we get to take it home with us. We take it from the store where it was to the place it is going to be best used (home or a shop most likely).

When we think about God as the one who redeems us, it is far beyond buying us, like an old slave master might buy a slave. It is paying for us to be taken from the brokenness we live in and bringing us to be home with Him, where we were made to be. This is why Jesus is called the Redeemer; he is the one who paid the price for us to be able to leave the sin (and the eternal consequences of our rejection of God) behind so that God’s righteous judgement is no longer going to be executed on us.

In Jesus’ death, He paid for us to be made right with God. He paid for all people. Because God’s bank account isn’t like ours. He didn’t just swap one man for another lone person. He paid for all of humanity with Himself in the person of Christ – with His infinite bank account.

Maybe it’s time to think about whether you take that seriously. God has paid personally for you to know him. Now that he offers us that redemption freely, are you going to let God redeem you to the life he made you for, or will you sit on the shelf and miss out?