Growing up, I knew that if I believed in Jesus, I had “been redeemed.”

I knew it was a good thing. But I don’t think I could have told you what that really meant.

Let me try and change that now. And I’ll use home ownership as a way to try and explain.

House Redemption

A little over 60% of US homeowners have a mortgage.

It’s a legal covenant where a bank lends money to a creditor at interest so the creditor can purchase a home. The lender takes temporary possession of the title, with full ownership going to the homeowner when the mortgage is paid off. Paying off the mortgage is called mortgage satisfaction.

If the homeowner defaults on the terms of the mortgage, the terms of the mortgage covenant detail conditions for foreclosure.

In foreclosure, the lender takes full ownership of the property. That’s, of course, very bad news for the homeowner.

But even after the foreclosure process begins, there is hope. It’s called the right of redemption.

During the redemption period, the homeowner can stop the foreclosure process or even reclaim a home after foreclosure. The homeowner reimburses the purchaser for the sale price and also pays any related costs.

When that happens the home has been redeemed! 

It is restored from a state of being lost and is returned to its rightful owner.

This is pretty close to how the Bible talks about redemption.

Redemption in the Bible

In a recent series on the podcast, the Bible Project team defines redemption this way:

A redemption is a transfer of a possession from being lost back into the possession of its rightful owner.

Here’s how it works.

Human beings belong to God and exist to live in union with God. We are God’s treasured possession.¹

But we were a lost treasure.

Adam and Eve decided to trust the serpent and themselves instead of trusting God. Through that choice, humanity fell under the possession and cosmic oppression of sin and death.

Beginning with the Fall, the Bible is the story of how God moves to re-possess humanity.

He takes Abraham, the first Hebrew², and He begins to do something new. He calls Abraham out of his ancestral homeland and promises that through his lineage all the families of the earth will be blessed.

The Hebrew Scriptures often employs two words to discuss redemption:

• padah: to redeem, ransom, or rescue. Often used in the context of setting a person or object free from a prior claim.
• ga’al: to redeem, act as kinsman-redeemer, or deliver. In the book of Ruth, Boaz serves as a kinsman-redeemer by marrying someone (Ruth) who had been previously married to a deceased relative, thereby continuing the family line and rescuing her from poverty.

The words show up in the story of the Exodus, the sacrificial system, the redemptive cycles in Judges, the return from exile in Babylon, and the promises of a Messiah to come.

Jesus is Our Redeemer

Christians believe the promised redemption finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

It is Jesus who redeems humanity from sin, death, and dark spiritual forces and restores us to a right relationship with God.

Isaiah 42 is a Messianic prophecy about the Lord’s servant. This predicted redeemer will bring justice to the nations³, will be a covenant for the peoples and a light for the Gentiles⁴, and will free captives from prison and “release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”⁵

This Messiah will reverse the curse of the Fall.

Freedom for the Prisoners

Jesus announced His public ministry by claiming to be the fulfillment of prophecy.

He read these from another portion of the Isaiah scroll:⁶

18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
 because he has anointed me
 to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
 and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. [Luke 4: 18–19]

Then, He does this:

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” [Luke 4: 20–21]

I’m the guy, Jesus says.

I am your Redeemer.

I am here to set you free.

With the arrival of Jesus, humans don’t need to be subject to the powers of sin, death, and satan.

We can be redeemed, rescued, set free from bondage.

13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. [Colossians 1: 13–14]

We are completely removed from our old way of life and slavery and transferred to His Kingdom. And in the Kingdom there is a completely new orientation of life.

To be redeemed, then, is to be forgiven, holy, justified, free, adopted, and reconciled. [gotquestions.org]

Do We Need Redemption?

Redemption and salvation are often used interchangeably in the Christian faith. They get at the same idea of being transferred from death to life.

Christianity is unique from other worldviews in how it envisions salvation:

• Secular humanists, atheists, and Wicca reject the idea entirely. There is no problem from which we need to be saved.
• Eastern religions like Buddhism and Hinduism along with Gnostic thought holds that we do need salvation. But the problem from which we need to be saved is ignorance.

Jesus says we need to be saved from our sin and transferred from the kingdom of satan to His kingdom.

And unlike the other Abrahamic faiths, only Jesus says that this transfer, this redemption, is not something we can ever earn.

We can never pay off the mortgage on our souls. We need to accept the right of redemption that Jesus has exercised on our behalf.

He says our situation as humans is so dire that we need Him to make it right. 

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. [John 3: 16–18]

The Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus does all the work for us — we just need to accept it. The bad news is that coming to Him means we need to accept that we are lost without Him.

What if you don’t think you’re lost?

Well, Jesus said He didn’t come for those who are convinced they have it together on their own. Those who believe they are fine on their own merits can’t accept Jesus. It’s only those who recognize they need a redemption from outside themselves.

He put it like this:

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. [Luke 5:32]

Redeemed by the Blood

That’s a highly offensive idea for many people. To consider that they are so lost that they can never save themselves.

I get that.

I never wanted to need Jesus. I was happy to have His help in order to accomplish my own goals. If He was willing to give it, great. If not, I figured I was fine on my own.

I was wrong.

In His mercy and grace, the Lord allowed me to see my deep need. I don’t only need His moral teaching or His example. I need Him as my Redeemer.

This is the reason that Jesus said He came to Earth. Not to teach, but to rescue.

45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” [Mark 10:45]

It’s His victorious death, His blood, that redeems us.

18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. [1 Peter 1: 18–19]

He is our redemption. Thank you, Jesus.

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• 1: Deuteronomy 7:6
• 2: Genesis 14:13
• 3: Isaiah 42:3
• 4: Isaiah 42:6
• 5: Isaiah 42:7
• 6: Isaiah 61