I'm sorry this has taken much longer than anticipated. A combination of tech issues, COVID drama and just mama exhaustion meant that things had to take a slower pace in the Groves family.
I am absolutely not a biblical scholar and many PhDs have been written on the topic of redemption.
So whilst I am hesitant to spill more metaphorical ink on the matter, my hope is to give depth without too much detail. This is not an exhaustive explanation of the thread of redemption through the biblical story, but it might give some colour and definition to the picture you have, if like me, you didn't really have a strong grasp of what redemption meant.
Redemption is one of those Christian-ese words that you hear a lot and people assume you know what it means. It is a rich, archaic, multilayered, yet specific word that you probably don’t use in the coffee shop, except perhaps in relation to claiming your free coffee because you have all 8 stamps on your loyalty card.
I know I spent a long time singing and reading about redemption, but it took me a while to really grasp what on earth I was talking about.
I knew redemption was something Jesus did and it was something about Jesus taking away my sin at the cross, but the detail, nuance and therefore the richness of redemption’s meaning was lost on me. The consequence of that lack of understanding was a shallow love for Jesus and a shallow understanding of the grace of God.
I’m going to do a few jargonbuster posts because when I have a shallow understanding of a deep and rich biblical theme, I’m missing half the story and so my faith, hope and ability to trust the God of the Bible also becomes shallow and stunted.
The more I learn, the more I can understand, the more there is for the Holy Spirit to teach me with, the more there is to worship and to share.
Let’s get stuck in…
So what does redemption mean when the Bible talks about it?
Redemption is the english translation of mainly 3 Hebrew root words:
Padah- strongs H6299. Used a lot in exodus and leviticus: roughly means rescue and also payment for good owed/ debt. Literally means to cut loose. To set free.
This evokes the reality of being stuck and tied to sin and that, by the blood of the sacrifice, we are cut loose from the sin that so easily entangles. It also evokes the sense that we cannot untie or cut ourselves free from our trap or our debt.
The Israelites were completely helpless and vulnerable. When Moses tried to rescue His people by the strength of his own sword, it backfired terribly. It was only Yahweh who was able to rescue Israel and bring them into safety.
When God killed the all the first born sons of Egypt, the final and most terrible of the plagues, the Israelites were spared their male firstborns through the Lamb of the Passover. The blood was literally spread over the doorframes and spread across the threshold. The blood was a symbol of life. It was a sign to the Angel of Death that the lives had already been accounted for.
The Israelites were spared but to remind them of the price that was paid for their lives, the firstborn males all had to be ritually redeemed by Mosaic law. Yahweh wanted His people to remember that they were bought at a price, that they were rescued and redeemed by God himself. It also communicates the high value that God places on human life. At a time when human sacrifice was commonplace in the surrounding cultures (in Egypt also), God was communicating that human life was worth redeeming and making right and that it was of greater value than an animals.
Ga'al Strong's H1350. Technically, ga’al is a primitive root so is part of other words, but essentially, it is used in two broad ways:
Rescue or bring out from harm or
Next of kin, buying land. Inheritance. Buying back something that was lost in order to keep it in the family.
It is used to describe Yahweh himself rescuing Israel from Egypt and later Babylon.
It is also used with regards to the Law that God gives the Israelites about the provision for the vulnerable.
In the Book of Ruth, Boaz is the kinsmen-redeemer and we get a glimpse of the nuance of this ancient practice in Ruth 4, at the city gates and the elders.
Kaphar: again, this is a primitive root; Strongs definition is: to cover (specifically with bitumen);
figuratively, to expiate or condone, to placate or cancel:—appease, make (an atonement, cleanse, disannul, forgive, be merciful, pacify, pardon, purge (away), put off, (make) reconcile(-liation).
Isn’t hebrew a picturesque language? Taking a boring word like cover with tar and use it to describe what atonement, mercy, moral cleansing and reconciliation means.
To be forgiven and atoned for is to be covered over and transformed.
I am absolutely not a Hebrew scholar so put the references at the bottom.
Ok, so what about the New Testement? For a start its not written in Hebrew, but rather in Greek. Where is redemption discussed in the New Testement?
Gasp!: it isn’t. What?!?
This isn’t too weird if we examine what was going on with Israel.
Culturally, there was a merging of the concept of redemption with “end times”.
Israel had been taken into exile by the Assyrians and then Judah was taken into exile (2Kings and 2 Chronicles). During exile the prophetic Book of Daniel was written and then a remnant were allowed to return to Jerusalem. The temple was rebuilt and the walls repaired. (Nehemiah and Ezra).
Israel’s history of the destruction of the temple, Babylonian exile, return to Israel, and then occupation by succession of empires had shaped the Jewish idea of redemption.
They were waiting for God’s King and leader to bring about the Kingdom of God. They were waiting for political, military and religious leadership. They were not expecting a Servant King born in a stable. The word redemption and similar words had evolved into nationalistic/ Simon the Zealot overtones. So the bible talks about redemption in terms of atonement, propitiation, rescue, freedom. WHICH IS REDEMPTION WITHOUT THE WORD REDEMPTION.
So Jesus steps into human history in this time and place. He clothed himself in humility and became a man in order to speak to, teach and save people, real live people like you and me. So if redemption's meaning was now understood by people differently that 400 years before, that wasn't going to stop Jesus doing it.
The Jews were waiting for a leader to free them from Roman oppression and lead them to a renewed Israel.
Remember they wanted to crown Jesus king, but that was not His mission. When he set his face towards Jerusalem, He set it towards the cross and the tomb, not the palace.
The title King of the Jews was applied mockingly at the crucifixion, but it was the truest prophetic word.
Jesus was aware of the nationalistic tones of the word. His most frequently used title was Son of Man. This is from the book of Ezekial, but also used twice in Daniel and in Psalms.
He taught his disciples about the Kingdom of God and what it was like, but it was not the Kingdom that His followers wanted or expected. He was turning conventional wisdom at the time on its head. John the Baptist and Joseph of Arimethea are described as waiting for the the Kingdom of God.
Paul, being a well trained pharisee, used it in Acts (as recorded by Luke) and in his letters. He had a theology of the Kingdom as Jew which was then turned inside out, but ultimately was fulfilled in Christ.
The new testament greek uses atonement, sacrifice, freedom from captivity, slavery, justification rather than redemeption, but the image of Christ’s work of the cross and resurrection is the same.
John the Baptist cries out “ Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” when he looks upon Jesus at the start of His three year ministry.
The writer of Hebrews gives the most exhaustive illustration of the role of the Old Covenant and the sacrificial system and its foreshadowing of Christ, whose blood speaks a better (meaning fulfilled) word than that of the Mosaic Law.
What does this mean for us today?
Hebrew is a graphic, poetic language so the multiple meanings of the words are part of the richness of the picture.
Redemption is a theme that tracks along the whole of the bible. It's an Old Testement picture that the new testament sees fulfilled in Jesus.
God’s Spirit inspired Word gives us a picture of the effects of sin within us and around us. It also shows us the seriousness of sin. And ultimately, it shows us how huge and complete God’s love for us is. That He would take our sin and cover it with His own blood. That He would take something that was lost (us) and buy it back with His Own Son, to keep it within His family because He sees it as His own precious inheritance.
When you read the instructions for the tabernacle, you’ll be struck by the sheer volume of blood that is involved in the atonement. The filth of sin can only be washed away with blood, because it was a picture of Life.
Remember in the garden, the penalty of disobedience was death. So instead of our life for our sin, God allows a sacrifice on our behalf so another’s life can be sacrifice for our sin and the effects of sin. Even in Genesis 3, there are whispers of God’s provision of sacrifice when He clothes Adam and Eve in the skin of an animal- they are covered in the life of another. Amazing isn’t it?
The sacrificial system was a picture of both God’s justice and His mercy and we see the sacrificial system.
In the New Testement, redemption is fulfulled perfectly in Jesus Christ. We see the authors of the gospels and letter expounding to their audience about how the Law was fulfilled by Jesus, that the Kingdom of God had begun on earth and that we, God's children, no longer live in darkness, waiting for renewel, but in the light and joy of New Life.
I hope that this has been helpful. I have really enjoyed diving into the Hebrew (something completely new to me).
If you have any ideas for jargon busters, let me know and I'll try my best to write something helpful.
References:
Blue Letter Bible
Bible project
Bible study tools
Systematic Theology- Wayne Grudem
Further reading:
Better than Eden by Nancy Guthrie
The Drama of Scripture by Bartholomew and Goheen
