The work of Christ 8 / Redemption
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
(I Cor.1:30)
He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, so obtaining eternal redemption.
(Heb.9:12)
We are often told that the idea of ‘redemption’ is born from Paul’s witnessing the Roman slave markets. More likely it is born out of Paul’s intimacy with the book of Exodus. This is where the theology of redemption is forged (though see Jacob’s amazing prayer anticipating it in Gen.48:16). To be redeemed is to be delivered from slavery, judgement and destruction (Dt.7:8; 15:15; Mic.6:4 etc.). It is the people of God, enslaved, oppressed and captive to death who are redeemed ‘with great acts of judgement’ (Ex.6:6). What is often forgotten is that such deliverance can only come at a price. In the book of Exodus, that price is the first-born son (prefiguring of course, THE first-born Son who would redeem His people). It is these first-born sons for whom the Passover Lamb is substituted (Ex.12) and who are thereby delivered from the Death of the Firstborn. In later years, the first-born continued to be redeemed either by the substitution of an animal or by the payment of a fixed sum (Num.18:16); and in due course, the Levites constitute a ransom for the firstborn of Israel (Num.3:44-45).
All such substitution is of course symbolic and prophetic (Jn.1:29). The death of an animal, or giving of cash, could hardly be equivalent to the value of a human life (Heb.10:4). With characteristic frankness, the Bible underlines the fact that ‘…no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on for ever and never see the pit’ (Ps.49:-7-9, contra Ps.111:9). That background makes Jesus’ claim that He had come to ‘give his life as a ransom for many’ all the more remarkable (Mk.10:45, see also Eph.1:7). The reality of redemption is so deeply embedded in the meaning of the cross that it has always featured by Divine mandate in Christian worship. In the OT it was captured in the Passover (Ex.12:1-13:16, with I Cor.5:7). And it was a Passover meal that Jesus re-cast as the Lord’s Supper (Matt.26:17-30).
It is little surprise to find the idea of redemption featuring prominently in the writings of the Apostle Paul. Perhaps one of the more enigmatic references is found in Gal.3:13. ‘Christ’, he tells us, ‘redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”’. Three elements come to the fore in this simple assertion.
The First is that we are redeemed from ‘the curse of the Law’. What is that? Deut.27 & 28 (though see also Lev.26, which in many ways charts prophetically the history of the OT Church) give us a fairly clear outline not just of what invokes the curse of the Law, but also the parabolic form the curse takes within the archetypal drama that is the Old Testament. It is dynamic, correlating to disobedience, and ranging from confusion (28:20) to destruction and exile and the slavery from which God redeemed Israel through the Exodus in the first place (28:68).
Secondly, what does it mean to become that curse? Older writers help us here. John Flavel reflects on the physicality of becoming the curse: Jesus remains fully human, His senses operating at greatest possible capacity while onto Him converge a suffering ‘equivalent to all the pains of the damned’ (1:323). This from John Owen, ‘To see Christ, the wisdom and power of God, always beloved of the Father, fear and tremble, bow and sweat, pray and die; to see Him lifted up on the cross, the earth trembling beneath Him as if unable to bear His weight; to see the heavens darkened over Him as if shut against His cry, and Himself hanging between both as if refused by each; and to see that all this is because of our sins, is to see clearly the holy justice and wrath of God against sin. Supremely in Christ do we learn this great truth that God hates sin and judges it with a dreadful and fearful judgement’ (Communion with God, 83).
The third question centres on how Christ could become that curse, when He had never disobeyed the Law? There is a way, embedded in the Law to be cursed without having sinned: to be hung on a ‘tree’ (Acts 5:30, 10:39, 13:29 etc.). But Christ’s becoming the curse is not merely a passive thing, with His taking a judgement that should have been ours… From His curse flows our blessing: ‘in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith’ (Gal.3:14, see also adoption in 4:5).
Questions
What are we redeemed from as Christians? …and what are we redeemed to?
What is the ‘cup’ Jesus refers to in Gethsemane (Matt.26:39, 42)?
Who do you think Jesus pays a ‘ransom’ to?
Read I Peter 1:13-25
What does it mean to say that our minds are ‘alert and fully sober’ (v.13)? How can we help one another to ensure that they are?
How does setting our hope on the grace we will receive at Christ’s return inspire our pursuit of holiness (vv.13-17)?
Do you think Christians will experience judgement? If so, how will it be different from the judgement experienced by those who aren’t Christians? How does our anticipation of judgement shape our attitude to life? Is this your experience?
What is it about our life before we came to Christ that made it empty (v.18)? Can the same be said for the lives of others who haven’t come to Christ? what do you think they would say if you showed them this verse?
What OT images is Peter conjuring up by describing Jesus as ‘a lamb without blemish or defect’ (v.19)? What is Peter wanting to get across by reminding us that ‘He was chosen before the creation of the world…’ (v.20)?
What does Peter mean by our being ‘born again [of imperishable seed]’ (v.23)? How does this remind you of the teaching of Jesus (see John 3:3-8, and perhaps lying behind John 1:12-13)?
What is the role of the ‘Word of God’ in our redemption? How does this affect your attitude to it? …and to its being preached (v.25)?
Memory Passage:
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning … O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Ps.130:1-8
For further reflection:
We are probably familiar enough with the idea of Jesus becoming a curse to redeem us from the Law. Often our thinking about redemption focuses on a past act, or indeed a present experience. But as with other aspects of our salvation there is a future dimension to be considered if we want a full picture. This surfaces a number of times in Paul’s writings: Rom.8:23; Eph.1:14 & 4:30. In Christ, we already enjoy ‘the forgiveness of sins’ (Col.1:14). But the briefest moment of reflection is enough to remind us that we remain immersed in a world of sin and death. The Apostle is not naïve about the reality of living in a cursed world, and is careful to nuance the aspects of our redemption we enjoy now, and those aspects for which we must wait until the Age to come.
Whilst we enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit, we also ‘groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for … the redemption of our bodies’ (Rom.8:23). Our resurrection is deeply rooted in the cross of Christ. Only when we are resurrected into the life of the New Creation will we enjoy the fullness of our redemption. Only then will we fully and finally freed from this cursed world. Only then will we be fully human. Until then we have received both the Spirit of Christ as a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance (Eph.1:14), and the call not to grieve that Spirit while waiting for that Day (Eph.4:30). We are to live as Christ did, conscious both of our coming judgement and our new identity in Christ (Eph.4:20-5:11), as the Day of Resurrection approaches (5:13-14). On that day the ancient hymn will once again be heard: ‘In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling’ (Ex.15:13).