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Jesus as Redemption

1 Corinthians 1:30 records that the Lord Jesus Christ is several different things to us. Here’s what it says: “...you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” Today we’re going to think about Jesus as our Redemption. It is also true that He is our Redeemer, but just now we’re going to look at the idea that He is our redemption as well.

I was driving on a street in Niagara Falls with my family a few months ago and we saw the word “redemption.” It wasn’t on a gospel sign; it was in a store window. Painted on the pawn shop window was this notice: “Easy redemption terms.”

Here is how a pawn shop works: I need some money. I have this terrific watch. I take it in and they say "That's a nice watch. It’s worth $50. We'll give you $5. We’ll keep the watch and then, if you return for it, you can give us $7 for it and we’ll give you the watch back." A pawn shop simply allows you to turn something of value into money temporarily. Then, you can go back and redeem it - buy back the item.

“Redeem” and “redemption” are common words used in the pawn business. You redeem your items by paying the price to get them back. That of course is exactly what God did. But the illustration falls down terribly because the watch has no choice in the matter. It is under everybody else's control. We, on the other hand, choose to separate ourselves from God by sin.

We have a sinful nature and the fact is that every one of us has chosen to sin at some point, probably at many points in our lives. We choose to lie. We choose to look at things we shouldn't look at, touch things we shouldn’t touch, and do things we shouldn’t do.

We have all chosen to sin and God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus, not to just be our redeemer, to be the one who buys us back, but to be the price that is paid as well. This is one of those spiritual conundrums that we struggle with because there are two aspects that are so close and yet so separate. He is both the redeemer and the redemption price. So the life of our Lord Jesus was what it cost to redeem us - to buy us back - a life for a life. He is our Redemption; He is the price that was paid so that we could have a relationship with God.

Ron Hughes
© May 2007