Redemption: The Kinsman Redeemer
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Slave trading was once a thriving
business all over the world. People grew extremely wealthy by buying
and selling human beings. Slaves were merely property owned by masters
and were denied all control over their own lives. Slave markets sprang
up everywhere as slaves were sold like livestock or other commodities. Many
slaves lived wretched lives under cruel slave owners. The Bible speaks of just such times. A father could sell his son
or daughter into slavery to pay off a debtor just to make money (Ex. 21:7;
Deut. 15:12). When a man died in debt, his family could be taken into
bondage by his creditors (2 Kings 4:1). Slavery was the punishment for
breaking into a house (Ex. 22:3). Slaves were the spoils of war (Deut.
20:10-18). The children of slaves were born into slavery and most would
never know what it was to be free. The reason God allowed slavery to exist is to reveal to us that
we are all born into a slave market prison. It is a prison that has no high
walls, no bars, no chains to bind us, but a prison nonetheless. We are
all born into this world as prisoners of the spiritual bondage of death. "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin
my mother conceived me" (Ps. 51:5). We are born into this spiritual bondage because of our
inescapable connection with the first man that God created, Adam. In
Adam, God placed the genetic blueprint of every human being that would ever
live. When Adam sinned against God and died spiritually, his spiritual
death sentence was written in on the account of every member of Adam’s race.
Bible Words for Redemption The Bible uses three basic Greek words to describe God's work of
redemption in Jesus Christ. These words are agaradzo, exagaradzo
and lutrao. Agaradzo comes from the word "agora" or
"marketplace." It simply means to buy or to purchase
something from a marketplace. By His death Jesus Christ paid the
necessary price to purchase believers from the marketplace of sin and death.
The next word for redemption is the Greek word exagaradzo.
It is exactly the same word just mentioned with a little preposition
"ex" added to it. The prefix "ex," meaning
"from," when added to agora, means "to buy back" or
"to buy from" the marketplace. This word is used twice in the New
Testament.
The third word, lutrao, reveals a final aspect of
redemption. It literally means to set free by paying a ransom. "Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us
from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a people for his own possession,
zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14). Christ's death becomes the ransom necessary to set the believer
free from his spiritual prison. "You were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with
silver and gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers;
but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish or without
spot, even the blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:18). If we put these Greek words together, a beautiful picture begins
to emerge. Redemption is the work of God in Jesus Christ
purchasing believers out of the marketplace of spiritual death and creating a
new people for Him, zealous of good works. We were not purchased from the
marketplace of death with any earthly price but with the precious blood of
Christ. Jesus Christ: Our Near-Kinsman Redeemer God's gracious plan for spiritual freedom involved a most
incredible transformation. God Himself, who is described in the Bible
as being a spirit and invisible (1 Tim. 3:16) determined that He was going to
take on human flesh. As a human being, He would be able to die in order
to redeem mankind from the spiritual slave market. God explains this
wonderful transformation idea to Israel by using this object lesson: "And if a sojourner or a stranger become rich by thee,
and thy brother who dwelleth by him become poor and sell himself unto the
stranger or sojourner by thee or to the stock of the foreigner's family;
after he is sold, he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem
him. Either his uncle, or his uncle's son may redeem him, or any that
is near of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he is able, he
may redeem himself" (Lev. 25:47-49). Several such near-kinsman redemptions took place throughout the
history of Israel. One of the more famous is found in the book of
Ruth. A young widow named Ruth was the daughter-in-law of a Jewess
named Naomi. Naomi and Ruth were very poor, but they had a rich near
kinsman named Boaz. Boaz came to the rescue of Naomi and Ruth and
redeemed them by taking them into his own family. God is using Boaz and
Ruth to foretell the truth concerning His own work as Kinsman-Redeemer that
goes far beyond this human ritual of redemption. The God described in the Bible is not "kin" to
man. He is not like us. "For He is not a man, as I am, that I may answer Him,
and that we should go to court together" (Job 9:32). He is infinitely above us in every way. But that first
Christmas morning in the small village town of Bethlehem, God became a very
close kin to us. God became a human being. He became our
near-kinsman that He might redeem us from the slave market of death by dying
Himself in our place. By the death of our near-kinsman redeemer, we can
be set free forever from our spiritual bondage. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal
with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a
bond-servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in
appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of
death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:5-8). God has truly come into the world and paid for sin. He
predicted hundreds of years earlier the exact way that He would come, and
where and how He would redeem members of Adam's race. How did Jesus Christ Come into the World? A small glimpse of how He was going to make His supernatural
entrance into the human race was recorded in Genesis 3:15. "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall
bruise His heel" (Gen. 3:15). "Her seed" obviously refers to the human offspring of
the woman. But how is that possible? Obviously, women do not
produce a physical seed. But there is no mistake! God is telling us through words written thousands of years ago
that He was not going to come into this slave market through natural
procreation. He would come in such a way as to clearly reveal His
identity and purpose. He would bypass the universal Adamic sting of
death, which plunges everyone into this spiritual slave market. This same prophecy is found in the book of Isaiah: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign;
behold the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and you shall call his name
Immanuel" (Isa. 7:14). "The virgin shall conceive" is just another way of
saying "the seed of the woman." Who is "God with Us"? The name "Immanuel" means "God with us." The
seed that is born of the woman, the virgin's offspring, is none other than
Immanuel, God with us, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah the prophet states: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given,
and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of
Peace" (Isa. 9:6). The seed that is born of the woman, the son that is born of the
virgin, God with us is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. God said early and often
and in many different ways, "I am coming to visit you." Where Was Jesus Christ to Come? God foretold in exact detail where He was going to touch down on
the earth. "But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth unto me the One
that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from
everlasting" (Micah 5:2). Of all the thousands of places that God could have chosen to come
into the world, He chose Bethlehem. He declared in writing hundreds of
years before He came the exact spot where the virgin would bear this Son. Bethlehem, by the way, means "house of bread."
Jesus Christ is referred to in the Bible as God's bread that is to give life
to us (Jn. 6:35). It is not mere chance that this tiny, seemingly
insignificant Judean town became the focal point of all history by becoming
the birthplace of God in human flesh. When Was Jesus Christ to Visit the Earth? "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent
forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law" (Gal. 4:4). God was to come "when the fullness of time was
come." When was this fullness of time? At the time of the birth of Christ, Rome was the most powerful
nation in the world. The Roman judicial system had given the world laws
to protect the people and a political system to govern them. The
powerful Roman army was more than capable of enforcing these laws and this
system of government. As a result, the world was experiencing peace and
safety. The Romans had also developed a superior road system, making
travel in the ancient world easier. Earlier the Greeks had given the
world a common language, allowing people to communicate more easily with one
another. This particular time in history brought peace, organization,
communication and transportation out of a world of turmoil, language
barriers, constant war, and little communication. These changes were all
important if the good news of God's visit to the earth was to be spread
throughout the earth. This was the exact moment in history that God
determined to be "the fullness of time." Why did Jesus Christ Come to Earth? That Jesus Christ is God in the flesh cannot be denied.
While upon planet earth, He did not attempt to hide His identity. He
claimed that He and His Father were the same. "I and my Father are one" (Jn. 10:30). On another occasion, in response to a question from one of His followers
concerning the true identity of His Father, He said, "He that has seen
Me has seen the Father" (John 14:8). There can be no doubt that Jesus
Christ claimed to be God. As God, He came into the world to free the slaves. God
is eternal life and cannot die, so He temporarily set aside the
characteristics of His deity, humiliated Himself, and came into the world to
live among His creatures. In human flesh He freely and deliberately
submitted Himself to death upon a Roman cross in order to become a substitute
for man's sin. "To redeem those that were under the law, that we
might receive the adoption as sons" (Gal. 4:5). The benefits of Christ’s work of redemption on the cross are
extended to us by faith alone. We are also given the privilege of becoming
children of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. A young Polynesian slave girl was placed on the slave blocks of
New Orleans during the Civil War. A wealthy plantation owner
riding by in his carriage caught her eyes. He immediately sized up the situation,
had compassion on her, and began bidding. The bidding began in the
hundreds of dollars but soon reached into the thousands. The leaders of the
prostitution syndicate were furious but could do little about it. Finally, the bidding ended and the stranger had purchased the
girl. He finished his paperwork and received the keys to her
chains. He approached her and she immediately spat in his face.
He wiped the spittle away and continued to unlock her chains. She cursed him
violently. The chains dropped away, and to her utter amazement, he said
to her very gently, "Woman, you are free." She was astounded,
not knowing what to say or do. She had been purchased from the slave
market and set free. The plantation owner who had redeemed her climbed into his
carriage and began to drive away. Overwhelmed, the girl chased after
him shouting, "Sir, let me serve you. I want to be your
slave." The man stopped his carriage and turned to her. "You
cannot be my servant." The girl's face dropped, and she turned to walk away. The
gentle hand of her new owner turned her around, and he said, "But you
can come share my home as my adopted daughter." Those who have been redeemed by the
blood of Jesus have also been adopted into the family of God. |
It might interest you to know that
God became kin to us! |