Did you know that the melody of “The Star Spangled Banner”, the National Anthem of the United States of America, was once an old British drinking song? Then, during the fury of the War of 1812, Patriot Francis Scott Key penned those stirring lyrics so familiar to all, merged them with that old, ale-stained, taproom tune, and gave it a brand-new beginning, a total make-over, and a new birth as our stirring National Anthem. Now, there’s a fine example of redemption!
My own first taste of redemption came when I was perhaps five years old. I call it my first “taste” because … Do you remember S & H Green Stamps? They’re those stickers we used to receive when we purchased gasoline or merchandise. My Mom used to recruit me to help her tear apart and lick (yukk!) sheets and sheets of Green Stamps, and carefully mount them onto the blank pages of her endless supply of S & H premium redemption books. I surely did love my Mom … and I can still taste it!
When she had accumulated a goodly stack of those warped and wrinkled books, she would gather them together and we’d take them to the S & H Redemption Store, where she would exchange them, redeem them, for various needed household items. It was here that I acquired my initial, ground-floor understanding of redemption!
That’s not the best example of true redemption, though. A more accurate grasp of the redemption principle is found at the old pawn shop. Have you ever experienced pawning or redeeming something at a pawn shop? Financial constraints would sometimes prompt an individual to pawn an item, perhaps one of great monetary or sentimental value, in exchange for much-needed cash and welcome relief from a difficult situation. However, there was a specified window of time during which the person could return to the pawn shop and purchase back his possession. He could buy back again – he could redeem – that which had originally been his!
However, you’ll find the origin of the concept of redemption in your Bible’s Older Testament. GOD’s principle of redemption, as He introduced it to the Church in the Wilderness, reveals just one of the many facets of the anticipated Messiah’s ministry and character, while perfectly testifying of His mission as our coming Redeemer. Do you recall when Jesus spoke to His followers about their searching the Scriptures, “… for they testify of Me?” (John 5:39) Follow now as the Scriptures testify of your Redeemer:
The Statute establishing the principle and practice of redemption is found in the Book of Leviticus, and was intended to flesh-out in vivid color and high-definition one of the primary purposes of the anticipated Savior. In His redemption statute, GOD made provision for the liberation of both property and people. For 1500 years thereafter, the redemption statute pointed prophetically, through its practice, to the future liberation of all creation in and through the long-awaited Messiah and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
This is the statute concerning redemption, first as it pertained to property and land (Leviticus 25:23): “The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. 24 Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land. 25 If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold …”
As applicable to the redemption of people, GOD’s Word specifies (Leviticus 25:47): “Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger’s family, 48 after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brothers may redeem him; 49 or his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him; or anyone who is near of kin to him in his family may redeem him … 54 And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall be released in the Year of Jubilee – he and his children with him.”
We’ll examine more closely the joyous and prophetic Year of Jubilee in a moment; but did you notice the qualification for the redeemer? It was imperative that he be a close blood relative from the debtor’s immediate family. The “near-kinsman” as Scripture describes him had to be blood-related in order to legally redeem the debtor. The redeemer then was required to step forward on behalf of the debtor, and personally pay the price of his indebtedness, thus redeeming him from the judgment which bound him. Now, take a peek at this:
Jesus is speaking of our own bondage: “Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.” (John 8:34) Romans 3:23 adds that “… all have sinned and fallen short …” Then under inspiration, the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 18:4 and again in verse 20 declares: “The soul that sins shall die”. That’s me!
According to GOD’s Word, all of humanity has sold itself into bondage to sin since the Fall of our first parents in The Garden. “The wages of sin is death,” and “without shedding of blood, there is no remission.” Sin is a capital offense and a blood debt owed. Furthermore, at the time of the Fall in Eden, the earth and the entirety of nature had fallen under sin’s curse, as we read in the straight testimony of the Genesis 3:17-19 account.
The Church in the Wilderness was continually reminded of the liberation and salvation the promised Redeemer would bring at His appearing, as they witnessed, day in, day out, the living prophecy of redemption enacted in the sacrificial services of the Tabernacle. When Jahshua HaMeshiach came, He fulfilled in meticulous detail the 1500-year-long redemption prophecy, satisfied our blood debt with His own blood, redeemed, or bought back, all that had been His by virtue of His Creation, and restored our citizenship in GOD’s Kingdom. Thereby, we are “… justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24-26)
Now, regarding Jubilee: The Year of Jubilee was a time of corporate redemption and restoration. See Leviticus 25:23, 24, 28, 40. There were seven cycles of seven years; the seventh year in each seven-year cycle was to be a Sabbath year of rest for the land. At the conclusion of the seventh cycle of seven years, that 50th year brought the celebration Year of Jubilee, when all property would revert to its original owner. Any property that had been purchased over the course of the previous fifty years was returned to the prior owner; and every bond-servant was set free. Through the Jubilee cycles, the future full redemption of all of Creation was constantly kept before the people, as all debts, indemnities, and indentured servitude were reckoned according to the number of years remaining until the Jubilee reversion, right down even to the calculation of the transaction price! GOD’s Jubilee is a prophecy which will be fulfilled in the New Earth!
The crucial requirement of the Redeemer, that he must be a close blood relative, is one of several compelling criteria which substantiate beyond question that Jesus was, and verily is, our close blood relative, our Near Kinsman. How so? That’s because Jesus partook of our very same ”Adam’s flesh and blood”, becoming, as the Apostle Paul testifies, the Second Adam, thereby assuming the First Adam’s position as Representative of the corporate human family. As our Near Kinsman and Elder Brother, Jesus is at this very moment legally and rightfully eligible, and is indisputably most qualified to be our Redeemer from sin-bondage under GOD’s Law of Sin and Death.
According to Scripture, in the womb of the mother of Jesus, divinity and humanity were reunited and reconciled in One; that is in “Immanuel”, the One called of Heaven “GOD-with-us”, or “GOD-in-humanity”. The unity of all Creation was in this manner forever restored in and thru The Son of GOD, Who most often referred to Himself as “The Son of Man”, because He did so fully, so thoroughly identify, head-to-toe, with you and me!
Had He not been born of a flesh-and-blood woman (Galatians 4:4): and if Jesus were not flesh-of-our-flesh, bone-of-our-bone (Ephesians 5:30) (Hebrews 10:5); then He would have had no justification to refer to Himself as “The Son of Man”, and thus couldn’t possibly, by any stretch of logic, be our Redeemer. This would have rendered Him Who is “The Truth” a fraud and a liar! Do not even think to go there, because Jesus verily is flesh-of-our-flesh, bone-of-our-bone, as the passages cited above clearly attest.
As we consider the 4000 years of man’s de-generation between Creation and the Cross, we can more fully appreciate the extent to which Adam’s race had fallen by the time Jesus put sandals on the ground, as well as the depth to which our Redeemer willingly descended to begin His work of reclaiming, repurchasing, restoring to Himself, Adam’s dysfunctional family.
In this light, our dire need of redemption comes into sharp focus, leading us to more completely embrace the reality that Christ, our Redeemer, verily put on the same nature and likeness as ours. Jesus wore Adam-1’s flesh, which is your and my fallen carnality, which is the very flesh that required redeeming! This is precisely what the GOD-Man, Jesus, did while “in us.”
Our redemption lies not in coupons and gift certificates; nor in licking and sticking Green Stamps, and swapping wrinkled books for footstools and table lamps. Our ransom wasn’t paid, as seen on TV, with stacks of unmarked bills stuffed into a duffel bag. “We’ve been redeemed, not by corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.” (I Peter 1:18-20)
“But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of GOD is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (I Corinthians 1:30) Paul testifies that not only is Christ our Redeem-er. He is our Redemp-tion. He not only laid down the payment, but He was the Payment. He, Himself, was the Price of our ransom. He became the embodiment, the sum and the substance, the actual currency of our redemption! “And He is the propitiation (the appeasement) for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” (I John 2:2) Jesus, His blood, and His life are right now forever united with us in His glorified flesh in Heaven above!
Ephesians 1:7 speaks of our Redeemer, Christ Jesus, “In Whom we have redemption thru His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” A blood debt owed; a blood debt satisfied! Hear the cry of your Elder Brother and Redeemer, Who stood your Judgment, endured your execution, experienced the eternal separation that was rightfully yours: “My GOD, My GOD, why have You forsaken Me!” (Matthew 27:46)
“GOD was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” (2 Corinthians 5:19) Recall Jesus’ words, “I am in My Father and My Father is in Me,” (John 14:11) His response to Philip’s request, “Show us the Father,” was, “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9) And can His confession, “I and My Father are One” be construed any differently?
“But when the fullness of the time had come, GOD sent forth His Son … to redeem those who were under the law (of Sin and Death), that we might receive the adoption as sons (first-generation children).” (Galatians 4:4, 5) Isn’t adoption the supreme act of redemption? When a wild branch is grafted into a living vine, is that not the redemption of the wild branch? The Apostle Paul states that we “wild branches” have been grafted into Jesus Christ, Who is “the True Vine.” (Romans 11:24)
GOD’s redemption of mankind in Christ includes the removal of the curse on the earth and all of nature, which we read earlier in Genesis 3:17-19. Jesus not only took flesh-and-bone humanity to redemption at Calvary, but He also redeemed from the curse the earth and all nature – the sum-total of His Creation – as symbolized by the crown of thorns He wore to Judgment.
Now, when a document is sealed, that transaction is completed. It’s a done deal. Listen to what Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus: “In Him we were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who (the Spirit) is given as a pledge of our inheritance and redemption”. (Ephesians 1:13, 14) We all want a guarantee, and right here it is in the Father’s pledge and promise, sealed by His Holy Spirit. When Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” it was done!
In conclusion, the Redeemed of Christ are to become redeemers! Yes, it’s true! Paul admonishes us, “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15) Then in Colossians 4:5 we’re counseled again to be busily “redeeming the time,” which means maximizing every available moment of the remaining time that is entrusted to us. “Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.” Why? Because, Peter warns that the adversary has gone ballistic. He’s on a tear like a raging, rip-roaring lion, “… seeking whom he may devour, knowing that his time is short.” (1 Peter 5:8) Let’s sing a verse or three of Work, For the Night is Coming! What a great hymn for these times; and those lyrics can light a fire in your belly!
Our assignment as GOD’s redeemers calls for us to enlist in Christ’s Last-day ministry. According to 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, “All things are of GOD, Who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation …” (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) Jesus has appointed us to share the powerfully-good news of redemption and reconciliation in Him. We should be sharing it liberally, with conviction and with urgency!
Why? Because, as Peter tells us, the adversary is on a tear; he’s gone ballistic! He’s like a rip-roaring lion “… seeking whom he may devour, knowing that his time is short.” Time is running out, for him … and for us! Our time also is short.
Ought we not be as diligent and persevering as the adversary in finishing the Gospel work that’s been assigned to us? The timing of the Feast of Trumpets in relation to the Day of Atonement clearly illustrates, as does the prophecy of Ezekiel. 9, that the Judgment of His Last-day Church will come prior to the commencing of His final, 11th hour Ingathering work, in preparation for The Great Day of the LORD.
“And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to GOD by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our GOD kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9, 10)
Our Heavenly Father – Thank you for your Plan of Redemption, and for making it possible for me to be included in Your buying back at such infinite cost what had always been Yours. Let me be among Your Blessed Redeemed who stand “…on the Sea of Glass mingled with fire,” singing the Song of Moses and of the Lamb. In Jesus’ holy name I ask. – Amen
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