About 700 years before the arrival of the Messiah, the prophet Isaiah foretold of a Redeemer to come.
For example:
“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD.
(Isaiah 59:20)
“…Then you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
(Isaiah 60:16)
“…you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.”
(Isaiah 63:16)
Yet first, what is redemption? (And we need the definition as established in ancient times.)
The apostle Paul stated: “For [the Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).
Thus redemption here is tied in with being forgiven.
In my early youth, glass bottles were still commonly used for sodas. I remember drinking the original sports drink out of a glass bottle. It tasted so good. Yet glass bottles were being steadily phased out, since aluminum cans had taken over.
In one of the first mass recycling endeavors in the United States of America, a number of states passed a law that a person could take her or his glass bottles back to a store and “redeem” them for a nickel a piece. This was to keep people from littering glass or throwing away glass bottles.
Thus redeeming was exchanging an empty bottle for money. The purpose was achieved: the state prevented the bottle from being wasted.
That definition of the word was quite eroded from the subject of forgiveness, yet it illustrates the basic concept of the word. There was a payment to get the bottle back.
The redemption by the Redeemer was a payment so people can be forgiven of sins.
What was that payment? Death.
What does death have to do with sins?
As Paul states: “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23).
Death, physical and spiritual, is a consequence of sins.
Who is the Redeemer?
Paul completes the sentence: “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Jesus made forgiveness possible by an exchange of His life for the sins of people. Jesus took the sins of all people, past, present, and future, in His own heart, and died on the cross. The payment was His own death. Then Jesus was resurrected by the Father.
I often speak of Jesus as my Savior. Indeed, the angel who spoke to David in a dream stated: “[Mary] will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Likewise, Redeemer is a title which richly embodies the salvation which Jesus has made possible for us.
The result of giving your heart to the Redeemer, who is the Messiah: “They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD…” (Isaiah 62:12). And the gift of eternal life becomes yours, as we learned from Romans 6:23.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for the forgiveness of sins of anyone. He was the substitute for the consequence of sins, which is death, physical and spiritual. If you believe in Jesus, the Redeemer foretold by Isaiah, then you will have eternal life in Christ.
Hunter Irvine
