Some Special Words - Pt 1

Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” Christ 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”—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:6-14 ESV).

There are some very important and unique words used in the New Testament to describe the condition we have been placed in through the grace of God. Some of them are a bit difficult to understand simply because they are not a part of our normal vocabulary. In the next few days we’ll look at some of these and see if we can’t make more sense of them. The first word we’ll consider is “redeemed.” I read the following little story not long ago illustrating this word: John didn’t expect his life to develop the way it had. He was owned by a wealthy man and he had no choice but to work for him, day in and day out. His slavery started because his farming parents had to borrow money to buy food during the winter. The next spring saw a severe drought, and they had no money to repay their creditor. So they had to give him their teenage son as payment; that’s how he became a slave. John tried hard to please his master, but sometimes he failed and was beaten. He felt under a curse. But one day an even wealthier man came and purchased John, not in order to make him his slave but to graciously set John free. What an exciting day; John was redeemed. The biblical term redemption comes from the slave market. In the ancient world many became slaves because of unpaid debts. Life as a slave was often painful and difficult. But people could be redeemed from slavery. We have all been slaves to sin. But Christ redeemed us from that curse and has set us free. The streets of heaven will be filled with former captives who, through no merit of their own, find themselves redeemed, forgiven, and free. No wonder we will sing a new song, a song of praise to the Redeemer who was slain (cf. Revelation 5:9). Jesus paid the price to redeem us, resulting in our freedom from slavery to sin and our rescue from the eternal consequences of that sin. Hallelujah! What a Savior!