- REDEEM
rə'dim verb. Compensate for the flaws, deficiencies, or evil of something or someone. - 2. Save someone from sin, error, or evil.
- 3. Gain or regain something, in exchange for payment; repay, or clear a debt.
- 4. Fulfill a promise.
- [Redemption
rə'dɛm(p).ʃən noun, redeemerrə'dim.ər noun, redeemablerə'di.mə.bəl adjective.]
When people talk about redeeming or redemption, if they’re not Christian they’re usually talking about recycling cans and bottles. In California when you buy something in a recyclable container, you’re charged an extra fee (the California redemption value, or
Christian redemption isn’t quite like that… although I have actually heard a sermon or two about Jesus recycling sinners. Supposedly God created us with an inherent value, but by sinning, we’re throwing ourselves in the trash… and I guess Jesus is gonna be the guy who fishes us out of the trash and gets our full value. Meh; it’s a shaky simile.
The Christianese term has to do with saving someone from sin, error, or evil. And properly, it has to do with debt. In the bible, the L
Leviticus 25.25 NASB - “&thinsp‘If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor that he sells part of his property, then his closest redeemer is to come and buy back what his relative has sold.’ ”
The “closest redeemer” (Hebrew
This redeemer bought back the property. If you sold your oxen—and these weren’t really oxen you could spare; you kinda needed them to plow your field—your redeemer bought ’em back and returned them to you. If you sold your home, your redeemer bought it back and returned it to you. If you sold your farm, your redeemer bought it back and returned it to you. Getting the idea? If you were destitute, and even had to sell yourself
Your redeemer didn’t buy back your property so he could retain possession of it, and let you live on his farm, in his house, plowing with his oxen, with him as your lord and you his serf. Nope, he gave them back to you. Because you’re family, and God had made your redeemer wealthy enough to do for family.
Yeah, it’s not a mindset we find at all among most Americans. Even Christians.