Redemption, but at a Price

False teachers deny that Jesus was punished for the sins of His people and in our place at Calvary.

Thus, they try to decouple Christ's death from the Old Testament sacrifices, denying that Jesus is the fulfillment of them.

But then, these false teachers also try to decouple redemption from the price paid for our sin. In other words, they will assert that Jesus' death "redeemed" us, but that it had nothing to do with satisfying divine justice in our place and for our crimes.

They gnash at Paul's teaching: "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us."

They teach that Redemption means something other than the price paid to set us free from God's wrath.

They believe that God forgives us without a bloody sacrifice by Jesus in our place.

Their method is to seek out other uses of the term "redemption" to deny its clear meaning in the epistles. For example, God "redeems" His people out of Egypt, and from their enemies.

In the Old Testament, redemption can mean to avenge or to revenge, but the legal usage describes the payment of money to redeem land back to its poor owner which was sold because of debt, or to buy back a poor man from servitude.

In these cases, only a near kinsman has the legal right to redeem his kinfolk, and that right may not be denied. The best example is the story of Boaz redeeming the property of Naomi which had been lost due to poverty.

While it is true that God's almighty power to rescue by a strong arm is a recurring theme in the Old Testament, nevertheless, in Psalm 130, God "redeems" Israel from all his iniquities. In Isaiah 44, God has "redeemed" His people by taking away their sins.