The Elements of Redemption - The Redeemer

by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.  7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth-in Him.  (Ephesians 1:6b-10)

In this passage Paul mentions five elements of the redemption God offers fallen men through His Son, Jesus Christ: the Redeemer, the redeemed, and the redemption price, results, and reason.

THE REDEEMER

Grace (v. 6a) is that which is referred to by the word which. It is God's grace (undeserved love and goodness) that He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved, and because we are in Him we have redemption. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer from sin, the Beloved (the word indicates the One who is in the state of being loved by God) who Himself paid the price for our release from sin and death. Because we now belong to Christ, by faith made one with Him and placed in His Body, we are now acceptable to God.

From the beginning of Jesus' ministry the Father declared Him to be “My beloved Son” (Matt. 3:17). And because we have believed in Him, “He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). Because we are now in the Beloved, we, too, are “beloved of God” (Rom. 1:7).

Only Jesus Christ has the inherent right to all the good gifts of God. But because we are identified with Him by faith, those good gifts are now ours. Because our Savior and Lord is the Beloved of the Father and possesses all the righteousness of the Father, we are also the beloved of the Father and possess all His righteousness imputed to us by grace thru faith.  Jesus said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father” (John 14:21).

The Father now loves us as He loves Christ and wants us to have everything that Christ has. That is why Paul could say He “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph. 1:3). Every Christian is God's beloved child because the Lord Jesus Christ has become our Redeemer.

The Old Testament concept of a kinsman-redeemer set forth three qualifications: he had to be related to the one needing redemption, able to pay the price, and willing to do so. The Lord Jesus perfectly met these requirements.

A poet has expressed the magnificent reality of redemption in the words,

Near, so very near to God,
Nearer I could not be;
For in the person of His Son,
I'm just as near as He.
Dear, so very dear to God,
Dearer I could not be;
For in the person of His Son,
I'm just as dear as He.

The word translated grace, Charitooô (freely bestowed) is from charis (grace, v. 6a), and therefore Paul is saying that God has graced us with His grace. Christians are those who have been graced by God. We ought to note that the idea of free grace means that that grace is free to us - not that it is without cost. The huge price for our redemption is not a price we can pay. It is a price only God could pay - by coming Himself in the form of His Son, to pay that price for His children.

(We ought also to note that Redemption refers to only one part of the salvation process. The imputation of Righteousness is the second essential part). Both must be clearly seen to be an essential part of the salvation process if we are to truly understand the work of God in saving us.