God “is” “My Redeemer”. “Is” meaning ; “existing in this moment of time“, and “the substance, characteristics, and/or character of a thing”. God “is” a “right now”, “in this moment” God; alive, active and available to us. His “substance”, “characteristics”, and “character” is “My Redeemer”.But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,…..” Hebrews 11:6
As we see scripture that identifies God and Jesus as “redeemer” in different scenarios, it is important for us, as individuals, to “personalize” His redemptive work and identify and claim it as pertaining to ourselves. Yes, He is the redeemer; He is your redeemer; but I must identify, accept, and lay claim to Him as “My Redeemer” in order for His redemptive work to really have the necessary impact on my heart and life.
Psalm 78:35 (NASB)
And they remembered that God was their rock, And the Most High God their Redeemer.
Galatians 3:13-14 (NASB)
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED is everyone who hangs on A TREE”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Galatians 4:3-7 (NASB)
So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
There is so much in the definitions and applications of the Hebrew and Greek words that are translated “redeem” or “redemption” that there isn’t space in a short writing to deal with them. Suffice it to say that a “redeemer” purchased something (paid a price for it) and delivered it back to the original owner.
When I was a youngster, people (kids and even older people) would generate a little spending money by collecting “pop bottles”. Coca Cola, and other companies would “buy back” (redeem) the glass bottles soda pop was sold in so that they could be re-used. When someone purchased a glass-bottled beverage, the bottle became their possession; the beverage company would offer to “redeem” the bottles for a “price” (money) in order to regain possession of them.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NASB)
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
1 Peter 1:18-19 (NASB)
… knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
Colossians 1:13-14 (NASB)
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Romans 6:10-14 (NASB)
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Galatians 5:1 (NASB)
It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
I have been REDEEMED! I have been bought with a price, redeemed from the kingdom of darkness and bondage to sin, and “set free” in His Kingdom. He is “My Redeemer!!!
Our concept of His “isness”; the manner in which we define His nature, substance, characteristics, and character, and the way we “receive” His “isness” into our life and depend on (have faith in) it, will be the role that we “anticipate/expect” or “will allow” God to play in our lives.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,…..” God “is” “My Redeemer”.
*** Fred Wilson *** is an author, former coach, teacher and Life and Liberty News Contributor.
