Let’s begin with the first mention of a redeemer in Job 19:25-27, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.”  (Job is not the first book in the Bible, but it is the oldest.)

To redeem means to buy back, purchase, or to deliver.  Even back in Job’s day, he understood that he needed to be redeemed from his sins and he had a redeemer, or one to purchase him from the penalty of sin.  The idea of a redeemer gives the thought of a price paid to redeem.  We read in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

What is the price of our redemption?  What did it cost the Lord Jesus to redeem sinful man?  1 Peter 1:18-19 tells us, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”  It took the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the shedding of His precious blood for us to be “bought with a price.” 

We learn back in Leviticus 17:11, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.”  It is the blood in the body circulating throughout that keeps us alive.  In the Old Testament sacrifices the shed blood of animal sacrifices was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ shedding His blood to put away our sins.  These sacrifices could not pay the debt that was owed as we read in Hebrews 10:4, “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”  No…these were just figures or pictures of what the Lord Jesus would do to put our sins away forever.  So, we read in verse 10, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”  It is ONLY the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus and the shedding of His precious blood that we are redeemed. 

I think most of us are familiar with the words of the Lord Jesus as He hung on the cross for us.  John 19:29-30 says, “Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, IT IS FINISHED: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” This phrase, “IT IS FINISHED” is actually only one word in the Greek: Teleo.  It means PAID!  So, from the cross, the Lord declared that the price for our sin debt had been paid for with His precious blood.  We who put our faith in the Lord Jesus have been redeemed by His precious blood shed while He was on the cross of Calvary.  Titus 2:14 tells us that “(Christ) gave himself for us, THAT HE MIGHT REDEEM US from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

In Revelation 5:9, we read of a new and eternal song that will be sung forever in the Glory.  “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and HAST REDEEMED US TO GOD BY THY BLOOD out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”

I’m reminded of that wonderful old hymn that states:

Redeemed, redeemed

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb

Redeemed, redeemed

His child, and forever, I am.  (439.2)