Overview
Rev. Tom Knupp traces our redemption in Christ through two books of the Bible: Ephesians in the New Testament, and Ruth in the Old Testament. Redemption revolves around two ideas, payment and release, and this teaching walks through both across three stages: the past, when God planned our redemption before the foundation of the world; the present, when Jesus Christ paid the ransom and released us now from the bondage of sin; and the future, when we will receive our full release in resurrected bodies as joint-heirs with Christ. The book of Ruth, and her kinsman-redeemer Boaz, becomes a living picture of what Christ has done for us. The conclusion: as the redeemed, we are identified as God’s very own, both now and forever.
Teaching
Why Identity in Christ Starts With Redemption
This morning as we delve into the subject of our redemption in Christ, we will first consider what constitutes a person’s identity. Each of us has certain roles we play in life that inform not only what we think of ourselves, but also what others think of us. So yes, our identity in marriage and families is personal, but what’s even more personal is our redemption in Christ. This teaching aims to give a glimpse into just how intimately our heavenly Father has drawn us to Himself through His Son Jesus Christ, and provided a family where we can grow and flourish together, now and through all eternity.
Redemption revolves around two basic concepts: payment and release. We need to understand both the price that was paid, and what we were released from, and we’ll look at that through the lens of past, present, and future.
- PAST — payment and release planned: before the foundation of the world, God authored the plan of redemption.
- PRESENT — payment and release accomplished: Jesus Christ paid the ransom for our release now from the bondage of sin and its consequences.
- FUTURE — payment made, release awaited: as heirs of God, we eagerly await our future release from the bondage of corruption and the redemption of our bodies from the grave.
To trace this development, from God’s plan to Christ’s ransom to our full release, this teaching turns to two books of the Bible: Ephesians in the New Testament, where we see our redemption accomplished and future, and Ruth in the Old Testament, where we see the plan God designed for a kinsman-redeemer.
God Planned Our Redemption Out of Love
Our redemption could never have happened if God had not first planned it, and to plan it He had to have first desired it. Why did God redeem mankind? Because as the God of love, it was His intense, personal desire to have sons whom He could love and who would love Him in return. Ephesians 1:5 says God redeemed us for love, and love alone. He crafted a plan of redemption from the very beginning so that men could be born again as His children and legally adopted as His sons.
The Greek word behind “adoption of children” is huiothesia, the term for the legal process of adoption, translated “adoption as sons,” “placement as sons,” or “sonship.” It is the basis on which we have our rights as God’s sons. To adopt someone in that culture was to make him your son and elevate him as your heir; sonship was a legal status for adults, just as heirship was a civil status. Remarkably, an adopted son actually had a stronger legal position than a son by birth, because a father could disown a birth son but was legally barred from disowning an adopted one. Huiothesia involved four elements: a change of family, a change of name, a change of home, and the capacity to inherit. To become a son, then, was to become an heir.
Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible renders Ephesians 1:5 this way: marking us out beforehand unto sonship, through Jesus Christ, for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. According to His good pleasure, God marked us out for Himself beforehand unto sonship through Jesus Christ. He wanted us not just as sons, but as heirs.
Knowing why God redeemed us, for love’s sake, we can ask how He redeemed us. Galatians 4:3-5 says that we might receive the adoption of sons, huiothesia, placement as sons. Ephesians 1:5 identifies the Author of our sonship, God; Galatians 4:3-5 identifies the agent of our sonship, God’s Son. As our kinsman-redeemer, Jesus Christ was the one closest to us who was legally qualified to redeem us. On a human level, as a descendant of Adam, Abraham, and David, he came directly out of the believers’ line, and as God’s only begotten Son, he was the one and only individual since Adam and Eve to have innocent blood and the potential to live a sinless life. Out of all mankind, he became the nearest of our believing kinsmen qualified to be our perfect sacrifice by the shedding of his sinless blood, paying the price for our redemption once and for all.
From “Not My People” to God’s Treasured Possession
We who were without God and without hope were certainly sorely in need of redemption. Before we were redeemed, our name was “not my people.” Hosea 2:23 (ESV) says, And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, You are my people, and he shall say, You are my God. Everything changed once we were redeemed. No longer “No Mercy,” we became the recipients of God’s mercy. No longer “not beloved,” we became God’s beloved. No longer “not my people,” we became the people of God, the children of the living God. This passage is echoed in Romans 9:25-26.
Being called the children of the living God made us a “peculiar people,” God’s most treasured possession. Today when someone is called “peculiar” we understand them to mean odd or strange, but when the word first came into English from the Latin, it meant “one’s own property.” That’s the signification of “peculiar people” in the King James Bible: a people who are God’s own acquisition or possession. Titus 2:14 and 1 Peter 2:9 both use this language, with the ESV rendering 1 Peter 2:9 as “a people for his own possession.” Three times now God reinforces the point: we were Lo-Ammi, Not My People, and now we are Ammi, My People.
Our Kinsman-Redeemer: The Story of Ruth and Boaz
To paint a picture of what this transition means in human terms, this teaching turns to the book of Ruth, where Jesus Christ is revealed as our kinsman-redeemer. Moab, where Ruth was from, was a land on the far side of the Dead Sea, and the Moabites, descendants of Lot, were relatives of the Israelites who worshipped idols rather than the God of Israel. Ruth chose to stay with her mother-in-law Naomi rather than return to her own people and gods, telling her, thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.
In Ruth 2, we meet Boaz, whose name means “in him is strength.” Boaz was Ruth’s late husband’s blood relative, a kinsman who could potentially play the role of kinsman-redeemer, since a man who was next of kin had the right to buy back a deceased relative’s property and marry his widow. Boaz was a wonderful man, loved and respected by his servants, who treated Ruth the same way, inviting her to glean in his field as much as she needed. Though society counted Ruth an outcast as a Moabitess, Boaz didn’t see it that way; he had learned who she was, what she had given up to come to Israel, and pronounced a blessing on her.
Naomi later instructed Ruth to go to the threshing floor at night, where Boaz would be sleeping to guard the grain, and to lie down at his feet and uncover them. This was not indecent by Eastern custom; it followed a specific, culturally understood protocol regarding redemption. When Boaz awoke to find Ruth there, she asked him to spread his skirt, or mantle, over her, since he was a near kinsman with the right to redeem. Spreading the skirt represented redemption and was a sign of complete surrender; Ruth was asking Boaz not only to redeem the family’s lost land but to redeem her by marrying her and raising up children in her dead husband’s name.
Boaz moved quickly, going to the elders at the town gate to settle the matter with a nearer kinsman who had the first right of redemption but relinquished it. In Ruth 4, that kinsman drew off his sandal to seal the transfer of the right of redemption to Boaz. Boaz then took Ruth as his wife, and the Lord gave her a son, Obed, who would one day become the grandfather of David, part of the very line of Christ. Ruth, once a stranger, could say, I am redeemed: no longer a stranger, with a home and a place among God’s people, a legacy and an inheritance in Israel.
Our Redemption Accomplished: Payment and Release Now
Today we enjoy the initial benefits of our redemption: being redeemed from sin and its consequences. Jesus Christ paid for that redemption with the sacrifice of his own life. Ephesians 1:7 is the pivotal verse capturing this truth. To redeem means to buy back by paying the price, or to demand back one’s own property, as in the repurchase of land that has been sold. Redemption is a release effected by the payment of a ransom, and the ransom was Jesus Christ’s blood.
Ephesians 1:7 equates our redemption with “the forgiveness of sins.” The Greek word here, aphesis, can mean either forgiveness or remission depending on context. Remission is the wiping out of past sins at the time of salvation, while forgiveness is the pardoning of sins committed after salvation, restoring broken fellowship with God. In this verse, remission is the appropriate sense: in whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace. Redemption is so costly that it must be free. Being released from the bondage of sin, we have entered into a new life as sons, described in Romans 8:15-17 as receiving the Spirit of adoption, huiothesia, a sonship spirit.
Our Redemption Future: Payment Made, Release Awaited
This brings us to the future part of our redemption, when, as joint-heirs with Christ, we completely enter into and take possession of our full inheritance in new bodies. The payment has been made, but for now the release is still future. Ephesians 1:14 speaks of the earnest, or token and guarantee, of our inheritance. When God put His spirit in our hearts, that made us His sons, and because we are now sons, we are also heirs of God through Christ, joint-heirs with Christ Himself, who has all things as God’s only-begotten Son.
Even in the Old Testament, God looked at His people as His inheritance; Deuteronomy 32:9 describes Israel as His portion. As we learned earlier, to redeem is to demand back one’s property. We are God’s property, and God through Christ has bought us back and is not about to let us go. The earnest of our inheritance in Ephesians 1:14 is more than a pledge, it’s an actual down payment: the gift of holy spirit and the manifestations, called in Romans 8:23 “the firstfruits of the Spirit,” waiting for the adoption, huiothesia, that is, the redemption of our body. At the time of that redemption, described in 1 Corinthians 15:49, we will have been delivered from all sickness and death and will have new bodies made alive with eternal-life spirit.
God’s Very Own, Now and Forever
Knowing this unparalleled future, what should we do to express gratitude for our priceless redemption in Christ? 1 Corinthians 6:20 says, therefore glorify God in your body. Ye are bought with a price. We got to be God’s special treasure because He paid for us with a precious price, the life of His beloved Son. We are His, He is ours, and all is ours as His born-again sons. Romans 15:6 explains what it means to glorify God in your body: with one mind, a renewed mind, and one mouth, as spokesmen for God. We have been redeemed from the bondage of sin and a life without God and without hope, but we have also been redeemed for something, living for Him. Having been bought with a price, we are to live like it.
In Philippians 3:9-10 and 12, the Apostle Paul makes his bold confession: that I may be found in him, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. As a son of God and joint-heir with Christ, we are not just members of an earthly household, but children in God’s heavenly household, clinging to an identity in Christ, a righteousness not our own but of God, pressing onward because Christ Jesus has made us his own.
Returning to Ruth 1:16-17: as God’s treasured possession that He has bought with the blood of His only-begotten Son, let us go where He goes, let us make our abode with Him, let us cast our lot with Him and never look back, and let us cleave to our Father God, His Son Jesus Christ, and God’s faithful people. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy.
Key Takeaways
- Redemption revolves around payment and release, traced across three stages: God planned it before the foundation of the world, Jesus Christ accomplished it now through his blood, and we await its full completion in resurrected bodies.
- Huiothesia, adoption as sons, is a legal placement that made an adopted son’s position stronger than a birth son’s, involving a change of family, name, home, and the capacity to inherit.
- Jesus Christ, as our kinsman-redeemer, was the one legally and biologically qualified to redeem us, sinless and closest of kin to mankind.
- The book of Ruth pictures our redemption in human terms: Boaz, a qualified kinsman, redeems Ruth from being a stranger and outcast into a full place among God’s people.
- We moved from being “Not My People” (Lo-Ammi) to “My People” (Ammi), from “No Mercy” to receiving mercy, and are now called God’s peculiar or treasured possession.
- Because we have been bought with a price, we are called to glorify God in our bodies with a renewed mind and as spokesmen for Him, living for the one who redeemed us.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean that Jesus Christ is our kinsman-redeemer?
As our kinsman-redeemer, Jesus Christ was the one closest to us who was legally qualified to redeem us. As a descendant of Adam, Abraham, and David, he came directly out of the believers’ line, and as God’s only begotten Son, he was the one and only individual since Adam and Eve to have innocent blood, qualifying him to be our perfect sacrifice.
What are the past, present, and future stages of our redemption?
Before the foundation of the world, God authored the plan of redemption. In the present, Jesus Christ paid the ransom for our release now from the bondage of sin and its consequences. In the future, as heirs of God, we eagerly await our release from the bondage of corruption and the redemption of our bodies from the grave.
What does huiothesia, or adoption as sons, mean for our identity in Christ?
Huiothesia is the Greek word for adoption, translated adoption as sons or placement as sons, and is also translated sonship. It is the basis on which we have our rights as God’s sons, involving a change of family, a change of name, a change of home, and the capacity to inherit.
Scripture References
Ruth 1:16-17; Ephesians 1:5, 1:7, 1:14; Galatians 4:3-7; Hosea 2:23; Romans 9:25-26; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9-10; Ruth 2-4; Romans 8:15-17, 8:23; 1 Corinthians 3, 6:20, 15:49; Deuteronomy 32:9; Philippians 3:9-10, 3:12; Romans 15:6
