(Ver 1.0) This will be Part 1 in a series that answers a very challenging Bible question using actual Bible verses. The series title is about Jesus Our Kinsman Redeemer.  This will be the introductory lesson to help us establish what a “Kinsman Redeemer” is and why did God elect to fulfill this role to save us? There is a warning up front that this is again a deep spiritual topic that has the potential to offend people. Many people who call themselves Christians are not spiritually mature enough to handle strong chewy meat subjects like this one. Therefore, if you feel you are new to the faith in Jesus, it might be best for you to go and read some lighter soft milky subjects. Please judge yourself and make the personal determination to act mature no matter what you are feeling about the subject today. Thank you and God bless you.

INTRODUCTION

Most Christians have heard the terms “redeemer” and “redemption”, from Bible study and teachings. But we will start with this word to find out what this means in Biblical terms first.  To redeem someone is a term relating to the purchase or the buyback of someone that was previously sold for a price.  In modern times this is like a Pawn Shop where someone takes their expensive piece of Jewelry to sell permanently or temporarily, and they offer them money in exchange for the item. But the value of the item is always far greater than the sum of money that was given to acquire the item.  

This exchange of item for money is always in favor of the buyer of the item and not the seller. The seller must return with more money than was paid to them to regain possession of their sold property. If they never return to “redeem” the item, then the buyer can sell it to whomever they choose for more money.  This is the simplicity of “selling” and “redeeming” and it is clearly taught to us in the Bible.  Let us continue by looking at the Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word translated as “redeemed”.

The Hebrew word H1350 Gawal is translated as “redeem”, “redeemed”, “redeemer” and “kinsman” primarily.  Bible redemption relates to the subjects of a “family”, their heirs or lack thereof, and their possessions. This concept of redemption also directly relates specifically to family deaths and the remaining living family members.

This is a very interesting Bible concept. It takes place when a male family member dies leaving a widow without having an heir. The dead male kin’s property is made available to be bought or redeemed back into the original family ownership by a redeemer close relative. This relative would normally be a brother and he must also marry the widow of the dead brother to have a child heir for the dead. This concept is mentioned multiple times in the Bible, but we will leave that to future lessons in the series. For now, we will look next at a verse that relates to what we have just learned:

Isa 52:3  For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money. 

The Bible is not written in chronological order.  There are clues of truth spread out all over the Bible many times in random order.  This verse is one of these types of clues. God reveals through the prophet Isaiah that Adam sold humanity into bondage but obtained northing of value from the deal.  When Adam sinned, he gave every human over into the bondage of Satan. You see Adam was given complete dominion rulership over the entire planet (Gen 1:26). But he gave it over to the hands (authority) of the devil and we learn this in Matthew:

Mat 4:8  Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

Mat 4:9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Notice what Satan says when tempting Jesus to worship him. Satan tells Jesus very plainly that every kingdom (king’s domain) in the world was given to him. Then Satan says he will give this realm back to God (Jesus) when He worships him. Hopefully you understand what is happening here. God gave the earth to the first king of the earth named Adam. World ruler Adam sinned willfully and died, and the world’s kingdoms were transferred to Satan’s ownership. This is the financial transaction that was spoken of in Isaiah 52:3. The first Adam sold himself into captivity under the rulership of the darkness of this world and Satan. This made Satan the ruling god of this world (2 Cor 4:4).

This is very essential Bible knowledge to help you understand what God has done to get us back from the hand of God’s enemy Satan. It should be obvious that the first Adam and all his descendants were unable to buy themselves back from this eternal spiritual transaction because everyone sinned (Rom 3:23). This information teaches us why it was necessary for God to implement a different plan to accomplish this human redemption buy back.

But God had a provision of redemption thought out long before He created our world and man sinned (Rev 13:8). Praise the LORD!  We have only briefly touched upon this topic, but we can see it is humans that need redemption from the kingdom of darkness. Therefore, we know that it was by God’s design to redeem us to Himself, but who did it and how as it accomplished. Let us find out next.

Who is our Human Redeemer and What Price was Paid?

We first learned about our need for redemption. We have also seen that it was impossible for man to redeem himself because we were all spiritually dead due to Adam’s sin (1 Cor 15:22). However, this is where God comes to our rescue. Guess how He accomplishes this?  He becomes a new sinless man that contains the untainted pure blood of God and enters the world as God’s 2^nd man (1 Cor 15:47) and the Last Adam (1 Cor 15:45). This will become amazingly important as we continue.  Let us go through some selected few verses to help confirm what is being said:

Luk 1:68  Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,

This is a prophetical statement from the mouth of Zechariah in Luke 1 after the birth of John the Baptist. Notice Zechariah is claiming the LORD God of Israel is being brought forth into the world to visit His creation personally. Then it is clearly stated that the reason for this visit is to “redeem” His people.  This is the plan of God transpiring in the natural realm. But when was the plan made by God? Read this verse to find out:

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

This is a very strong verse of scripture revealing the plan of God was laid out before Adam ever was created. Our God by His omniscient knowledge outside of time already knew the first Adam would sin and we would need a redeemer. Therefore, God Himself, became a man to die and by being slain on a cross, He would shed His blood. Why was shed blood important? That is a great question and let us find the answer:

Rev 5:9  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; 

As we can see clearly that God’s plan of redemption was for Him to shed His own blood to “redeem” (buy back) people out of every human family, every language, and a people from every nation of the present created world. This is a very strong statement.  This is God claiming not everyone will be saved. Please keep this in mind as you learn. We can find another confirmation for God’s blood sacrifice in the book of first Peter:

1Pe 1:18  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;

1Pe 1:19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

This is a verse that teaches us the fulfilment of the previous prophecy found in Isaiah 52:3 about Jesus. Do you remember what Isaiah wrote? This verse said humanity sold themselves (to Satan) for nothing, but they will be bought back without paying money. As we can see in Peter, the world’s money, like silver and gold, is called a corruptible substance. This Greek word translated as corruptible simply means a substance that is decaying away. In other words, naturally created things are not capable of buying back God’s given human spirits from their death resulting from their spiritual sins.  People are infinitely more valuable to God than anything that was created (Mat 10:31).

We can clearly learn from verse 19 that it was the “precious” blood of Jesus Christ that was used by God to “redeem” humanity. This is a very challenging statement for religious minded people that claim they are unworthy sinners. If this was true, God would not have needed to use His own life and blood to buy us back. Think about this for a while. Let us begin to see ourselves as God sees us, as being very valuable and precious.

We have established the fact of truth that it was Jesus who was God in the flesh (Mat 1:23) who paid for our redemption to take us out of our captivity and certain doomed eternal death in hell.  It was God’s own blood that He used to make this purchase. That teaches us God loved us so much that He personally died to save us.

Act 20:28  Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 

CONCLUSION

This was simply the introduction to the main subject of God’s word about Jesus Christ being our “Kinsman Redeemer”. In this part of the lesson, we were simply introduced to the basic concepts of “what is redemption”? What caused the need for redemption? Who was it that needed to be redeemed? Who fulfilled this role of the required Redeemer? What was the purchase price for the buy back out of the human condition that the first Adam sold us into?  If you can’t answer these questions, it is highly recommended that you go back and restudy this introduction and take better notes.

If you are struggling with understanding any of these answers, it is OK to ask questions. This subject is absolutely a necessity to understand what God has done to show His love through extending His great hands of power to be nailed to a cross (Act 5:30, Col 2:14), to die (Rom 5:10, 1 Pet 2:24), to go to hell for three days to take the punishment for all human sins (Mat 12:30, Eph 4:9), and then to be raised up from the dead to begin a new creation apart from evil (2 Cor 5:17, 2 Pet 3:13).

The Lord be willing in the next lesson in the series, we will focus upon the subject of a Redeemer also being a near relative “Kinsman”, because this was God’s plan and design of our redemption. God becomes a male human baby on the earth born into a manger of a virgin woman named Mary. This woman was a descendant seed of the first man Adam. Mary was also a seed of Abraham and a seed of David. This made Jesus the same as His natural mother. But this baby had a different Father called God. This made Him a new unique type of human that could be called 100% human and 100% divine simultaneously. We will get into this much deeper soon.

Thank you for taking the time to study God’s Holy Word with us.  There are not any other books of writings, that are as amazing as this one called the Holy Bible. The infinite intelligence of its design displays the handywork of God in every word choice. There is more information in this book than you will ever be able to fully grasp in many lifetimes.

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them. As the LORD leads us, we will do our best to read them and possibly address them. Thank you again and God Bless you all, we love you and pray for you continually.

If you would like to continue reading in this series, please go to “Part 2“

Are You Saved? Do you Know Jesus? Life is Short! Jesus wants to Know You! Please come and get to Know Him!