Redemption. It’s a difficult word to fully define. The Bible speaks of it in so many different ways: the dead are brought to life… the lost are regained… the ruined are restored… the sick are made well… the broken are repaired… the enslaved are set free… the guilty are completely forgiven… wrong is made right again… evil is finally and utterly conquered… and the deepest yearnings of the human heart (which is made to image God and be in right relationship with God) are at last satisfied by the restoration of goodness and righteousness.

Yet even that doesn’t begin to do the word justice. This is why the Bible is so full of pictures and metaphors that are always pointing us toward the fullness of redemption’s meaning, trying to help us grasp the idea more and more deeply. And it’s a wonderful exercise just to let your imagination run free when reading the Scriptures that paint those pictures and develop those metaphors for us. You’ll find that redemption is indeed the very thing for which the human heart is longing. For humanity was formed by God as a good thing, deformed by sin, and is now in desperate need of being reformed in Christ (that is, “redeemed").

So over and over, throughout the Bible, God promised his people a Redeemer. “‘And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,’ declares the Lord” (Isaiah 59.20). And when Jesus was finally born, the prophet Zechariah sang, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people” (Luke 1.68)!

Redemption (that unspeakably heroic event whereby we are “purchased back” from the bondage to sin by the “payment” of Christ’s death on our behalf) is now open to all! Isn’t this what you’re wanting? In Christ, God has kicked the door off its hinges and is calling and compelling you to come into his house and feast with him! See Luke 14.12-24. It’s a feast of redemption, and you must taste it to see how good it is.