- Redeem Life
Psalm 103:4a
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;
“Redeem” technically means to “buy back,” which means, to pay a ransom for someone or something that was stolen from your ownership. Biblically, redeem means to pay the ransom for my soul, which was originally created and owned by God but was stolen by Sin, Death, and the Devil. The three enemies owned and controlled me until Jesus purchased me with His own blood; He paid the price of my life with His own life. “It is finished” means “the debt is paid in full.” God owned me once, lost me, and then bought me back.
The kidnapping analogy breaks down, however, in this way: Satan did not illegally kidnap us because he legally owned me and had a right to my life, because of my sin. My sin relinquished the right to my life and gave Sin and Satan the legal right to my life. Sin owns me and controls and can do to me whatever it wants legally, because my sin gives Satan legal right. The Redemption of Christ by the cross legally takes me out from under Satan’s authority and places me under God’s authority (The Kingdom of God has come). Simply put, Satan, Sin, and Death have no right to my life any longer.
When things go south and troubles are giving me a bad day I can simply declare: “I have been redeemed! Satan, you must depart from me!” The promise is: God redeems my life from destruction. My spiritual enemies are bent on my destruction, but I have been violently ripped away from their control and set free to enjoy life. When we “see” what we have been redeemed from (destruction) we have a better sense of the great benefit of the wonderful promise of redemption.