O happy day!
While this is the sole reference in Scripture to the term the day of redemption, the day is referred to in Ephesians 1:14 where the Holy Spirit is described as “the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of His glory.” We are further enlightened when we read the apostle Paul’s explanation of the same event: “but ourselves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit…waiting for our adoption, that is, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:21-23).
We wish to examine three important questions about the day of redemption: What is it? Whom does it concern? When will it take place?
What is it?
Redemption entails two basic biblical meanings: purchase and release. W.E. Vine explains the two concepts as follows: “Exagorazo denotes ‘to buy out,’ especially with the purchasing of a slave with a view to his freedom. Lutroo means ‘to release on receipt of a ransom.’”1 This is the gospel of God’s grace. God’s beloved Son entered Satan’s domain to deliver us (Heb. 2:15). In so doing, He purchased us. Taking the punishment that we deserved, He offered Himself to God as a ransom. Therefore, we were redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:19).
Hebrews 9:12 is a key verse in this regard: “Nor yet through the blood of bulls or calves, but through His own blood He entered once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.” Kenneth Wuest has a useful comment: “The word ‘His own’ is the translation of idios. Had the personal pronoun autos been used, it would just have meant “by means of” His blood. Idios, however, speaks of a personal, private, unique ownership…it speaks of our Lord’s unique Sonship, and, therefore, deity.”2 Our destiny, as slaves of sin and Satan, was judgment. But now, in the Savior’s death, the ransom price has been paid, thus releasing those who believe from sin’s penalty, eternal death!
Frances Alexander was right when she wrote in her hymn, “There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin; He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in.” William Blane, in his extensive poem on the atonement (a word closely related to redemption), expresses this truth clearly:
’Twixt God and man, to close the rent,
The spotless Lamb of God was sent.
If all the sins of Adam’s race,
With perfect justice to each case,
In Heaven’s balances were laid,
They would be utterly outweighed
By Jesus death. The value lies
All in the infinite sacrifice.3
Whom does it concern?
In Jeremiah 31:33-36, the Lord promised, “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. I will put My laws into their mind and in their heart will write them…I will be merciful to their iniquities and their sins will I remember no more.” But before there could be national salvation, provision had to be made for personal cleansing and forgiveness of sin. Thus, on the night of His betrayal, Jesus instituted “a new covenant in My blood” (Lk. 22:19-20). The basis for this new covenant was redemption. And it extends not only to Israel, but to every believer.
In John 17:24, the Lord concludes His high priestly prayer with the request, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am that they may behold My glory which Thou has given Me; for Thou lovest Me from before the foundation of the world.” This surely provides a partial answer to our question as to who will be involved.
Believers today, in the dispensation of grace, see the blessings we will receive in that day of redemption. The Scriptures quoted at the top of this study are glorious and reassuring. Our redemption flows from Calvary and is based on “the riches of His grace.” The indwelling Holy Spirit is our guarantee that we will one day experience the final phase of our redemption, the redemption of our bodies. Released from the limitations and testings of this life, when that moment of transformation into His likeness takes place, we will have bodies properly suited to our new environment: “for the body of our humiliation will be conformed to the body of His glory” (Php. 3:20-21).
But what of Israel? We live in a generation where many believers see no future for Israel as a nation. They think that God’s promises to Israel have been transferred to the Church. The following revelations concerning this, given to three godly believers at the time of His birth, prove the contrary.
Zacharias the priest declared, “The God of Israel hath visited and wrought redemption for His people…to show mercy towards our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant…to give knowledge of salvation unto His people in the remission of their sins” (Lk. 1:68, 77). He spoke in the past tense as though it was already accomplished, thus emphasizing its certainty. Simeon, taking the child Jesus in his arms, said to Mary, “This child is set for the fall and rising up of many in Israel” (Lk. 2:34). And the prophetess Anna, “gave thanks unto God and spake of Him to all them that were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Lk. 2:38). Each one of these saints testified to the future redemption of Israel, thanks to her Messiah.
When will it take place?
For the Christian, this great day will be when “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” (1 Thess. 4:15-17). The dead raised; the living changed; all the saints rising with gloriously transformed bodies to meet the Lord in the air. For us, this will be the day of redemption, the completion of our salvation.
For Israel, it will be when their Messiah will “stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives” (Zech. 14:4). “They shall look unto Him whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10). For them, it will be a moment of astonishment and intense mourning as Jesus of Nazareth, the One they vowed would not reign over them, appears before them. We listen too, to Isaiah in his song of Israel’s national confession and repentance. Afflicted, despised, and rejected, they acknowledge that, “He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities…and by His stripes we are healed…the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:5f).
Thus for God’s elect of all ages, the day of redemption will begin the eternal accolade of perfect praise to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. “To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power, before all time and now, and for evermore. Amen.” (Jude 25)
Endnotes
1 W.E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Oliphants Ltd).
2 Kenneth S. Wuest, Hebrews in the Greek New Testament (Pickering & Inglis).
3 William Blane, Lays of Life and Hope (Pickering & Inglis).