Question 20: Who is the Redeemer?

The only Redeemer is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in whom God became man and bore the penalty for sin himself.

1 Timothy 2:5:

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Commentary

John Chrysostom

The Only Begotten, Who is before all ages, Who cannot be touched or be perceived, Who is simple, without body, has now put on my body, that is visible and liable to corruption. For what reason? That coming amongst us he may teach us, and teaching, lead us by the hand to the things that men cannot see. For since men believe that the eyes are more trustworthy than the ears, they doubt of that which they do not see, and so He has deigned to show Himself in bodily presence, that He may remove all doubt. . . . The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infant’s bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness.

For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit, that He may save me.

Mark Dever

The Redeemer is Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. The eternal Son of God became man and lived a real human life like ours. For a little more than thirty years in the first century AD, he lived like you and me; the only difference is that he always trusted God. He trusted him entirely. So if you think of ways just yesterday and the day before that you should have trusted God and didn’t, in those very times Jesus obeyed God. He trusted that what God knew was better, that he should follow his Father’s will.

When I look back on my own life, I know that I haven’t lived like that. But the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, has. He is called the Redeemer because he “re-deems” his people. He resets our value.

When you redeem something at a store, you turn it in and you get some money for it. When I was a kid, we had redemption stamps. We would save up our stamps and then turn them in to get something else. Well, Jesus is what sets our value. He resets our value. He gives his own life on the cross for all who repent of their sins and trust in him. He is our Redeemer. He has valued us, though we have thrown our own lives away by not trusting in our heavenly Father, by not obeying him, and by not fearing him. He actually came and gave his own life in our place. He lived a life of trust, and he died a death that he didn’t have to die, but he did it because of his love for us. He gave himself entirely for us so he could, as the Bible says, be our Redeemer, the One who rescues us.

The image of redemption in the Old Testament is one of God rescuing his people from Egypt, pulling them out of bondage, out of literal slavery. In the New Testament Jesus the Redeemer rescues us from our natural state of being in bondage to sin, of serving ourselves in destructive ways. But God in his great love sent his only begotten Son, who lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and then rose from the dead in order to bring us to him, to redeem us. That’s what we mean when we say Jesus Christ is our Redeemer.

Prayer

Precious Redeemer, before the world began, you loved us. You gave up your glory to bear our shame. You glorified your Father by obeying him all the way to the cross. You deserve our praise, thanks, and worship. We have no hope but in you. Amen.