Redeemed

But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.
For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Saviour;
I gave Egypt for your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place. – Isaiah 43.1-3

I don’t want to get into a theological debate about ‘replacement theology’ and I certainly don’t want to imply that the Church as replaced Israel in God’s eyes. However we do know that the Church is the spiritual seed of Israel and we do know that God’s redemption applied to Israel and it applies to us.

Redemption in this context is a compensation for the bad actions of something or someone in order to get a good result. Because we are all sinners our sin nature needs to be redeemed. Something has to be done about it. In the Christian context we had to be bought back from the ravages and the penalty of sin. A price had to be paid and the redemption price of sin is death.

But only a prefect sacrifice would be able to pay the price. We had no capacity to pay it.

So Jesus redeemed us when He paid the redemption price through His own blood. Once we accept that gift of salvation the redemption price is paid and we are no longer under the penalty of sin.

And because we are redeemed, we can, like Israel, face whatever comes our way because our Redeemer walks by our side. No matter what trails and tests come our way we are assured that we belong to our Redeemer and He cares for us as His ‘peculiar’ people.