From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Part one of a series

He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)

The Bible contains many very concise and powerful statements that describe the salvation of the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:14 is one of those. It is a tremendous word picture of what happens when God saves us: "in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul declares to us that God the Father has delivered believers in the Lord Jesus Christ from the power of Satanic darkness. Our citizenship has changed. We are no longer under the thrall of the kingdom of darkness that holds sway in this present evil world. God the Father has removed us from that kingdom, and conveyed us into the kingdom of His Son, the One in whom there is "no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

In this series I want to focus our attention on the very short but infinitely rich statement of our position in Christ that we find in verse 14: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Let us consider four things about this statement.

First, this concise statement of the Gospel says that redemption is a present reality.

Second, the word translated "redemption" speaks of release and liberation.

Third, we must understand what it is from which we have been liberated: the bondage of sin. We shall see that this is a fourfold bondage - a bondage like no other.

Fourth and finally, we shall see that the Bible presents three remarkable pictures of the liberation God has wrought for us in Christ, and they are all comprehended in the Greek word for redemption that is used in this particular verse.

Redemption: A Present Reality

So let us begin: Redemption is a present reality. It is the possession of every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, right now. "In whom [that is, in Christ] we have" - present tense - "redemption through His blood." If you are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone today as your Savior from sin, then you have redemption. This is not merely something for the future, although there is a future aspect to redemption, as we shall see. But you have it now.

The wording here is definite and emphatic. "We have redemption through His blood." It is not an uncertain thing. It is absolutely certain. Why is that true? How is it guaranteed? Because it has been paid for by the blood of God the Son Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. In the entire universe and in the realms beyond, no greater price could be paid.

Release and Liberation

Notice, secondly, that the kind of redemption that Paul speaks of in this verse involves release and liberation. What does it mean to be redeemed? The word in the original language of the New Testament is apolytrosis, "a release or a liberation that is brought about by the payment of a ransom."

In New Testament times this was the word used in the case of a person who had been taken prisoner in a war, and a ransom was paid to purchase his freedom from imprisonment by the enemy.

This word for redemption was also used in the case of a person who had been convicted of a crime, and condemned to die for that crime, but someone had stepped forward to pay a great price to purchase the release and pardon of the person who had been condemned to death.

This same word for redemption was also used in the case of the freeing of a slave, when someone else - a family member or a friend, perhaps - would pay for his release from slavery.

The Greek language of the New Testament gives those three pictures of the word "redemption". As we look at other passages in the rest of the Bible, Old Testament as well as the New, we find exactly those three pictures given to us.

Next: The Fourfold Bondage of Sin

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