The Redeeming Blood of Jesus

The most precious title of Christ is Redeemer.

It helps us to understand what it cost Him to get this salvation for us. It is the name specifically of the Christ of the cross. He is Christ our Redeemer.

Whenever we say "redeemer," the cross is flashed before our eyes and our hearts are filled with loving remembrance not only that Christ has given us salvation but the mighty price He paid for it.

During the first century slaves could be purchased out of the market place by payment of a price. It was also necessary to pay a price to free a prisoner.

According to the Bible we are slaves to sin, and we cannot escape from this slavery. However, Jesus has freed us by going to the cross and paying our redemption by His blood. This is what the apostle Peter had in mind in 1 Peter 1:18-19, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

The apostle Paul declared that we are “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). The cost of this redemption is the death of Jesus Christ. We do not pay the cost of our redemption. That is an impossible debt for us to pay. Jesus Christ paid it for us. We have no means of paying for it because we are spiritually bankrupt. Our Lord is infinitely rich. He substituted for us, purchasing our redemption by His own death. God paid the full cost of our salvation so that our salvation would be His free gift to us.

In Romans 3:24, the apostle Paul uses the word “redemption” (apolytrosis) meaning redemption, release, or deliverance on the payment of a price. Paul has in mind a word that always had to do with freeing a slave by paying for him. Jesus Christ freed us from sin’s slavery by His own death. His death was the redemption price. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His gracewhich He lavished on us” (Eph. 1:7-8). The blood testified to His substitutionary.

In the Bible blood signifies essentially the death and is a clear expression of the death of Christ for our salvation. The blood is never mentioned except in connection with the shedding of it, or with the use of it after it has been shed. The blood shed is the life poured out, and the poured out life may be used only for atonement. Christ Jesus is our atoning sacrifice for sin. 

It is impossible to escape the idea of the death of Christ being the high cost of our redemption. Christ’s saving work involves His purchasing us for Himself in the world’s marketplace so that we never have to return there again.

Because Jesus Christ redeemed us by the payment of His blood God can in His grace freely offer us salvation through faith as a free gift. He freely offers us “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe . . . being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Romans 3:22-25).

The gift has been paid for in full. Have you received it? Do you realize that Christ is your Redeemer and has actually shed His blood for you as your ransom? Do you realize that your salvation has been bought? It was purchased at a tremendous price, at the price of nothing less than the blood of Christ, the Holy One of God? Do you realize that this Christ who has thus shed His blood for you is Himself your God?