In Romans 3:21–26, Paul speaks of how God justifies someone, that is, declares someone to be righteous. Humanly speaking, God justifies through a person’s faith in Jesus Christ. Divinely speaking, God justifies the believer “by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). What is “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”?
In context, the word redemption may carry Old Testament undertones as Paul has been addressing the Jews for two chapters (Rom 2–3; cf. 2:17). Jews would have remembered how God had “redeemed” them “from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut 7:8). David later prayed, “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles” (Ps 25:22). Israel would take hope in Isaiah’s prophecy: “I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord; your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel” (Isa 41:14).1 Similarly, the definition that one lexicon gives for apolutrōsis, translated redemption in Rom 3:24, is this: “release from a captive condition, release, redemption, deliverance.”2
But redemption is more than national redemption in Romans 3:24. “In its full spiritual sense, it indicates deliverance, by means of the payment of a ransom, from the guilt, punishment, and power of sin.”3 This word and its relatives in other New Testament verses bring out these ideas.
Paul elsewhere teaches that redemption (apolutrōsis) is deliverance from sin. The Son is the One “in whom we have redemption,” that is, “the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:14). Similarly, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Eph 1:7). Again, Christ’s “death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant” (Heb 9:15). He “gave himself for us to redeem [lutroō] us from all lawlessness” (Titus 2:14). This being the case, we can say that “Christ Jesus… became to us… redemption” (1 Cor 1:30).
This redemption also involves a price, the life of Jesus Christ, given through His death, represented by the shedding of His blood. It was certainly not paid to the devil. If it is a payment to God, God provided the payment by sending His Son. Speaking of Christ, “He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption” (Heb 9:12). “The Son of Man came… to give His life as a ransom for many” (Matt 20:28 and Mark 10:45). “You were ransomed [or redeemed, lutroō] from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet 1:18–19).
If you have faith in Christ Jesus, God declares you righteous, thanks to the redemption in His Son!
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- For a helpful discussion of redemption, see Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1998), 189–91. [↩]
- BDAG; s.v., ἀπολύτρωσις [↩]
- William Hendriksen, Exposition of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1981), 130–31. [↩]