I. Etymological Considerations
CHAPTER I
REDEMPTION
REDEMPTION IS A TERM which is employed very loosely in much modern theological writing. It is often used almost exactly like ‘deliverance’. Or Christianity may be classed as ‘a religion of redemption’, i.e. one which promises man salvation from his predicament as a sinner, in contrast to ‘religions of law’, which look to man to bring about this desirable state of affairs by his own efforts. It would be going too far to say that there are as many meanings as there are users of the word. But there is certainly a bewildering variety of meanings for it in circulation.
This wide use of the term ‘redemption’ is a modern development. We find it neither in antiquity in general nor in the Bible in particular. Indeed, when we consider how widely the term is used in modern theology we may well be surprised at the comparative rarity of its occurrence in the New Testament. And just as it is used less often in antiquity than with us, so also it is used with a narrower and more precise connotation. As we shall see, it does not mean deliverance in general, but a particular kind of deliverance. Another difference is that we use such words as ‘redeemer’, ‘redemption’, etc, as religious terms. Whenever we hear them our thoughts turn to religion. But when the man of the first century heard them he immediately thought in non-religious terms. Indeed, that was the reason words came to be used by the early Christians. Men in general knew quite well what redemption was. Therefore Christians found it a convenient term to use. It is our task to try to recapture this meaning and not simply to assume that redemption meant to the ancients exactly what it means to us.