Freedom. So much talk about it. Everyone is demanding their rights regardless of right and wrong. Freedom of speech, freedom of choice. We claim freely a popular verse in the Bible, John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” The Truth that we believe is indeed a Truth that has set us free but, have we forgotten that this freedom comes with a price, a price paid by the blood? Have we too easily live in disillusion and take this grace for granted?

This freedom, was not free. It did not come free. It is not free. We knew. We know. Have we continue to abuse this freedom, despite the knowledge, by demanding for even more with our rights?

I plead guilty.

Galatians 3:13 says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”.

We were a resulting cursed generation. This freedom that we are enjoying now is a consequence of a price paid by the blood of Jesus. We were held captive by sin and there was no way we can be free until blood was shed. It was not just yet another lamb’s blood but the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus. From the fall of Adam and Eve, our fore fathers, Abraham, Isacc and Jacob, man of God, Moses, and the latter, man after God’s own heart, David, and the list goes on; where deceit and lies of man existed, God mercifully gave mankind a way, through atonement, the way to get back into His promise land. Time after time, we failed. We failed to trust and obey. We failed to keep our eyes on the one and only prize. We were and are distracted.

In theology, redemption is forgiveness or absolution for past sins or errors and protection from damnation and disgrace, eternal or temporal, generally through sacrifice. I gathered some thoughts from a republication, unfortunately an unknown source, containing ideas that predate as far back as 1811. This article is collected in attempt to document the separation and distinction between atonement and redemption. It says, redemption and atonement is not the same-atonement is for sin; redemption is from sin. In my view, this idea of redemption can be pretty mind-blowing. One of the difference between atonement and redemption is in its sacrifice-the ransom. God sent His one and only Son, Jesus, to die for us, to redeem us from our sins and unlike atonement, the sacrifices made seemed to only cover what was done wrong in the past and it was never enough, it was never good enough, even when it was and is the same God yesterday, today and tomorrow. The lambs used as sacrifices for atonement were different from this Lamb of God, Jesus, because He came, He died, He lives and we are protected from damnation and disgrace. He has redeemed us from sin and therefore we are redeemed.

Do we truly believe that our Redeemer lives, therefore, we live? Do we truly believe that we are redeemed into the House of God or are we just loitering at the void deck of God’s House for the redeemed?

This is the freedom, the freedom we are given to be redeemed because our Redeemer lives.

Footnotes:
From a theological magazine, a republication, essay unfortunately published anonymously, posted by CalvinandCalvinism, viewed on 20 July 2015.

On the Distinction Between Atonement and Redemption: “Redemption and Atonement, Not the Same”

His beautiful & relentless love makes a soul relentlessly beautiful.