The Adoption…The Redemption of Our Body

The word redemption, according to Webster, is defined, “repurchase of captured goods or prisoners; the act of procuring the deliverance of persons or things from the possession and power of captors by the payment of an equivalent; ransom; release; etc.”¹

The word appears 22 times in a King James Bible, nine times in the OT, and eleven times in the NT. The word’s use in the title phrase is found in Romans 8:23:

And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Many theologians and commentators I have read have a tendency to interchange redemption with salvation. This, I would suspect, is because of the way the word is used in passages like Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14:

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

In these applications, redemption is used in the present perfect tense, meaning it is a present possession. This would not, however, mean that the actual fact of redemption, as in the Romans 8:23 usage, has happened. While forgiveness of sins, also in the present perfect tense, is a present and continuing reality or action, redemption is, within the context, the promise of a future event.
For this reason, among others, redemption cannot be the same thing as salvation. Salvation, like redemption, is also an event, but one that is in the past, rather than the future. Consider the following

But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: (II Th 2:13)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.o (Rom . 1:1.6)

Salvation is applied at the moment one believes the truth of the gospel. Salvation is a derivative of the word “save” or “saved”, which simply means to “preserve” or “seal.”

This is born out in the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians:

　In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. (Eph. 1:13,14)

A worldly example of this operation is the process of preserving fruits and vegetables. They are sealed and thus preserved or saved until someone redeems them for consumption. The Scriptural process of redemption is similar. When one trusts, through the belief of the gospel of Christ,² they are in that moment placed into Christ’s body through a spiritual baptism,³ saved and “sealed unto the day of redemption”.⁴

This “day” is a future event Christians refer to as the “rapture.” It is briefly described in the following passage:

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words. (1Thes 4:14-18)

On that glorious day of redemption, Philippians 3:20, 21 says:

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

We are going to shed these vile, earthly vessels for our “house which is from heaven…a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”⁵ And herein is the event described as “the redemption of our body,” which is our “blessed hope.”⁶

No one is getting into heaven without one of these heavenly bodies, because nothing vile or corrupt can exist there.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.⁷

But let’s not get the cart before the horse. Redemption is a product of salvation–there is no choice in the matter–i.e., it is a forgone conclusion for those who are saved. On the other hand, salvation is necessarily a choice or a “decision” as some like to term it. If one desires to have part in “the day of redemption,” one must decide to receive the free gift of salvation.8 by a. confessing (admitting) that you are a sinner,⁹ and, b. receiving the forgiveness of your sins by believing in your heart that Christ died for you and that God raised him from the dead the third day.¹⁰ The moment you do this, God will place his eternal seal on you, which will preserve you “unto the day of redemption.” From this point on, nothing you do or say can change this.¹¹
The question all should ask is, “do I know without a doubt that I have this seal?” Some will say, “no one can know such a thing—only God knows.” God does, of course, “know them that are his,”¹² but He also wants us to know that we are secure in Him. He does this by bearing “witness” with our spirit that we are his children.¹³ The question is: do you know this? If not, get that assurance today by trusting Christ as your Savior,¹⁴ and I’ll see you on the day of redemption!

Mike Schroeder

All Scripture quotations are taken from the Kings James Bible.* Please feel at liberty to re-print this article for free redistribution, or to forward to email contacts.
* Since there are substantial differences in modern translations and the KJB, the author cannot guarantee that the same meanings he is attempting to convey will hold forth if one of these other versions is used by the reader.

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