"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace"
*I remember getting into the car with Mom, wondering where we were going, and being told that she had some stamps she wanted to use. In those pre-teen years I didn't know what a redemption store was, much less what S & H Green Stamps signified. It would be years before I understood that the stamp redemption store, and the ubiquitous pawn shop are the two best secular examples of the basic meaning of 'redemption.' The word means to buy back, to release from bondage, and, in the days of the Roman Empire when the book of Ephesians was written, redemption was illustrated in the process of buying a slave, and then giving him/her complete freedom.
The spiritual application is strong.
Praise to His Name, the Lord Jesus paid with His sinless life the ransom God required for the freeing of elect sinners from sin's bondage!
In contrast to the world's definition of freedom (doing what you want, when you want, and how you want to do it), genuine freedom is the ability to do what you ought. Only the blood-bought believer has this spiritual ability to do that which is pleasing to God (Hebrews 11:6). This freedom is our calling (Galatians 5:1), grace-given and irrevocable (Romans 11:29).
So let the redeemed of the LORD say so! (Psalm 107:2)
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Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary
And gathered from the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south.
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