(Colossians 1:12-14 NKJV) (12) giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. (13) He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (14) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
(In his book, Dressed to Kill: A Biblical Approach to Spiritual Warfare and Armor, Pastor Rick Renner gives some insight into the words used and translated “Redemption” in the New Testament.)
There are four Greek words that are used to denote “redemption” in the New Testament:
- “Agoridzo” – A technical term that describes the slave marketplace.
Pastor Renner – “The slave market was a dreadful and deplorable place. Such places should have never been permitted. Human beings were paraded in front of potential buyers and were then placed on the trading block where they were auctioned off like animals, old furniture, or unwanted junk.
So, before the nauseating process of buying, selling, and trading human debris began, potential buyers were allowed to check out the “merchandise.” The slaves’ heads were shoved up and backward; their mouths were forcibly jerked open; and their teeth were inspected to see if they were rotten or in fairly good shape.
As if this wasn’t inhumane and degrading enough, slave-buying customers were also encouraged to kick and hit the “merchandise” in order to determine the slave’s level of physical fitness. To discover the slave’s temperament, buyers slapped them, cursed at them, and spat in their faces. If a slave could swallow his pride, grit his teeth, and hold his temper during such humiliating abuse, the buyer assumed he could be used to the point of abuse without giving his owner any kind of trouble.
In short, slaves had no personal worth. They were viewed to be no better than animals. According to the thinking of the day, they were just another kind of workhorse and had no real human value. Their only purpose in the world was to serve the demands that their current owners exacted of them.
With all this in mind, we can see that the Holy Spirit has told us something extremely important by using the word “agoridzo” to describe “redemption.”
Because of sin, the world had sunk to a place where the world was a global slave market, where Satan had gripped the hearts of men and filled their natures with violence and destruction.
The world Jesus was born into was a world of complete captivity.
The beautiful paradise that God had originally created in Eden was gone; not even a hint of it remained. With each successive generation after Adam, spiritual death drove people of all nations, tribes, and ethnic groups deeper and deeper into slavery and total depravity.”
(Romans 5:12 NKJV) Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
- Because of Adam’s sin, we were sold into slavery!
(Romans 7:14 TPT) For we know that the law is divinely inspired and comes from the spiritual realm, but I am a human being made of flesh and trafficked as a slave under sin’s authority.
We were the “merchandise” of the slave market, Satan would slap, kick, beat, spit upon us, and abuse us in every way that he could. Once that treatment was over, he would place us back on the auction block and sell us again to some other form of bondage.
- God sent His Son into the enemy’s “slave market” with one purpose in mind: so that Jesus could secure man’s deliverance from Satan’s bondage once and for all.
(1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV) (20) For you were bought at a price (agoridzo); therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
(1 Corinthians 7:23 NKJV) (23) You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.
(Revelation 5:9 NKJV) And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
- “Exagoridzo” – the purchase a slave to remove them OUT OF the slave market.
This word signifies the purchase of a slave to permanently set that slave FREE from that heinous place, NEVER to be put on the trading block of slavery again.
(Galatians 3:13 NKJV) Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”),
Paul is saying to us that Jesus’ sacrificial death not only paid the penalty for our sin, but His death also removed us from living under the curse forever.
(Galatians 4:3-5 NLT) And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles of this world. (4) But when the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. (5) God sent Him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that He could adopt us as His very own children.
Slaves did not come cheaply. If the auctioneer knew that a buyer really wanted a particular slave, he could demand unbelievably high prices. We must therefore ask, “What price did Jesus pay for our freedom from Satan’s power?”
- “Lutroo” – set a captive free by the payment of a ransom.
By using this word, Paul is telling us that our salvation is not free. On the contrary, our freedom from Satan’s power was extremely expensive.
- The ransom that Jesus paid to procure our freedom from Satan’s bondage and ownership was His own blood!
The price Jesus paid for us was the highest price ever paid for a slave in the history of mankind.
(Ephesians 1:7 NKJV) “In Him we have redemption through His blood…”
(Colossians 1:14 NKJV) “in whom we have redemption through His blood…”
(Colossians 1:20 NKJV) “…having made peace through the blood of His cross.”
(Hebrews 9:12 NKJV) “…with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
(1 Peter 1:18-19 NKJV) “knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold… but with the precious blood of Christ…”
(Titus 2:14 NKJV) “…who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us…”
- “Apolutrosis” – to ransom or redeem and return us to the condition we were in before our captivity began.
- Jesus paid the price to permanently free and restore us to the full status of sons!
(Ephesians 1:7 NKJV) In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
In using the word here for “redemption” Paul declares that we were forever delivered from Satan’s power – we were forever removed from that dreadful place of slavery – and now we have been fully restored by the blood of Jesus Christ and placed back into a right-standing with God.
We are fully restored and fully set free from Satan’s former grip over us!
(Galatians 4:7 TPT) Now we’re no longer living like slaves under the law, but we enjoy being God’s very own sons and daughters! And because we’re his, we can access everything our Father has—for we are heirs of God through Jesus, the Messiah!
(Romans 8:16-17 NKJV) The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (17) and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
- Through the Blood of Jesus, we have been utterly and completely set free from Satan’s control!
Because of Jesus’ redemptive work, we are seated with Jesus Christ in the heavenly places and have been elevated “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (Ephesians 1:21).
Therefore, Satan has no legal right to control us, our bodies, our families, our businesses, or our money. Although we once genuinely and legally belonged to him, we are no longer his to manipulate or dominate.