Liberator • Deliverer • Purchaser • Procurer

Pause

“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
Even after my skin is destroyed,
    yet from my flesh I shall see God;
whom my eyes will see and not another.
My heart faints within me!”
— Job 19:25–27

Rest peacefully before the Lord. Settle into His presence.

What do you think of when you hear the word Redeemer?
To redeem means to liberate — to set the captive free.
What has Christ liberated you from? Jot down your ideas.

Ponder

“But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’”
— Galatians 3:13

As a child, my love for grocery stores centered around S&H Green Stamps, incentives Mom got for shopping based on how much she spent. My job — which I took quite seriously — was to lick those perforated pages and paste them into the book. When it was filled, we could redeem the stamps for something wonderful.

For many years I treated my spiritual journey in the same way. Getting things right and doing what good Christians did felt like adding stamps to a book. Hopefully one day I’d fill enough pages and redeem them for God’s acceptance and approval.

The problem was, I never felt like I could store up enough stamps. It became a frustrating exercise in futility.

The Bible calls this the “curse of the law” — no human being is capable of keeping God’s ways perfectly. Our best attempts seem to set us up for failure.

We feel cursed. Like a hamster on a wheel, we keep running — hoping to finally make it — but we never do. We cannot redeem ourselves.

But oh, precious reality — we don’t have to.
There is a Redeemer. His name is Jesus.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us.

What we could never earn is freely given instead.

Freed from the bonds of our brokenness, we come with nothing in our hands but trust in His sacrifice. What we receive in return is favor beyond compare — love without earning, acceptance without end.

This is the story of redemptive love, woven throughout the Bible. Again and again, God redeemed His people when they could not save themselves — from the shame of rebellion, from the tyranny of foreign rulers.

Every time, they were grateful beyond measure.
Every time, they failed to keep their promises.
Because the curse of the Law clung too tightly.

Until… in the fullness of time…

God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law (Galatians 4:4).

There is a Redeemer. His name is Jesus.
He is the exalted Christ who reigns on high.

His glory shines brilliantly as Redeemer — so much so that one day angels and saints alike will fall down in worship and wonder that He gave His life to redeem people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9).

We are accepted.
We are approved.
The tyranny of “getting it right” has been shattered forever.

Our Redeemer lives.

Pray

Spend a few moments in quiet gratitude for your redemption.

What does freedom from having to get it right look like for you?

Contemplate the moment your Redeemer takes His stand on the earth — and you see Him with your own eyes.

Write a prayer of response.

Practice

Begin each day this week whispering:
I am accepted.
I am approved.
I am redeemed.

Speak it again whenever you feel pressure to perform or shame over failure.
Let truth reshape what you believe about yourself.