REDEEMER (re-dem'er), (Heb. go-ale', a primitive root, to redeem).
The Hebrew "goale," or kinsnzon-redecnter, who was also the nearest of kin, was to exert him self in favor of his destitute kinsman. If he had, through poverty, mortgaged his inheritance, the goale was to buy it back. If he had sold himself into slavery, the goale was to pay his ransom. If he was murdered, the goale was to avenge his blood. If he died childless, the goale might espouse his widow, and raise up seed to him ; but it Aloes not appear that he was obliged to do this, except he was an unmarried brother (Num. v :8; xxvii t ; xxxv ; Deut. xxv :1-8; Ruth iii, iv ; Lev. xxv 25; Jer. xxxii :7, 8).
General Applications. (I) God is called a "Redeemer ;" with mighty power and kindness he rescued the Hebrews from their bondage and trouble, and often delivers the oppressed; and he, through the blood of his Son, saves from deep slavery and woe under the broken law, to endless glory and happiness (Is. lxiii:16). (2) Christ is a "Redeemer ;" by his righteousness, he paid the price of our redemption ; by his inter cession he pleads for and procures it; by his Spirit he applies it to our soul (Job. xix :25; Is.
lix :20). (31 Christ is our "redemption"; our de liverance from sin, and all its effects, is through his blood and Spirit (Eph. i :7; Col. i :14 ; Heb.
ix :t2) ; and begins in our forgiveness, is car ried on in our sanctification, and perfected in our eternal blessedness, when, at the resurrec tion, our very bodies shall be delivered from all the effects of sin ; and this entrance on eternal glory is called our "redemption," as it brings the deliverance to its perfection (Luke xxi :28 ; Rom. viii :23). It is called the "redemption of the purchased possession," as we then enter on the full possession of what Christ has purchased ; or it is the "redemption of the peculiar people" (Eph. :14). Christ died for the "redemption of transgressions," that is, that he might make full satisfaction for them (Heb. ix:15). He is made of God to us "redemption ;" he is prepared and given of God to us as an all-sufficient Savior ; as the purchaser, price, treasury and substance of our everlasting deliverance from sin and misery to holiness and happiness (t Cor. i :3o). We are justified through "the redemption that is in him," the "redemption-price" of his righteousness; and partaking of him, as made of God to us "redemption" (Rom. iii :22).