“Ye are bought with a price; be not ye servants of men” (I Corinthians 7:23).

There are three Greek words which are translated as “bought” or “redeemed” in English. The first one means “bought with a price”; the second, “bought out of”; and the third, “liberated through ransom.” An understanding of all three is necessary in order to gain a full appreciation of the redeeming work of Christ. In the studies of the next three days, we shall look at each one in turn.

The word for “redeemed” used most often in the New Testament is the Greek, agoradzo, a word of commerce, and it usually has to do with the purchase of something in the market place. “I have bought five yoke of oxen” (Luke 14:19), for example.

In just that way, we were purchased while in the slave market of sin, for we were once slaves to sin and Satan. But Christ purchased us with His precious blood, and now we are His bondslaves. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Corinthians 6:19,20).

Denying or rejecting this redemption and its weighty price is costly. “False prophets . . . false teachers . . . privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction” (II Peter 2:1).

One day we shall sing with the 24 elders as they sing to their Lord: “Thou art worthy . . . for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9,10). JDM