Redeemer

Definition and Meaning

A redeemer (Korean gusokja, 救贖者) is one who carries out redemption, a Korean term meaning "to deliver (救) by paying a price (贖)." The word is distinct from its Korean homophone 拘束, which means to bind or restrain. Related Korean terms include sokryang, meaning to set free by paying a price, and daesok, meaning to pay a price on another's behalf. The New Korean Revised Version uses these terms variously, depending on context. In Christianity, "Redeemer" is a title expressing the confession that Jesus Christ reclaimed humanity, enslaved to sin, by paying his own life as the price.

Biblical and Historical Background

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word corresponding to "redeemer" is go'el. A go'el was a close relative who bought back land sold because of poverty or redeemed a kinsman who had become a slave; the New Korean Revised Version usually renders the term as kinsman-redeemer. The best-known example is the account in Ruth 4:4–10, in which Boaz assumes this role. Isaiah portrays God as the one who reclaims his captive people: "thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel" (Isaiah 41:14). The same Hebrew word in Job 19:25 is rendered in Korean translations either as "redeemer" or as "substitutionary redeemer."

The New Testament states that Jesus came "to give his life a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28) and that believers were redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18–19).

Throughout church history, various explanations have been offered of what this price was and to whom it was paid (see Atonement). Some of the early Church Fathers explained it as a ransom paid to Satan (the ransom theory). In the Middle Ages, Anselm viewed it as satisfaction rendered for the injured honor of God (the satisfaction theory). After the Reformation, the explanation that Christ bore the penalty for sin as a substitute (penal substitutionary atonement) became widely accepted in Protestantism.

Practice in the Korean Church

In Korean churches, expressions such as "the Lord who redeemed us" are common in prayer and hymns. Particularly among Presbyterians, preaching from a "redemptive-historical" perspective, which reads the whole of Scripture as the history of God's salvation, is also widespread.

Denominations differ in their understanding of for whom redemption was accomplished.

• Presbyterian: Most Presbyterians in the Reformed tradition hold, in accordance with the Canons of Dort, that Christ's redemption is actually efficacious for the elect. This view is called limited atonement or particular atonement.
• Methodist, Holiness, Nazarene, and others: Denominations in the Wesleyan tradition hold that redemption is for all people and that anyone may respond to that grace by faith.
• Full Gospel and other Pentecostal bodies: On the basis of Isaiah 53:4–5 and Matthew 8:16–17, these groups tend to emphasize that the redemption accomplished on the cross also includes the healing of sickness (divine healing). Some in other denominations hold that healing should be distinguished from the central meaning of redemption.