Sin had been a dark, dominating force in the lives of Paul’s audience. Paul can describe them in their prior existence as the walking dead — “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1, NKJV) yet “walking” or living as Satan commanded them (Eph. 2:1-3). Enslaved to sin and Satan, they had no ability to free themselves. They needed rescue. God has done so through His gracious actions in Christ, and Paul celebrates two new blessings of God’s grace in the lives of believers: redemption and forgiveness.

 Read Ephesians 1:7, 8. “Redemption” is an idea that is used frequently in the New Testament. Compare the uses of the idea in Colossians 1:13, 14; Titus 2:13, 14; and Hebrews 9:15. What themes do these passages share in common with Ephesians 1:7, 8?

 The Greek word translated “redemption” in Ephesians 1:7 is apolutrosis, originally used for buying a slave’s freedom or paying to free a captive. One can hear echoed the voice of the slave trader auctioning his merchandise and the cold grinding of a slave’s manacles. When the New Testament discusses redemption, it highlights the costliness of setting the slaves free.

 Our freedom comes at an extreme cost: “In him [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood” (Eph. 1:7, ESV). The idea of redemption also celebrates God’s gracious generosity in paying the high price of our liberty. God gives us our freedom and dignity. We are no longer enslaved!

 “To be redeemed is to be treated as a person, not an object. It is to become a citizen of heaven, rather than a slave of the earth.” — Alister E. McGrath, What Was God Doing on the Cross? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992), p. 78.

 Note carefully that the idea that God pays the price of redemption to Satan is a medieval, not a biblical, one. God neither owes nor pays Satan anything.

 The benefits of Calvary also include “the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Eph. 1:7, ESV). On the cross, Christ takes upon Himself the price of our sin, both past and future, “canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” (Col. 2:14, ESV). In doing this work of redemption and forgiveness through Christ, God is acting as our generous Father, with the “riches of his grace” being “lavished upon us” (Eph. 1:7, 8, ESV).