Redemption

I am one who enjoys an awareness as to the meanings of words. It would seem we acclimate ourselves to utilizing words in a single sense or altogether incorrectly. Words often times have 2 or more meanings, lending their use to a variety of contexts. 

But here's the catch! It's not enough to go to the dictionary and define a word in its entirety - it's imperative we look at affixes, roots, and origins. Out of generosity, here's a freebie for example to make my point:

Relat∙ion∙ship → 'ship' denotes quality, condition, status, and tenure; 'ion' denotes action; 'relat' is self-explanatory. So, exploring beyond the immediate offerings of Merriam-Webster, Oxford, Cambridge, Collins and others we find the meaning defining the word in reverse. THE QUALITY, CONDITION, STATUS, AND TENURE OF YOUR RELATIONSHIP ARE DEPENDENT ON THE ACTIONS YOU TAKE TO RELATE. 

Still on the subject of relationships, stick with me. Thursday evening at church, the college ministry pastor chose to step away a moment from serial preaching and eclectic wordplay to remind us of the gospel. The word, out of the multitude he said, that most struck my attention was redemption. If you consider when it is you hear of Christ's redemption or "redeeming love" it's when we're speaking to his death on the cross. 

What makes this both significant and ironic (significantly ironic or ironically significant) is that just the day before, I spoke of redeeming myself with a friend. Now, this situation with my friend was was all in jest, which speaks to my affinity for a word's meaning, because I found myself using the word lightly. Let's go after this and I'll tie it back to relationships.

Re∙dempt∙ion → 're' denotes again, withdraw, backward, against, "in reference to," "in the matter of," "with regard to." 'deem' denotes "to pronounce judgement," "to form an opinion," and its origin is the word "doom." 'ion' denotes action.

That's to say: THE ACTION CHRIST TOOK ON THE CROSS WITHDREW US FROM OUR ILL-FATED DOOM. Redemption is an active term, and as we're aware, Christ's death on the cross was coverage for past, present and future offense.  In other words, WHENEVER WE PROCEED FORWARD TOWARDS OUR DOOM, CHRIST AGAIN DIRECTS US BACKWARDS, RETURNING US TO HIM. Acts 4:12 states, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to man by which we must be saved." So to know that Christ's name is the greatest, I surely believe CHRIST'S OPINION IS GREATEST too. And in Christ's opinion, IN REFERENCE TO, IN THE MATTER OF, WITH REGARD TO DOOM, HE HAS PLEADED MY CASE AND PRONOUNCED THE JUDGEMENT AGAINST DOOM, AND ALL ACCUSATIONS HAVE BEEN WITHDRAWN AGAINST ME. 


Isaiah 54:7 → "with deep compassion I will bring you back"