Borrowed Breath

In Deuteronomy 25:5-10, the law of a kinsman redeemer is spelled out this way:  “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.  Her husband’s brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.  And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.” 

The surviving brother who married his deceased brother’s widow did so to perpetuate that brother’s lineage.  In doing so, he essentially lost his own individual identity as it was absorbed into his brother’s family.  His eldest son carried on the name and birthright of that dead brother.  If the surviving brother chose not to fulfill this duty, he was actually cursed by the widow.

In the Old Testament book of Ruth, we find the role of kinsman redeemer is more clearly defined by an actual historical event.  Boaz takes on this responsibility of kinsman redeemer to his relative Naomi’s family by marrying Ruth, Naomi’s widowed daughter in law.  We see a glimpse of the sacrifice he was making when the nearer kinsman refused to marry Ruth because it would cause him to absorb his inheritance into Naomi’s household.  But Boaz, who appears to have an upstanding, law-abiding character, fulfills this role of kinsman redeemer by marrying Ruth.  They bear a son who is a forefather to king David who is a forefather of Jesus of Nazareth.

Moving forward in this scriptural narrative, we come upon the story of Jesus Christ, who is the divine fulfillment of Boaz’s type of a kinsman redeemer.  Jesus, in becoming mankind’s Redeemer, did so in an apparent loss to His own posterity.  He left His heavenly realm where He was worshiped and adored.  And He came to earth, lived a poor, homeless, suffering, rejected and despised existence on this planet that He created with mankind whom He came to save, but who rejected Him and killed Him.  Yet by His life, death and resurrection, He actually bound Himself to those who embrace Him in an eternal marriage covenant.  In marrying himself to us through this mysterious salvation union, He has redeemed us not just to Himself, but to our rightful heritage.

As we read through the gospels, we find Jesus talking a lot about the kingdom of God.  And many just assume that He is speaking of heaven some day.  But as we watch Jesus interact with humanity, and as we listen to His allegories about the kingdom, He seems very concerned with people’s current spiritual and emotional and physical well-being.  His miracles impact people right where they are, not just someday somewhere.

Often when our redemption is spoken of, it is of a future salvation from hell to spend eternity with our Lord Jesus Christ and with the Father and with the Spirit of God and with the angels and with the countless multitudes who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb of God.  And this is true.  But when we apply this kinsman redeemer role to Jesus, we find that we’ve been redeemed to that and to much more.  The kinsman redeemer resurrected, from his brother’s grave, the past namesake and heritage of his deceased brother.  Jesus restores us, not just to the future, but to our past and to our present state.

So what is the past that we are restored to?  In the beginning of mankind’s history, the triune, communal God said, “Let us create man in our image.”  So man and woman were created in the image of God.  Remember how Adam and Eve walked and communed in fellowship with God in the bounteous, abundant Garden of Eden in unashamed nakedness and freedom?  We, through our redemption, are restored to this place.  Just as, in the Old Testament era, the kinsman redeemer performed this sacrificial act to enable his deceased brother’s name to be carried on, so our Lord redeemed us so that we can be reinstated to our originally created image of God Himself.  In doing so, our inheritance is absorbed into His birthright and legacy.  We become one with Him.  We are redeemed image-bearers of the living God, called to impact those around us with this amazing truth of redemption.

Am I living as if I’ve been redeemed to all of that?  Or am I living like I was merely redeemed to escape from hell?

Lord help.