# Redemption (theology)

Redemption is a theological concept that exists as an element of theories of salvation, and which broadly means the deliverance from sin.

## Quotes

* REDEMPTION, n. Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin, through their murder of the deity against whom they sinned. The doctrine of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holy religion, and whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but have everlasting life in which to try to understand it.
** Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary (1911).
* Unto Yourself did you make a great and holy name in Thy world, and unto Your people did You achieve a great deliverance and redemption. Whereupon your children entered the sanctuary of Your house, cleansed Your temple, purified Your sanctuary, kindled lights in Your holy courts, and appointed these eight days of Hanukkah in order to give thanks and praises unto Your holy name.
** English translation of the Al ha-Nissim.
* Now, the redemption which we as yet await (continued Imlac), will be that of Kalki, who will come as a Silver Stallion: all evils and every sort of folly will perish at the coming of this Kalki: true righteousness will be restored, and the minds of men will be made as clear as crystal.
** James Branch Cabell, The Silver Stallion: A Comedy of Redemption (1926), epigraph, based upon the style of Samuel Johnson in The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), as if quoting Imlac the philosopher in Johnson's tale.
* There's a redemption that takes place in art
** 1990 interview in Conversations with Maxine Hong Kingston edited by Paul Skenazy and Tera Martin (1998)
* In cruce salus.
** Salvation by the cross.
** Thomas à Kempis, De Imitatio Christi (c. 1418), Book II, 2; adapted from "A cruce salus".
* Say, heavenly pow'rs, where shall we find such love? Which of ye will be mortal to redeem Man's mortal crime, and just th' unjust to save.
** John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book III, line 213.
* And now without redemption all mankind Must have been lost, adjudged to death and hell By doom severe.
** John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book III, line 222.
* The first result of redemption is separation, that is, departure, a going out. God never redeems a person and leaves him in the old position to continue living in the world.
** Watchman Nee, Separation from the World, p. 3
* Feeling the unity of himself and the universe, the man who lives in spirit is no more a separate and self-centered individual but a vehicle of the universal spirit. … He throws himself on the world and lives for its redemption, possessed as he is with an unshakable sense of optimism and an unlimited faith in the powers of the soul.
** Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, An Idealist View of Life (1929).
* Why, all the souls that are were forfeit once; And He that might the vantage best have took Found out the remedy.
** William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure (1603), Act II, scene 2, line 73.
* Condemned into everlasting redemption for this.
** William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), Act IV, scene 2, line 58.
* A man walks down the street He says why am I soft in the middle now Why am I soft in the middle The rest of my life is so hard I need a photo opportunity I want a shot at redemption Don’t want to end up a cartoon In a cartoon graveyard.
** Paul Simon, in "You Can Call Me Al" on Graceland (1986).
* The Evangelium has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the "happy ending." The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps, fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know.
** J. R. R. Tolkien, in "On Fairy-Stories" (1939).

### Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)

    Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).
* O, if there be any kind of life most sad, and deepest in the scale of pity, it is the dry, cold impotence of one, who has honestly set to the work of his own self-redemption.
** Horace Bushnell, p. 488.
* Underneath all the arches of Scripture history, throughout the whole grand temple of the Scriptures, these two voices ever echo, man is ruined, man is redeemed.
** Cyrus David Foss, p. 489.
* Christ is redemption only as He actually redeems and delivers our nature from sin. If He is not the law and spring of a new spirit of life, He is nothing. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God," — as many, no more.
** Horace Bushnell, p. 489.
* By Christ's purchasing redemption, two things are intended, His satisfaction, and His merit. All is done by the price that Christ lays down, which does two things: it pays our debt, and so it satisfies; by its intrinsic value, and by the agreement between the Father and the Son it procures our title, and so it merits. The satisfaction of Christ is to free us from misery, and the merit of Christ is to purchase happiness for us.
** Jonathan Edwards, p. 489.
* Whatever in Christ had the nature of satisfaction, was by virtue of His suffering or humiliation; whatever had the nature of merit, was by virtue of His obedience or righteousness.
** Jonathan Edwards, p. 489.
* As God carries on the work of converting the souls of fallen men through all ages, so He goes on to justify them, to blot out all their sins, and to accept them as righteous in His sight through the righteousness of Christ. He goes on to adopt and receive them from being the children of Satan to be His own children, to carry on the work of His grace which He has begun in them, to comfort them with the consolations of His Spirit, and to bestow upon them, when their bodies die, that eternal glory which is the fruit of Christ's purchase.
** Jonathan Edwards, p. 489.
* Look, therefore, which way we will, whether at the direct Scriptural statements of death as the penalty of sin, or at the agony of the cross as a means of rescue, or at the joy of the angels of God over a rescue; we see from either that it must be a work of infinite and eternal consequence — the work of redemption.
** Herrick Johnson, p. 490.
* What a memorable epoch that will be when Jesus Christ shall -have vacated the throne of mercy! What an awful event in the history of our universe will that be when the dispensation that cost so much, that lasted so long, when that shall cease, when that shall disappear and be no more at all in the universe of God Almighty! It seems to me the very thought ought to start every sinner to his feet in a moment! Lord Jesus, help! that we may embrace the offered mercy!
** Bishop Daggett, p. 490.