Redemption and Ransom
The price of freedom — from slave markets to the cross
Redemption is one of Scripture's most concrete metaphors. It starts in the real world of debt, slavery, and ransom payments, then uses that economic language to describe what God has done for humanity in Jesus. The Greek lutrosis and apolutrosis, the Hebrew kaphar — these words insist that freedom has a price, and someone else paid it.
λύτρωσις — Buying Someone Free
a ransoming (figuratively)
Also rendered: + redeemed, redemption
Lutrosis means redemption in the literal sense of buying someone out of slavery by paying a price — a word from everyday ancient commercial life, where debt-slaves could be purchased back to freedom by a relative or patron. Paul and the other New Testament writers borrowed this image deliberately: a ransom has been paid and captives have been set free.