Pursue Reality Podcast
In each season of the Pursue Reality Podcast, our aim is to help you refresh, redeem and rediscover what it means to follow Jesus.
Pursue Reality Podcast
PRP 61 | Redemption: From Slavery to Sons & Daughters - Big Words, Good God Series
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What does the Bible really mean when it says we are “redeemed”?
In this episode of the Pursue Reality Podcast, Pastor Lindsey and Chris Lautsbaugh unpack one of the richest words in the New Testament: redemption.
In Romans 3:24 Paul says we are “justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” But redemption wasn’t just a spiritual idea—it came from the real-life world of the first century slave market.
Understanding that context changes everything.
That single phrase becomes a powerful picture of what Jesus has done for us.
In this conversation you'll discover:
- Why the word redemption would have shocked Paul’s first readers
- The historical background of redemption in the Roman world
- What it means that Jesus didn’t just free us from sin—but adopted us into God’s family
- Why many Christians still live with a “slave mindset” even after being redeemed
- How the gospel changes our motivation from fear and obligation to gratitude and belonging
If you’ve ever felt like your relationship with God depends on being a “good slave,” this episode is a powerful reminder:
You weren’t redeemed to return to slavery. You were redeemed for freedom.
Key Scripture:
Romans 3:23–24
Galatians 5:1
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You're listening to the Pursue Reality Podcast from Reality Church. Each episode is a conversation about what it means to be real people pursuing a better reality in Jesus.
SPEAKER_02Welcome everyone to the Pursue Reality Podcast. This is Pastor Lindsay, and I'm one of the pastors here at Reality Church. And I have with me the one and only favorite person in my life, Chris Lotzpah.
SPEAKER_01The pastor's husband.
SPEAKER_02The pastor's husband.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Thank you. I feel welcomed. Good.
SPEAKER_02So we are in the series called Big Words Good God, and we have another big word, maybe one of my favorite words. This might be my favorite one, actually, in this series that we're doing. And talking about some of the big words that we use in our faith, that we use in our walk with Jesus. And maybe we have no idea what it means. But we know it's a Bible word and we know it's important, but we could not define it if we tried. And so we have been looking at a passage in Romans and just kind of reading through that because this passage in Romans is just one big word after another, or um one Bible word. Some of them feel maybe not too big. Um, but if you were to ask a non-Christian about these words, they would especially say, I don't use that word. Like we did an episode on sin. I would say most people who don't follow Jesus almost never use the word sin. Um and so they're they're big words to us in our faith. And so I want to read this passage out, or at least two verses of this passage in Romans chapter three. Um and Paul says here, it says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is like a lot of really deep things in there. So we have all sinned, we've all fallen short of the glory of God, and we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We're gonna look at that today's in today's episode, this whole idea of redemption through the redemption in Christ Jesus. Umside of the walls of a church or spaces that are Christian, I do not hear a single person in general society use the word redemption. I don't think so. Do you?
SPEAKER_01Is that a I mean maybe we redeem a coupon. Maybe we redeem a coupon. So that's a certificate.
SPEAKER_02You're right. Okay, so that's a form of it.
SPEAKER_01But you know, if you try to read that into its uh our coupon of Jesus, our coupon of salvation, it just it seems a little cheap.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. So that's a good point. Um so so let's just start right there. What does redemption mean? What is this concept of redemption?
SPEAKER_01Well, it's uh it's actually anything but cheap. Uh and Paul uh picks this word because there is one word here that just conveys so much to the first century reader that their jaws would drop when they hear that Jesus did this. So it comes to us from the first century world of slavery. And in the world of slavery, uh in when Romans was written, there was probably about a million slaves in Rome. So this was a very normal part of society. Uh and when we think slavery, we think civil war, we think brutality. The majority of those million slaves were voluntary slaves. They chose to be slaves.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_01They it would actually be a way to seek employment, to have financial security, and uh to acquire housing.
SPEAKER_02It was a career path, basically.
SPEAKER_01It was a blue-collar occupation.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01So you would work in the field, you would help out around the house, uh and workshops, exchange, you would have a set wage, usually for six years, and accommodation would be provided. So your family would had security for six years. Uh and so usually when a person put themselves into the institution of slavery, that's what they were expecting.
SPEAKER_02And would people put themselves in or would they be born into it?
SPEAKER_01Uh it could happen either way, but generally th this was something that was mostly voluntary in this culture. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02And especially maybe if you were desperate, didn't know.
SPEAKER_01Or just needed money. Okay. Doesn't have to be desperation. Yeah. Okay. Uh so uh there would be an expectation that I'm gonna work. Now, you were not free if you were a slave. So it wasn't just, you know, like we show up at work, we still do whatever we want, like You were still a slave. If you didn't obey the master, if you stole from the master, if you were disobeyed, there was one penalty in the first century, and it was death. So you would still there would still be some fear and some obligation and duty, but if you were a good slave, life was pretty good. Okay. Uh and so this word redemption is built into the institution of slavery because um there would be an expectation to serve, to work, to do this, but a master had the ability to exercise his right of redemption, which simply meant that he would buy the slave, he would pay the slave's salary, he would give the slave a place to live, but instead of requiring the slave to work, he would redeem them, which simply meant he bought them to set them free. So they would receive all the benefits of slavery, finances, accommodation.
SPEAKER_02The positive side they would still get.
SPEAKER_01Yes. But they were not required to do any of the work. So this word is well known because it was such an extravagant gift, it didn't make economic sense. Why would a master pay for nothing?
SPEAKER_02They'd buy with the per exclusive purpose of setting them free. Right. But the so the slave is not obligated, but the master is.
SPEAKER_01The master is, yes. And so a a slave would have all the perks of slavery, but none of the responsibilities. So when a master redeems a slave, that slave typically would probably still live with them because that was free accommodation. They would receive their salary, and it goes even further because in this culture a redeemed slave was adopted into the master's family. So where slavery would be for six years generally in this culture, redemption was permanence. Redemption was for life. So the master is not just agreeing for six years of housing and salary, but for a lifetime of housing, salary, and a future inheritance when that master passes away.
SPEAKER_02Because they basically move from being a slave to a son or a daughter. Yes.
SPEAKER_01And so here is one word that conveys all that very, very quickly. And Paul takes that first century concept and says, This is what Jesus did. Jesus bought those who have faith out of slavery, slavery to sin, slavery to their own ability to try to earn and meet the glory of God on their own effort. He bought them to set them free. But it's not just free that they can they're on their own, that that they have no, you know, no relationship that, oh, you're just you're free, go have go live your life. I want to get rid of you. You're free from sin, from the curse of death, but now I'm gonna give you everything you need. Into a family relationship. I'm gonna give you what you need for for fine finances and daily bread, so to speak. I'm going to give you a place to live and a family, and I'm going to make this relationship permanent by adopting you into my family.
SPEAKER_02Oh boy. This is amazing.
SPEAKER_01Now, here's one of the the crazy things too, because so there are some historical accounts of this happening, but it doesn't make a lot of economic sense. And so it was rare.
SPEAKER_02Why would a why would a master do that? Like in the maybe apart from God doing it for us.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_02Why would a Roman master do that?
SPEAKER_01So there was no requirements as to what was necessary to do it. You could do this to a total and complete stranger. But some of the stories that we have, there may have been a someone who had been a slave faithfully for for like six years, and the master wanted to make this relationship permanent. So they basically renewed the contract on a permanent basis. But instead of then saying you're still my slave forever, no, you're you're actually just part of the family now. Uh so but it could be done to a total stranger. Yeah, it could be done to someone. I literally meet you on the street and I'm just gonna redeem you and take care of you for the rest of my life. Uh so that's why it was so scandalous. It's like it makes no economic sense. The master benefits nothing. And chances are Well, they benefit in gaining a new child. They yes, sure. But chances are the redeemed slave is not the only slave. So if you do this for one slave, what are the other slaves gonna think? Yeah. Like that there's actually a lot of things. And if this slave has a spouse, has children. Well, generally it you would basically adopt the whole family.
SPEAKER_02You would adopt the whole family. Yeah. That's that's amazing. So this it is this picture, and I can just see it in my mind as we're talking, where there's this I don't know if they had like slave blocks like they did in American slavery.
SPEAKER_01There was actually a slave market that says this would happen. Sometimes even the the slave would be naked, not in an abusive way, but just in a way that if you're looking you want to see the physique of a slave. Which is abusive. Yes, okay. But but we we have to take it out of the context of civil war and kind of our historical context. Yeah. Um but you want to see, you know, is this guy muscular if I'm gonna hire him to do hard labor? Uh-huh. Um So yeah, it it wasn't great. Yeah. But it wasn't quite civil war, is my point.
SPEAKER_02And they would go in and they would purchase they would walk into the slave market and not purchase a slave to keep them in slavery, to abuse them, to whatever. They would purchase them with a purpose of being set free. That's what redemption is. How how would I'm curious, how would the slave know this?
SPEAKER_01So there was actually uh something called a redemption ticket. Okay. That the the master, if that was their intention, they would uh they would actually get this at the slave market. And this redemption ticket had two words on it that as the slave has been purchased to the highest bidder, which again the highest bidder is for the salary, so it's to their advantage that that goes up. The slaves walking over towards this new master, expecting to serve them for the next six years, and the new master hands them a piece of paper that says for freedom.
SPEAKER_02Oh gosh, wow.
SPEAKER_01I have purchased you to set you free. And remember, this is not a year free for six years, you can go be a slave for someone else. Once you were redeemed, you can never be a slave again, because that master was committing to uh care for you for the entirety of your life and then give you an inheritance when they passed away.
SPEAKER_02That's I'm trying to imagine that and then that moment for slaves, and then I'm also just thinking this this is us. This is exactly when Paul says that we have been redeemed, that it is through redemption that we've been saved. He has not um it brings us richness of beyond um obviously the glorious truth that our eternity is secure. But we have are now in this family relationship with God. We are not under We belong. We belong permanently. We permanently belong, and we're no longer what we do is no longer a condition, whether we're a good slave or a bad, because we're not a slave anymore. It's not about our good behavior or bad behavior. We have a permanent place in the family. Now I'm thinking, and can I bring in another passage? This makes it all when you hear this explanation of redemption, this had to be what Paul was thinking in Galatians 5.1, right? Oh, absolutely. This and what you just said, I was I was like, okay, we have to turn to Galatians 5-1, um, because it's exact this is exactly it's almost a word-for-word quote of what would have happened in that culture. Galatians 5 1 says, for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Can I just read that again? Because you're and people, as you're as you're listening to this podcast, you're standing in a slave auction, and people, you know, the principalities, the powers, the rulers of this world have us enslaved. Sin has us enslaved. Um and God walks in not to enslave us, but he walks in and purchases us with his life. And we get purchased, and it's like Jesus walks up to us, Paul says, and hands us a ticket, and that ticket says for freedom. And Galatians 5 1 says that for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Don't go back to your slave life.
SPEAKER_01Now, I love that you pulled out that Galatians verse because Paul Paul is writing to people who were already saved, so they've already been redeemed, but they are being tempted to return to slavery. Yeah. Okay, now uh the type of slavery that the Galatians were tempted to return to wasn't slavery to sin so much, but it was actually slavery to trying to earn and deserve and be worthy of what God has given them. And Paul says, don't go back to slavery.
SPEAKER_02Like they were being so you're saying they were being tempted to go back to thinking, I have to be a slave. I have to be a good slave. I have to be a good slave. And the master's like, no, you're a son. Yes. Or daughter, and they're like, No, but I gotta, I don't want you to punish me at the end of the day. I don't I don't want to, you know, be a bad slave. And they're like, but you're not a slave. Don't go, don't start acting like that again.
SPEAKER_01So in in many ways, uh, and uh one of the cool things about redemption too is that so once you're redeemed, there's technically not any requirement. You are not required to serve, you're not required to work like you're free. But uh many of these slaves that were redeemed, they would end up serving their masters. They would just help. They would serve in the house, they would work in the field, but what it changed was their motivation.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And what Paul's addressing here is that we can have the gift of salvation, or the Galatians would have had the gift of salvation, and you can continue to live as a slave, or you can actually fully embrace your new identity, your sonship or your daughtership. So when we do the things as Christians, we do them not from the motivation of a slave. A slave serves his master out of fear, because if I'm a bad slave, I'm gonna die. A slave serves out of duty, out of obligation. This is what good slaves do.
SPEAKER_02They do it because they're in a precarious position, that if they don't do it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01How many Christians serve God from that motivation? Yeah. Fear, duty, obligation, uh, to avoid the lightning bolt from heaven that they think, uh, not that it is, but that they think. But rather, when we serve as a son or a daughter, we do sons and daughters do things because we're grateful, because we're a part of a family, because we we're connected. We are grateful. There's a lot of ways that we can live as slaves as Christians. In fact, there's some slave in all of us. Yeah. But part of our growth is embracing more and more of our redemption and less and less of our slave mindset. Yeah. Uh and little by little we grow more into that over time.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And again, all of this that this last 20 minutes that we've been saying, Paul said one word. One word. Redemption.
SPEAKER_02I love the Bible so much. Redemption. It makes me think of um when even today where we don't have slavery in modern American life, there's still slavery in the world, but in general, we but we do have employee-employee or relationships. And even that is a little small taste. I don't want to. It's transactional. It's transactional. I should say that. And this is the opposite of that. Because I think of like if I as a boss had an employee that didn't show up on time, didn't do their work, you know, after a process, I would let them go.
SPEAKER_01I would say they would be let go from the family.
SPEAKER_02They would be let go, but they would be let go, and that might be painful for them, but no one would like they would know. They're in my mind of like this is a transextual relationship. But if I have a child and we do have children, and like all children, our kids, and I did this as a kid too. There's seasons where you're like, Come on, kids, you gotta pull your weight around here. Like, we're a family, like we want you to participate. But never does it occur to me, you're not going to be my child if you don't do the dishes tonight. I I'm going to call you back to do the dishes because you're part of this family, not because you're placing the families at risk. And to call that back, and I think that's my position with God. If I'm not carrying my weight for a season or time or doing what God longs for me to do, it doesn't threaten my relationship with him. He might he does want to grow me, but it doesn't because I'm not I'm not a slave, I'm not even an employee. Even on that little, I am a daughter, and my position in the family is never threatened. Ever. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Well better than a coupon, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02This is better than a coupon for freedom. If you're listening, just reflect on that today. It might be um in a time of prayer today, while you're driving your car or driving in your car somewhere, just to actually visualize yourself, Jesus walking up to you, handing what maybe you think is a contract of obligation and what you got to do or not do, but you open up that piece of paper and it says for freedom. And that's why he has set you free. He set you free to be free. He didn't set you free then to go back into slavery. And so I hope that you live and walk in the reality of your redemption, of your freedom, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery because truly we are not slaves. So thank you for joining us. If you have not uh subscribed to this podcast, I'd encourage you to do so. Uh, that's just an easy way for you to see and be notified when we release new podcasts. And hopefully this is helpful. It builds up your faith, your confidence in Christ, and your walk with Jesus. So we'll talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for tuning in to the Pursue Reality Podcast. Reality Church is a local church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. To learn more or get connected, visit us at pursue reality.org.