Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Ruth 3-4

In April 1994, I was having another discussion about religion with a young man I was interested in. For the dozenth time I was arguing with him about my inability to believe in a God that I couldn’t see with my eyes or touch with my hands. Suddenly, in a brief moment of humility, I asked a simple question, “What do you mean when you say, ‘saved’?” To me, “save” was a word associated with money and stray puppies, not college valedictorians. And for the first time I heard clearly explained the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

Reading through the book of Ruth, I noticed the words redeem and redeemer used over and over again, but do we as 21st-century adults understand what ‘redeemed’ means?

Do we see our own abject lostness and our need for a counselor and guide to show us where to go and lead us by the hand to get there?

Or do we think we’ve already arrived, already know all the answers, and we don’t need anything beyond what hard work, Google, and the government can provide.

Do we see ourselves as hopeless, helpless beggars all searching for a morsel of bread?

Or do we see ourselves as wealthy, capable, able-bodied people in need of no one and no thing to help us?

Do we see our sinful nature and recognize our need for forgiveness and rebirth?

Or do we think we’re really pretty good, decent people who’ve never killed anybody or done anything all that bad, especially compared to all the good things we’ve done?

Naomi, a Jew, and Ruth, a Moabite, both needed to be redeemed and so do you and I. Naomi and Ruth’s earthly lives were redeemed by their kinsman-redeemer, Boaz, but their eternal souls were redeemed by looking forward to that sinless Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who paid the price for their sins with His own sins blood, something much more precious than all the gold and silver all the world over.

Have you been redeemed? Have you been washed in the blood of that Lamb? Were your sins been fully paid for when Jesus, that spotless Lamb, was nailed to the cross 2,000 years ago?

Read more about redemption at Blue Letter Bible.