Christ Is the World’s Redeemer

LSB 539

study by Christopher I. Thoma

Introduction

In the Christian Church, using the word “Redeemer” is as common as breathing. It happens a lot. Its usage comes quite naturally and often goes on around us without an examination of the life-sustaining details. The process of inhaling and exhaling is actually very precise and purposeful. Breathing provides for cellular respiration. It takes in the beneficial gas oxygen and expels the toxic gas carbon dioxide, all the while utilizing the nose, the bronchioles, the lungs, the diaphragm, the alveoli and the like. There really is quite a lot happening when we breathe. In the same way, there is a lot packed into the word “Redeemer,” and the hymn before us offers the opportunity for us to hear and learn the wonderful details, giving us a memorable image of just what it means that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Redeemer of the world. This builds confidence that indeed full redemption has been won!

❚ What does it mean to “redeem” something?
❚ What kinds of things are redeemed, and why?
❚ The title of the hymn relates that the world has been redeemed. When the Lord redeemed the world, how much of it did He redeem, and from what did He redeem it?

Exploring the Scriptures

The Gospel Readings appointed for the Seventh Sunday of Easter in the Three-Year Lectionary are taken from John 17:1–26. In each of its parts, this text reveals the words of Jesus in prayer and the purity of assurance He has in the unfolding of the Father’s will for redemption. 

In the One-Year Lectionary, the Gospel Reading is John 15:26—16:4. This reading carries the Lord’s words to the disciples on the night He was betrayed. Here it is that the Lord prepares them for the approaching struggles and calls for them to
look to Him.

❚ The Time of Easter is that glorious time when the Church looks back upon the Lenten battle and is refreshed to know the certainty of salvation as seen and proven in the victory of the empty tomb and Christ’s ascension. Why is this hymn appropriate for the Season of Easter?
❚ Why is this hymn appointed for Easter 7, the Sunday immediately following Ascension Day, and not Easter 2 or 3?

Exploring the Hymn

Background

St. Columba (521–97), the author of this ancient hymn, is known in history as a man born of Irish royalty who later became a monk with a great passion for mission work. He established several monasteries throughout Ireland and Scotland as well as a school for missionary training on the Isle of Iona, Scotland. He is remembered for truly practicing what he preached by evangelizing within each of the Druid communities with which he came into contact.

The hymn itself, in tune and text, bears witness to the confidence and eagerness St. Columba had for spreading the good news of the Redeemer to the people around him. He was not fearful of rejection, but certain of the Lord’s once-and-for-all Gospel work to save the world. St. Columba uses colorful language to thoroughly describe the very real battleground of sin and death and the mighty dominion of Christ by His life, death and resurrection for sinful man.

❚ What is the tenor of the portrait painted by St. Columba in the hymn? Are the words carried by a tune that is somber? Joyful? Triumphant? Majestic?
❚ Scan the full text of the hymn. How do his choices of imagery reveal his familiarity with royalty? Persecution? Life-and-death issues of the day?

Text

It is easy to see that this hymn is written in a way that emphasizes the Redeemer as the one who must do battle to win back what is His. The price will be costly and the warfare great. The reader is carried along by this theme and prepared to see the details of the battle unfold in the Passion of Jesus, a passion which must include the shedding of His precious blood.

❚ Consider Is. 13:11 and John 15:18. How does God feel about the sinful world? How does the sinful world feel about God?

Stanza 1 marches into the field by speaking of purity, font, trust, hope, security, armor, soldiers, earth, sky, health, life and death. Consider each of these individually. 

Read Phil. 2:5–11; Acts 2:21–36; and Rom. 8:28–39.

❚ How is Christ connected to each in the hymn?
❚ Christ is called the “lover of the pure.” Read 1 John 1:7; 3:1–3; and Heb. 9:11–15. How does the word “pure” draw your attention to Holy Baptism?
❚ Read Rom. 6:3–11. What is happening in Holy Baptism, and how is it connected to Christ’s redemptive work?

Stanza 2 builds upon the foundation of stanza 1, directing the reader’s attention to the decisive moment in the battle, Christ’s lifting up on the cross, which secured the victory.

❚ Read Heb. 12:1–3 and Rev. 7:9–17. To whom is stanza 2 referring, and what is their role in the battle? In these texts, how are we brought back to Baptism?
❚ Of what event do the words “Who wave their palms in triumph” remind you? Where was that event leading?
❚ Read Heb. 12:18, 22–24. It is said that heaven and earth come together in the Divine Service. What are the implications of this? Where and in what context is this theology mentioned specifically in the Divine Service?

As stanza 3 unfolds, Christ’s redemptive actions on our behalf continue. Read 1 Peter 3:18–22.

❚ “Down through the realm of darkness / He strode in victory” is a poetic retelling of 1 Peter 3:19. What is the hymn’s confident interpretation of Christ’s reason for descending into hell?
❚ Almost immediately, the hymn turns to the resurrection and ascension of Christ. How are these connected to Baptism?

It may be surmised that this hymn is a lyrical summary of the redemption earned by Christ and articulated clearly by the three ecumenical creeds. (See the Second Article of the Creed and its meaning [LSB, p. 322]). Therefore, like the creeds, which are confessions of and in the name of the Triune God, this hymn rightly concludes with “Amen.”

❚ See the Conclusion to the Lord’s Prayer in Luther’s Small Catechism (LSB, p. 325). Why is it good to end the hymn with the word “Amen”?
❚ In your opinion, does the word “Amen” serve to build reverent timidity or holy confidence?

Making the Connection

This hymn is one of confident faith in the face of this world’s struggles. St. Columba, being the missionary that he was, most likely found himself in situations that brought about doubt and fear. Consider your own life and its difficulties and troubles. How might the following lines serve to stir the confidence of faith in Christ for you when the hour is dark?

❚ “The font of heav’nly wisdom, / Our trust and hope secure” (st. 1).
❚ “The armor of His soldiers” (st. 1).
❚ “Our health while we are living, / Our life when we shall die” (st. 1).
❚ “Christ has our host surrounded / With clouds of martyrs bright, / Who wave their palms in triumph / And fire us for the fight” (st. 2).

In Closing

Just as breathing is composed of many intricate particulars, so also does Jesus Christ accomplish all that is required of Him as the Redeemer, in order that we might be His redeemed people. His life, death and resurrection are the currency in the redeeming act. As the Redeemer, He buys us back, pays the ransom, purchases us from sin, death and the power of the devil. By the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in the Redeemer, we are strengthened to live our lives in this world. And we have the confidence to know that whether we live or whether we die, we are His. He loves us and proved it.

❚ Sing or read aloud together LSB 539.

Prayer
O King of glory, Lord of hosts, uplifted in triumph far above all heavens, leave us not without consolation but send us the Spirit of truth whom You promised from the Father; for You live and reign with Him and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen (Collect for the Seventh Sunday of Easter).