Chapter 4

Redemption. Such a pregnant term in modern day Christian theology especially amongst the church denominations that sprung out of the Reformation. Certainly as a Christian one knows that one needs redemption, but what is the essence of it? Plantinga says that it is the act of atonement for sins, that is to make us one with God. Now we must not be lulled into a false sense of security that says, "O Christ died for my sins so it does not matter what I do anymore because God will forgive me" this is a classic thing that Paul warns against when he says in Romans 6:1 "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" Plantinga says it this way, that when we were still in slavery in Egypt, a parallel for sin, that God did not give us the Ten Commandments, but after we were freed from since then God gave the Ten Commandments to us so that we might not become slaves to sin once again.

This is when Redemption is truly evident. When human beings, who have been saved by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, take the initiative and begin living lives filled with the love of God because until that point, we are still unredeemed slave chained to a weight so great that we have no hope of dragging it along and unable to act as a free man should. When we begin to live lives like this, then we begin the work that God has set out for us, which is to help him redeem other lost sinners and all of creation. This is when redemption comes full circle and the redeemed becomes a part of the redeeming, which is much like what Lewis says in Weight of Glory, "The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses... shall please God. To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness."