Kinsman Redeemer

Tucked into the ancient laws of Israel and told as a love story in the book of Ruth is one of the most beautiful pictures of the gospel in all of Scripture: the kinsman redeemer. To understand it is to understand what Jesus has done for you.

In the book of Ruth, several people stand as pictures of a greater reality. Naomi, whose name means pleasant one, wandered away from Bethlehem, the house of bread, and pictures a people who drifted from God. Ruth pictures those from outside the covenant who join themselves to God's people and claim the God of Israel as their own. Boaz, whose name carries the sense of strength, is a picture of Christ, the kinsman redeemer. And the nearer relative who could not finally redeem is a picture of the law that cannot save.

What a redeemer was

The kinsman redeemer was known in Hebrew as the goel. The word means to redeem, to receive back, to buy back. The Law of Moses made provision for a poor person who had been forced to sell part of his property, or even himself, into slavery. His nearest relative could step in and buy back what his kinsman had been forced to sell.

If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold.

Leviticus 25:25

The kinsman redeemer was a rich benefactor who set the debtor free by paying the ransom price. His responsibility was to redeem his relative's lost opportunities. If a family member had been forced into slavery, the redeemer purchased his freedom. When debt threatened to overwhelm him, the kinsman stepped in to redeem the homestead so the family could live. If a relative died without an heir, the kinsman would marry the widow and raise up a son to carry on the name. He was the family's rescuer, the one who would not let his own kin be lost.

The same word is used of God himself as the redeemer of his people. When Israel's liberty was lost in Egypt, God said, I am the Lord; I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. God is the great Kinsman of his people; when their liberty was gone, he stepped in and bought them back. The ancient patriarch Job, when no one came to redeem him, reached out in faith to a redeemer yet to come.

For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.

Job 19:25

The story of Naomi's redeemer

The book of Ruth is really the story of Naomi's redeemer. Naomi, a picture of a people far from home, had left Bethlehem in famine. She was among the poorest in Israel, yet her kinsman was among the richest. Through the death of her husband and her two sons, she and her daughters-in-law lost all their income and their home. Living in a foreign land, she felt the loss so deeply that she asked to be called bitter.

But everything turned on her daughter-in-law Ruth being brought into union with Boaz. There was a nearer relative, a picture of the law, who had the first right to the property. That man agreed to redeem the land until he discovered a young widow was part of the arrangement. He graciously backed out, because it would spoil his own inheritance. And that left Boaz as the rightful nearest of kin, with the privilege of redeeming both the land and Ruth along with it. The outsider and the insider became one.

Four things a redeemer needed

The story shows us that four things were required for a kinsman to redeem, and each one points us to Jesus.

• He had to be near of kin.
• He had to be able to redeem.
• He had to be willing to redeem.
• Redemption was complete only when the price was fully paid.

Consider how perfectly Jesus meets every requirement. First, he is near of kin. Through the incarnation, he became our nearest relative. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. In all things it was fitting that he be made like his brethren, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. To identify himself fully with us, he made himself of no reputation, took the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. We do not have a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses; he was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin. He is not ashamed to call us family.

Second, he is able to redeem. Though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich. He assumed our debt and paid it with his own life. No one had greater resources, and no one paid a greater price.

Third, he is willing to redeem. Jesus gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people zealous for good works. He said the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. And he made clear that no one took his life from him; he laid it down of himself.

I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.

John 10:17-18

This is the heart of the whole story. The nearer kinsman in Ruth was able but unwilling, because redeeming would cost him too much of his own inheritance. Jesus was both able and willing, and he counted the cost and paid it gladly. His redemption was not reluctant, not squeezed out of him by our pleading. It was love, freely and deliberately poured out for people who could never repay him.

Fourth, the price has been fully paid. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. The redeeming work of Jesus delivers believers from slavery to sin, and the means of that redemption is his substitutionary death, offered in our place. It is through his blood, the ransom payment, that we are brought near. Only the death of Christ completely satisfied the justice of God. The ransom is paid in full, and nothing remains to be added to it.

Receive your redemption

Here is the one thing that remains. Jesus has paid the price in full, but you must receive your redemption. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The invitation is still open. Jesus is the sinner's nearest kinsman, and it is your part simply to come and rest at his feet, as Ruth once did, and say, spread your covering over me, for you are my near kinsman.

Go back to that ancient scene in Bethlehem and picture Naomi holding her grandson in her arms. Her neighbors said, a son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed, who became the grandfather of King David, in the very lineage of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. God had redeemed her. The bitter one was made pleasant again. And the words of her friends are a fitting reminder of God's grace in every life: blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a kinsman. He has not left you without one either. His name is Jesus, and he is willing to be your redeemer today.