In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
Paul wrote this letter to the early church in Colossae, a city in what is now western Turkey. This verse is part of a larger description of who Jesus is and what He accomplished. "In whom" refers to Jesus — and what we have "in him" is redemption and forgiveness of sins. Redemption was a word the original readers would have understood immediately and viscerally: it was the price paid to purchase a slave's freedom. Paul is saying Jesus paid that price to free humanity from captivity to sin and its consequences. The forgiveness of sins was equally radical in a world built around sacrifice systems and the idea that humanity was perpetually in debt to God. Paul collapses all of that into a single, unhurried sentence.
Jesus, I do not always live like someone who has been set free. Thank you for a redemption I did not earn and cannot lose — for paying what I owed through my own failures. Help me receive your forgiveness so fully that it quietly changes the way I walk through every ordinary day. Amen.
Eleven words in English. In the original Greek, even fewer. Paul does not build to this slowly or soften it with qualifiers — he sets it down like a stone: *in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.* The tense is worth pausing on. Not "will have" or "might have if you are faithful enough." We *have* it. Present tense. Already accomplished. In a first-century world where debt was crushing, where slaves were everywhere, where the temple system ran on the premise that you were always one offering behind, this sentence landed like a thunderclap. But for many of us, "forgiveness of sins" has become background noise — a theological fact we affirm without ever really feeling. Try putting something specific in that phrase. Not "sins" in the abstract, but the actual thing you did, the specific person you hurt, the version of yourself you are most ashamed to look at. That is precisely what Paul is talking about. *That* has been redeemed. The Greek word carries the image of being physically purchased out of bondage — what held you was bought, paid, and legally freed. You do not have to keep making payments on a debt that has already been settled in full. What would change in you this week if you actually believed that?
What does the word 'redemption' mean to you personally — and how does understanding its original meaning of buying someone out of slavery deepen or shift your understanding of this verse?
Paul uses present tense: we *have* redemption. How would your daily life look different if you genuinely lived from that reality rather than still striving toward it?
Is there a specific failure or sin in your past that you have not fully accepted God's forgiveness for? What makes it hard to receive — and what do you think is underneath that resistance?
How does being someone who has been completely forgiven affect — or how *should* it affect — the way you extend forgiveness to the people who have hurt you?
If you believed this verse down to your bones, what specific thing would you stop carrying this week?
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1 Peter 1:19
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Ephesians 1:7
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Romans 3:24
Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
1 Peter 1:20
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:33
And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Hebrews 9:22
Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Hebrews 9:12
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Romans 3:25
in whom we have redemption [because of His sacrifice, resulting in] the forgiveness of our sins [and the cancellation of sins' penalty].
AMP
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
ESV
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
NASB
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
NIV
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
NKJV
who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
NLT
the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating.
MSG