The Bible reveals a God of Redemption. Rescue is the red cord traced throughout the Word of God. Noah and his family, the people of Israel, Rahab the harlot, or Christ’s redeemed, the world can and will be redeemed is God’s message of hope.

In a slave culture, the translators of the English Bible used the word ”redeemed”, as the most powerful image of God’s purpose and plan for His creation. We can picture a buyer purchasing a slave in order to set him free. In our culture the word redemption has lost some of it’s meaning. We think of redeeming pawned watches or of carrying bags of aluminum cans to a “Redemption Center”, not slaves being redeemed. A redeemed slave was not fully restored; he still bore the whip marks and the trauma of being torn from his family and home. Freedom means more to a redeemed slave than someone who has never been a slave. The Bible reveals that our eternal state and status will be determined in how we respond to suffering in this life. Even our Redeemer and resurrected Savior and Lord kept His scars.

Redemption promises a transformation in making use of all that happens to us before. (See Romans 12:1, 2, I Corinthians 15:45-58.) Like a priceless oil pointing restored after a fire, so God restores good out of evil. We see Joseph who rose from slavery and prison to a position of power, Daniel who was delivered out of the lion’s den, and the Apostle Paul, who wrote most of his theology behind bars. All of God’s people trusted His plan and went forward despite evil and suffering.

Nicholas Wolterstorff, a Christian philosopher who lost his son in a climbing accident, says in “Lament for a Son”, “to redeem our brokenness and lovelessness the God who suffers with us did not strike some mighty blow of power but sent His beloved Son to suffer like us, through His suffering to redeem us from suffering and evil. Instead of explaining our suffering, God shares it.”

Problems stretch us and press us to depend on God. The Bible teaches us that there is a greater danger in blessing and success than in adversity. The lives of Sampson, Saul, and Solomon show that success can lead to pride, self-satisfaction, and can often lead one away from God. No one in the Bible had a problem free life. God calls us to obey and trust Him to bring redemption out of suffering. (See Romans 8:28.)

To me, facing Alzheimer’s would be a severe trial. In Philip Yancy’s insightful book “Reaching for the Invisible God”, he tells of an Alzheimer’s patient named Betsy to whom his wife Janet had ministered in a nursing home. It seemed nothing could get Betsy to respond in a rational way. One day Janet led the senior citizens in singing a hymn. Knowing that Betsy could still read some, Janet asked Betsy to read “The Old Rugged Cross”:

“One a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross
The emblem of suffering and shame.”

Betsy read and then stopped. She suddenly became agitated. “I can’t go on! It’s too sad! It’s too sad!” she said. Some of the seniors gasped. Others stared at her dumbfounded. In years of living at the home, not once had Betsy shown the ability to put words together meaningfully. Now, obviously, she did understand.

Later as Betsy was led back to her room, she began to sing with tears coursing down her cheeks:

“On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame.
And I love that old cross, where the dearest and best,
For a world of lost sinners was slain . . .
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.”

In Betsy’s confused mind only two things stood out – suffering and shame. Those words summarize the human condition she lived in everyday of her life. Who knew more suffering and shame than Betsy? For her, the hymn answered the question – Jesus does.

The hymn, like the Word of God, ends with the promise of redemption. One day Betsy will get a new mind and body. One day God’s children will reign in triumphant victory. (See I Corinthians 15:54-58.)

How much does our Redeemer love us? “This much,” He says as He stretches out His nail-pierced hands on the old rugged cross and dies for the sins and sorrows of the world. “Surely He hath borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows . . . But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4, 5).

How are we to make sense of suffering? Believe and receive the Redeemer.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).