Jesus Christ redeemed us by His Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension. To “redeem” means to buy back something that has been lost, sold or given away. Because of Original Sin and our personal sins, we were slaves of the devil. But Jesus freed us, giving us the freedom of the children of God, for, by His Resurrection, He destroyed death and gave us the life of grace.

Jesus obeyed the will of His Father by delivering Himself up for us by means of His Passion and Death. Afterwards He raised Himself up from the dead, in order to redeem us and make us acceptable to the Father. He is the Messiah, God’s own Son. He said that He did these things so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled and that His Father’s will would be accomplished.

Through sin, man had lost his birthright of eternal union with God—eternal happiness in Heaven. The Son of God made man gave that birthright back to us, by offering Himself to His heavenly Father as a victim for our redemption. The Old Testament sacrifices were only symbols of the new sacrifice of the Lamb—the Lamb of God—Who was sacrificed to give worthy honor and reparation to His Father. That is why He is called the Redeemer and why His work is called the work of redemption.

He offered His life for love of us and for the glory of His Father. He did His Father’s will to honor Him and to make people happy forever in God’s Kingdom. The Father now gives His own divine life of grace to people who turn to Him in faith.

By sinning, man failed to love God, but Christ’s work of redemption was an act of infinitely perfect love and obedience, which made up His whole life on earth. His infancy spent in Egypt and His thirty years at home in Nazareth were as much a part of our redemption as were the three years of His active life and His Death. His Death on the Cross was the climax of His earthly lifetime of obedience to the will of the Father.

Whatever God does is of infinite value. Because Christ is God, the very least of His works or sufferings is enough to make up for man’s sins. But in the plan of the Father, His Son would carry His act of perfect obedience to the point of giving Himself up to death on Calvary.