Introduction
Redeemed: credited to your account, debt paid in full; how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed
So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign LORD.
The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a little while was that you might have him back forever - no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.
But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Grace and righteousness can be viewed in terms of a financial metaphor: infinite credit is in our bank account, we have not earned this money, it is unmerited but nevertheless credited to our account. God does not give us the punishment we deserve, but instead credits His perfect righteousness to our spiritual account as a free gift.