1 Peter 1:18-19

The Greek word for "redeemed" (elytrothete) means to ransom, to free by paying a price (cf. Mark 10:45; Luke 24:21; Titus 2:14).

"He [Peter] has some of the most noteworthy statements in the New Testament about the atoning value of Christ’s suffering." [Note: Leon Morris, New Testament Theology, p. 319. See 1:1-3, 18-25; 2:21-25; 3:18; 4:1, and Frederic R. Howe, "The Cross of Christ in Peter’s Theology," Bibliotheca Sacra 157:626 (April-June 2000):190-99.]

"Any representative first-century church would have three kinds of members: slaves, freemen [those who had never been slaves], and freed men. People became slaves in various ways-through war, bankruptcy, sale by themselves, sale by parents, or by birth. Slaves normally could look forward to freedom after a certain period of service and often after the payment of a price. Money to buy his freedom could be earned by the slave in his spare time or by doing more than his owner required. Often the price could be provided by someone else. By the payment of a price (lytron, antilytron), a person could be set free from his bondage or servitude. A freed man was a person who formerly had been a slave but was now redeemed." [Note: Blum, pp. 224-25.]

As the death of the Passover lamb liberated the Israelites from physical bondage in Egypt, so the death of Jesus Christ frees us from the spiritual bondage of sin (cf. Exodus 12:5). In speaking of redemption Peter always emphasized our freedom from a previously sinful lifestyle to live a changed life here and now. [Note: Douglas W. Kennard, "Peterine Redemption: Its Meaning and Extent," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 30:4 (December 1987):399-405.] Jesus Christ’s life, represented by the blood, is of infinitely greater value than any mere metal, as precious as that metal may be (cf. Acts 3:6; Acts 8:20). "Futile" means vain or powerless, and it suggests that many of Peter’s readers were indeed Gentiles. We would normally expect this in view of where they lived (1 Peter 1:1). This word better describes the lifestyle of an unsaved Gentile than that of an unsaved Jew (cf. 1 Peter 1:14).