Redemption

I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.... Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. Lamentations 3:55, 57, 58 (KJV)

The Living Bible translates verse 58: O Lord, you are my lawyer! Plead my case! For you have redeemed my life.

The Oxford dictionary offers several meanings of the word redeem:

1. compensate for the faults or bad aspects of; do something that compensates for poor past performance or behaviour; atone or make amends for sin, error, or evil; save (someone) from sin, error, or evil;
2. gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment; repay at the maturity date; exchange for goods, a discount, or money; pay the necessary money to clear a debt; free oneself or another from bondage by paying a ransom.
3. fulfil or carry out a pledge or promise.

Here is a passage which shows indisputably that Christian Science does not ignore the need of redemption. The Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, here answers a pertinent question:

Is healing the sick the whole of Science?

Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they do not love to be sick. Hence their comparative acquiescence in your endeavors to heal them of bodily ills, and their obstinate resistance to all efforts to save them from sin through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, which redeem them, and become their Saviour, through the flesh, from the flesh, — the material world and evil.
(Rudimental Divine Science, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 2:22–7)

Let's review that passage from Lamentations once more - it is so poignant: 

I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.... Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. Lamentations 3:55, 57, 58 (KJV)

No-one is outside Love's liberating embrace.

Julie Swannell