Colossians 1:14

Two words sit side by side here, and the second explains the first.

Redemption was not a religious term when Paul used it. It belonged to the slave market and the prison. It named the price paid to get a person out of a situation they could not exit on their own — and the price was the whole meaning of the word. Nobody was redeemed by good wishes.

Then: the forgiveness of our sins. Paul puts the two in apposition, which means he is not listing two benefits. He is saying what the redemption consists of. The thing bought was forgiveness.

That is worth stopping on, because we tend to treat forgiveness as the cheapest thing on the list — something a decent person does for free, and God, being better, does more readily. The vocabulary here refuses that. Forgiveness is placed in the same category as buying someone out of slavery, and priced accordingly.

The verb is also worth noting: we have. Present tense, in hand. Not we will receive if things go well. It is described as a possession currently held.

And the sentence this sits in is about transfer — out of the power of darkness, into a kingdom. Forgiveness, in Colossians, is not the end of the transaction. It is the paperwork that makes the move legal.