Redemption

"Everybody wants liberty. The problem is that everybody wants it on his own terms. But salvation doesn't work that way. God doesn't save people (from slaver, from addiction, from sin and shame) and then cut them loose to do what they want, because without the guidance of God 'doing what we want' is a recipe for falling right back into slavery."
When we think about redemption, we can see all the many things God is doing in us to bring us into shalom. There is a healing quality that is very present. But at the same time, we are still completely entrenched in our shortcomings. It seems like so much of what we want is not what God wants for us. We think we know best, we think we can achieve happiness and freedom by doing whatever we want. An ironic and tragic mistake, because the things that we think bring freedom really trap us. The freedom to use narcotics will in many cases lead you to an addiction that traps you. You no longer are free to use it, you are forced to use it. This example is applicable to many other examples. Over and over again, it seems that when we go our way we end up trapped and inflicting ourselves with detrimental tendencies. This is why we need to rely on God. We need His guidance so that we can be liberated truly.
Of course this is much easier said than done. It is easy to see the shortcomings in others, much harder to see them in ourselves. What is even harder is after we acknowledge our faults we must change them. And of course we will not succeed perfectly. We will fail, time after time. But God is redeeming this world, and He is bringing us closer to Him.
Through sanctification and justification, also known as double grace, God is giving us the ability to grow closer to Him. God justifies us, even though we do not deserve it. He forgives us of our sins and our faults. Beyond this, He sanctifies us, helping us grow closer to Him, bringing us out of these ruts and trenches we have dug ourselves into. We will never reach perfection while we live on this broken earth, but we can grow closer to God and see the power of His redemption if we move towards him. Nicholas Wolterstorff explains this process with two terms, our "authentic christian commitment" and our "actual christian commitment." Our authentic christian commitment put simply, is who God wants us to be. Our actual christian commitment is who we truly are. Our entire life is this process of bringing our actual christian commitment closer to our authentic christian commitment. As we get older and the more we grow the farther our authentic commitment goes, we can never catch it. But if at the end of our life we look back at the progression we made, day after day, month after month, year after year, we will be worlds apart from where we were. This is sanctification, in this world. In Heaven we will be able to achieve this completely. But for now it is a clear way to see just how God is redeeming us and creation in the present.