Plato (Redemption)

Plato falls under the redemption category, mainly because of his famous “allegory of the cave” and because of his source of knowledge (remembering).

His allegory reminds me of my own redemption. I was caught up in living in the “cave” that I did not know of any other reality. The “cave” was all I knew. It wasn’t until I came out of the cave, that I realized that what I thought was reality, was not reality at all. An entire new world of truth had been revealed to me and since coming out of the cave, my only desire is to go back in to reveal the real world (the truth) to the other people that are still caught up with fake reality. This is what Jesus does for us. He awakens us by revealing the truth to us and redeeming us from the ‘caves’ that we were all once stuck in. It can also be seen as a better way to go through life. Instead of being in  dark and gross cave, Jesus comes, takes us out of the cave and says, “Hey, here is a better way to live. Stop living in the cave, it’s dangerous. Let me save you.” Yes, thats entering into a new life and being awakened into all things good and new, but before that we have to be saved, to be redeemed from our old ways. That is redemption.

Plato’s other theory on ‘remembering’ can also fall into the redemption category, because we are saved once we ‘remember’ who we truly are in Christ. Think about it like this: Say, you’re taking a test. You feel confident and sure of yourself when you ‘remember’ everything that you studied and have all the right answers. What happens to you when you don’t remember though? You start to freak out, feel less confident in your status as a student, and maybe even start to feel a bit lost because you don’t know what you’re doing anymore. But, instead of working yourself up, you calm yourself down, take a few deep breaths, and everything that you studied starts to come back to you. Once you ‘remember’, your confidence comes back and all previous assumptions about yourself are gone. Think of this in spiritual terms now. When we ‘forget’ our status as a son or daughter our assurance in God starts to waiver and we start to freak out a bit. But once we are reminded of the truth and our true identity, it seems as if we are saved all over again (well that’s the feeling that happens for me anyway ha). Remembering means being reminded of something and once we are reminded of that truth, it saves us from falling back into our old ways. So this is what Jesus does, He saves us from the cave and shows us a better way to live, and when we forget who we are in Him, he reminds us (in a very loving way) so that we can continue to live and walk in his redeeming grace.