Who’s redeemed?

The Son is sent to redeem (Galatians 4:5). He comes under the law to redeem those under the law.

Redemption is manumission language. To redeem is to deliver from bondage, or to buy from bondage. Those under the law are in bondage (cf. 4:1), still under the probationary regulations that apply to minor children.

So, the redeemed are the children. They are redeemed in the sense that they are brought from slavery under the law to the sonship that they were always destined to reach.

Law and sin are bound together. Torah provokes sin, and thus shuts Israel to sin. Israel needs redemption from law because the law has enslaved them to sin. But Galatians 4 is not, strictly speaking, talking about that. Sin apart, Israel would have needed “redemption” from the minority/slavery of the law.

So Adam: Created as a child, under “do not taste, do not touch” regulations until the fullness of time. And when the fullness of time would have come, Adam would have been “redeemed” from his slavery.