Redeeming Love was a Christian romance novel that I loved from the moment I read it back years ago. My wife loved it as well and so we went to an early showing of the movie last night, one day early.

I wanted to share with you my thoughts, experience, and my key takeaways from what I thought of the story and provide some insights in case you decide to watch it. This is my Redeeming love movie review.

What is the story behind Redeeming Love?

The Redeeming Love storyline is a retelling of the book and story of Hosea in the Bible. Hosea was a prophet in the Old Testament who God commanded to take a prostitute as a wife. Through a series of events, God uses the life of Hosea and his wife Gomer to illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness and God’s endless love for His people.

Why did God do this to Hosea?

To show us, and more specifically Israel, just how much He loves His people.

In the story of Hosea, Gomer (his new wife) keeps wandering away from him, being unfaithful in the process. God uses these two to illustrate His own love for His people and their sin as a nation.

It’s a beautiful love story that brings light to God’s love.

Hosea represented God Himself and Gomer (the prostitute) represented God’s people in the Bible story.

Go read the full story here or open your Bible at home and do it.

Now that you understand the Bible story of Hosea and Gomer, you can understand the movie and story of Redeeming Love in a much more profound and deeper way, understanding how much God loves each one of us, despite our sins.

Movie Overview

Angel is a woman who has a troubled past which taught her men will only use and abuse her.

She’s a prostitute at a brothel during the California gold rush. Lots of men show up to get a chance to do what? Yep, use her. Just like she’s always been used to.

One day a man named Michael Hosea comes into her room and has no interest in sex, but instead wants to talk to her.

She tries to blow him off, but he keeps coming back to talk and more importantly, trying to get her to marry him.

Why? Because Michael Hosea was told by God to marry her. He’s a godly man who desires to honor God in all that he does, a very inspiring character.

He’s not like the other men who just want to use her for sex. He’s different, but she doesn’t know that at this point in the story.

After getting beat up, she finally gives into Michael Hosea’s proposal and goes with him to live on his farm.

She tries to embrace this new life, but feels like it’s not who she is, feels as if she can’t be good enough, and then finally feels as if she doesn’t deserve his love.

So she runs away, then comes back, and then runs again and again.

Throughout the movie, you get to see how Angel came to be, flashbacks to her childhood and growing up is gutwrenching, but it’s important to the development of the character of Angel.

The movie does marvelous at two things.

First, you see lots of thoughts, feelings, and emotions through what’s not being said, but body language and facial expressions.

I love it when the subtext is spot on and this movie nails it.

Secondly, the movie does fantastic at showing us two people and more importantly who they represent.

Angel is a representation of not only Israel from the Bible story but every person who has ever existed.

She is the man who had an affair, the woman who doesn’t feel like a good mom for yelling at her kids, she is the teenager who made bad decisions. She is the sinner in need of a Savior. She is you and I.

Michael Hosea is a reflection of God.

His unchanging love for each one of us, His desire for us to enjoy our lives fully abiding in His goodness, and His promise not to force us into anything we’re not ready to do yet He will pursue us for a time. He is the Savior who is always ready to forgive and to love.

I won’t give more of the movie away, but it’s an awesome storyline that illustrates God and His love brilliantly.

My favorite quote: “You can’t choose the life you had, but you can choose the life you have.”

We have the choice, as we always do, to pick a relationship with God.

Sexual Content

There is quite a bit of sexual content in the movie, which is to be expected when a story centers on a prostitute, but it didn’t seem needed in the way in which they did it in some spots of the movie.

1. Sex scenes – They only had two on screen that I can recall and they were between Angel and Michael Hosea in the confines of marriage. What wasn’t needed was how sensual and lengthy the scenes were with sound effects and all. My wife and I looked away and at each other wondering why it was happening.
   
2. Nudity – There was no full nudity, but partials quite a bit, especially in the brothel. Angel’s breasts were exposed several times, her hair partially covering the front of the breasts. They used the camera to hit certain angles to hide stuff. Still made for uncomfortablness several times.

This kind of stuff doesn’t add to the story and I don’t know why they felt the need to have it in there.

I’m concerned this makes an opening for lust for some moviegoers who might be struggling with sexual sin. Doesn’t seem right for a Christian movie in my opinion.

Other Content To Be Aware Of

There’s a handful of curse words. Four wh**es, two b**ches, and one d*mn, one p*ss, and one h*ll.

There was quite a bit of violence in the movie. Lots of physical abuse to Angel when she was a child and as an adult. There were some punches thrown by Michael, fights between men, and even one instance of a guy being hanged. Some blood, but not a lot.

Random scenes of people drinking, especially in the brothel. There’s some gambling inside a casino briefly.

Conclusion of Redeeming Love Movie Review

I enjoyed Redeeming Love and I recommend it to anyone who desires to see a glimpse of what God’s heart looks like towards His people.

I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone struggling with sexual sin or for a family movie night.

Find a local movie theater – Fandango

Buy the book “Redeeming Love” – Buy on Amazon

Read other awesome Christian romance books – View T.K. Chapin books