"Remission" of sins: layers of meaning, layers of hope

Languages are multi-layered things, and a translator's job is not a simple one. Sometimes we come across  other shades of meaning when we study how a word is used. I've long found it interesting that the Bible talks about the "remission" of sins. These days our English word remission is often a specialty-word for early success in cancer treatment. But that use was repurposed from older uses. In the New Testament, here are a few familiar verses that all contain the same Greek word, most commonly rendered into English as remission: 

For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. (Matthew 26:28)

John baptized in the wilderness, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. (Mark 1:4)

To give his people knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins. (Luke 1:77)

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to announce good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are bound. (Luke 4:18)

Going through all the uses in the New Testament, all the uses of that Greek word (aphesis) are typically rendered into English as remission or forgiveness except in Luke 4:18, where the English is typically given along the lines of deliverance, liberty, or freedom. 

It lends me hope that some of those shades of meaning, too, were meant about our sins: deliverance, liberty, and freedom. Forgiveness for them is a treasured promise; freedom from them even more so. Even if the final freedom is still to come, it will be cause for celebration.