How does God justify us freely by His grace?

Les teaches that verse 24 says we are “being justified freely by His grace,” and then asks how God could justify us: through the redemption, the process of buying us back. He explains that redemption must be used because you do not buy something back unless you once owned it and lost it. His illustration is the hock shop: the item was yours, you hocked it, took a loan against it, and the shop took control; you cannot get it back until you pay the price of redemption. Les applies this to Scripture: God had to pay a price of redemption, first for Israel nationally and for the whole world in general, because that which was once God’s was lost. Satan picked it up and holds it tight until God pays the price of redemption. He also connects Israel’s loss to the brothers selling Joseph into slavery; it was sinful and wrong, but God lost control of the embryonic nation, they ended up in Egypt for 215 years under the Egyptian yoke, and then came out as recorded in Exodus.