Chapter 31
“Thy
Savior And Thy Redeemer”
"And I will feed them that oppress thee with
their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet
wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer,
the mighty One of Jacob .Thou shalt also suck the milk of the
Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the
LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob."
--
Isaiah49:26 and 60:16
In
these two texts of Scripture, the Lord our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, declares
himself to be our God, our Savior, and our Redeemer. He also declares that it
is his intention and purpose to make himself known to his chosen, redeemed
people as their God, Savior, and Redeemer, and to ultimately cause all the
world to behold him as our God, our Savior, and our Redeemer.
In
the course of these studies, we have seen from the Old Testament Scriptures
pictures of our redemption by Christ, the efficacy of his atonement, the
freeness and voluntariness of his obedience unto
death as our Redeemer, and the causes of our redemption by the Son of God. In
these two passages, the great and glorious God, who created, rules, and
disposes of all things exactly as he pleases, according to the good pleasure of
his will, declares himself to be “Thy
Savior and thy Redeemer.”
What could be more
delightful and comforting? If he who is our Redeemer is indeed the Lord God
Omnipotent, then it must be concluded that he will also be our Savior. The
blessed comfort and consolation of the gospel is that he who shed his blood at
Calvary as our Redeemer will also be the Savior of all the redeemed. Redemption
would mean nothing if it did not carry with it the assurance of everlasting
salvation. However, since redemption, in its very essence, carries the
assurance of deliverance and salvation, when the Lord God would send a word of
hope, comfort, and good cheer in the gospel, he declares himself to be our
Redeemer (Isa. 41:14; 44:24; 48:17; 54:8).
Christ our Redeemer died on
the cross,
Died for His people, paid
all their due!
Sprinkled by grace with the
blood of the Lamb,
God now in justice must pass
over you!
Justice sees the blood!
Justice sees the blood!
Justice sees the blood!
Now God must pass, must pass
over you!
How did christ
become our redeemer?
We
have already seen the answer to this question in some measure. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, was appointed to the work of redemption by his Father,
and he assented to it as our Surety in the covenant of grace before the world
began. It was prophesied in the Old Testament that he would come to redeem his
people from their sins; and numerous pictures and types of our redemption by
him were given in the Old Testament Scriptures. In the fulness of time he was
made of a woman, made under the law, and sent to redeem them that were under
the law. He did, by his own blood, enter in once into the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. In Christ, all who believe have complete,
eternal redemption through his blood. And he is made of God unto us Redemption.
So, when it is asked how Christ came to be our Redeemer, we must, according to
the Scriptures, trace it to God himself.
We trace our redemption by
Christ to the everlasting love of God for his elect. The love, grace, and mercy
of God the Father moved him to resolve upon redemption, appoint his Son to be
our Redeemer, and call him to this work (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9-10).
It was this same love,
grace, and mercy toward us in the heart of the Son of God which moved him to
accept the call and engage in the work. The love of Christ for his elect was in
his heart from everlasting. It was a love of complacency and delight for his
people. Such was his love for us that he declares from eternity that his
delights were with us (Pro. 8:31). This love of Christ for his people showed
itself in many acts of grace, and is most wondrously seen in our Savior giving
himself for his people to redeem us. Because he loved us, the Lord of glory
gave himself an offering and a sacrifice for our sins. Because he loved us, he
laid down his life for us (Tit. 2:14; Eph. 5:2,25; 1 John. 3:16).
The love of Christ for us is
a free, unmerited, undeserved, sovereign love. We did not even want his love,
much less deserve it. He loved us freely and said, “I will redeem them” (Isa.
63:9; Hosea 13:14; 14:4).
Because of his great love
for us, the Son of God voluntarily put himself into bondage as our Surety to
redeem and save us. He is the Surety of that better covenant, established upon
better promises, made on our behalf before the world began (Heb. 7:22). Having
entered into covenant engagements with the Father from everlasting, our Savior
considered himself to be and became Jehovah’s bond slave (Isa. 50:5-7). He
considered himself under obligation to his Father to accomplish the great work
of redemption. Therefore, he often spoke of it as something he must do (Matt.
16:21; 26:53-54; Mark 8:31; 9:12; Luke 22:37; John 3:14; 10:16-18; 12:34;
20:9). And that which he must do, because of his being bound by own honor and
his own word, the Son of God will do (Pro. 6:1-2).
Is the Lord Jesus Christ
qualified to be our Redeemer?
Of
course, to a believer, this question is redundant. Yet, it will do our hearts
good to meditate upon our Savior’s glorious fitness to be our Redeemer. What a
fit Redeemer he is! There are none fit to redeem our souls but him. No animal
sacrifices could redeem us. No mere man could redeem us. No angel could redeem
us. Not even God, in his strict character as God could redeem us. Therefore,
Christ came to redeem us (Heb. 10:1-14).
Christ's fitness for the
work of redemption lies in the fact that he is both God and man in one glorious
person. It was the Son of God that was sent to redeem us. He is of the same nature,
and possesses the same perfections and attributes as
his Father. He is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image
of his person. This man was and is in the form of God. Therefore, he thought it
not robbery to be equal with God. Jesus Christ is God the Son, the second Person
of the holy Trinity. He is the true God, the great God. Therefore, he is fit to
be the Redeemer and Saviour of men. What a mighty redeemer he must be! He is
Jehovah, the Lord of hosts. That means that he is equal to such a great work as
this (Gal. 4:4; 1 John 5:20; Tit. 2:13; Jer 50:34).
Our great Savior and
Redeemer is both God and man (Isa. 9:6). He is the child born, as man, and the
Son given, as a divine person. He is Immanuel, God
with us, God in our nature, God manifest in the flesh. As such, as the God-man,
the man who is God, our Lord Jesus Christ is fit to be the Mediator between God
and man, the Umpire, the Daysman who can lay hands on both God and man. He is fit to
do the work required of a Redeemer of men, to make reconciliation for the sins
of his people, and to take care of all things pertaining to the glory of God,
his justice, and holiness.
As man he could be made, as
he was made, under the law, and so made capable of yielding obedience to it and
bearing the penalty of it. It was necessary that he do so if he would be the
Surety and Redeemer of God’s elect. As man, he had blood to shed. It was with
this most precious blood he redeemed us unto God. As a man, he had a life to
lay down, a sufficient ransom price for his people. As a man, the Son of God
was capable of suffering all the wrath of God and dying in our room and stead,
thereby making full satisfaction for us!
As God, he was zealously
concerned for the glory of God in all the perfections
of his nature. He secured the honour of all the divine attributes in the
redemption which he wrought out and accomplished as our Substitute. As God, he
put an infinite virtue into his blood. Divinity united to humanity in one
glorious person made his sacrifice of himself a full and adequate ransom price
for the purchase of his church and the redemption of our souls.
Our great Savior’s divinity
gave support to his human nature under the load of sin as he suffered the wrath
of God for us. His divinity was able to carry his humanity through the work,
enabling him to endure the horrendous ordeal. Otherwise he could never have
endured the cup of God’s wrath and stood before his indignation until his
indignation and wrath were satisfied.
As both God and man he had a
right to redeem. As Lord of all, he had a right as well as power to redeem them
that were his. As a man, our near kinsman, the right of redemption belonged to
him. Therefore, he wears the name Goel, which signifies a redeemer and a
near kinsman (Lev. 25:47-49). No one could be so fit a Redeemer of the church
as Christ, our near Kinsman, who is our head and our husband. Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, the Son of Man, is our Boaz.
By what means did the Son of
God accomplish our redemption?
Our
redemption was accomplished, wrought out, and obtained by the precious blood of
Christ by the sacrifice of his life, which was represented and present in that
blood he shed so freely for the remission of our sins and the ransom of our
souls. Let us ever thank God for the blood, the precious blood of Christ (Ex.
12:13; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; Rev. 5:9).
It was deliberately shed
blood. Had it been possible for his blood to have been spilt involuntarily, by
accident, or by some outside force against his will, it would not have been a
proper redemption price. It could not have answered for us as a payment to the
justice of God. But it was purposefully and voluntarily shed, with our Master’s
full consent. Christ had the full control and disposal of his own life. He freely
gave his life a ransom price for many;
"I lay down my life for the sheep", he said, as a ransom price
for them; "I lay it down of myself"
(Mt. 20:28; John 10:15,18).
It was human blood, the
blood of a man. That blood which was so freely shed for us was the same as the
blood which flows in our veins. This, too, was necessary. We could not be
redeemed with the blood of bulls and goats, which could never be an adequate
price of redemption. Human blood must be shed for the atonement of men. Christ
partook of the same flesh and blood with the children for whom he died. The
only difference was this: -- his blood was not tainted with sin as ours is.
This was another requirement
for our redemption. The ransom price had to be the blood of an innocent,
perfectly righteous man. Much notice is given in Scripture to the innocence,
holiness, and righteousness of the Redeemer. He was holy in his nature and
blameless in life. He knew no sin. He never committed any evil. He is the just
and Holy One. He suffered and died the Just for the unjust. Great emphasis is
laid upon this fact. The price with which men are redeemed is "the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb
without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet. 1:18,19). If he had had any
sin in him, he could not have been a redeemer from sin. His blood could not be
the price of redemption. Yet there is more…
It was divine blood, the
blood of a man who is God. It was necessary, if atonement was to be made and
redemption accomplished for God’s elect, that the blood shed also be the blood
of One who is himself God as well as man. None but Christ ever made such a
claim; and none but Christ meet this requirement. Therefore, we are told that
God, who is Christ, "purchased the
church with his own blood" (Acts 20:28). It is the blood of Jesus
Christ, God’s Son, which cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
To whom was the ransom
price for our redemption paid?
The
ransom price was paid into the hands of God, whose justice was offended, whose
law we broke, to God who is the lawgiver, to him who is able to save and to
destroy, against whom all sin is committed, and who will by no means clear the
guilty unless his justice is satisfied. He is the judge of all the earth, who
must and will do right. Therefore, Christ is said "to redeem" men "unto
God by his blood" (Rev. 5:9). The price of redemption, which is the
blood of Christ, was paid unto God, whereby redemption from vindictive justice
was obtained.
It was not paid into the
hands of Satan, or any other enemy that had power over us. The power of Satan
was only a usurped power. He had no legal right to hold us captives. Therefore
the delivery of our souls out of his hand is by power and not by price. But the
justice of God had a legal right to shut us up and detain us as prisoners,
until satisfaction was given. Therefore, redemption from avenging justice,
which is the redemption that is by Christ, is redemption by a price paid to
divine justice for the ransom of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ,
himself, is made of God unto us
Redemption (1 Cor. 1:30-31). He redeems and saves his elect by the ransom price
of his own blood, the regeneration power of his grace, and the resurrection
glory he shall accomplish for us and in us, and shall bestow upon us when he
comes again.