Transcribed from the 1878 Hatchards edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org
Redemption.
* * * * *
BY THE
REV. EDWARD HOARE, M.A.
_Vicar of Trinity_, _Tunbridge Wells_; _and Hon. Canon of Canterbury_.
* * * * *
LONDON:
HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY.
1878.
* * * * *
LONDON:
PRINTED BY JOHN STRANGEWAYS,
Castle St. Leicester Sq.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. DELIVERANCE 1
II. ISRAEL 14
III. THE FIRST-BORN 27
IV. THE BONDSMAN 40
V. RUTH 52
VI. THE SPIRIT 64
VII. ANATHOTH 77
VIII. THE PIT 89
IX. ATONEMENT 101
X. ATONEMENT 116
XI. FORGIVENESS 131
XII. PURITY 144
XIII. RESTORATION 156
XIV. HEAVEN 169
I. DELIVERANCE.
‘But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.’—1
COR. i. 30.
It is one of the happy characteristics of the present day that persons
are much more occupied than they used to be with the subject of emotional
religion. The religion of feeling is much more studied than it was forty
or fifty years ago. Modern books and modern addresses abound in the
records of what is termed ‘Experience.’ To a certain extent this is
well; for we all require real, deep, heart-religion, and it would indeed
be a shocking thing that we should know the truth of God, and still be
strangers to the love of Christ. Love, joy, and peace, are the first
fruits of the Spirit, and therefore if God the Holy Ghost dwells in our
hearts it seems clear that we must love Him, that we must rejoice in Him,
and that we must be at peace resting in His grace. But, just in
proportion as we set a high value on the religion of the heart, must we
see the importance of a solid foundation of divine truth on which all
true heart-religion must ever rest. We cannot build a house on the
surface of a river. If we attempt to do so we shall very soon find
ourselves at the bottom. So feelings are very apt to fail us just when
we want them, if they are not the result of a fixed and solid
acquaintance with the truth of God. If they do not spring from
established principles they will rise and fall even with the digestion or
the weather. It is, therefore, most important that in these happy days
of Christian emotion we should have a good foundation of Christian truth,
and should be well established in those great foundation facts on which,
when all feelings fail us, our souls may rest, and be at peace.
It is well, therefore, that our attention should be directed to the great
foundation subject of Redemption. It is one on which everything else
hangs, for if we do not understand redemption, we cannot possibly know
the value of the Redeemer; and if we do not know the Redeemer, where will
our feelings be when the time of pressure comes, and they are all pressed
out of us by trial?
There are three questions to be considered carefully at the outset of our
study. What is meant by Redemption? How far is our redemption complete?
And what is our present position? May God the Holy Ghost both direct and
bless the words which shall be spoken!
* * * * *
I. What is meant by redemption?
On this subject I cannot help thinking that there is sometimes a good
deal of confusion. People speak of it as if it were the same as ransom,
propitiation, or atonement, whereas there is surely a great distinction
between them. There cannot be a doubt that the two are very closely
connected: but redemption in Scripture means much more than atonement,
and always, or at all events generally, includes the idea of deliverance,
or recovery. The word itself means to purchase back or to recover by
purchase; which clearly implies both the payment of the price and the
recovery of the purchased possession. If a man were a prisoner in a
foreign land, and a ransom were demanded for his release, there would be
two distinct acts necessary to his restoration; first the ransom must be
paid, and next the dungeon must be thrown open, and the captive brought
out as a freeman to his home. Now the first of these acts, viz., the
payment of the ransom, represents atonement, the ransom price for the
satisfaction of the law; but redemption includes the actual deliverance
as well. It is the payment of the ransom, and also the actual liberation
of the captive. When the four living ones, and twenty-four elders said
(Rev. v. 9), ‘Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,’ they did not
mean merely that He had shed His blood for them in atonement, but that He
had actually gathered them out as a ransomed people, and brought them
from their former captivity to their present joy; for they said, ‘Thou
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests:
and we shall reign on the earth.’ Thus in the Old Testament the idea of
deliverance is far more prominent than that of atonement. When it was
written the doctrine of atonement was not fully revealed, but was wrapped
in types and prophecies. But God’s power in delivering was full in view,
and it became the prominent object in the thoughts of the writers. Let
us turn to a few passages in illustration. In Exod. vi. 6, we find God
saying, ‘I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians,
and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a
stretched-out arm, and with great judgments.’ In Deut. vii. 8, Moses
said, ‘The Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out
of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.’ In
Jer. xv. 21, when predicting the future restoration of Israel, the Lord
says by the prophet, ‘I will deliver them out of the hand of the wicked,
and redeem them out of the hand of the terrible.’ In all these passages
it is perfectly clear that ‘to redeem’ means ‘to deliver;’ and that when
God said, ‘I will redeem them,’ He meant that He would set them free.
And this is very clearly illustrated by the remarkable prophecy of Isa.
lix. 20, when compared with the quotation of it, Rom. xi. 26. In the
prophecy our Blessed Lord and Saviour is called ‘the Redeemer,’ but in
the apostolic quotation ‘the Deliverer.’ The Redeemer is the Deliverer,
for ‘He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this
present evil world.’
In the New Testament, however, there is a difference. When that was
written the ransom price had been paid, for the Lord Jesus Christ had
died; so that in it the atonement by the Son of God becomes more
prominent than the deliverance. The blood of the Lamb is continually
connected with redemption there, as for example in such a passage as
Titus, ii. 14, ‘Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good
works;’ and in the words just quoted from Rev. v. 9, ‘Thou hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood.’
But both Old and New agree in teaching that redemption is deliverance, or
recovery, through a ransom or atonement. In both ‘to redeem’ combines
the exercise of power with the satisfaction of every lawful claim. It
consists of two parts, atonement and deliverance. Atonement, therefore,
is a part of redemption, but not the whole. It is the first great act on
which the subsequent deliverance depends, but it is not the deliverance.
Through atonement the satisfaction is made for sin, and by virtue of that
satisfaction we are set free; and that deliverance through atonement is
the redemption of the Gospel.
* * * * *
II. We may proceed, then, to our second question. How far is our
redemption complete? And the answer to that question is, that of the two
parts the one is complete, but not the other.
The ransom, or atonement, is complete, and there is no possibility of
adding anything to that, as in the words of our Communion Service ‘who
made there (by His one oblation of Himself once offered) a full, perfect
and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the
whole world,’ or, as in the words of Scripture, ‘By one offering he hath
perfected for ever them that are sanctified.’ That is done for ever and
ever. All the masses of the Church of Rome, and all that men call
sacrificial offering, can add nothing to it. All that they can do is to
throw a shade over its glory. Two hundred million pounds were paid by
conquered France as her ransom, and of what use would it now be if any
patriotic Frenchman should endeavour to add to the security of his
country by paying an additional five shillings to the Prussians? So when
the precious life of the Son of God has been laid down as our ransom, and
when God’s covenant has been completely fulfilled, shall we now go and
add to it—a mass?
But the deliverance is not finished, and therefore in the sense of
deliverance the redemption is not yet complete. The atonement was
perfected on the cross, but the deliverance will not be perfected till
the Advent. Thus there are many passages in which it is spoken of as
still future. In St. Luke, xxi. 28, our Lord said, ‘When these things
begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your
redemption draweth nigh.’ In Rom. viii. 23, those who have the
first-fruits of the Spirit are described as waiting for ‘the redemption
of the body,’ or, in other words, for the final deliverance of the body
itself at the resurrection, _i.e._, for the gift promised through the
prophet Hosea, ‘I will redeem them from death.’ So in the Epistle to the
Ephesians the saints are said both to have redemption, and to be looking
for it. In chap. i. 7, they are described as having it. ‘In whom we
have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to
the riches of his grace,’ and in chap. iv. 30, as waiting for it, ‘Ye are
sealed unto the day of redemption.’ The reason is that the atoning blood
on which forgiveness rests has been long since shed, and the atonement
perfected. He ‘has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a
curse for us.’ But the final deliverance will not be complete till His
return, when all God’s elect from all ages and all countries shall be all
gathered together in one, without a sorrow, and without a fear, without
death, without sin, without even a temptation to mar their joy; one vast
company ransomed by one atoning sacrifice saved by one perfect Saviour,
inheritors of one glorious kingdom, and bound together in one heavenly
fellowship in a blessed eternity of never-ending joy.
* * * * *
III. What, then, is our present position? of course I mean the position
of those that are really in Christ Jesus? I think this may be very well
illustrated by the words of Moses, Exod. xv. 13: ‘Thou in thy mercy hast
led forth thy people whom thou hast redeemed.’ Those people had been set
free from Egypt, and therefore were said to be redeemed. They were
already free, but they were not yet in Canaan, or nearly so. They had
not yet reached ‘his holy habitation.’ But meanwhile they were in His
hand, and they might be perfectly sure that He would guide them every
inch of their way.
Now that appears to be exactly our position. If we be in Christ Jesus we
are already free. Our ransom has been paid, our atonement completed, and
we are free. We are free from both the imputation and dominion of sin.
From the imputation, because the curse is gone; and from the dominion,
for we are not under the law but under grace. This part of redemption is
not a future thing which we should be always seeking, and never finding;
always praying for, and never enjoying; always aiming at, but never
reaching. It is the present, blessed, sacred gift of every one of you
that is in Christ Jesus. You are not like Israel in bondage in Egypt,
nor even like Israel shut in by the rocks at Pi-hahiroth; but you are
like Israel on the eastern bank of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh and his host
sunk beneath the flood. The language of Scripture twice repeated is, ‘In
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.’
(Eph. i. 7; Col. i. 14.) Accept it then, and live in the joy of your new
position. Rejoice in the freedom and give thanks for it. Let the past
bondage be forgotten in the joy of the liberty wherewith Christ has made
you free; and go forward with a thankful heart to please Him who has thus
graciously broken your chain.
(2.) But remember that you are not yet completely delivered. Moses was
so sure that the people would be brought to the holy habitation that he
praised God for it as if it was already theirs, though they had many a
long mile to traverse, and many a hard battle to fight, before they
reached it. So you may be perfectly sure of it, for you are ‘sealed unto
the day of redemption,’ and no one can break the seal. That day of
redemption is perfectly sure to come, and you cannot be disappointed.
But meanwhile you have a journey, and a fight. To say nothing of all
that is around you, there are two things that you still carry within,
viz. death and sin. There is death, yes! that very death that was
overcome when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, still working secretly
within you; and, if the day of redemption does not come first, perfectly
certain to bring you to the grave. And there is sin, the deadly sin of
your fallen nature, not yet removed, but ready to poison the very
fountains of your soul. If you think you have done with either death or
sin, you will be sorely disappointed before you have travelled far. Your
final redemption is not yet completed. You are free from the curse, free
from the condemnation, free from the slavery, but you have not yet
reached home. You must not, therefore, lay aside your armour, nor must
you be disheartened even if you meet with that which makes you groan, for
we read in Rom. viii. 23, ‘Even we ourselves,’ which have the
first-fruits of the Spirit, ‘groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’
(3.) But our delightful assurance is that all the while we are safe in
our Redeemer’s hand. He has delivered; He will deliver; and He is
delivering. Or, if we take the word ‘redeem’ in its full sense, He has
redeemed; He will redeem; and He is now redeeming. He has set us free by
His finished atonement. He will set us free by His resurrection power;
and He is now setting us free by the mighty indwelling of God the Holy
Ghost. See, then, the unspeakable blessedness of such a text as that in
Jerem. L. 34: ‘Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of Hosts is his name:
he shall thoroughly plead their cause.’ He is our Redeemer, for He has
redeemed us by His blood: He is a strong Redeemer, for He is the Lord of
Hosts: He is a gracious Redeemer, for He pleads for His people; and
putting all together, He is a perfectly sure Redeemer, so we will trust
Him never to leave us for a moment, till He give to every one of us a
triumphant victory, and present us sinless and deathless before His
glorious throne, saved by His grace, redeemed by His blood.
II. ISRAEL.
‘Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will
bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid
you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out
arm, and with great judgments.’—EXOD. vi. 6.
‘Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast
redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy
habitation.’—EXOD. xv. 13.
THESE texts have a very important connexion with each other. The first
contains God’s promise when He appeared to Moses and promised deliverance
to Israel. The second is part of the thanksgiving of Moses when the
first portion of the promise had been fulfilled and Israel was free. ‘I
will redeem,’ said God. ‘Thou hast redeemed,’ said Moses. Of course
both passages refer to the deliverance from Egypt, and both show
perfectly clearly that the word ‘to redeem’ means ‘_to_ deliver,’ and not
merely to make atonement, or satisfaction, for sin. They both,
therefore, throw great light on the subject of redemption.
We know, on the authority of the New Testament, that the redemption of
Israel was typical of the great redemption of God’s people. But for my
own part, I believe that it was more than typical. I believe it is to be
regarded as the first great act of God in the redemption of His people.
Up to that time there had been no deliverance, or no redemption. This
was the first redemption in history, the first act in the great series
which will be finally completed at the Advent, when death and hell shall
be cast into the lake of fire. I believe this to be the reason why, at
the commencement of it, God made Himself known by the name of ‘Jehovah.’
Many people think that the real meaning of that sacred name is ‘Yahveh,’
‘the coming one.’ This ‘coming one’ appears to have been expected by Eve
herself, and all the line of believing patriarchs had lived and died in
expectation of His advent. But their hopes had not been realized, as the
time had not come for the manifestation of His power. But when Israel
was in the depths of his deep calamity, a bondsman in a foreign land and
far away from home, then God appeared to His chosen servant whom He had
raised up as His leader, and said to him, ‘I am the Yahveh, the coming
one;’ and through him He promised to Israel, ‘I will redeem you with a
stretched-out arm, and with great judgments.’
If this be the case, it gives a peculiar interest to the narrative,
because it shows that we are to regard this deliverance of Israel as the
act of the pre-existent ‘Coming One,’ the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. It was not merely a type of the coming salvation; but it was
wrought by the same person who is now saving us, so that we may see in it
the actual commencement of the saving work of our own beloved Redeemer.
It was both a type and a reality. It was a prophetic picture of what He
was about to do, and at the same time the commencement of His work as the
Deliverer. Let us, then, study it with care, and may He who has redeemed
us by His blood teach us by His Spirit!
You will remember that we found in the previous lecture, that redemption
is deliverance through ransom, and, therefore, consists of two parts—the
saving act and the atoning blood, or, in other words, the power and the
satisfaction. Let us consider both, as exhibited in the deliverance of
Israel.
* * * * *
I. The saving act, or the power.
In studying this we cannot do better than follow the guidance of Exod.
vi. 6, where we learn that He saved them from their burdens, from their
bondage, and from inextricable difficulties.
(1.) From their _burdens_. ‘I will bring you out from under the burdens
of the Egyptians.’
There are many burdens that weigh heavily on man, so that St. Paul said,
even when he was sealed by the Holy Ghost: ‘We that are in this
tabernacle do groan being burdened.’ There are burdens on the strength
when a man has to toil beyond his powers: burdens on the heart when we
feel a weight of sorrow as we witness the sufferings of those we love:
burdens on the thoughts when some heavy care rests upon us, and produces
depression of spirits: and, above all, burdens on the conscience when the
sense of sin troubles us, when we know we have been wrong, and when the
present conviction of our own utter unworthiness weighs heavily on the
heart.
These burdens come from many sources. Sometimes they are laid upon us by
the providence of God, and sometimes they are of our own creation. For
example, the great pain of the burden of sin is that we know it is our
own fault, and, therefore, it involves the bitter pain of self-reproach.
But some of these burdens are not always felt, or, if felt, not really
cared for. People are ready to complain of them; but they are not really
longing to be free. They are very much like Israel in Egypt. Israel
groaned and grumbled, but yet when a deliverer came to them from God,
they did not care to be delivered. Turn to their words of reproach which
they spake to Moses when the Egyptians were pursuing them, Exod. xiv. 12,
‘Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us
alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ They groaned a great deal, but
yet they wished to be let alone. They had no faith in delivering power,
so they preferred to bear their burden rather than run any risk in their
effort to be free. How many are there to this day just like them, who
confess their burden, who lament their burden, who wish to be free of
their burden, if they can be so without difficulty, but who yet, when you
tell them of the saving power of the Lord Jesus reply in their hearts,
‘Let us alone!’
Now remember that our blessed Lord and Saviour is a Saviour from the
burden, whatever the burden be. If He does not take it away He will give
you power to bear it. He is the burden-bearer as well as the sin-bearer;
and if He does not remove the burden He is sure to sustain you under it,
for He has said, ‘Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain
thee.’ But He will one day remove the burden. This is what He did for
Israel. He promised to ‘bring them out from under their burdens,’ and He
did it, and we may trust Him to do the same by us. He will do it in His
own time, and His own way. ‘The time appointed may be long but the thing
is true, and the day is coming when every burden will be gone for ever,
and the most burdened heart amongst us will appear in perfect rest in the
presence of the Lord.
(2.) But He promised, also, to save them from their _bondage_. They
were bondsmen in Egypt. They were not freemen, as we are, but slaves.
They were not free to choose their own master, or to come and go at their
pleasure. They could not leave their homes without the permission of the
king, for they were under a legal yoke. If they had no work to do, nor
any burdens laid on them, they would still have been bondsmen. Moses was
brought up in all the luxury of a palace; but still he was a slave. So,
when God undertook to deliver, the first thing He did was to break the
bondage of this legal yoke. He set them free that He might bring them
out, and save them. So long as they were in bondage they could not move,
so He broke the chain and they were free. Can anything be more complete
as a type of what He does for us? Those whom God hath not set free are
‘all their lifetime subject to bondage.’ They are bound by what St. Paul
describes, Rom. viii. 2, as ‘the law of sin and death.’ So long as the
guilt of unforgiven sin rests on the conscience, they cannot be free. It
matters not where they are or what they are doing. They may be bowed
down by hard work, or living in ease and idleness; but in either case
they are bondsmen, and they are condemned under the law, and bound by it.
They cannot shake it off, or get clear of it, for it is a condemnation by
God Himself, and they cannot break His chain. Indeed, their efforts to
get free very frequently produce just the same result as the efforts of
Israel did when they strove to get free from Pharaoh. The only result of
their effort was that the burden became heavier, and the bondage more
severe. How often is this the case with persons struggling to get free
from the burden and bondage of sin! They try, and try again, and the
only result is, that they get deeper into difficulty. They have at last
to make their bricks without the straw, and seem worse off than ever.
But then it is that the Redeemer appears, and says, ‘I will rid them out
of their bondage.’ He has borne the burden, and having done so He breaks
the yoke. He removes the imputation of sin, and when that is gone we are
free, free to arise and follow Him; free to go forth to the promised
land; free to walk fearlessly with God; free because ‘Christ has made us
free;’ because ‘the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us
free from the law of sin and death.’
(3.) But once more; He delivered them from what, as far as man was
concerned, were insuperable _difficulties_.
It is not an uncommon thing to meet with persons who really hope that
they are delivered from the imputation of sin, and therefore free from
the bondage of the law, who still feel the greatest difficulty in their
progress in a Christian life. They really hope that a great change has
taken place. They are in a very different position to what they once
were. But still they cannot get on. It appears as if there was a
barrier they could not pass. Their way is blocked by some besetting sin
which they cannot overcome, and they are sometimes almost tempted to say
that it was better with them before they began their struggle. Such a
temptation is very wrong; but there is nothing new in it, for it is just
what Israel felt when they found their way blocked by the Red Sea. They
then said (chap, xiv. 12), ‘It had been better for us to serve the
Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’ They had been set free, but
progress appeared impossible. Now let any one who thinks his own
progress impossible look well at these facts. It was perfectly true that
those people were hopelessly hedged in between the sea and Pharaoh’s
host. There was nothing that they could do to overcome their difficulty.
But Jehovah had promised, ‘I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm,’
and the result was that when Moses stretched forth his rod, the sea
itself opened to let them pass. Some excellent persons have endeavoured
to explain this by supposing some remarkable combination of wind and
tide. But we do not want the help of such explanations. It is better to
accept it at once as a miracle that cannot be explained, a miracle
wrought out by the strong arm of the Redeemer. And, remember, that it is
the same strong arm which can deliver the very weakest amongst us from
the greatest difficulties which ever yet beset the path of the Christian.
You say, ‘I cannot,’ but He says, ‘_I_ can.’ You say, ‘I have tried; and
it is impossible.’ He says, ‘With God nothing is impossible.’ Never,
therefore, again must you say, ‘It cannot be.’ If the Lord has set you
free from the dreadful yoke of imputed sin; if the Redeemer Himself is
leading you to the promised land, remember that your ‘Redeemer is strong,
the Lord of Hosts is His name;’ and whatever be your practical, personal,
peculiar difficulty, He is just as well able to overcome it as He was to
divide the Red Sea: so that, trusting Him you may be delivered as Israel
was delivered, and be enabled, with a thankful heart to say, ‘Thou in thy
mercy hast led forth the people whom thou hast redeemed.’
* * * * *
II. But we must not look only at the deliverance, for redemption means
deliverance through ransom, or through blood, and we must not forget the
ransom, or redemption price. What in this case was the ransom? It was
not Pharaoh’s host drowned in the Red Sea, for the bondage of Israel was
broken before that event occurred. Nor was it the death of the
first-born in Egypt, for that could not be regarded as the ransom of
Israel, though I fully admit that it was closely connected with it. For
my own part I believe it was the blood of the Paschal Lamb on the night
of the Passover. But you may say what a little thing that was as the
ransom of a nation! Perfectly true; but remember, it was a type. The
whole transaction was a type. The people were a type; the deliverance
was a type; and, therefore, it is only natural to expect that the ransom,
too, would be a type. Now we learn that the Paschal Lamb was a type of
our blessed Saviour, for we read, 1 Cor. v. 7, ‘Christ our passover is
sacrificed for us,’ and, therefore, as that paschal lamb was a prophetic
picture of Him and His sacrifice, we can see in a moment how it was that
it was the ransom price in the redemption of Israel. It was an
antedating of the future sacrifice of the Son of God, and it, as it were,
carried back the power of the great atonement, and applied it 1500 years
before it happened to the redemption of Israel. I can see, therefore,
perfectly clearly why the deliverance of Israel was called a redemption;
for they were redeemed by the same ransom as we are even by the precious
blood of Christ. It was shed, it is true, 1500 years after their
deliverance, but even then it was prefigured and applied, and even then
it was effectual. What, then, is our conclusion? Is it not surely this?
If the burden of Israel was removed, the yoke of Egypt broken, the way
opened through the Red Sea, and all through the type, may not we be
perfectly sure that our burdens will be removed, our yoke broken, and our
difficulty overcome through the effectual power of the reality? Look,
then, at that most precious blood of Christ; look at Him as the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sins of the world; look at Him as your ransom
and Deliverer, and never again admit the thought that the yoke of sin’s
condemning power is too fast fixed ever to be broken, or the hindrances
of sin’s obstructing power too desperate to be overcome. But when you
groan under the yoke let your heart rest in redeeming blood; and when you
feel the difficulty of progress then look to redeeming power, so that the
yoke being broken through the blood, and victory given by the power, you
may go on your way with the song of Moses in your heart, ‘The Lord is my
strength and song, and he is become my salvation.’
III. THE FIRST-BORN.
‘But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if
thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the
firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear
before me empty.’—EXOD. xxxiv. 20.
MAN is a very forgetful being, and there is nothing which he seems to
forget so much as mercy. It takes a great deal to make us forget a
trouble, but very little to wipe away the thought of mercy. Thus when
God has wrought great acts He has not unfrequently appointed memorials in
order to keep them in remembrance, and has provided for the failure of
man’s memory by appointing something that may continually remind him of
the past. Sometimes it has been a stone or monument, as, _e.g._ at the
passage of Jordan, but more frequently it has been an institution, such
as the Paschal Supper as a memorial of the Passover, and the Holy
Communion, or the Supper of the Lord, in remembrance of His death and
passion. These institutions have lasted much longer than the material
monuments. The Paschal Supper lasted fifteen centuries, and the Lord’s
Supper has already lasted more than eighteen. It seems a very simple
institution. What can be more simple than to partake together of a
little bread and wine in thankful remembrance of His death? But it has
never been forgotten by the people of God, and never will be till the
Advent. Wherever Christ has been preached this memorial feast has been
observed. In all ages and all countries it has been the joy of God’s
people. In all mission-stations as well as in our churches at home,
always and everywhere, the sacred memorial has been reverently and
lovingly observed by those who name the name of Jesus.
But besides the Paschal Supper there was another institution ordained as
a remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt. For as Israel was delivered
through the death of the first-born of the Egyptians, it was established
as a law in Israel that all their first-born both of man and beast should
be given up to God. The law is given, and the reason of it, in Exod.
xiii. In v. 2, we find the law, ‘Sanctify unto me all the first-born,
whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and
beast: it is mine;’ and in v. 14, the reason, ‘And it shall be, when thy
son asketh thee in time to come saying, What is that? that thou shalt say
to him, By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt from the
house of bondage;’ and in the 16th verse we are taught that it was for a
perpetual memorial before God, ‘And it shall be for a token upon thy
hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the
Lord brought us out from Egypt.’
We are not told what was involved in this separation unto God of the
first-born of the sons. Some think, and not without reason, that they
were separated unto the priesthood, but on this we have no distinct
information. One thing is clear, that in some peculiar manner they were
the Lord’s. In Exod. xxii. 29, ‘The first-born of thy sons thou shalt
give unto me.’ So in Num. iii. 13, ‘Because all the first-born are
mine.’ Was there not an allusion to this in Hannah’s words when she
said, ‘I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life’? and was
there not again a distinct reference to it in the presentation of our
Blessed Saviour to the temple, as we read in Luke, ii. 23? In the case
of Samuel and our Blessed Lord there was clearly a consecration to a
special and exclusive service; so whatever was the precise form of
separation, one thing is perfectly clear, that in a peculiar and especial
manner the first-born were set apart unto God. There was a vast
difference between God’s ordinance and man’s habit. It is a very common
thing with man to devote the first-born to the world, and the second,
third, or fourth son to the ministry; or, extending the principle, to
consider that which is second in our own affections to be good enough for
God. But He claims the first of all, that which is the first to bring
joy to the mother’s heart, and which is first to claim the mother’s love;
that which has for a time the concentrated interest of the only child.
The Jewish parent was not to wait till he had many. It was when the
mother had only one, that that one was to be given to God.
But it is the redemption of the first-born which we are now to study. In
this verse we are told, ‘All the first-born of thy sons thou shalt
redeem.’ According to the law there was a legal claim on every
first-born, whether of man or animal, but still there was provision made
in most cases for their redemption or release, and it is to this
provision that I am anxious now to turn your thoughts.
It differed in different classes.
For sacrificial animals, such as the sheep, or the goat, there was no
redemption. They were all offered in sacrifice, Num. xviii. 17, ‘But the
firstling of a cow, or the firstling of a sheep, or the firstling of a
goat, thou shalt not redeem; they are holy: thou shalt sprinkle their
blood upon the altar, and shalt burn their fat for an offering made by
fire, for a sweet savour unto the Lord.’
For other useful animals, such as the ass, there was redemption. The ass
might be redeemed by a lamb, but if it was not redeemed, its neck was to
be broken, Exod. xxxiv. 20. ‘But the firstling of an ass thou shalt
redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then thou shalt break his
neck.’ If redeemed, it was saved from death by substitution. It was
redeemed by vicarious death. The lamb was the substitute for the colt,
so the lamb died, and the colt was free. You see how the principle of
substitution pervades the prophecies of the Jewish ritual.
The same principle of substitution appears in the redemption of the
first-born sons. But there is a marked difference between that made for
them, and that for the animals, viz., that the law did not admit the idea
of any such thing as human sacrifice, and therefore the sons were not
like the animals subject to death. They belonged to God for service, not
for death, and the redemption price was of the same character as the yoke
from which they were redeemed. Thus you find the whole tribe of Levi
given up as the redemption price of the first-born of the other tribes.
The transaction is explained, Num. iii. 41. ‘Thou shalt take the Levites
for me (I am the Lord) instead of all the first-born among the children
of Israel.’ Thus all the men amongst the Levites were numbered, and all
the first-born amongst the other tribes, and by divine authority the
Levites were solemnly given up as a substitute for the others, Num. iii
45: ‘Take the Levites instead of all the first-born among the children of
Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle: and the
Levites shall be mine: I am the Lord.’
But here a difficulty arose, and it is one which teaches us the extreme
danger of giving a typical authority to all the institutions of the Old
Testament. There was clearly in this case the principle of substitution.
The Levites were substituted for the first-born, and the first-born were
free. The transaction was, therefore, an illustration of the work of the
atonement. But yet if we were to regard it as a divine type of it we
should be landed in a most dangerous and unscriptural conclusion, for in
the case of the first-born the substituted gift was insufficient; so that
if we were to call those Levites a type of the Lord Jesus, we might
gather that His sacrifice was insufficient, and required something else
as a supplement. Be very careful, therefore, how you call anything a
type which is not declared to be one by God Himself.
When the Levites were numbered it turned out that there were only 22,000;
but the number of the first-born males of the other tribes was 22,273.
The substitution, therefore, fell short by 273 persons. It clearly,
therefore, could be no type of the Lord Jesus, for there was no falling
short in Him. The result was that a supplement was necessary. Five
shekels of silver was to be added for each of the 273, and when that was
paid the whole of the first-born were redeemed. This money payment
afterwards became a permanent institution in Israel, and appears to have
been continued long after the original transaction was complete. In Num.
xviii. 16, we find the direction that ‘all that are to be redeemed . . .
shalt thou redeem . . . for the money of five shekels, after the shekel
of the sanctuary.’
Now in this Levitical picture there are many things that bear a close
resemblance to the Gospel. There was a clear legal claim, and the
remission of that claim by substitution, or the payment of a redemption
price. And this may serve to illustrate the claim which the law has on
us all, and the remission of the claim by the substitution of the Son of
God. But, as I have already said, we must be very careful how we call it
a type, for the contrasts are more remarkable than the resemblances.
There are two points of contrast to which I would draw your most especial
attention, points which I can scarcely doubt you have yourselves observed
already.
In the first place, the freedom or the release bestowed on the first-born
through redemption was the exact opposite of that bestowed on us through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. They were redeemed _from_ God;
but we are redeemed _to_ God, as we read Rev. v. 9, ‘Thou hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation.’ Before they were redeemed, all the first-born were the Lord’s,
and were enrolled as a separate people belonging in a special and
peculiar manner to Him; so that He said of them, Num. iii. 13, ‘All the
first-born are mine.’ The effect of the redemption was to put an end to
this sacred relationship, and to place them on the same footing as the
other members of the family. It released them from all that was involved
in their being a peculiar people unto God. They ceased, in short, to be
a peculiar people. Now this is the exact reverse of the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus. The effect of His work is to call out a peculiar
people unto God, and so separate us unto Himself, that He may say of us,
as He said of the first-born, ‘All are mine.’ You remember how clearly
this is put in Titus, ii. 14, ‘Who gave himself for us.’ There is the
redemption price, and the next clause teaches the object of it, ‘that he
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works.’ Those, therefore, whom he has redeemed
are purified as ‘a peculiar people unto himself.’ We are brought by
redemption into the position from which the first-born were delivered.
And I cannot help thinking that there is an allusion to this fact in that
great description of the Christian’s position in Heb xii. We there read,
in ver. 23, that we are come ‘to the general assembly and church of the
first-born which are written in heaven.’ What is the meaning of that
expression? Why are believers called the first-born, and why were their
names thus written? Is it not because they are brought into the same
peculiar relationship to God which was the inheritance of the first-born?
Because, as the first-born were His own so are we? And because as they
were enrolled as being His in the national register, so are we in the
book of life? And is there any one amongst us that would wish to be free
from that peculiarity? Is there one that has ever knelt down in the
fulness of his heart and said, ‘Lord, I am thine,’ who would now rise up
and say, ‘But I wish to be thine no more’? Is there any one who has ever
borne the yoke of the Lord Jesus who would now wish to throw it off, and
be free? No, never! We wish to be free from all that keeps us back from
Him; free from every weight and from the sin which doth so easily beset
us: free from every temptation that tends to hinder us in His service.
But free from Christ! Never, never, never! The desire of our heart is
to be His altogether; His without reserve; His in the exercise of all our
powers; His in life; His in death; His for eternity; His whatever may be
given up for His service; His, so completely, so truly, so heartily, that
we may be able to say in the sincerity of our souls, ‘Whether we live, we
live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we
live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.’
But there is another most marked point of contrast to which I have
already alluded, but which we ought to consider more carefully before we
close. There was an essential difference of character between the
redemption price in the case of the first-born and in ours. In theirs
there was no shedding of blood. There was substitution, but not
blood-shedding. The life of the child was not forfeited to the law, so
the life of the substitute was not taken in its stead. It was a gift of
service for service, the service of the Levite for the service of the
child. Then again it was a mixed, and composite substitution. The
substitution of the Levites was insufficient, so the defect was made up
by the 1365 shekels of silver. But in our case, as our lives were
forfeited by sin, His life was given in our stead; and who shall say that
it was insufficient? May we not rather say, ‘She hath received at the
Lord’s hand double for all her sins,’ for ‘with Him is plenteous
redemption?’ We have no need to supplement His sacrifices by silver. It
appears that St. Peter had reference to this very contrast and to those
supplemented shekels, when he said, 1 Pet. i. 18, ‘Forasmuch as ye know
that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold,
from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers: but
with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot.’ Some people might possibly think more of redemption if
the redemption price consisted of gold and silver, for they seem to care
more for money than for the most precious blood of Christ; at all events,
they appear to cling much faster to it. But what can money do for you
when you are face to face with God? And what can man do for you when
your conscience is bowed down by the weight of sin? No vicarious work of
other men, and no gifts, however great, can set you free from the yoke
and condemnation of the law. That will never enable you to say, as was
said to me last week by one well known to many of you, ‘The whole weight
is gone.’ No, indeed! All the Levitical service that conscientious men
may offer to God, and all the accumulated wealth that the richest amongst
us may tender as a redemption price, will all together utterly fail to
take the weight from one sin-burdened soul. But the precious blood of
Christ, of Christ Jesus the one divinely-appointed substitute, that is
enough; enough, though quite alone, enough to redeem us from the whole
curse, and to redeem us from it for ever, that so, by His boundless
grace, we may be set apart as the first-born unto God, and live and die
amongst those who are written in heaven.
IV. THE BONDSMAN.
‘After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren
may redeem him.’—Lev. xxv. 48.
OUR blessed Lord said in the Sermon on the Mount, ‘Think not that I am
come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfil.’ He did not come as a sweeping reformer to break down existing
institutions, and sweep away the law of types; but He did come as the
predicted Messiah, to fulfil the prophecies of those prophetic pictures,
and to give a fresh dignity to the law in which they were embodied. In
no instance, therefore, do you find Him violating the law. He swept away
with a strong hand the vain traditions which men had added to it; but the
law itself he always honoured, and His great complaint against the
advocates of tradition was, ‘Ye do make void the commandments of the law
by your traditions.’
But it was not only in the practical details of life that He honoured the
law, but in the whole great work of redemption. Every part of that
wonderful work was an act of homage to the law. Not only did He obey it
when He was come, but in the act of coming, or in other words, even in
His incarnation, He showed His obedience.
This will be easily seen if you study the law of redemption as laid down
in this chapter. The law is here given respecting one who had sold
himself to a stranger. How many are there who, like the bondsman, have
sold themselves to sin! But we must not stop to dwell on that. The poor
man had sold himself and was a slave. Till the year of jubilee nothing
could release him but redemption. But who should pay the redemption
price? that was the question. A stranger was not at liberty to do so.
However kindly disposed he might feel, he had no right or power to
interfere. According to this 48th verse, the Redeemer must be one of his
brethren. ‘One of his brethren may redeem him: either his uncle or his
uncle’s son may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his
family, may redeem him; or, if he be able, he may redeem himself.’ The
slave himself might redeem himself if he had the power to do so. But
what hope had that slave of procuring his own ransom when all his powers
and all his time belonged to another? Who then could redeem him? Who
could set him free?
The nearest of kin had the prior right, as we see in the case of Boaz and
Ruth. But if he failed, the next in order of relationship might step in
and take his place. But the redeemer must be a kinsman, and none but a
kinsman could redeem. So closely are the two things identified, that
redeemer and kinsman are both expressed by the same word in Hebrew. The
same word stands for both, for the kinsman had the right of redemption,
and the redeemer was obliged to have a blood relationship.
And now observe the manner in which our blessed Lord and Saviour obeyed
the law.
We are all by nature in the position of the man that was sold. So St.
Paul said of himself in his natural condition, ‘I am carnal, sold under
sin,’ Rom. vii. 14; and therefore he described the law of evil within his
nature warring against the law of his mind, ‘and bringing him into
captivity to the law of sin which was in his members.’ There was
therefore a captivity resulting from the sale.
But it is not only the original ruin of our human nature of which the
expression is used in Scripture, for it is applied to the personal act of
the individual sinner. Is there not an allusion to this very law in
those passages which speak of persons having sold themselves? Ahab ‘sold
himself to do evil.’ 1 Kings, xxi. 20. In 2 Kings, xvii. 17, the same
is said of the children of Israel: ‘They sold themselves to do evil in
the sight of the Lord.’ In Isaiah, L. 1, there is a distinct reference
to the sale to a creditor,—‘Which of my creditors is it to whom I have
sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for
your transgressions is your mother put away.’ And in Isa. lii. 3, a
clear allusion to the redemption of the slave, ‘Ye have sold yourselves
for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.’ The sinner,
therefore, is like the man who sold himself. He has yielded himself to
be the servant of sin. He obeys it, and he does its work. If he wishes
to get free he cannot. He may long for liberty, but he cannot attain it.
He may think with bitter regret of past folly that has led to his ruin.
But regret cannot restore. Remorse cannot set him free. A slave he is,
and a slave, unless saved by redemption, he must remain.
How, then, can such an one be redeemed? That is the question. It must
clearly be by a redemption price. There was no redemption under the law
without a ransom. In the case of the man who had sold himself, the price
was the value of his service until the year of jubilee. In our case it
was infinitely higher, for the Lord Jesus gave Himself ‘a ransom for
all.’ The sinner sold himself, and the Lord Jesus gave Himself as a
ransom, and because He has done so, God said by the prophet, ‘Ye shall be
redeemed without money.’
But my object is to consider, not the ransom, but the Redeemer, and to
examine who, according to the law, was qualified to redeem.