in the validity of the act of redemption. There was no doubt about the
soundness of his title. The whole transaction was according to law.
Hanameel had a legal right to sell, Jeremiah a legal right to redeem, and
the conveyance was legally completed. All was done that was required by
the law of transfer, and when those deeds were carefully deposited in the
earthen vessel, there to continue for many days, Jeremiah clearly
considered that whenever the time of restoration should come, the deeds
would be recognised as valid, and his title as sufficient. He regarded
the act of redemption as sufficient security whenever God should restore
the land to Israel. And now, dear brethren, have we not all a
magnificent lesson to learn from his example? We are looking forward to
the times of restoration: we expect to rise again; we fully believe that
the Lord Jesus Christ will come bringing His saints with Him, and, like
Jeremiah, we depend on the finished act of redemption, as our own title
to a share in the coming inheritance. Now look at that great act of
redemption. There was no flaw in any part of it, for the whole law was
fulfilled. The full price was paid, for we may adapt the words of the
prophet, ‘She hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.’
The redemption price was not seventeen shekels of silver; but the most
precious blood of the Son of God. The Redeemer is not a mere man, a
prisoner in the dungeon of the king; but the Son of God already risen
from the dead, and already seated at the right hand of the throne. And
the deeds are not deposited in any earthen vessel, or trusted to the care
of such a man as Baruch; but they are treasured up in heaven itself, kept
safe in the eternal counsels of Jehovah. And now follows the question,
was that redemption by the Son of God sufficient? And are these
title-deeds secure? If Jeremiah could trust to those sealed documents in
the earthen vessel under Baruch’s care, may we not trust to the full
satisfaction made through redeeming blood, and the perfect security of
the covenant of God as sealed, ratified, and preserved by Jesus Christ
Himself? Of course when persons have no interest in that redemption,
when they have no part in that redeeming work, we cannot then say that
their title is secure, for, poor people! they have neither title nor
inheritance; they have no hope in the restoration as they are without God
in the present. Oh! that I knew how to persuade such persons never to
rest till they have their title-deeds to a heavenly inheritance. But I
am not speaking of them. I am speaking rather of the redeemed believer,
whose ‘life is hid with Christ in God;’ and I want to persuade all
parties, both those that do, and those that do not, possess the
title-deeds, to consider well the unspeakable blessedness of having the
title safely deposited with the Son of God, so that, whatever happens,
whatever success or discouragement, whether joy or trial, whether life or
death, we may be perfectly sure that all is safe, for the redemption has
been completed by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and the title-deeds are
safe, being laid up in the treasury of God.
VIII. THE PIT.
‘O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed
my life.’—LAM. iii. 58.
We studied in the last lecture the remarkable faith of Jeremiah. We
found how he redeemed the field in Anathoth at the very time that
Jerusalem was invested by the Chaldeans, and he himself was predicting
the certainty of its destruction: but in that moment of hopelessness he
had such entire trust in the promise of restoration, and such assurance
in the validity of the title, that he purchased the field as readily as
he would have done had everything been at the height of prosperity. We
saw in such conduct the practical acting of faith. But it is very
interesting also to look at the hidden life of faith, and to know, while
he was thus acting, what was secretly passing in his soul. I think that
this passage may throw great light on the subject. From ver. 55 it is
clear that he referred to a time when he was in the low dungeon: ‘I
called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.’ We are not
informed to which imprisonment he referred. It may have been the
imprisonment in the courts of the prison which was in the court of the
king’s house, during which he redeemed the land of Hanameel, or it may
have been the much more severe imprisonment which subsequently followed,
as described Jer. xxxviii. 6, when they let him down by ropes into a
deep, damp pit, called the dungeon of Malchiah. The expression ‘the low
dungeon,’ seems rather to describe this latter captivity, and we may
picture to ourselves God’s faithful servant left alone in a deep, dark
pit, standing up to his waist in the mire, without a comfort, without a
friend, and without even a fellow-prisoner to share his trouble. His
title-deeds to the field in Anathoth would not do much to help him there.
But he was a man of trust, and afterwards, when he was still in sore
trouble, and deeply grieved at the ruin of the city, he could look back
on that time and say, ‘Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast
redeemed my life.’
Let us study then this remarkable record of his intercourse with God
during this time of his deep trouble. There was nothing done. It was
not a time for doing. He could not climb out, he could only stand and
wait. What then was passing in his soul? What transactions took place
between him and God? To these questions I think this passage supplies an
answer. There are three things that seem perfectly clear.
(1.) He called on the name of the Lord. Perhaps he remembered the words
of Psalm xxxiv.: ‘This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved
him out of all his troubles.’ At all events he acted on them, and though
in all probability he could not kneel because of the mire, yet he could
pray, and so he did. But he was not like many people who live prayerless
lives, and only begin to pray when they get into trouble, for prayer was
no new thing to him. He was no stranger at the throne of grace, and he
could look back on many happy occasions in which he had reason to be
quite sure God had answered him. It is a terrible thing when men go on,
strangers to prayer, till they are driven to it by calamity. It was not
so with Jeremiah. He knew the mercy-seat well, and he was well known
there. He could refer to answers in former times, and say, ‘Thou hast
heard my voice,’ and so appeal to God in his present trouble and say,
‘Hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.’ There was both a
breathing and a cry; the cry being the actual expression of his wants in
words, and the breathing, the outpouring of his soul in mental
intercourse with a God who knew his thoughts. It is well to remember
this distinction between the breathing and the prayer. The prayer is not
altogether unlike the food at stated seasons. The breathing is the
unceasing communion of soul as essential to life as breath is to the
body.
* * * * *
(2.) And now mark, in the second place, how God treated him. The King of
Kings was not ashamed of being the companion of the prisoner in the pit.
It was a deep, dark dungeon; but the man of God was not alone there. The
stone on the top could not shut out God, as it could not shut in prayer.
And you will observe the prophet was not required to climb out of the pit
to find the Lord, as so many people are continually trying to do, but the
Lord drew nigh to him when he was at the bottom, not when he was at the
top, or half-way up; but at the bottom, in the mire, and in the dark. It
was there that God drew near to him in the day that he called, and most
graciously spoke to his soul, and said, ‘Fear not.’ How often, how
mercifully have these words been spoken! I believe they occur more than
fifty times in Scripture. How often do we meet with such words as ‘Fear
not, Abraham.’ ‘Fear not, thou worm Jacob.’ ‘Fear not, Daniel.’ ‘Fear
not, Zacharias.’ ‘Fear not, little flock.’ ‘Fear not, Paul.’ ‘Fear
not, I am the first and the last!’ Do not all these passages show that
there is reason for fear in outward life, and that there is the element
of fear in the human heart, but there may be a victory over fear even in
the bottom of the pit, when the Lord Himself draws nigh, and says, ‘Fear
not.’ But you may say you cannot hear the words, and, no doubt, in that
you are correct, for we are not to expect loud voices from heaven. We
have not the least reason to believe that Jeremiah heard a voice. When
David prayed, ‘Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation,’ he did not mean
that these words should be spoken audibly to his ear. But he did mean
that the assurance of God’s salvation should be applied by the Holy
Spirit to his heart. And so when God drew near to Jeremiah and said,
‘Fear not,’ we are not to understand that His person was visible to the
eye, or the sound of His voice perceptible to the ear. But we are to
understand that He so spoke to his heart as to assure him of His
nearness, and to still his fears. And so it is with us. We do not look
for anything perceptible by outward sense, but we do look for a rest from
fear in the heart through the divine application of the Lord’s grace and
very present help to the soul.
(3.) And now consider, thirdly, the practical result in Jeremiah’s
attitude of mind. He could look calmly up to Him who had drawn nigh unto
Him, and say, ‘O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast
redeemed my life.’ It is difficult to determine exactly whether this was
his language in the low dungeon, or after he was taken out of it. We
read in Jer. xxxviii., that Ebed-melech, one of the king’s eunuchs,
obtained permission to draw him up out of the dungeon, and he was
subsequently confined in the court of the prison. As I have frequently
pointed out, the word redemption sometimes stands simply for deliverance,
and it is possible that it may do so here, and refer to the deliverance
by Ebed-melech. But I do not think it does, for the latter part of the
chapter seems clearly to teach that when Jeremiah wrote these words he
was not yet delivered, but was still enduring the bitter hostility of his
revengeful enemies. I am, therefore, rather disposed to regard these
words as the utterance of a trusting heart when he was still in the low
dungeon. I look on them, not as the effect of Ebed-melech pulling him
out, but of God drawing near to him when he was in it, and saying to his
soul, ‘Fear not.’ I think the passage is faith’s reply to God’s address.
God drew near, and said, ‘Fear not,’ and faith accepted it at once,
though still in the pit, and said, ‘Thou hast pleaded the causes of my
soul, thou hast redeemed my life.’ The language seems to lead us far
beyond anything done by Ebed-melech, to a divine redemption, and a divine
pleading of his cause. They remind us of those other words of Jeremiah,
‘Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name; he shall
thoroughly plead their cause;’ Jer. L. 34; and I cannot help thinking
that Jeremiah looked forward, as David did, to the great redemption by
the Lord Jesus, as purposed from eternity, and promised in the sure word
of God. As David said, ‘Thou hast redeemed me;’ so he said, ‘Thou hast
redeemed my life.’ It was the Redeemer Himself that drew near to him in
his low estate, and as it were said unto his soul, ‘I am thy salvation.’
The promised work was not yet accomplished, but it was brought home to
his heart, and, though the stone was still on the mouth of the dungeon,
his soul was free, and his life was safe, for he was redeemed in the
coming Christ.
If this be the meaning of the passage, does it not teach us that
redeeming grace must always be our great help in trouble? If we are
brought to the bottom of the pit, by sorrow, by sickness, by calamity, by
the approach of death, or by the deep and painful sense of sin, all true
source of strength must ever be in the great work of redemption wrought
out for us by the Son of God. It is that which opens the way to the
throne, and which enables us to rest in the assurance of the love of God.
You may find many difficulties in the way of faith, and many drawbacks
under the profound sense of your own unworthiness. But it is wonderful
to find how they disappear before the cross of Christ; and if only you
are enabled to say, ‘Thou hast redeemed my life,’ you will find in that
one fact, a blessed, holy, peaceful resting-place, even though by outward
circumstances or inward trial you may still be at the bottom of the pit.
But whatever view we take of the expression, ‘Thou hast redeemed my
life,’ one thing is perfectly clear, that the redemption was applied to
Jeremiah’s soul at the bottom of the pit. If it is to be explained of
deliverance it was when he was sunk into the mire at the bottom of the
low dungeon that the deliverance was applied. And if it describes the
application to his soul of the Lord’s redemption, and his acceptance of
it as something already as sure as if it were perfected, it was when he
was bowed down in the very depths of trouble that the blessed work was
brought home with peace to his soul. Whatever meaning you give to the
word ‘redemption’ in this passage, redemption was brought home to him at
the bottom of the pit.
Now I cannot imagine a more important principle than this for all those
who really desire to partake of all the blessings of redemption. Of
course there are some who do not trouble their minds about it, being
satisfied with their own religious respectability; but there are
multitudes deeply concerned about it. They earnestly desire to be able
to say, ‘Thou hast redeemed my life,’ but they cannot do so; and yet
possibly they have been really taking pains to do so for many years,
although without the least sign of progress. Now may not their
difficulties arise in many cases from their having reversed the order of
the dealings of God? They have hoped to climb up partially out of the
pit, and to reach redemption at the top, instead of accepting it as a
free gift of God while they are still helpless at the bottom. In other
words, they are endeavouring first to remove their difficulties, and then
to trust redemption. No wonder then that they completely fail! for how
are they to climb up out of the pit? and how are they to overcome their
difficulties while they are still at a distance from redeeming grace? It
is redemption that is to deliver, redemption that is to raise us from the
dead, redemption that removes the difficulty, how then can we ever hope
to rise until redemption is applied and realised? If redemption is not
sufficient to reach down to one in a state of utter hopelessness, it is
insufficient for the conscience-stricken sinner. Remember, therefore,
the case of Jeremiah. Consider his case as an illustration of your own,
and if you are yourself at the bottom of what I may term the religious
pit, in a low dungeon from which you cannot rise, remember how the Lord
drew near to him when he was at the bottom, and did not wait till he had
climbed even half-way to reach His hand. Just so it must be with you.
He must stoop to reach you before you can rise to reach Him. Your first
act of faith must be when you are at the bottom. It will be there, and
not at the top, or half-way up, that for the first time you will realise
a finished redemption. If ever you have the unspeakable joy of saying in
all the happiness of personal appropriation, ‘Thou hast pleaded the
causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life,’ you will have to do so
before you have risen above your present level. Do not therefore wait to
make some poor, feeble, ineffective effort to rise; but as you are in the
midst of your discouragements, though the stone still seems to stop the
mouth of the low dungeon, trust at once with a bold act of fearless
faith, and without waiting to deserve it, act at once on His own
invitation, ‘Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.’
But as for those amongst you that have been brought up out of the pit,
what should be the language of your thankful heart? You have not only
seen the great redemption finished, but you have experienced its
application. You have not merely been taught to trust Him in the bottom
of the low dungeon, but you can say as David did, ‘He brought me up also
out of an horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, and established my goings.’ Ps. xl. 2. If so, will you not go on
and add, ‘He hath put a new song in my mouth, even thanksgiving unto our
God?’ Will you not join heart and soul in the language of our Communion
Service, ‘We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify
thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly
King, God the Father Almighty?’
IX. ATONEMENT.
‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on
a tree.’—GAL. iii. 13.
IN tracing the doctrine of redemption through the types and illustrative
narratives of the Old Testament, we found that redemption always includes
two ideas—deliverance and ransom—and that in some cases, as _e.g._, in
the redemption from Egypt, the deliverance is the more prominent of the
two. I cannot help thinking that in this respect there is a difference
between the Old Testament and the New. In the New, as well as the Old,
the two ideas are always found, and the deliverance is always included;
but the writers of the New Testament appear to have had their minds so
full of the marvellous love that was shown on the cross of Christ, that
the ransom, and the ransom price, appear in many passages to have been
the prominent subjects of their thoughts. Hence it follows that in a
great many religious books, and even in our Church Catechism, redemption
is confounded with the atonement, and people lose sight of the fact that
it includes the consequences of the atonement as well as the atonement
itself, the release of the captive as well as the payment of the ransom;
the actual salvation of the chosen people of God, as well as the
satisfaction of the law by the substitution of the Son of God for man.
In order, therefore, to get a clear view of the whole subject, we must
consider the two parts separately; first, the ransom, satisfaction, or
atonement, and after that the deliverance that follows. May it please
God in His mercy to give us the sacred teaching of the Holy Spirit, and
to lead us into the full realisation of the marvellous wonders of His
redeeming love!
We must clearly begin with the great subject of the satisfaction for sin,
and the deliverance from the curse, which was the immediate and first
result of it. For this purpose we cannot have a finer passage than the
text. It leads us straight to the root of the matter, and will suggest
four most important subjects—the Redeemer Himself, the curse from which
He has redeemed us, the act by which He redeemed us, and the persons whom
He has redeemed. These, if God permit, we must consider in order.
* * * * *
I. The Redeemer Himself.
It is perfectly clear that unless we know Him, we shall never understand
His work. If there is confusion respecting Him, there will be confusion
respecting all that He has done; so if we wish to enjoy the salvation, we
must begin with the Saviour.
Now in this passage He is described as ‘Christ.’ This is the name
continually given Him throughout this Epistle. I know of only one
instance in the whole Epistle in which the name ‘Jesus’ occurs, without
having either ‘Christ,’ or ‘The Christ,’ attached to it. The reason most
probably was, that St. Paul was writing to Jewish believers, and so made
use of the name by which the expected Redeemer was predicted in Jewish
prophecy. There are, therefore, certain great lessons to be gathered
from the name.
(1.) He was the predicted Redeemer. It was by this name that Daniel
foretold His advent and death; for in Dan. ix. 25, 26, He is predicted as
‘Messiah the Prince;’ and it was under this name that the believing Jews
were expecting Him, for Andrew said to his brother, John, i. 41, ‘We have
found the Messias, which is being interpreted the Christ.’
(2.) Then again He was the anointed Redeemer. The meaning of the word
Messias, or Christ, is anointed, so that the title, ‘The Christ,’ means
‘The Anointed One;’ and the words of the text might be rendered, ‘The
anointed One has redeemed us.’ Now consider for one moment what was
involved in this title. It conveys the assurance of the eternal purpose
of God, and of His divine appointment of the Lord Jesus to the office.
We all know that the anointing was the act of consecration to the sacred
offices of Prophet, Priest, and King; and we can see at a glance why
Christ was anointed, when set apart to fill an office which comprehended
all the three—the prophetic, the priestly, and the royal. His great
redeeming act, therefore, was not merely the result of His own mind and
His own benevolence, but it was the sacred work unto which He was
anointed by the Father. It was accepted by Himself, and laid upon Him by
God. In undertaking it He had the support of divine authority, and
before He undertook the office He was solemnly set apart to it by God.
(3.) But there are still further lessons taught us by this title
‘Christ,’ for we are taught in the Old Testament the Anointed One was in
all respects qualified for the redeeming work, inasmuch as He was one of
us, and at the same time was God. Turn to one passage, viz. Ps. xlv. 7.
There we learn that He was a kinsman, and therefore qualified according
to the law to redeem, for the words are, ‘Thy God hath anointed thee
above _thy fellows_;’ while at the same time the sixth verse teaches that
the Anointed One is no other than God Himself, for He is addressed in the
words, ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.’
Such, then, is our Redeemer. He was predicted from the first day of
man’s fall; foretold by the whole line of prophets; expected by the whole
line of believers; set apart to His work in God’s eternal purpose;
anointed by God; and so, before men and angels, solemnly consecrated to
the sacred work which He was willing in the Father’s name to undertake;
and besides all that, he is perfect both in manhood and Godhead, so that
in His own double nature He is one with us as a kinsman, while He is one
with the Father in the omnipotence of Jehovah. Such is our Redeemer—can
He fail? Such is our Saviour—can there be disappointment in trusting
Him? Such is the Lord’s Anointed One, and whatever be the deep wants of
our fallen hearts, can we believe for one moment that He is insufficient
to meet the need? Can there be any doubt respecting the statement of the
Psalmist, ‘With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous
redemption?’ (Ps. cxxx. 7.)
* * * * *
II. We may proceed, then, to consider the curse from which He has
redeemed us. According to the text it is the curse of the law, the curse
described in verse 10, where we read, ‘As many as are of the works of the
law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to
do them.’ It is most important to bear this well in mind, for the word
‘curse’ is so connected in common conversation with that which is
vindictive and merciless that there is danger of our losing sight of the
fact that the curse of God is the calm, deliberate, and even merciful
result of the just judgment of a merciful God. There is no cruelty in
the maintenance of a righteous law, for the maintenance of law is
essential to the happiness of a people. Thus the strict execution of law
is consistent with the most true and tender affection.. David, as the
king, was compelled, in the maintenance of law, to banish Absalom after
the murder of Ammon; but all the while David loved him, and his ‘soul
longed to go forth unto Absalom.’ So we have heard of judges moved to
tears of tender pity while passing sentence on some unhappy criminal whom
the law compelled them to condemn. In such a case there was no cruelty
in the law, nor any want of mercy in the judge. The sentence on the
sinner was the necessary and righteous condemnation of the sin.
Parliament was not cruel when it passed the law; the jury was not cruel
when it found the culprit guilty; the judge was not cruel when he
condemned the criminal to death; and the Queen was not cruel when she
signed the warrant for the execution. Whatever was done by any one of
the parties concerned was done simply because the maintenance of law is
essential to the preservation of life and order throughout the land.
Just so it is with the curse of the law in the government of God. There
is no cruelty in God’s law, or God’s execution of its sentence. The
law—it is holy, just, and good; a perfect law, without a fault. And the
Judge—He is holy, just, pure, spotless, and merciful. He willeth not the
death of a sinner, and has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth;
and the curse is not the result of anything vindictive or unmerciful in
Him. It is just like David’s sentence on Absalom, rendered necessary by
the claims of a righteous government, and the necessity of maintaining
law.
But, though the sentence is passed in what I may term ‘loving
righteousness,’ there is something inexpressibly awful in it. Indeed it
is all the more awful when regarded as the righteous sentence of a God
who loves us. The fact that the sentence is passed, notwithstanding such
love, is itself a proof of its awful importance, and the clearest
possible evidence that a righteous God cannot clear the guilty, and
cannot set aside the law which He has given to His people. We must
conclude, therefore, that the curse is certain, and that it cannot be set
aside by anything that we can do. We have no power to deliver ourselves
from the awful curse of the law of God. It is a judgment far more
certain, and far more awful, than that of the wretched criminal in the
condemned cell waiting for execution. It is more awful, for it cuts us
off from God Himself. It hides His countenance; it separates from His
love, and it reaches right away into eternity. Such is the curse of the
law, the curse that foolish sinners trifle with, the curse that ungodly
men bandy about in foul oaths. It is a just curse—a curse inflicted
according to law; a curse pronounced by one who loves the culprit; a
curse that could not be set aside unless the Lawgiver were to neutralise
His law, and the righteous King abandon the holy principles of His
kingdom.
* * * * *