thoughtful minds. A complete forgiveness is the starting-point of the
Christian’s life; and accordingly this forgiveness of sin is described as
a complete and present privilege, so we read, ‘In whom,’ _i.e._, in
Christ the Beloved One, ‘we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins.’ The apostle speaks of it there as something of
which we are now in the present enjoyment, for he says, ‘We have it.’ It
is ours now. But yet in other passages, such as the Lord’s Prayer, the
children of God are taught to ask for it with as much regularity as for
their daily bread. How is it, then, that we are told to ask for that we
have already? Why do we pray the Lord’s Prayer every day when we already
have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins? It is a very
natural question, and I cannot be surprised if persons feel the
difficulty. But I believe that if we look carefully at the real work of
redemption it will throw great light on the subject. We shall find if we
do so that there are two kinds of forgiveness described in the word of
God, the one the immediate, and the other the consequent, result of
redemption. There is judicial forgiveness as the foundation, and
parental forgiveness as the consequence: the two being closely connected
with each other, and both resulting from redemption. Let us study them
separately.
* * * * *
I. Judicial forgiveness.
In order to understand judicial forgiveness we must consider the judicial
condemnation of the unforgiven man, and we must carefully remember God’s
offices as King, as Lawgiver, and as Judge. He is a Saviour, but He is a
ruler likewise, and He rules the world in righteousness. But if we think
of Him as the great executive of a perfectly righteous and holy law,
acting on principles of strict and unvarying righteousness, we must see
in a moment that we have all been brought under judicial condemnation,
for the law condemns us all. It condemned our whole race in the person
of our head and first father when Adam sinned, and the sentence of death
was passed on him as the representative of man. It condemns our nature
as alien and strange to God. And it condemns our lives that have
abounded in action contrary to His will. I know that some people find a
difficulty in the first two points, and cannot understand the
condemnation of the race, or of the nature. I can appreciate their
difficulty, though I am quite sure it is fully met in Scripture. But I
have not time to discuss it now. But this one thing I am sure is plain;
even if there were no condemnation on the race or on the nature, there is
quite sufficient in the past life to bring condemnation on any soul
amongst us. Even if we had not been condemned in Adam there has been
quite sufficient to condemn us in ourselves. There is not one amongst us
who is not guilty of that for which he knows himself to be responsible.
There is not one who dare stand before God on the plea that he has never
sinned, not one therefore that must not acknowledge in some form or other
that he cannot be saved if the sentence of the law is to be carried out
on his sin.
But if you think over it you will see that according to natural principle
judicial forgiveness is impossible. Law can acquit, and law can condemn,
but law cannot forgive. Law can pronounce a man innocent, and law can
pass the sentence of death, but law cannot pardon the guilty. Our legal
position by nature is perfectly hopeless. We have incurred a legal and
just condemnation, but nature has made no provision for a legal and just
forgiveness. It is the effort to overcome this insuperable difficulty
that has kept thousands of conscientious heathen toiling on throughout
their lives in deep religious anxiety without a ray of light to throw
peace upon their path.
But the whole difficulty is met in God’s great plan of redemption, as
revealed in those wonderful words, ‘Christ hath redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us.’ The forgiveness resulting
from the great act of redemption is exactly what we want, a legal and
judicial remission of a legal and judicial sentence. The sentence of the
law has been as fully carried out in the person of our most Blessed
Redeemer as it would have been had the whole race been cast into hell for
ever. The whole difficulty is removed by the principle of substitution,
or satisfaction. If Christ was made a curse for us, then the curse is
gone from us, and we are free. The holiness of the law is honoured, the
righteousness of the lawgiver is preserved, the sentence of the judge is
established, not one jot or one tittle of the law is allowed to pass;
but, notwithstanding all, the man that has broken it, although he has
broken it, is absolutely free. Thus, in Rom. iii. 26, we are taught that
the result of propitiation is, ‘That God might be just, and yet the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.’
Here, therefore, we have what I have termed a judicial forgiveness, a
forgiveness in perfect harmony with the strict righteousness of law; a
forgiveness which is, in fact, the letting forth of God’s eternal love
when all legal claims are satisfied. Till that redeeming act was
complete, the love was as it were pent up, and could not, in consistency
with His own law, flow forth to a condemned people. But all is different
now. The law itself pronounces in favour of the condemned, and the
result is that God is not only faithful, but just to forgive. And to
this righteous forgiveness we may apply the text, ‘In whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of his grace.’
* * * * *
II. Parental Forgiveness. But when we are in the enjoyment of this
judicial forgiveness it may be said, ‘If this be the case, why should we
any more pray for forgiveness? Why should we say the Lord’s prayer? Are
we not taught that we already have forgiveness as we have redemption
through His blood? To answer this question we must mark the distinction
between judicial and parental forgiveness.
Consider, then, the position into which every believer is brought through
redemption and judicial forgiveness. According to verse 6, we are
‘accepted in the Beloved,’ accepted, _i.e._, in Christ Jesus the Beloved
One. And according to Gal. iv. 5, we are made, by virtue of that
redemption, children of God, for Christ was sent forth ‘to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.’
If, then, we be in Christ Jesus, what is our position? The curse which
fell on the whole race through Adam is gone, and we shall soon rise from
the dead into new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
The condemnation of our sinful and ruined nature as well as of all the
sin of all our past lives is forgiven for ever; and much more than that,
for, the barriers being all broken down, we are accepted in the Beloved
and ‘the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God.’
What, then, is the consequence of this new position? And what does it
involve? Nothing less than a parental and filial union. In Christ Jesus
you have a Father who loves you, a Father whom you love; a Father who
cares for you, and on whose care you may confidently trust; a Father who
speaks to your soul by His Spirit, and who admits you into close and
confidential intimacy with Himself. Now it is perfectly clear, that as
you pass through life, it will be the joy of your heart to please that
loving Father. The more you love Him, the more you will rejoice to
please Him, and He gives you the assurance that your efforts, defective
though they be, do please Him, for we are told not to forget to do good,
and to communicate, ‘for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.’
(Heb. xiii. 16.) But, on the other hand, you may grieve Him. I can
never forget the tender love of my dearest mother, or how fondly I loved
her in return. I have the greatest satisfaction also in the recollection
of her pleasure as she witnessed my boyish efforts to carry out her
wishes and those of my father. But I can look back to more than fifty
years ago and remember one or two sad days in which I pained her. Oh,
dear children! never pain your mother, for the thought may remain with
you long after she is in the grave, long after the time when you can no
more throw your arms round her neck, and ask her forgiveness for what you
have said or done to grieve her. Now it is just the same with our
Heavenly Father. We may love Him, truly love Him, love Him without a
doubt. Moreover, we may please Him, please Him well in all things, and
bring to His service that offering of the whole man with which he is well
pleased. But we may also grieve Him, and I fear we often do. The free
forgiveness through redeeming blood has not removed, eradicated, or laid
to rest the old sinful human nature. Thus St. Paul tells us to ‘grieve
not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption,’ Eph. iv. 30; and he shows us how we may do so, viz., by
corrupt communication, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil speaking
and malice. Do you think that a bad temper does not grieve Him, or
unkind conversation, or pride of heart, or wandering thoughts in prayer,
or any of the thousand things that may rise before the conscience of
those who are not satisfied with a superficial Christian life? But if
this be the case what do we want,—want day by day as we pass through
life? Surely the parental forgiveness, the loving forgiveness of a
loving Father, watching in love over His loving child, and with a
Father’s love, and a Father’s authority, accepting the acknowledgment of
sin, and day by day freely forgiving it. This perfectly explains the use
of the Lord’s prayer by the children of God. We come to Him in that
prayer as our Father, and because He is our Father we ask Him as a Father
to forgive us our sins. This does not supersede the judicial
forgiveness, but is the consequence of it. Nor does it set aside
redemption, for it is on redemption that the whole sonship depends.
There is nothing independent of that most precious blood of Christ. It
is through that blood of His that the curse is removed, and the judicial
forgiveness granted; through that blood of His that we receive the
adoption of sons, and are brought into the sacred relationship of
children in a Father’s family. It is through that blood of His that we
are preserved in that relationship, and stand before the Father in a
covenant union with the Son of God Himself. But resting on this power of
the atoning blood, there is a great deal besides judicial forgiveness.
If you be asking now the way of life, and anxious that all the sins of
all your life may be blotted out, that so you may be saved from the
condemnation of the law; then your only hope must be in the plenteous
redemption wrought out for you on the cross when the Son of God redeemed
you from the curse, being made a curse for you. And, thanks be to God!
that is sufficient, for it has broken down every barrier, and set the way
of life wide open before the chief of sinners. But if you have been
saved from that condemnation, so that now you ‘have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins:’ you have also a great deal more, for
you have besides it and resting on it, the unspeakable blessedness of a
Father’s love. You may daily fall back on the satisfaction of the law,
and in consequence of that satisfaction, like loving children may cry,
‘Abba, Father,’ and claim a Father’s forbearance and a Father’s
tenderness, a Father’s provision, and a Father’s forgiveness. It is this
parental love that is the joy of our hearts when we kneel together round
our Father’s table, this parental forgiveness for which we pray when we
say, ‘Our Father which art in heaven, forgive us our trespasses.’
Let us endeavour, then, to realise the legal condemnation gone; the
judicial forgiveness granted; the adoption of sons bestowed; the Father’s
table spread; the Father’s forgiveness ready; the Father’s love shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given us. And realizing
this, shall we not draw near in faith? Shall we not confess to Him that
we are heartily sorry for all our misdoings? Shall we not ask Him for
His parental forgiveness? Shall we not feed at His table? Shall we not
rest on His loving arm? Shall we not regard it as our chief joy to
please Him? And shall we not out of the fulness of loving hearts exalt
His name for the unspeakable riches of redeeming love; and praise Him
from the bottom of our hearts that by His marvellous grace we even now
‘have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins?’ and having
it, can appeal to a Father’s love for daily forgiveness as for daily
bread?
XII. PURITY.
‘Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good
works.’—TIT. ii. 14.
IF we wish to understand the various passages in the word of God on the
subject of redemption, we must never forget the two parts of which
redemption consists, so often brought before you in these lectures—the
satisfaction of the law by the payment of redemption price, and the
actual deliverance of the ransomed people as the result of the finished
atonement. It is of especial importance that we bear this well in mind
in the study of those texts in which redemption is spoken of as being
either now in progress or still in the future, for there is no
possibility of any present or future atonement, that having been for ever
completed on Calvary, and such passages can only refer to the work of
deliverance which will not be complete till the glorious day of our
Lord’s appearing. The atonement is complete, but the deliverance is in
progress still, and those texts refer to it.
I believe that this remark is of great importance to the right
understanding of this text. It occurs in the midst of one of the most
practical chapters in the Bible. The words are addressed to the various
different classes of society. Aged men are exhorted to be sober and
sound in faith; aged women to be in behaviour as becometh godliness;
young women to be sober and to love their husbands and their children;
servants to be obedient, pleasant, not contradictory, and honest; and all
of us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly,
righteously, and godly in this present world.
Now, according to the text, the great motive power to all this is the
fact that our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ ‘gave himself for us
that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a
peculiar people zealous of good works.’ Let us study then the redemption
work, and the redemption power; and may God the Holy Ghost so bless it to
our souls that we may be led in practical life to adorn the doctrine of
God our Saviour in all things!
* * * * *
I. The redemption work.
To redeem in these words clearly means to deliver, as the result of the
finished atonement. The foundation of the deliverance is the fact that
our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ gave Himself for us. The actual
deliverance is described in the words, ‘that he might redeem us from all
iniquity.’ A question has arisen as to the meaning of this expression.
Does it mean that He might redeem us from the curse and judgment of all
iniquity and so set us legally free, as when He said, ‘Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us?’ or
does it mean that by the power of the Holy Ghost He might deliver us from
the bondage of all iniquity, and so make us actually a holy people unto
Himself? There is much to be said for both interpretations. ‘Iniquity’
may stand here for the curse, or guilt, of iniquity, as ‘sin’ stands for
the guilt of sin in 1 Pet. ii. 24: ‘Who his own self bare our sins in his
own body on the tree.’ Or it may stand for sin itself, and its deadly
power over the ruined soul. I am inclined on the whole to prefer this
latter application, and to believe that the words describe the actual
deliverance from the dominion of sin. The context clearly points in that
direction, and so, as far as I can judge, do the words. The word here
rendered iniquity strictly means ‘lawlessness.’ It is the same word as
that in 1 John, iii. 4, where it is translated ‘transgression of the
law,’ and appears generally to express the actual disobedience to the
law, or will of God. If this be the case the idea evidently is that in
our natural condition we are slaves and bondsmen to disobedience, or
lawlessness. But that the great God and Saviour made an atonement for us
in order that He might set us free from that dreadful yoke, and call us
out to be a people set apart for His praise. This is in harmony with
what we are taught in Rom. vi. 19, for there we are described as having
in former times ‘yielded our members as servants to uncleanness and to
iniquity’ (the same word), and as now being set free by the grace of God.
But there can be no such freedom without redemption from the curse of
sin. You remember that when a man had sold himself to be a slave, the
only way in which he could obtain his liberty was by his kinsman legally
redeeming him from his master. So it seems to be here. Christ our
kinsman has paid the ransom in order that we, being redeemed, may be
freemen unto God, and may now as freemen have the joy of serving Him.
But this is not all that is done for us, or nearly so, for the text does
not merely refer to the bondage from which He died to deliver us, but
leads us also to consider the new life to which He came to raise us. It
takes the positive side as well as the negative. It looks forward as
well as backward. It describes the new-master to whom being redeemed we
belong, as well as the old master from whom by redemption we are
delivered. Now you see this transfer very clearly in the text. The old
master is lawlessness, the new master is Christ Himself. He came to
redeem us from all iniquity, and ‘purify unto himself a peculiar people.’
‘Peculiar’ does not mean odd, or eccentric; but special, and separated,
as you may see by a comparison of Deut. vii. 6, and xiv. 2. In chap.
vii. 6, we read, ‘The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a _special_
people unto himself,’ and in chap. xiv. 2, ‘The Lord hath chosen thee to
be a _peculiar_ people unto himself.’ You see that these words
respecting Israel of old exactly correspond to those here spoken of the
redeemed Church, and they completely explain what is here meant by the
word ‘peculiar.’ As Israel was a peculiar people, delivered from Egypt,
and set apart unto God, so those who are in Christ Jesus are redeemed
from the old bondage of their past lawlessness, and set apart as a
special people unto Him who has redeemed them by His blood.
Observe then the three characteristics of this new service, the service
of the redeemed.
(1.) It is the service of the Redeemer Himself. In redeeming us from
iniquity He makes us His own, and sets us apart unto Himself. If
redeemed we belong to the Redeemer. We love Him, we follow Him, we serve
Him, we are His.
(2.) It is a pure service.
He does not merely separate, but purifies us unto Himself. He carries on
such a sacred work in the soul, and effects such a marvellous change that
the words of St. John are realised, ‘Every one that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure,’ and that we even know something
of the blessing which He described in the words, ‘Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God.’
(3.) It is a zealous and active service.
If we are thus redeemed we are not to sit still, and quietly rejoice in a
holy abandonment of soul; but we are to be up and doing. There is a
great work to be done for God, and who is to do it if they are idle whom
the Lord has redeemed? We want no slothful, listless, inactive,
self-indulgent believers. Our missions are crippled for the want of
help; and our work at home sometimes seems paralyzed by the lukewarmness
of professors. But those who are brought near to God, and purified as a
peculiar people unto Himself, must be filled with zeal for His service;
for the lukewarm professor is a scandal to the Church of God. The object
of the Lord’s death was to call out a zealous people; and when there is
no zeal, there is no effective result from the cross, for the purified
people, redeemed by His grace, will, according to the text, be ‘zealous
of good works.’
Now all this is a work at this present time in progress. It is not, like
the atonement, complete, but is going on now. It is at this present time
in progress in the Church. The people who form the purchased possession
are being daily gathered in to God. He has not yet accomplished the
number of His elect. The body of Christ is not yet perfected, and our
earnest desire is that day by day, yes, this very day, immortal souls may
be delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom
of His dear Son. So also is it progressive in the soul of each
individual. We are not suddenly wafted into perfection, or made pure as
Christ is pure. This chapter is a very clear proof of that, for while it
speaks of the great purpose of the Lord’s death, viz., to redeem us from
all iniquity it is full of exhortations to all classes amongst us against
practical misconduct. It is perfectly clear, therefore, that the
deliverance is not yet complete. There is temptation around and
temptation within; sin in the world and sin in our own hearts; corruption
in society and corruption in our own nature; so that even after we have
actually experienced redeeming grace, we may say, as St. Paul did, ‘Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (Rom. vii. 24.)
* * * * *
II. This leads to our second subject, the redemption power.
The redemption power is the Redeemer Himself, and so, as pointed out in a
previous lecture, the Lord Jesus is called in Isaiah, lix. 20, ‘the
Redeemer,’ and in the quotation of that passage Rom. xi. 26, ‘the
Deliverer.’ And this applies whichever way you understand the words. If
you apply them to the curse of sin it is He that delivers from that curse
by the satisfaction of the law through His precious blood. He paid the
ransom, and in the Father’s name He has set us free. Or, if you apply it
to the bondage of lawlessness, it is equally He that delivers, for it is
just as much His office to release from the dominion of sin by the power
of the Holy Ghost as it was to remove the curse. In either sense the
passage brings Him before us as a present living Deliverer, not merely
one who has given Himself for us, but one who is now engaged in actually
delivering us from all iniquity and purifying unto Himself a peculiar
people. The first clause, ‘He gave himself for us,’ describes His work
on the cross finished at once and for ever; the latter part, ‘That He
might redeem us from all iniquity,’ His present work as a risen and
living Saviour, continuously employed in delivering and purifying His
Church. Whatever we may think of the clause, ‘that he might redeem us
from all iniquity,’ this is clearly the meaning of the words that He
might ‘purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ So
that either way we are brought to the indisputable and most important
lesson, that in our great struggle against sin, either without or within;
either in the world or in our own hearts; and in our efforts to aim at
the practical Christian life exhibited in this chapter, we may take the
greatest possible encouragement from the fact that it is the present
office of our living Lord to deliver and to purify. We may be profoundly
conscious of the deep, inbred corruption of our own nature. We may know
by bitter experience how often we have failed; we may be humbled to the
dust at the thought of our shortcomings; we may be ready to say, as St.
Paul did, ‘Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ but in the
midst of it all we may look up in peaceful trust, and thank God for the
delivering power that is in Christ Jesus, our risen and living Head. We
may say as St. Paul did, ‘I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’