'Ye shall be redeemed without money.' You gained nothing by your
bondage; you need give nothing for your emancipation. The original
reference is, of course, to the great act of divine power which set
these literal captives free, not for price nor reward. As in the Exodus
from Egypt, so in that from Babylon, no ransom was paid, but a nation
of bondsmen was set at liberty without war or compensation. That was a
strange thing in history. The paradox of buying back without buying is
a symbol of the Christian redemption.
(1) A price has been paid.
'Ye were redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ.' The New Testament idea of
redemption, no doubt, has its roots in the Old Testament provisions for
the Goel or kinsman redeemer, who was to procure the freedom of a
kinsman. But whatever figurative elements may enter into it, its core
is the ethical truth that Christ's death is the means by which the
bonds of sin are broken. There is much in the many-sided applications
and powers of that Death which we do not know, but this is clear, that
by it the power of sin is destroyed and the guilt of sin taken away.
(2) That price has been paid for all.
We have therefore nothing to pay. A slave cannot redeem himself, for
all that he has is his master's already. So, no efforts of ours can set
ourselves free from the 'cords of our sins.' Men try to bring something
of their own. 'I do my best and God will have mercy.' We will bring our
own penitence, efforts, good works, or rely on Church ordinances, or
anything rather than sue _in forma pauperis_. How hard it is to get men
to see that 'It is finished,' and to come and rest only on the mere
mercy of God.
How do we ally ourselves with that completed work? By simple faith, of
which an essential is the recognition that we have nothing and can do
nothing.
Suppose an Israelite in Babylon who did not choose to avail himself of
the offered freedom; he must die in bondage. So must we if we refuse to
have eternal life as the gift of God. The prophet's paradoxical
invitation, 'He that hath no money, come ye, buy...without money,' is
easily solved. The price is to give up ourselves and forsake all
self-willed striving after self-purchased freedom which is but subtler
bondage. 'If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.' If not,
then are ye slaves indeed, having 'sold yourselves for nought,' and
declined to be 'redeemed without money.'