Colossians 1:14-20

In Whom.

The deity of Christ

Christ is Divine because--

I. He has redeemed us.

II. He is the creator of all things.

III. All things were created for His glory.

IV. His eternal pre-existence.

V. By Him all things consist. (B. W. Noel, M. A.)

Christ first

I. In the metaphysical order.

1. He is the image of the invisible God.

2. It pleased God that in Him should all fulness (of the Divine attributes) dwell. He is therefore the Mediator of the knowledge of God.

II. In the physical order. The first thesis determined the relation of Christ to God; this establishes His relation to Nature.

1. He is before all things, the firstborn (heir) of all creation.

2. He is the Author of all that exists. Consequently He is the Mediator of existence or natural life.

III. In the theological order, which, as does the following, refers to His relations with men.

1. He is the Redeemer.

2. The reconciler. Thus He is the Mediator of the restoration of the normal relation of man to God.

IV. In the moral order. He is the head of the spiritual body--the Church--and therefore is the Mediator of the new life or the spiritual creation.

V. In the apocalyptic order, i.e., of the order of the things to come. He has died, as all men die, but He has also risen, and in that He has taken precedence of all, and His own will follow Him. Consequently He is the Mediator of life eternal. (Professor Reuss.)

Jesus Christ the end of the creation

(text in conjunction with Ephesians 1:9; Ephesians 3:9.)

I. Statement.

1. The creation looked forward to the Christ from the beginning. Without Him for its goal it were purposeless. Not that he was latent in nature to be evolved, but it was the plan of creation that it should reach its consummation in Him.

2. In Him the universe subsists, is banded together because it completes itself in Him. Without Him it would disintegrate and be a chaos instead of a cosmos.

3. Although sin has disturbed the scheme of things and would wreck all, the original plan holds in Christ. The injury will be repaired and the universe attain its end.

II. Plan of creation.

1. Matter is brought into being (Genesis 1:1), and is rudimental (Genesis 1:2). The Holy Ghost whoso province is evolution and organization broods over the elemental abyss. At length light becomes with, doubtless, its kindred agents, heat, electricity. Processes go on, and the atmosphere is constituted. The new agents become additional forces, and there results the mineral kingdom (Genesis 1:3).

2. This is a preparation for higher planes of being. The floral world has a becoming, assimilating all that has gone before, and transforming them into the living organisms of root, trunk, bough, fruit, dec.

3. The vegetable world is a prophecy of something higher. In due time the animal world gathers up the elements of all below it, and exalts them into more complex and nobler organisms.

4. There is a pause. The eternal Three-in-One sit in council (Genesis 1:26; Genesis 2:7).

(1) The creation has been in travail with man as to his bodily nature in all the preceding formations. Man is the compendium, the apex of physical nature.

(2) In his creation another department of the spiritual world comes in view. It seeks to ally itself with the physical. It also would complete itself in man. By the inbreathing of the Almighty man becomes a living soul. The two realms thus meet in him, and invest him with unique dignity and prerogative. He is the microcosm of the universe.

(3) Of what man is this ideal true? Of the first Adam? He is man inchoate, in germ and possibilities only, not in the fulness of perfection. Can he raise himself and put all nature under him as its head? The tree of life blossoms with promise, but he cannot bridge the chasm between the Infinite and the finite. There must be a higher sphere than nature or man to bring out their meaning. If the Eternal Word will become man the problem is solved--the mighty void between God and man will be filled up.

5. The Son of God did become man. He passed through every ordeal triumphantly, and was glorified at the right hand of God. The universe is glorified in Him. Thus did He sum up in Himself the creation. It tended towards Him from the first, and finds its last, deepest sense and full satisfaction in Him the true, archetypal Man.

III. Corollaries.

1. The creation is a unity, not a granulated mass of things having no other relation but mechanical juxtaposition; but an organic whole, having one Head who fills all things from Himself, and sends energy and direction through the whole. Each several part has its due relation to the others, and the whole to Christ.

2. The Incarnation belongs to creation. It is its crown, and is essential to its order and perfection. It is not an intrusion. It is sin that is the innovation in the order of the universe. And the Incarnation carries in it plenary resources for the overmastering of sin. By His obedience unto death the Head of the universe rendered satisfaction for human guilt; and by the powers of the Incarnation He will cast out sin. Somewhere, in the outer darkness, some cesspool shall receive all the filth of the universe and hide it for ever.

3. There is suggested a solution of the problem of miracles. They are no violations of the plan of creation. Each succeeding system bore in itself higher forces and methods than the preceding, but without disturbance. So humanity imported into the world methods and powers supreme over all beneath it, but in entire harmony therewith. That such ascendency should show itself in our Lord’s miracles there is nothing contranatural. Sin being foreign has brought an unnatural condition of things, and our Lord’s hushing of the storm, expulsion of demons, healing the sick, and raising the dead, were but foretokenings of the coming restitution of all things to their natural state of purity, health, and life. To put creation back again into its regular condition is not to do violence to nature. As Augustine says, “A miracle is not a contradiction of nature, but of nature as man knows it.”

4. Here is the solution of the astronomical objection to Christianity. Astronomy is supposed to demonstrate man’s extreme littleness, and to show that his actions good or bad are beneath the notice of God. But man in Christ is the end of the universe. In Him man stands in closest union with the Infinite centre of all being. “All things are His” (1 Corinthians 3:21). It is quality, not quantity, that counts in the trancendental calculus. Man must be intrinsically of greater value than all that went to prepare the way for him. This will serve to explain the interest of angels in him. The Incarnation signifies that man has an inherent dignity no hugeness of the physical world and no grandeur of angels can equal. He has no superior but God, and to Him alone his knee should bow.

5. If the all is one organic unity, the lower joined to the higher, and looking forward to it, then there must be a correspondence between the lower and the higher. The natural will be a parable of the supernatural, and all types must sum themselves up in Christ their prototype. Science will yet see the harmony of reason and faith.

6. Christ being the Firstborn and Head of the creation, He is the Priest of the universe (Hebrews 5:7). All other priesthood must be derived from Him. All worship must be offered through Him. All blessing will return from God through Him.

7. Christ is the end of history. The movement of our race is a process towards manhood in Christ. Sin has distracted the current, but has not arrested it. The religions, philosophies, and governments of the old world prepared the way for the first advent. A mighty impulse was thrilled through the nation from that day directing all movements towards the second advent.

8. Seeing that Christ is head over all, all things must become subject to Him. We see not yet all things put under Him. Sin has disnaturalized man, but it shall be overruled and made to serve the very ends it sought to frustrate (1 Corinthians 15:24; 2 Timothy 2:19). Evil does not inhere in matter. Matter will be transformed (Romans 8:19).

9. The Incarnation must needs be perpetual. Were the Son of God to lay aside His humanity, the creation would fail of its end and complement. It confers upon the creation supreme blessing; to relinquish it would entail a deep curse.

10. Men must needs come into full and permanent union with Christ. Severed from Him they can do nothing. Sin, the discord in the everlasting order, must be renounced. Christ must abide in men and they in Him, in order that sin may be eliminated. Only thus can they attain the Divine Ideal transformation into true manhood in the image of God. (C. P. Jennings.)

The witness of creation to the gospel

1. The subject of the chapter is the glory of the Son of God.

(1) In His essential relation to God He is the true eikon basilike--only image which it is not idolatry to worship.

(2) His relation to the universe is that of immediate Creator.

(3) His permanent relation to every creature is that of a central point for all phenomena.

(4) His headship over the new redeemed humanity is that of the first-born among the dead, the source of risen life to all the body.

(5) His central pre-eminence in the whole spiritual world lies in the fact that He is Peacemaker by blood, the sole Reconciler to God. Never did John soar higher or sweep a wider horizon than this.

2. To confine ourselves to one thought here. Christ is the only link of connection between created minds and the unapproachable, unknowable Godhead. “Image of the invisible God” is parallel with John’s “No man hath seen God at any time,” etc., with Hebrews 1:1, and with the Master’s “He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.” The function of Revealer, however, does not attach to Christ’s incarnate life only; He was the Word of God before, and revealed God in creation. From this follows that God the Revealer, when He tells of God in Nature and in Redemption must speak in harmonious terms. Both discoveries must agree, and hence we expect to find certain lines in physics leading up to Christianity, certain thoughts of the Divine mind which grow clearer when I cast back fresh light from redemption.

3. What, then, is there in nature to fit into the representation of Deity which we gather from--

I. The incarnation.

1. This stands on the threshold of the Christian system, and has no parallel in history, and at first sight none in nature. Yet look a little closer, and you will find that it rests upon the fact that man was made in the image of his Maker. For the Son and perfect Image of Godhead to become man--making the thoughts, emotions, and activities of our nature a glass wherein to mirror the heart of Deity--implies some affinity between the Divine and human, or some previous resemblance of man to God. Reason must, in some fashion, reflect the thoughts of God, and virtue His holiness, and points of moral and intellectual contact must bind the human spirit to that of the Incarnate Redeemer. How else could God become incarnate to redeem?

2. Now nature is alive with thoughts that are very human. God utters His mind in His works, and that mind is like our own. If that were not so science would be impossible. The world’s Maker and its observer must have something in common, if the observer is to understand the Maker’s meaning. A world put together by a Being whose notions of truth, utility, purpose, etc., bore no relation to mine would be a world unintelligible to me. But the world satisfies the reason and gratifies the taste of the human student, who detects in it with joy another mind at work similar to his own.

(1) You know how keen is the pleasure many take in mechanical contrivance, but the pages of modern books of science are full of beautiful contrivances.

(2) Equally human is the parsimony of nature. He who made this world does not overcome difficulties by inventing some fresh force for every occasion; He will rather go round about to make existing instruments answer a new purpose. To the same economical habit it is due that through the organized tribes of being certain radical types are perseveringly adhered to. A few governing ideas, modified in details only as far as needful, are made to do service, and give rise to endless diversity. This is just the style of workmanship that workmen admire.

(3) Very human, too, is the place occupied in the works of God by beauty and utility. In man’s productions decoration is always subordinated to convenience, and wise men will sacrifice the ornamental without remorse when it can be gained only at the expense of human well-being. Now the original school of all art is the handiwork of God. So lavish is His decoration of the most unnoticed Objects that He must do it because He loves it; yet it is never put before utility. Nay, some animals have been made unlovely to suit their convenience; but even in them ornament is introduced where it can do no harm.

3. Nature, then, betrays in its Creator a mind so like our own as to lay a foundation for the Incarnation. The Son in impressing on all things His stamp, as God’s image left a signature so human-like that we can well credit the old Scripture when it says man wears the likeness of the Son of God; and we see a propriety in the announcement of the new scripture that the same Son wears the nature which He had on purpose made so correspondent with His own. Creation of man’s mind in God’s image; incarnation of God’s image in manhood--these are two answering facts, the one witnessed by science, the other by the gospel.

II. The atonement.

1. In so far as this is a moral fact, whereas in nature there is neither sin nor retribution, and therefore no need of atonement, we cannot expect to find there any suggestion of reconciliation with God. Nevertheless nature indicates that the Creator possesses moral qualities, and is a character as well as an intellect,

2. Some particulars of this.

(1) Thinkers have been startled by the gospel declaration that God cares for so insignificant a creature as man. But does He appear to the student as a person likely to overlook any interest because it is minute. Remember what pains the scientists tell us have been expended on the most tiny and obscure piece of organized matter to perfect its adaptation to its place, and to elaborate every organ of it for its proper purpose. It is for investigators to tell us whether they do not find traces of kindness in this such as bespeak a benevolent heart as well as a contriving intellect. If they do, then the love of God, which seeks and saves one lost soul, is but the crown of a character patient, considerate, which has left its traces on the lower creation.

(2) But there are facts of an opposite order. Violence, death, extinction have always obtained. But whatever difficulties attend this frightful havoc of life, the sacrifice ministers always to some upward movement. Lower life feeds higher life, or the individual becomes a victim to some agency needful for the general good, the gale, the flood, the lightning: or, as the earth grows fit to bear nobler forms, the earlier ones pass away. We read here the law of sacrifice--unconscious and involuntary, indeed, because these creatures have no power of moral choice; but true, nevertheless, because sacrificed for some nobler good and more enduring end. See how beasts of prey have to make room for population, and serviceable animals are slaughtered for man’s use. When I pass from this scene to Golgotha I am not conscious of any violent shock. There is pain for the good of others, and death as the price of life. The Maker of the suffering creation is not afraid to suffer for others. He obeys His own law, and the cross would have been a far more surprising spectacle had it stood upon an earth where no creature ever bled to advance creation’s good.

(3) The only key we can find to the Atonement lies in the inviolability of Divine law. To magnify that God gave His Son to die. Now it would have been surprising had the Son as Creator betrayed any indifference to the violence of natural law, and yet come as Redeemer to die to vindicate moral law. No such inconsistency appears. Physical students insist on the constancy with which the former avenges transgression; and so the latter decrees death for disobedience. And it could so little be set aside in favour of mercy, that not until the Lawgiver had Himself honoured His own statute, and suffered His own penalty, did He forgive.

3. As far, then, as such indications go, the face of God, as traced indistinctly in Creation, answers to His face as its glory shines in the gospel of Christ. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)

We have redemption through His blood.

I. Redemption. Deliverance--

1. From the guilt of sin, original or actual, of omission or commission.

2. From the power and prevalence of sin (Romans 6:14; Hebrews 9:13; Acts 3:26; lPe 1:18; Matthew 1:21; Titus 2:14).

3. From the tyranny of Satan (Colossians 1:13; 1 John 3:8; Luke 22:31).

4. From the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13; Galatians 4:5).

5. From the wrath of God.

(1) In this world (Romans 5:1; Luke 2:14).

(2) In the next (1 Thessalonians 1:10; Acts 4:12).

II. Its means: “His blood.”

1. It was necessary that our Redeemer should be man as well as God (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 2:14), that He might mediate between both parties (Job 9:33).

2. That He should suffer (Hebrews 8:5; Luke 24:26) a bloody death (Hebrews 9:22).

(1) To expiate our sins (1 John 2:2; Isaiah 53:5).

(2) To conquer Satan (Hebrews 2:14).

(3) To reconcile God to us and us to God (Romans 5:10; Ephesians 2:16).

III. Its benefit. “Forgiveness of sins.”

1. The names in Scripture given to it.

(1) Remission (Acts 2:38),

(2) dismission, releasing (Isaiah 61:1).

2. Mercifulness to our sins (Hebrews 8:12; Luke 18:13).

(1) Passing over sin (Romans 3:25).

(2) Purging from sin (Psalms 51:7).

(3) Not remembering our sins (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:12).

(4) Covering sin (Psalms 32:1; Psalms 85:2; Psalms 51:9).

(5) Taking away and removing sin (Psalms 103:10; Exodus 34:7; Leviticus 16:20).

(6) Casting behind God’s back (Isaiah 38:17; Psalms 90:8).

(7) Blotting out sin (Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 44:22).

(8) Not imputing sin (Psalms 32:1; Romans 4:7).

(9) Casting it in the depth of the sea (Micah 7:18).

2. The nature of it: an act of God’s grace, whereby He absolves us from the obligation to those punishments, which by His law are due to us for those sins.

(1) In general it is an act of God’s grace.

(a) Of God. It is ascribed to Him alone (Exodus 34:7; Mark 2:7). We are to ask it of Him only (Matthew 6:12). He alone justifies (Romans 8:33). Our sins are only against Him (Psalms 51:4).

(b) Of His grace--not wisdom, power, justice (Isaiah 43:25)--in Christ (Ephesians 1:7).

(2) The specific difference.

(a) We are obliged to bear the punishments due by God’s law to sin (Galatians 3:10).

(b) God takes off that obligation (2 Samuel 12:13; Mark 3:28).

IV. This benefit is only by Christ’s death.

1. All mankind is guilty before God, and so obnoxious to His wrath and everlasting punishment (Romans 3:19; Galatians 3:22).

2. The eternal Son was pleased to take man’s nature upon Him so as to become both God and man in one person (Isaiah 7:14; Romans 9:5; Philippians 2:6).

3. Christ in this nature was pleased to suffer disgrace, the curses of the law (Galatians 3:13). The wrath of God (Matthew 27:46). An ignominious, accursed, painful, and bloody death; and all for sin, the only cause of death (Hebrews 10:12).

4. Christ suffered all this, not for Himself (1 Peter 2:22; 1 Peter 3:18; Hebrews 7:26), but for us who partake of that nature in which He suffered (Isaiah 53:5; Romans 4:25; Galatians 1:4; 1 Corinthians 15:3).

5. These sufferings were of greater worth than if all men had suffered eternal death (Acts 20:28).

6. Hence God was pleased to accept of them as a sufficient price of our redemption, and satisfaction to His justice for our sins (Mat 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6; Ephesians 1:6).

7. God’s justice being thus satisfied, He is reconciled unto us, and takes off our obligations to punishment, by reason of what His Son underwent for us; and therefore for His sake is said to pardon our sins (Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:20; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

V. Use.

1. Hence you may learn what ground we have to trust in Christ for pardon (Romans 8:34).

2. Hence be advised to make it your business to get your sins forgiven: considering--

(1) How miserable you are without it: God is angry (Psalms 7:11); hell is threatened.

(2) How happy with it (Psalms 32:1). Your persons accepted and justified (Psalms 32:1; Romans 4:6); God reconciled and become your friend (Romans 5:1; Romans 9:1; Romans 10:3. All things working for your good, and glory for your reward. (Bishop Beveridge.)

Redemption

The liberty for which the slave longs is, perhaps, the sweetest earthly cup man drinks. Health has been often said to be the greatest earthly blessing. What are money, luxury, titles, a crown even, without it; but what is health without liberty. We sympathize with the instinctive love of freedom in animals--the noisy joy of the dog when he gets off his chain; the noble eagle chained to the perch, strangling in its struggles to escape. Much more do we sympathize with our fellow-creatures, whether slaves or citizens, who have made the altars of liberty red with their blood, preferring death to bondage. But them is a more degrading and dreadful slavery, that of the slaves of Satan, who are sold under sin. Would that we set the same price on spiritual as we do on earthly liberty! What struggles would then be made and prayers offered for salvation! And when saved ourselves, how anxious we should be for the salvation of others.

I. We all need redemption. To a man who knows he is nigh unto death offer a medicine that will cure him, and he will buy it at any price; but offer the same to one who believes himself in health and he holds it cheap. For a similar reason are Christ and His redemption rejected of men. So the great work of God’s Spirit is to rouse a man from the torpor induced by the poison of sin. And blessed the book, preacher, or providence that sends the conviction into our hearts. For to a soul convinced of misery who so welcome as the Saviour?

1. The slavery of sin is natural to man, We pity the mother as robbed of one of her best joys, who knows that the little creature on her bosom is a slave. But that calamity is ours. “In sin did my mother conceive me.” “I am carnal, sold under sin.” “Ye were the slaves of sin”--not one hired for a period, but branded with the mark of a perpetual bondage.

2. This slavery is the universal state of man. Slavery is the worst and oldest of human institutions. At an early period, in Cain, he who should have been his brother’s keeper, became his murderer; and when man did become his brother’s keeper, it was too often as an owner. But, wherever slavery obtained, some were free. It is not so with sin. The king and the beggar are both slaves; every man’s heart is black, whatever his face may be.

3. This slavery is the state of all unconverted men.

(1) Some are slaves of gold. What bondage is equal to that? for a man to harden his heart to the claims of pity, to deny his own flesh and blood, to lie and cheat, or, if not, throw his soul away for money.

(2) Some are slaves of lust. To what base society and acts of villainy do their tyrant passions condemn them. The thief that steals my money is a man of honour compared with him who steals a woman’s virtue.

(2) Some are slaves of drunkenness. Of all slavery this is the most helpless and hopeless. Other sins drown conscience, this season as well.

(3) Some are slaves to the opinions of the world. The Macedonian boasted that he had conquered the world; the world can boast that it has conquered them. Theirs the miserable condition of a servant who has to bear in some ill-governed household the caprices, not of one mistress, but of many.

II. Our redemption is not a simple matter of time. Every fifty years, and in certain cases, seven, redeemed the Hebrew. Everywhere time works changes, the young grow old, the poor get rich, the rich poor. Time alters the form of the globe. But amid these changes the condition of the sinner alters not. The longer you live in sin the more hopeless is salvation. Do you say, But what am I to do? Can I redeem myself? Assuredly not. But are we to sit still as though redemption would come like a jubilee in the common course of providence? No, we are to be up and doing. I do not say that we are to rise like an oppressed nation which wrings its liberties from a tyrant hand; nor that we can purchase redemption; nor that through works of righteousness we can lay any claim to its blessings. And yet I say, “Labour for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life.” There are various ways of being diligent. Though men call him idle the poor beggar is as diligent as others; and such as that suppliant’s, along with the use of other means, are the labours to which God’s mercy and your own necessities call you. Unable to save yourself, besiege the throne of grace.

III. Christ is the redeemer. There is no other. His types and symbols teach this. There was but one ark in the flood, and all perished save those who sailed in it. There was but one altar in the Temple, one way through the Red Sea, “one Mediator between God and man.”

1. Christ does not redeem us by simply revealing the truth. Were He a Saviour only in this sense there are others. From “the Sun of Righteousness” He changes into a star, one of a constellation which is formed of Moses and the prophets. Many of them, indeed, had more to do in revealing God’s will than Christ. No book bears His name, and the truths which fell from Him form but a fraction of Scripture. Yet who but He is set forth as the Redeemer, in whose name else are we commanded to believe and be baptized?

2. Christ does not redeem us by His example. That man is in a sense my saviour who leads me safely along any dangerous path, and in a corresponding way some say Christ redeemed us. He set us such an example, that by following His steps we may enter the kingdom of heaven. Alas for safety if it turn on that I Walk as He walked! Who is sufficient for that? We should certainly attempt to follow Jesus, yet our best attempts will leave us more and more convinced that our only hope for redemption lies in the mercy of the Father and the merits of the Son.

3. Christ has redeemed us by suffering in our room and stead. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

I. What remission of sins is.

1. Sin is a violation of the law of God (1 John 3:4). In this law there is the precept which is the rule of duty, and the sanction or penalty which shows what God might do if He dealt with us according to our merit. Accordingly in sin there is--

(1) The fault. Man, God’s subject, and obliged to Him by His benefits, swerves from the rule of his duty and exposes himself to God’s judgment.

(2) The guilt, which is liableness to punishment.

2. Forgiveness is a dissolving the obligation to punishment, a freedom in God’s way from the consequences of sin.

(1) It is not a disannulling of the act as a natural action. What is done cannot be undone.

(2) Nor is it abolished as a criminal action. Forgiveness does not make a fault to be no fault. The innocent are acquitted, but the guilty are pardoned as sinners.

(3) Nor is the merit of the sinful act lessened, it still deserves punishment.

(4) Forgiveness therefore is a passing by the fault so that it shall not rise up in judgment against us. The fault is the sinner’s, the punishment the Judge’s, which He may fashion on certain terms stated in the law of grace.

I prove it

(1) from the nature of the thing, for there is such a relation between the fault and the guilt, the sin and punishment; that the one cannot be without the other. Therefore, if the Judge will not impute the fault there will be an immunity from punishment.

(2) From the common rule of speaking among men. He cannot be said to forgive a fault who exacts punishment; and what do men mean when they pray for pardon but that they may be exempted from punishment?

(3) It would impeach the justice and mercy of God were He to punish where He has pardoned.

(4) Scripture phrases show that God blots out our sins (Psalms 71:2; Psalms 32:1; Isaiah 38:17; Micah 7:19; Jeremiah 31:34).

II. The nature of redemption.

1. Our being redeemed supposes a captivity and bondage.

(1) Unrenewed men are slaves to sin (Titus 3:3; John 8:34). Men imagine a life of vanity to be a very good life, and it were so if liberty consisted in doing what we list rather than what we ought. But it is not, and experience shows that men cannot leave their base satisfactions.

(2) As they are under sin so they are under Satan (Ephesians 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:26).

(3) For this they are under the curse of God.

2. To recover us there was a price to be paid by way of ransom to God. We are not delivered by prayer, nor mere force, nor out of pity, but by just satisfaction to provoked justice. The price was not paid to Satan, who is a usurper--from him we are delivered by force--but to God. Man had not sinned against Satan, but God, to whom belong condemnation or pardon. And God being satisfied, Satan has no power over us. That redemption implies payment of a price is clear (Matthew 20:28; 1 Timothy 2:6). Christ in recovering men in dealing with God is set forth as a Lamb slain (Revelation 5:5); in dealing with Satan as a lion recovering the prey. A ransom was necessary because God had made a former covenant which was not to be quit but upon valuable consideration, lest His moral attributes should fall to the ground.

(1) The honour of His justice was to be secured (Romans 3:5; Genesis 18:25). If God should pardon without satisfaction how should He be reverenced as the holy Governor of the world? Hence Romans 3:25.

(2) His wisdom. If the law should be recalled, the Lawgiver would run the hazard of levity.

(3) His holy nature would not permit it. Some way must be found to signify His hatred of sin (Psalms 11:6).

(4) His authority. It would be a derogation to the authority of His law if it might be broken with impunity.

(5) His truth. God’s word is not to be regarded as a scarecrow (Genesis 3:5; Deuteronomy 29:19).

3. None was fit to give this ransom but Jesus Christ, the God-man. He was man to undertake it in our name, God to perform it in His own strength; a man that He might be under the law and die, God that He might put the stamp upon the metal and make it current coin. By taking human nature a price was put into His hands, to which His Divine nature gave the requisite value (Acts 20:28; Hebrews 9:13).

4. Nothing performed by Christ could be a sufficient ransom but His death.

(1) To answer the types wherein without shedding of blood was no remission.

(2) In the nature of the thing (John 8:20). Death was threatened to sin, and feared by the sinner, and must be borne, therefore, for deliverance.

5. From this ransom there is a liberty resulting to us; but not a liberty to sin (Romans 6:22). Christ came not to free us from the duty of the law, but its penalty, otherwise it would promote the devil’s interest. He redeemed us that we might serve God.

6. We are not partakers of this liberty till we are united to Christ by faith “in whom.”

III. Remission of sins is a principal part of redemption.

1. How a part.

(1) Redemption is taken for the laying down of the price. That was done on the cross (Hebrews 9:12).

(2) In its application. Besides the ransom there is actual deliverance. Complete redemption we shall enjoy at the last day (Romans 8:23; Ephesians 4:30; Ephesians 1:14). Begun deliverance, which we now enjoy by faith, consists of justification (Ephesians 1:7), where sin is freely pardoned, and we delivered from evil and wrath; and sanctification (1 Peter 1:18; Titus 2:14).

2. A principal part, for--

(1) The power of Satan is destroyed (Acts 26:18).

(2) The reign of sin is broken. The gift of the sanctifying Spirit is part of our pardon applied (Colossians 2:13).

(3) We are eased of our tormenting fears.

(4) Death is unstinged (1 Corinthians 15:56).

(5) The obligation to, eternal punishment ceases.

IV. Use. To persuade you to seek after this benefit.

1. We all once needed it. Nothing but pardon will serve your turn.

(1) Not forbearance on God’s part.

(2) Not senseless forgetfulness or baseless hope on yours.

2. The best of us still need it. Renewed sins need new pardon; daily infirmities daily repentance. (T. Manton, D. D.)

1. The apostle had been speaking of Christian privileges as being matters of present enjoyment--meetness for heaven; deliverance from sin, dec., are in the actual possession of the Christian.

2. There are two methods proposed by which men hope to secure God’s favour. Thousands consider it presumption to profess to have it, but hope to do so after they have prayed more and done more good deeds. God’s method is the reverse. What man places at the end He places at the beginning; what man says “work for,” He says “work from.” Turning away our thoughts from self He fixes them on Christ.

3. The different results on feeling resulting are immense. The man who works for future forgiveness has at best the spirit of a servant; he who takes forgiveness now as God’s free gift in Christ enjoys reconciliation and sonship.

I. Redemption as identical with forgiveness of sins.

1. Redemption is something more than rescue. If you see a man in danger and pluck him out you save but not redeem him. If you see a man oppressed and snatch him from his enemy you deliver but not redeem him. Redemption is the release of a man by the payment of ransom. We by our transgressions have exposed ourselves to God’s law, which knows no pity, holds us in its grasp, and will inflict, unless we are delivered, the fearful penalty of eternal death. But if that penalty be remitted we are redeemed, and so forgiveness is equivalent to redemption. But sin has also brought us under its own power, and so made us its slaves; and the only way of securing us and setting us free is forgiveness.

2. The one thing we absolutely require as sinners is the remission of the horrible penalty, and it is neither irrational nor immoral to be afraid of that penalty; but we must be released from the power of sin before our happiness can be secured. Tell me that I am not to be punished and you have made me glad, but you have not inspired me with love to God. But tell me that the means of forgiveness is the sacrifice of God’s dear Son, that God pardons not only as a Sovereign but as a Father, and the power of sin will be broken, and I enter on the joyful, ennobling service of love.

II. Redemption as effected through the blood of Christ.

1. In Philippians 2:1. the apostle, in speaking of Christ’s death, has in view Christ’s obedience; here in using the term “blood” his idea is expiation, and so elsewhere where the word is used; because in the Jewish sacrifices it was not the death of the victim, but its blood that was the typical instrument of expiation.

2. Such a redemption is necessary to meet the demands of the heart and to produce a changed feeling towards God.

(1) Forgiveness must be a righteous forgiveness; not a mere easy, weak-minded passing over of transgression. Redemption by the blood of Christ meets this demand of the awakened conscience, for in the cross God appears more awful than elsewhere in His hatred of sin and His determination to punish it.

(2) But it is also the forgiveness of a Father we want, and nowhere have we such an exhibition of God’s love as in the cross. Conclusion.--This redemption is only to be had in Christ. Out of Him, however respectable and moral, we are slaves of sin and exposed to the curse. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)

Plan of redemption

Suppose a large graveyard surrounded by a high wall, with only one entrance by a large iron gate which is fast bolted. Within these wails are tens of thousands of human beings, by one disease descending to the grave. There is no balm to relieve them, no physician there: they must perish. This is the condition of man as a sinner. All have sinned, and the soul that sinneth shall die. While man was in this deplorable state, Mercy, an attribute of Deity, came down and stood at the gate, looked at the scene, and wept over it, exclaiming, “Oh, that I might enter! I would bind up their wounds; I would relieve their sorrows; I would save their souls.” While Mercy stood weeping at the gate, an embassy of angels, commissioned from the court of heaven to some other world, passing over, paused at the sight, and Heaven forgave that pause. Seeing Mercy standing there, they cried, “Mercy, Mercy, can you not enter can you look upon this scene, and not pity? can you pity, and not relieve?” Mercy replied, “I can see;” and in her tears she added, “I pity, but cannot relieve.”--“Why can you not enter?”--“Oh!” said Mercy, “Justice has barred the gate against me, and I cannot, must not, unbar it.” At this moment Justice himself appeared, as it were to watch the gate. The angels inquired of him, “Why will you not let Mercy in?” Justice replied, “My law is broken, and it must be honoured: die they or Justice must.” At this there appeared a form among the angelic band, like unto the Son of God, who, addressing Himself to Justice, said, “What are thy demands?” Justice replied, “My terms are stern and rigid. I must have sickness for their health; I must have ignominy for their honour; I must have death for life; without the shedding of blood there is no remission.”--“Justice,” said the Son of God, “I accept thy terms. On Me be this wrong, and let Mercy enter.”--“When,” said Justice, “will you perform this promise?” Jesus replied, “Four thousand years hence, upon the hill of Calvary, without the gates of Jerusalem, I will perform it in My own person.” The deed was prepared and signed in the presence of the angels of God. Justice was satisfied; and Mercy entered, preaching salvation in the name of Jesus. The deed was committed to the patriarchs; by them to the kings of Israel and the prophets; by them it was preserved till Daniel’s seventy weeks were accomplished; and, at the appointed time, Justice appeared on the hill of Calvary, and Mercy presented to him the important deed. “Where,” said Justice, “is the Son of God?” Mercy answered, “Behold Him at the bottom of the hill, bearing His own cross;” and then he departed, and stood aloof at the hour of trial. Jesus ascended the hill, while in His train followed His weeping Church. Justice immediately presented Him with the important deed, saying, “This is the day when this bond is to be executed.” When He received it, did He tear it in pieces, and give it to the winds of heaven? No: He nailed it to His cross, exclaiming, “It is finished!” Justice called on holy fire to come down, and consume the sacrifice. Holy fire descended: it swallowed His humanity; but, when it touched His divinity, it expired, and there was darkness over the whole heavens; but, glory to God in the highest! on earth peace, and good-will to men. (Christmas Evans.)

The greatness of redemption

If that a king should empty all his coffers, and alienate all his crown land to rescue his subjects, he should show himself a natural prince: but what is this to that ransom which our King hath tendered? (P. Bayne, B. D.)

Redemption incomplete until accepted by faith in Christ

Suppose there were twenty traitors in the Tower lay condemned; say again, the prince should yield his father such satisfaction for some whom he would save, wherewith the king his father should be contented, and give him their pardon thereupon; here the thing is done betwixt the king and his son, yet till the prince send to them, write to the keeper to deliver such and such to him, they are in the state they were in, and so continue. So it is with God, Christ, and us: the redemption is all concluded betwixt God and His beloved Son; yet till this is effectually made known to our hearts, so that they believe on this grace of Christ, we are as we were, in hold, in the fear of our condemnation. We are justified through the redemption in Christ, but so that before it can be applied in us we must have faith in His blood, being set forth unto us in the word preached. Can we have the strength of bread without eating bread? No more can we have any benefit by the bread of life without believing on Him. In Christ by faith we have these things. (P. Bayne, B. D.)

Redemption partial and complete

We have that redemption which consists in the forgiveness of sins, and having obtained it are delivered from the bondage of the devil, of sin, and of hell. The devil cannot any longer detain us as captives, rule us as his slaves, and drive us here and there as he pleases; sin itself which cleaves to us cannot reign in us; finally, even hell cannot torment us with perpetual fear, or claim any lordship over us. For, our sins being remitted, the power of the devil is broken, the wrath of God is removed, the condemnation of eternal death is taken away. From all these things, therefore, we have redemption at the same time that we have forgiveness of sins. But there is yet another bondage, viz., that of the corruption of our bodies, and of eternal sufferings, from which the elect are not yet redeemed, but shall be redeemed at the coming of Christ (Luke 21:28). The apostle calls this the redemption of the purchased possession (Ephesians 1:14). This also Christ merited for us: but He would not bestow upon believers at once this incorruption of their bodies, and deliverance from present external miseries, and from the remains of sin, for the following reasons.

1. Lest the condition of the Head and of the members should be plainly dissimilar. For Christ Himself was a Man of sorrows: He did not at once sit down at the right hand of the Father in glory, but first underwent hunger, thirst, crucifixion, and death: it is therefore but consistent that the members of Christ should pass likewise through sufferings and death itself to glory.

2. They are not fully redeemed from these bodily afflictions, neither from the remains of sin, that they may have matter for glorifying God, whilst they endure them with the greatest constancy and patience, whilst they resist with all their might all the lusts of sin; that God, even as a just Judge, may confer upon them, after having well fought this fight, the unfading crown.

3. He would not straightway deliver the faithful from this bodily misery instantly, lest Christians should seem to embrace Christ on account of this temporal deliverance, rather than on account of that spiritual one. (Bishop Davenant.)

Redemption God’s forgiveness as King and Father

Suppose that a son had sinned grievously against a parent who was also a king. By the son’s breach of the laws he has exposed himself to a certain penalty; but he has also alienated himself from his father- produced in his heart a spirit of distrust and aversion which becomes deeper and more intense the longer he holds aloof. There are two things then to be considered: the punishment to which the son is liable; and the depraving, alienating influence which his transgression exercises over his mind. Now, if the breach is ever to be healed, it will not be enough for the father to say, “I remit the penalty of your transgression: I forbear to strike: you may go.” The son may, will, be glad to escape suffering, but he will not be drawn thereby in love towards his father. The old alienation will rankle still, and will break out presently in fresh offences. Something more, then, is needed, viz., the exhibition of the father’s love towards the erring son; there is needed that it be said, “I not only release you from merited suffering; but I forgive you: I open my heart to you, and take you back into it. I am only too glad to welcome you to my heart and home, with the feeling that my child is no longer a wanderer and an alien, but has given me back his love.” Then the power of the transgression will be broken, and the interrupted relation between father and child will be restored. Precisely in the same way, if forgiveness of sin meant simply the remission of penalties, there would be in the heart of the sinner nothing but a cold and selfish thankfulness and self-congratulation for escape from pain. But our sins are forgiven us in such a way that the heart of a loving Father is displayed in the act. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)

Redemption atonement for and remission of sin

It is the Day of Atonement. Two young kids of the goats are presented before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle. Those young spotless creatures are a double type of Jesus when in the councils of eternity He presented Himself before Jehovah, saying, “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God.” The lot is cast--one for the Lord, the other for the scapegoat--to deter mine which shall represent our Saviour in the act of His death, and which in the fruit of His death, viz., the bearing of the sins of the people. The first falls as a sin-offering. The high priest having caught its flowing blood in a golden bowl, enters within the veil, and, alone, sprinkles it upon the mercy-seat. Coming forth, he goes up to the living goat; standing over it, he lays his hands upon its head; and, amid solemn silence, confesses over the dumb creature all the sins of the people. The prayer finished, that goat bears on its devoted head the guilt of the people. And now observe the act which foreshadowed how Jesus by taking our sins bore them away. The congregation opens, forming a lane that stretches away from the tabernacle to the boundless desert. While every lip is sealed, and every eye intent, a “fit” man steps forth, and taking hold of the victim, he leads it on and away through the parted crowd. Amid the haze of the burning sands and distant horizon their forms grow less and less, and at length vanish from sight. He and that goat are now alone. They travel on and further on, till, removed beyond the reach of any human eye, far off in the distant wilderness, he casts loose the sin-laden creature. And when, after the lapse of hours, the people descry a speck in the distance, which draws nearer and nearer, until they recognize the “fit” man, the people see, and we in figure see also, how our Lord, when He was made an offering for sin, took the load of our guilt upon Him, bearing it away, as it were, to a land that was not known. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Pardon, not justice, wanted

A French girl of fourteen appeared before Napoleon, and casting herself at his feet, cried, “Pardon, sire! pardon for my father!” “And who is your father?” asked Napoleon, “and who are you?” “My name is Lajolia,” she said, and with flowing tears added, “but, sire, my father is doomed to die.” “Ah, young lady,” replied Napoleon, “I can do nothing for you. It is the second time your father has been found guilty against the State.” “Alas!” exclaimed the poor girl, “I know it, sire; but I do not ask for justice, I implore pardon. I beseech you to forgive my father!” After a momentary struggle of feeling, Napoleon gently took the hand of the young maiden, and said, “Well, my child, for your sake I will pardon your father. That is enough. Now leave me.”

The value of pardon

A man named John Welsh lay in prison in Chicago under sentence of death. His friends tried to get his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life. The day before that fixed for his execution arrived without any favourable reply being received. The prisoner sat in his cell listening and longing earnestly for a respite. Presently he heard the rumbling of a car. It brought the materials for the scaffold, and soon he heard the stroke of the hammers, and pictured himself hanging on the scaffold he could hear them raising. The sound almost drove him frantic, and he begged that he might be taken anywhere away from the dreadful noise. He was taken to a distant cell, and there he sat on the edge of his bed, haunted with gloomy thoughts, all hope gone. He was startled from his reverie by a hurried step along the corridor. The key was thrust into the lock, and one of the officers of the prison stood before him. He held in his hand a paper signed by the Governor of the State of Illinois. It was a commutation of his sentence. How the truth burst upon his mind! When the paper was handed to him he could not read it for tears, but it was a paper bringing him his life, and he hugged it and kissed it. (H. W. Taylor.)

Forgiveness and remission of sins

Strictly speaking it is not sins that are forgiven, but their penalty. All men know what “to give” is; but what is it to for-give? To forth-give or give forth. When a man in ancient times forgave, he gave forth from himself something he was entitled to retain. When a man does injury to another he is liable to a penalty, and formerly every penalty short of death consisted of valuable material such as live cattle or money; and it was that, laid at the injured person’s feet, that was given forth from the receiver, when he was willing to forgive the injurer. Precisely speaking it was not the injury that was forth-given; the injury was never at the disposal of the injured person. It was the penalty incurred by the injury that was forth-given. And whatever the penalty might be, though death itself, if it was not exacted it was forgiven. So when God forgives He generously refrains from exacting the penalty we have incurred. Another word is remission, which is a beautiful variation. There is mission in it. When any one is sent forth some end is contemplated. That end is his mission. Re of course means back. To remit is to send back. In ancient times when the material of the penalty of a transgression was sent to the injured person, he had it in his option graciously to send it back. That was the remission of the penalty of the sin. The phrase is now condensed, and we speak not only of the remission of the penalty, but of the remission of the sin. The expression is practically equivalent in Biblical representation to the word redemption, so that the two phrases reciprocally throw light on each other. In this light it is seen that, as a matter of principle, it must always be a difficulty in moral government to give scope to the forgiveness of crimes, or the remission of the penalty of transgressions. No wonder, therefore, that there should be difficulty in the Divine government. (J. Morison, D. D.)