“In Whom we have our redemption through His
blood, ...according to the riches of His grace”
(Ephesians 1:7).
We are going to consider another aspect of the riches of
Christ in connection with “our redemption according
to the riches of His grace.” This matter of
redemption is a very big one, and it could take many
hours of consideration, because like election, it is a
matter which has been misunderstood and in some ways it
has been distorted. There has been a good deal of
confusion over the matter of this priceless wonder of our
redemption, and the meaning of that word. The confusion
arises when redemption is pictured as a matter of taking
a slave out of bondage by paying the redemption money.
Well, I say, there may be an element of truth in that
idea of interpretation, but the difficulty and the
confusion arises when you ask the question: ‘To whom
is the money paid? Has God got to pay the devil something
to get back that which he has taken? Is God a debtor to
Satan? Has God got to go into Satan’s slave market
and put up a price to redeem that which Satan has
captured?’ You see, it is an untenable idea, an
unthinkable thing to ever contemplate that God is at the
mercy of Satan, that Satan is in the position of saying,
‘If You would like to pay me an adequate price, I
will let you have what is in my possession.’ We will
never recognize that. So we have got to revise our idea
of this matter of redemption. I say there may be an
element of truth in it. It may go just so far, as we
shall probably see, but that is really not the whole
truth, and if we are not clear about this matter of
redemption, we shall be in some confusion.So, I want to try and make this
thing clear, for it is important that we have a right
understanding of things. We rejoice in redemption and we
sing about redemption and we can never make too much of
redemption, but there is some real value in understanding
what we are talking about by having a right apprehension
of the words and the terms that we use so commonly. So, I
just trust that what I say about this may not make it
seem to be a complicated thing, but rather to help us to
appreciate the real meaning of redemption.
“Hath
Redeemed Us Unto God”
Now let us begin where
it does begin. Redemption begins with being “unto
God.” It is redemption “unto God.” No, the
great word at the beginning of the Book of the Revelation
says: “hath redeemed us unto God, unto
God.” That means that something has been taken
from God which is God’s right. And, as a result, if
something has been taken from God, then the balance of
things has been upset. Therefore, things are not equal,
and things are not complete, because there is something
lacking which belongs to God. And that being the case,
then of course, things are unequal and things are
unbalanced. If there is a family, and in that family
there are two sons belonging to the one father, and one
son is removed then the balance of the family is upset.
It is lopsided, you see. It is one-sided, and the
father’s possession is divided and incomplete, and
an unequal position obtains. If a shepherd has a hundred
sheep, and that is his complete lot, that is everything
he owns—his fulness—and one of those sheep is
lost, the balance is upset and the thing is not complete,
and his possession is interfered with and disturbed.
Then, consequently, things are out of proportion. If a
woman has a necklace with ten pieces of silver hanging
from it, and one of those pieces of silver is lost, then
the balance is upset and she has not got all that belongs
to her. So, then, things are unequal, and the balance is
disturbed.
However, the bringing back of those lost things, whether
it is a son or a sheep or a piece of silver restores the
balance to the owner, and that is redemption unto God.
God has all that belongs to Him, all that is His right,
and there is completeness restored—“Redemption
unto God.” But what is it really that has been lost?
Of course we have the parables and the illustration in
the Scripture, it is like an illustration of a son, a
sheep, a piece of silver. Many other things are employed
to illustrate the truth, but they are only illustrations.
What is it really that has been lost and that has, by
being lost, upset the balance? It is life. It is life.
Now here is the deep mystery of redemption.
This is what we are met
with in the Bible throughout, and, of course, I cannot
trace this thing in half an hour, but what we are met
with in the Bible throughout is the very matter of the
disturbance of the balance of life. And God’s demand
is that that balance shall be restored. He is the Author,
the Fountain, the Origin of the Whole Sum of Life. Life
is God. He alone is the rightful Lord of Life. Life is
God’s, and so, it belongs to God. It is as though,
if I may put it this way, God has so much Life, so much
Life—which is a complete measure of Life, a fulness
of Life, an ultimate of Life—Life is just so much in
God and with God, it is not less, not more, but just so
much in God that if something of That Life is taken away,
you upset the balance of life. The whole thing is out of
proportion. And redemption means restoring that balance,
by restoring the fulness. Well, then, there you have your
Bible.
We are in these days very much occupied, or shall I say
the government is, or perhaps the country is occupied
with this matter of capital punishment. A life has been
taken, therefore, another life must equalize the
situation and put it straight, put it right, the balance
of life must be restored. That is the heart of capital
punishment as in the Law of Moses—or before the Law
of Moses—in the law of the first covenant,
“Whosoever taketh man’s life, his life shall be
taken.” The law of capital punishment. Oh why, just
for revenge? Just for judgment only? Just for malice? You
do that to me, I will do that to you? Is it just that?
No, there is a deep principle illustrated here. So much
life has been taken by the slaying of that man. That God
says, ‘That has got to be put straight, that has got
to be equalized, the balance has got to be
restored.’ That is the law of capital punishment.
And then there is the law of the cities of refuge for the
manslayer. A very interesting matter is that of the
manslayer, and the cities of refuge provided. Because the
manslayer has taken life, and the avenger of blood is on
his track to equalize this by taking his life. It is done
in order to put it straight, to put it even, to measure
everything up again. Of course, that is negative, so far
as the Old Testament is concerned. But we have not
finished yet. I think that you can see the principle is
quite clear. It is just a matter of restoring the balance
of things.
Now it is like that
through the Old Testament, and it is all a wonderful
illustration of great Divine truth. The point is, life
has been taken which belongs to God, because He is the
Author of Life, it has been taken, and God demands that
it be restored, because He is an equal God.
Equality or equity or
righteousness, which is a perfect balance of things,
belongs to God. And things must be even in God’s
universe. Things must not be out of order, not out of
proportion nor out of measure, but just perfectly even.
When we come to the end of redemption, everything will be
even because everything will be straightened out. There
will be nothing out of balance or out of proportion, but
all will be right, and righteousness will cover the earth
as the waters cover the sea. And no one will have any
ground for a quarrel with God. It is just right.
Now that is the point, you see, over this matter of
redemption. It is a question of life. There is, in
God’s order, in God’s universe, in God’s
system of things, a great equalizing principle. You can
never be in fellowship with God and be unrighteous in a
detail. Your fellowship with God, your oneness with God,
is upset, is unbalanced. It is like a dislocation of a
limb in the body if there is a point of unrighteousness
in life, in business transactions, or in relationships.
Well, that is unrighteous. All right, the balance is
upset, and God is going to demand that that be
straightened out, evened out. Righteousness is a
tremendous thing with God, because it just means that God
has things balanced, perfectly balanced. Now the focal
point then of this, as we have said, is life. Now the Old
Testament tells us that the blood is the life. You and I
can never, never straighten this matter out. Man can
never put this thing right with God. Man can never give
back to God that which has been taken from Him.
Therefore, His Own Son took on flesh and blood and
Christ’s Infinite Blood has atoned for it. You and I
have never yet fathomed the depth of the wonder of the
Blood of Jesus Christ, it is a term for His Life. His
Infinite Blood is given to God to restore the balance, to
make up for what has been lost, and what has been taken
from God by ruthless hands, by the murderer himself who
has come in. He restores all things to God by His Own
designated Infinite Blood, because it has got to be
sufficient to meet the demands of an Infinite God on the
one side, and of all men on the other side. Yes, it is
sufficient, Life has been poured out by Jesus Christ, for
God’s satisfaction, in order that God shall have all
that He has a right to. God’s Son has poured out His
Life to meet that demand of God in all men from Whom This
Life has been taken. The payment is not to Satan, but it
is to God. It is redemption by His Blood unto God.
There follows this:
that man is in bondage by this terrible thing that has
happened. He is in a position of weakness, of
defectiveness, of helplessness, and because of this he is
helplessly in bondage.
Now you, of course, can
take your illustration from the Old Testament, Israel in
Egypt is always referred to as the land of bondage. They
were in bondage, that is the word which governs their
position there. Now how were they delivered from that
bondage? Oh, we say it is by the blood of the lamb. That
is true, but the operation was two-sided. On the one
side, it depended entirely upon the attitude of the
heart, the attitude of faith. And on the other side, if
unbelief and rebellion of heart persisted, as in Pharaoh
and the Egyptians, the blood testified against them; it
was their undoing. But Israel was just as much in bondage
to sin and to the world as Egypt was. Just as much, there
is no difference. But the difference which did come about
was by their attitude toward the blood. If any Israelite
had refused by unbelief or rebellion of heart to take
that shed blood and sprinkle it upon the doorposts, the
lintel, making a circle of blood, they would have gone
the same way as the Egyptians. They would have remained
in bondage and death and under judgment. But we need to
recognize that they did not understand, they did not know
what we are talking about. However they had the simple
prescription, the simple command, that they should take
that blood of the lamb without spot, without blemish, and
sprinkle it upon the doorposts. Therefore, with that
simple command, there arose the demand for the obedience
of faith, and thereby that blood answered for them
God’s requirements.
God knew the secret,
the mystery of that blood. God Who is the Timeless, the
Eternal God was not moving, so many hundreds or thousands
of years before, on the ground of that symbolic lamb. No,
He was moving then and there on the ground of His Own Son
at Calvary, the Passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7b); and He knew
the meaning of it, while Israel did not have the
understanding. But God knew, and He just made His simple
requirement, but bound up with this deep, this fathomless
mystery of life, God has a right to life. God must have
that which is His Own Life, and so the lamb with its shed
blood symbolically answers to God’s demand and in
that life’s blood poured out, it is unto God.
You remember, that through all the Old Testament ritual
in Israel, the blood belongs to God; it is
sacred unto God. It is God’s, it represents the life
which belongs to God, and in the giving of that, God has
His right, His portion, what belongs to Him.
So, when we come to
this word in Ephesians 1, and at verse 7, it says:
“We have redemption through His Blood, the
forgiveness of our trespasses.” “And
hath,” says John, “redeemed us unto God
by His Blood” (Rev. 5:9). If you would like to
change the word you can, “We have redemption through
His poured-out Life, redeemed unto God through
His poured-out Life,” that is the meaning of it. The
Lord Jesus, because of the infinite value of His
Blood, the infinite measure of that which He
gave in His Cross unto God, has satisfied God
perfectly in this matter of His requirement, His demand.
And, although the explanation may sound a little
complicated and difficult— well, of course, it
is—it is the unsearchable riches, oh the depth of
the riches is beyond us, but after all in experience it
is very simple.
You know, dear friends, when you and I at the beginning
of our Christian life take by faith the virtue of the
Blood of Jesus Christ, we do not understand that, we do
not comprehend its meaning, but in simple faith we see
that it is by way of the Blood of Jesus Christ that we
are saved, and in that simple but genuine heart-faith in
the efficacy and virtue of the Blood of Jesus Christ, we
take it and give ourselves to God on the ground of it.
What is our first consciousness? Everything is all right,
the dislocation has been adjusted, the unbalanced state
of things has been put straight, we call it peace with
God. This is only another way of saying the same thing,
God has what He requires for His satisfaction, and if God
is satisfied, you and I will be well satisfied. If there
is that in us which satisfies Him, the Spirit will bear
witness.
And, although I say
again, we do not understand, we are in the depths, the
mighty depths, a depth which it will take eternity to
comprehend, there is a simple beginning with this fact,
everything was distorted, deranged, unbalanced, there was
something lacking that was essential, that was vital to
our peace, all that sort of thing, and now we have peace
with God, the balance is restored, God is satisfied, in
our hearts we feel, although we cannot explain it, we
feel, well somehow or other a great adjustment has taken
place. Things are equal now, things are straight now. Put
it as you will, but it is a consciousness, is it not?
And what is true in that sense of the initial aspect of
our salvation will be an abiding law throughout our
Christian life. If on any matter whatsoever, God’s
rights are being withheld, if He is not getting that
which is His due, in that measure we shall lack the
fulness of His rest and His peace. Now there is sort of
an unbalanced state of things, there is an oscillation in
the balance. Do you know something about that oscillation
in the balances of your heart? Is there something just
not steady in your heart? Something here that is
uncertain, that is wavering, that is not sure about this
yet? But immediately, when you and I get that thing
cleared up with God, it may be only one thing, but get
that straightened out and God gets what He is requiring,
peace is restored. It is a wonderful truth in the
Christian life, is it not? It is simple in that way, but
that is the explanation. Oh, why have I been holding out
so long. Why did I not get that thing cleared up before
now? I have been spoiling everything for myself, because
the Lord has not had what He had a right to.
Now redemption is initial,
redemption is progressive, and redemption is final.
There are the three tenses. You can change the word from
redemption to salvation if you like, it is the same
thing. We were saved, we are being
saved, and we shall be saved; those are the
three tenses of salvation. Well, the first is what He has
done for us perfectly and completely and which we have
accepted. The second of the process of redemption or
salvation is that God is getting more and more of that
requirement of His in our lives, and as He does, we are
knowing more and more the balanced, the steady life of
rest and confidence. But thank God, for as we go on to
the end of our days—salvation will continue right to
the last breath— there is that ultimate, that
perfect salvation when with that throng around the Lamb
on the Throne, we shall sing, “And hath redeemed us
unto God by His Blood.” That is the final aspect and
phase of redemption. It is all in the Infinite value of
the Blood of Jesus. See how great this is?! Well might
the apostle here include this in the riches of His grace,
the unsearchable riches of His grace, “the depth of
the riches of His Grace,” providing God with that
which we could never give Him, answering to God for His
righteous demands which we could never do. All these
words are bound up together. “Who of God is made
unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification,
and Redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Righteousness:
the Righteousness which is of God through faith in Jesus
Christ. Thus, God has provided it all in His Son.
The
Heart Of Wisdom And Election
Now, I will add just a
word here as to the next thing in this group, this
fivefold group of the riches of His grace,—
Election, Adoption, Redemption, Wisdom and Consummation
—it will not take me more than a few minutes to do
this, because it is so closely linked in with what we
have been saying. Election, adoption, and redemption. The
word that I want to add is found in Ephesians 1, at verse
8, “Which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom
and prudence.” Oh, dear ones, one of the riches of
His grace here is this “wisdom” which He has
made to abound unto us. Of this so many-sided and full
matter of wisdom, which He made to abound unto us, Christ
is made unto us from God “wisdom.” I am only
going to say one thing in this context with what we have
said, and what the rest of this chapter contains. What is
wisdom in its meaning here? Well, we will put it this
way, when the apostle had tabulated these five profound
things, these five unexplorable things, he goes down on
his knees. Now that was something extraordinary, for a
Jew very rarely knelt down to pray, he always stood up to
pray, if it was in the synagogue he stood up to pray. The
Bible refers to this in Mark 11:25, “When you stand
praying.” The common attitude and posture of prayer
for the Jew were standing and lifting up holy hands. It
is only occasionally that you find such an one on his
knees. You will find Daniel on his knees (Dan. 10:9). And
now here in Ephesians 3:14 Paul says, “I bow my
knees unto the Father.” “Bow.” What is
this? Why this unusual attitude of position? Something
unusual is at stake or is involved. It is an occasion for
something extraordinary. You will agree that that was so
with Daniel, you remember when he prayed there was
something tremendous involved.
Now the apostle says,
“I bow my knees,” there is something here that
is a tremendous matter. And what does he ask, what does
he pray for? He has said all these things about the
riches of His Grace, he knows how incomprehensible they
are: “I bow my knees unto the Father that He would
grant unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, the eyes of your heart being
enlightened, that you may know.” Now you have gotten
the heart of wisdom. What is the heart of wisdom? It is
the gift and ability of seeing right into the heart of
things, the ability given to see into the heart of
things. That is the spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Now Paul is writing in this letter of Ephesians about the
mystery hidden from ages and generations, hidden from
before times eternal in Christ, but now brought out from
the hidden place and committed and conveyed. Paul is
trying to explain this, to speak about this mystery. And
these things are in the mystery: “predestination,
foreordination, redemption....” Anybody here doubt
that they are mysteries? And men have been putting
themselves into natural distortions through hundreds of
years to explain just these words, “predestination,
foreordination,” and they are still going on with
it. Paul knows how deep are these riches of His grace,
what a tremendous thing is brought to us in Christ, and
before it all he falls down on his knees and says, “I
bow my knees unto the Father, that He would grant unto
you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Him”(Eph. 3:14, 1:17). Wisdom and revelation,
that is, the ability to see into the heart of things, and
all I can add to that is that the Holy Spirit has come
and is with us in order to disclose to us the heart of
these things.
Perhaps the greatest
need of Christians today is to see the meaning of the
things that they believe, to see the meaning of what true
Christianity is, to see the meaning of all these things
that make up our Christian faith. They are depths beyond
all reaching, they are immeasurably great things. These
things are unfathomable, and we need an ability, a
God-given ability to be able to see into the heart of
this. But thank God that is possible. Thank God the Holy
Spirit is given for that very purpose. And what I am
saying to you, dear friends, is just this: “That you
and I may have this same Spirit and this work of the
Spirit to open our hearts, the eyes of our heart to give
us this wisdom to see into the heart of the things of
Christ.” And what a wonderful thing it is, just to
see in a little way. To be able to say, “My, I never
saw that before, that is light, that is indeed
illumination, that is revelation, that is the truth, it
has an effect, it is not just the mental pleasure,
fascination, it does something in us, it puts us into a
position where we cannot throw that away easily, it has
become a part of us, we will never say we can do without
that.”
We will never say: “Well that is all very wonderful,
that is all very nice, but let us come back to the
simplicities, to the things easily understood.” You
cannot do that once you have seen into the heart of
things, you cannot throw it away, you cannot part with it
easily, to do so would be to do irreparable damage to our
own spiritual life. “I and this truth, this light
are one, it is not some thing that I have got, it is
myself, my very self, my very life, I have seen it,
because God has made it known to me. No use trying to
explain it all, I just cannot do it, but there it is, it
is myself. He has made it a part of myself.” And
that is wisdom, seeing right into the heart by the opened
eye, knowing in an inward way, an interior way, the
meaning of the things that we have heard and read and,
perhaps, believed.
But dear friends, as I
think you will see from what I have said this afternoon,
there is a depth, a fulness in such a word as redemption.
A word which we have only just touched the fringe of. And
everything else in our salvation is in the same category,
it is of the dimensions of God Himself. And it is going
to take eternity for us to comprehend it. But it is given
to us here to know, and to know more and still more of
the depth of the wisdom of His grace!