Redemption through blood.
"Redemption" is a large and exclusive term, implying deliverance from sin, Satan, and death. It includes, not the mere remission of sins, which is, however, the primary element in it; nor the mere adoption, though that is the consequence of it—for "we are redeemed that we may receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:4), but the completed sanctification of our souls and the consummated redemption of our bodies. The price of redemption is the blood of him who is here described as "the Beloved."
I. THE REDEMPTION IS NOT, ANY MORE THAN THE ADOPTION, EFFECTED BY THE INCARNATION, BUT BY THE DEATH OF CHRIST. More was needed for redemption than the mere birth of the Redeemer, else he need not have died. Therefore we preach, not the person of Christ, nor the child born, but Christ crucified, "the wisdom of God, and the power of God." Some lay stress upon his life rather than upon his death. But the one righteousness on the ground of which we are justified, consists at once of the obedience of his life and of the sufferings of his death. Our Savior was our Substitute both in life and in death. Yet Scripture assigns the greater prominence to the death. We are "bought with a price;" "We are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ." Not only is redemption set forth objectively in Christ's person, because he is of God made unto us "redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30), but the ransom price is definitively described as "his blood," considered as the reality of the ancient sacrifices and as procuring the full salvation which they only figured forth.
II. THE REDEMPTION IS NOT A MERE MORAL RENOVATION. Some divines say the work of redemption is wholly subjective, its sole aim being the moral transformation of the sinner, or the rooting of sin out of the soul. They say, indeed, that no such thing as remission of sin is possible, except through the previous extirpation of sin itself. But, according to Scripture, redemption includes everything necessary to salvation, both the change of condition and the change of character—both justification and sanctification. And both these come to us in virtue of Christ's blood. If nothing was required for salvation but the exercise of spiritual power upon us, no person need have come from the bosom of the Godhead, and there need have been no crucifixion. The double aspect of Christ's death is presented in such passages as these: "He bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24); "He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14, Titus 2:15). That is, his ultimate design is to deliver us from sin itself. But the moral power of the cross depends upon those substantial objective benefits which it procures for us. On the theory of some modern divines, the redemption cannot extend to Old Testament saints at all, for they have not seen the manifestation of Divine self-sacrificing love which we have seen in the cross.
III. IT IS A REDEMPTION STILL IN PROGRESS. The original word implies this—"we are having" this redemption. Naturalistic writers give us a dead Christ. But we have a living Savior who, because he was crucified once, is dead no more, but "ever liveth to make intercession for us." He is now carrying on in heaven the work of our redemption. The Holy Spirit applies to us all its blessings, and seals us unto the day of redemption.—T.C.