There is no one of the titles of Christ which is more precious to Christian hearts than “Redeemer.” There are others, it is true, which are more often on the lips of Christians. The acknowledgment of our submission to Christ as our Lord, the recognition of what we owe to Him as our Saviour,—these things, naturally, are most frequently expressed in the names we call Him by. “Redeemer,” however, is a title of more intimate revelation than either “Lord” or “Saviour.” It gives expression not merely to our sense that we have received salvation from Him, but also to our appreciation of what it cost Him to procure this salvation for us. It is the name specifically of the Christ of the cross. Whenever we pronounce it, the cross is placarded before our eyes and our hearts are filled with loving remembrance not only that Christ has given us salvation, but that He paid a mighty price for it.
It is a name, therefore, which is charged with deep emotion, and is to be found particularly in the language of devotion. Christian song is vocal with it. How it appears in Christian song, we may see at once from old William Dunbar’s invocation, “My King, my Lord, and my Redeemer sweit.” Or even from Shakespeare’s description of a lost loved-one as “The precious image of our dear Redeemer.” Or from Christina Rossetti’s,
“Up Thy Hill of Sorrows
Thou all alone,
Jesus, man’s Redeemer,
Climbing to a Throne.”
Best of all perhaps from Henry Vaughan’s ode which he inscribes “To my most merciful, my most loving, and dearly-loved Redeemer; the ever blessed, the only Holy and Just One, Jesus Christ, The Son of the living God, and the Sacred Virgin Mary,” and in which he sings to
“My dear Redeemer, the world’s light,
And life too, and my heart’s delight.”
Terms of affection gather to it. Look into your hymns. Fully eight and twenty of those in our own “Hymnal” celebrate our Lord under the name of “Redeemer.” 1
Let our whole soul an offering be
To our Redeemer’s Name;
While we pray for pardoning grace,
Through our Redeemer’s Name;
Almighty Son, Incarnate Word,
Our Prophet, Priest, Redeemer, Lord;
To that dear Redeemer’s praise
Who the covenant sealed with blood; O for a thousand tongues to sing My dear Redeemer’s praise; To our Redeemer’s glorious Name Awake the sacred song; Intercessor, Friend of sinners, Earth’s Redeemer, plead for me; All hail, Redeemer, hail, For Thou hast died for me; Let us learn the wondrous story Of our great Redeemer’s birth; Guide where our infant Redeemer is laid; My dear Redeemer and my Lord; All glory, laud and honor To Thee Redeemer, King; Your Redeemer’s conflict see; Maker and Redeemer, Life and Health of all; Our blest Redeemer, ere He breathed His tender, last farewell; Here the Redeemer’s welcome voice Spreads heavenly peace around; The church our blest Redeemer saved With His own precious blood; The slain, the risen Son, Redeemer, Lord alone; The path our dear Redeemer trod May we, rejoicing, tread; Till o’er our ransomed nature The Lamb for sinners slain,
Redeemer, King, Creator,
In bliss returns to reign;
O the sweet wonders of that cross
Where my Redeemer loved and died;
Once, the world’s Redeemer, dying,
Bore our sins upon the Tree;
Redeemer, come: I open wide
My heart to thee;
I know that my Redeemer lives;
For, every good
In the Redeemer came;
A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
My great Redeemer’s throne;
Jesus, merciful Redeemer;
Father, and Redeemer, hear.
From our earliest childhood the preciousness of this title has been impressed upon us. In “The Shorter Catechism,” as the most precise and significant designation of Christ, from the point of view of what He has done for us, it takes the place of the more usual “Saviour,” which never occurs in that document. Thus there is permanently imprinted on the hearts of us all, the great fact that “the only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ”; through whom, in the execution of His offices of a Prophet, of a Priest, and of a King, God delivers us out of the estate of sin and misery and brings us into an estate of salvation. 2 The same service is performed for our sister, Episcopalian, communion by its “Book of Common Prayer.” The title “Redeemer” is applied in it to Christ about a dozen times: 3
O God the Son, Redeemer of the world;
Our blessed Saviour and Redeemer;
Joyfully receive Him for our Redeemer;
Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer;
The merits of our Saviour and Redeemer;
O Lord, our Saviour and Redeemer;
Jesus Christ, our only Saviour and Redeemer;
Our Redeemer and the author of everlasting life;
Our Redeemer and the author of everlasting life;
O Lord our strength and our Redeemer;
Only Mediator and Redeemer.
This constant pregnant use of the title “Redeemer” to express our sense of what we owe to Christ, has prevailed in the Church for, say, a millennium and a half. It comes with a little shock of surprise to learn that it has not always prevailed. In the first age of the Church, however, the usage had not become so characteristic of Christians as to stamp itself upon their literary remains. So far as appears, the first occurrence of the epithet “Redeemer” as applied to Christ in extant Christian literature is in Justin Martyr’s “Dialogue with Trypho the Jew,” which was written about the middle of the second century. 4 And it does not seem to occur frequently for a couple of centuries more. This is not to say that it was not in use among Christians during this early period. When Eusebius opens the tenth Book of his “Church History” with the words, “Thanks for all things be given unto God the omnipotent Ruler and King of the universe, and the greatest thanks to Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of our souls,” it is quite clear that he is not describing Christ by an unwonted name. Even more clear is it that Justin is not inventing a new name for Christ when he tells Trypho that Christians depend upon Jesus Christ to preserve them from the demons which they had served in the time of their heathenism, “for we call Him Helper and Redeemer, the power of whose name even the demons do fear.” Indeed, he explicitly tells us that the Christians were accustomed to employ this name of Christ: “we call Him Redeemer” he says. Nevertheless it seems hardly likely that so little trace of the use of this designation would have been left in the extant literature of the day, if it had occupied then quite the place it has occupied in later ages. This applies also to the New Testament. For, despite the prominence in the New Testament of the idea of redemption wrought by Christ, the designation “Redeemer” is not once applied to Christ in the New Testament. The word “Redeemer” occurs, indeed, only a single time in the New Testament, and then as a title of Moses, not of Christ,— although it is applied to Moses only as a type of Christ and presupposes its employment of Christ. 5