[Sept. 14th, 1856.]
We, in common with others, sustain different relations to God. 1. As our Creator. We owe to him our existence, our faculties, and we are sustained by him. 2. As our Father, that is, as the objects of his care, of his beneficence. He gives us every thing that we possess, and is the source of all good. 3. As our moral governor, whose will is the rule of duty, to whom we are responsible, and who will reward us or punish us according to our works. These are relations common to all men. They belong to us as rational beings. They are not peculiar to us as Christians. Our peculiar relation to God as Christians is that we are his redeemed ones.
I. What is redemption? II. By whom we are redeemed. III. At what price? IV. To what end?
This redemption is peculiar to us not only as distinguished from other men, but from all other creatures. No angels, no other order of beings are the subjects of redemption.
I. What is redemption?
It is deliverance from captivity or bondage, or death, by purchase.
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We were in captivity to Satan. He could do with us what he pleased; we were in his power, hopelessly and helplessly under his control.
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We were in bondage to sin; to its power, from which no resources of our own, or of any creature, now or in eternity, could deliver us. To be forever sinners was all that we could expect.
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We were in bondage to the law, subject to its demands, and to its penalty, which is eternal death. There was no possibility of escape. To be redeemed is to be delivered by a ransom from this captivity to Satan, this bondage to sin, and this condemnation. It is not to have the offer of deliverance, or to have it rendered possible, but it is actual deliverance.
II. Who is the redeemer? “The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was, and continueth to be, God and man, in two distinct natures, and one person forever.” Our eye does not rest on any angel, nor on the throne of God, but on the Incarnate Son. As he did not undertake the redemption of angels, so he did not assume their nature.
To God we stand in the relation of creatures, of children, of subjects; but to Christ, as redeemed. We are his property. We belong to him. We are the (servants of Christ). This is our distinguishing peculiarity. It involves two things: (a.) That our relation is to Christ. (b.) That it is that which arises from redemption, that is, by purchase; so that we are his, and are bound to make his will the rule of our conduct, and his service the business of our lives. This all the redeemed must and will do.
III. The price of redemption was himself. He gave himself for us. It involves, 1. His incarnation. 2. His subjection to the law, to fulfil all righteousness. 3. To its curse, including all the miseries of this life, the painful death of the cross, and the wrath of God.
IV. The end of redemption.
- The proximate end is our holiness and happiness; that we should glorify God in our bodies and spirits which are his; that is, that we use our bodies, all their members and all their powers, and all the resources of our spirits, to his glory, i.e., so as to cause him to be honored. This is to be done in honoring him ourselves, and in causing others to honor him. We glorify God when we worship, love and serve him, and also when we cause others to do the same.
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