Of redemption of christ
John Gill
Having, in the preceding book,
gone through the twofold state of Christ, his humiliation and exaltation; and considered
each of the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, sustained and exercised by
him therein; I shall now proceed to consider the blessings
of grace, which come by him, through the exercise of them; and especially his
priestly office; for he is "come an High Priest of good things to
come", #Heb 9:11 which were future, under the former dispensation, were
promised, prophesied of, and prefigured in it; but not accomplished; for
"the law" had only a shadow of these good things to come, #Heb 10:1
but now they are come, and are actually obtained, through
Christ's coming in the flesh; and through what he has done and suffered in it;
as redemption, satisfaction, and reconciliation for sin, remission of sin,
justification, adoption, &c. and as redemption stands in the first place;
and is a principal and most important blessing and doctrine of grace, I shall
begin with that. And,
1. First, I shall settle the
meaning of the word; and show what it supposes, includes, and is designed by
it. Our English word Redemption, is from the Latin tongue, and signifies,
buying again; and several words in the Greek language, of the New Testament,
are used in the affair of our Redemption, which signify the obtaining of something by paying a proper price for it; sometimes the simple
verb agorazw, to "buy", is used: so the redeemed are said to be
"bought unto God" by the blood of Christ; and to be
"bought" from the earth; and to be "bought" from among men;
and to be "bought" with a price; that is, with the price of Christ's
blood, #Re 5:9 14:3,4 1Co 6:20 hence the church of God is said to be purchased
with it, #Ac 20:28. Sometimes the compound word exagorazw,
is used; which signifies, to buy again, or out of the hands of another; as the
redeemed are bought out of the hands of justice; as in #Ga 3:13 4:5. In other
places lutrow, is used, or others derived from it; which signifies, the
deliverance of a slave, or captive, from his thraldom, by paying a ransom price
for him: so the saints are said to be redeemed, not with silver or gold, the usual price paid for a ransom; but with a far greater one,
the blood and life of Christ, which he came into this world to give, as a
ransom price for many; and even himself, which is antilutron, an answerable,
adequate, and full price for them, #1Pe 1:18 Mt 20:28 1Ti 2:6. There are
various typical redemptions, and that are of a civil nature, which may serve to
illustrate our spiritual and eternal redemption by Christ.
As,
1a. The deliverances of the
people of Israel out of their captivities, Egyptian and Babylonian; the latter
I shall not much insist upon; since, though the Jews were exiles in Babylon,
they did not appear to be in much slavery and thraldom; but built houses, planted gardens, and had many privileges; insomuch that
some of them, when they might have had their liberty, chose rather to continue
where they were; and though their deliverance is sometimes called a redemption,
yet sparingly, and in an improper sense, #Jer 15:21 for they were redeemed
without money; and Cyrus, their deliverer, neither gave nor took a price for
them; and is never called a redeemer; see #Isa 14:13 52:3.
But the deliverance of the people of Israel out of Egypt, was a very special
and remarkable type of redemption by Christ, out of a worse state of bondage
than that of Egypt. The Israelites were made to serve with rigour, and their
lives were made bitter with hard bondage, in brick and mortar, and service in
the field; and they cried to God, by reason of their bondage, it was so intolerable; and it was aggravated by the taskmasters set over
them; who, by the order of Pharaoh, obliged them to provide themselves with
straw, and yet bring in the full tale of brick as before: which fitly expresses
the state and condition that men are in; who, through sin, are weak and unable
to fulfil the law; yet is it as regardless of want of strength, as the Egyptian
taskmasters were of want of straw: it requires sinless and
perfect obedience to it; and curses and condemns such as continue not in all
things to do it. The deliverance of the people of Israel, is called a
redemption; God promised to rid them out of their bondage, and to
"redeem" them with a stretched out arm; and when they were delivered,
he is said to have led forth the people he had "redeemed": and the
bringing them out of the house of bondage, or redeeming them
out of the house of bondmen, is used as an argument to engage them to regard
the commandments of God, #Ex 6:6 15:13 20:9 De 7:8. And which redemption by
Christ, from sin, the law, and death, lay the redeemed under a still greater
obligation to do; Moses, who was the instrument God raised up, and whom he
called and sent to redeem Israel, is said to be a "deliverer", or as
it should be rendered, a "redeemer", #Ac 7:35 in
which he was a type of Christ, whom God raised up, called, and sent to be a
Redeemer of his spiritual Israel: and there was, in some sense, a price paid
for the redemption of literal Israel; since they are expressly said to be a
purchased people, bought by the Lord, #Ex 15:16 De 32:6 and their deliverance
was owing to blood, the blood of the passover lamb, sprinkled on their door posts; typical of the blood of Christ, the price of our
redemption. Besides, as it has been observed by some, the redemption of the
people of Israel, being the Lord's people, was by virtue of their future
redemption by Christ; whose sufferings and death were for the "redemption
of transgressions", or of transgressors, who were "under the first
testament"; and that the temporal deliverance of none but the Lord's people, is called a redemption, not that of his and
their enemies.
1b. The ransom of the people
of Israel, when numbered, was typical of the ransom by Christ; which was made
by paying half a shekel, called the atonement money for their souls, and which
was paid alike for a rich man, as a poor man; whereby they were
preserved from any plague among them, #Ex 30:12-16. None but Israelites were
ransomed; and none are ransomed by Christ, but the spiritual Israel of God,
whom he has chosen, Christ has redeemed, and who shall be saved with an
everlasting salvation; even the whole Israel of God, Jews and Gentiles: they
were a numbered people for whom the ransom was paid; and so are they that are
redeemed and ransomed by Christ; whose names are written in
the Lamb's book of life; who have passed under the hands of him that telleth
them, and have been told into the hands of Christ; and are particularly and
distinctly known by him, even by name; the sheep for whom he has laid down his
life; and are a special and peculiar people. The half shekel was paid alike for
rich and poor, for one neither more nor less. Christ's
people, though some may be redeemed from more and greater sins than others; yet
they are all redeemed from all their sins, and with the same price, the price
of his blood; and which is, as the half shekel was, an atonement for their
souls; by which peace and reconciliation, and full satisfaction are made for
sin, so that no plague shall come nigh them; they are delivered from going down
to the pit of destruction; and are saved from the second
death; see #Job 33:24.
1c. The buying again of an
Israelite, waxen poor, and sold to another, by any near akin to him; is a
lively representation of the purchase and redemption of the Lord's poor people,
#Le 25:47-49 who, in a state of nature, are poor, and wretched, and miserable; even so as to be like beggars on the dunghill; when
such was the grace of Christ, who, though rich, for their sakes became poor,
that they, through his poverty might be made rich; and to such a degree, as to
be raised from the dunghill and sit among princes, and inherit the throne of
glory. Though some may not sell themselves to work wickedness, as Ahab did, yet
all are sold under sin; for if this was the case of the
apostle Paul, though regenerate, much more must it be the case of an
unregenerate man; who, through sin, is brought into subjection to it, a servant
of it, and a slave to it; as the poor Israelite, sold to a stranger, was a
bondman to him: and such an one cannot redeem himself, being without strength,
unable to fulfil the law, and to make atonement for sin; nor can any of his
friends, though ever so rich, redeem him, or give to God a
ransom for him; such may redeem a poor relation, or friend from a prison, by
paying his pecuniary debts for him; but cannot redeem his soul from hell and
destruction; may give a ransom price to man for one in slavery and bondage; but
cannot give to God a ransom to deliver from wrath to come: only Christ, the
near Kinsman of his people, can do this, and has done it; he that
is their "Gaol", their near "Kinsman", partaker of the same
flesh and blood with them, is their Redeemer, who has given himself a ransom
for them.
1d. The delivery of a debtor
from prison, by paying his debts for him, is an emblem of deliverance and
redemption by Christ: a man that is in debt, is liable to be arrested,
and cast into prison, as is often the case; where he must lie till the debt his
discharged, by himself or another: sins are debts; and a sinner owes more than
ten thousand talents, and has nothing to pay; he cannot answer to the justice
of God for one debt of a thousand; nor can he, by paying a debt of obedience he
owes to God, pay off one debt of sin, or obligation to punishment; and so is
liable to a prison, and is in one; is concluded under sin,
under the guilt of it, which exposes him to punishment; and he is held with the
cords and fetters of it; which he cannot loose himself from; and he is shut up
under the law, in which he is held, until delivered and released by Christ;
who, as he has engaged to pay the debts of his people, has paid them, cleared
the whole score, and blotted out the hand writing that was against
them; in consequence of which is proclaimed, in the gospel, liberty to the
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; and in the
effectual calling Christ says "to the prisoners", "Go
forth", opening the prison doors for them; and to them that sit in
darkness, in the gloomy cells of the prison, "show yourselves"; all
which is done in virtue of the redemption price paid by Christ for his people.
1e. The ransoming of persons
out of slavery, by paying a ransom price for them, serves to give an idea of
the redemption of the Lord's people by Christ. They are in a state of slavery,
out of which they cannot deliver themselves; Christ is the ransomer
of them out of the hands of such that are stronger than they; his life and
blood are the ransom price he has paid for them; and they are called, the
ransomed of the Lord; their deliverance from present bondage, and future ruin
and destruction, is in consequence of a ransom found and given; "Deliver
him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom", #Job 33:24 Zec
9:11. In which there is an allusion to a custom in the
eastern countries, to put their slaves in an evening into a pit, where they are
close shut up till the morning, and then taken out, to be put to their slavish
employments; but not delivered, unless a sufficient ransom is given for them;
and such is the blood of the covenant. Now all these views of redemption
plainly point out to us the following things with respect to the redemption of the Lord's people.
1e1. That
they are previous to their redemption, and which that
supposes, in
a state of captivity and bondage; they are
sinners in
Adam, and by actual transgressions; and so come
into the hands of vindictive justice, offended by sin; and
which will
not clear the guilty without satisfaction given
to it; which
is made by paying a price: redemption by Christ
is nothing
more nor less than buying his people out of the
hands of
justice, in which they are held for sin; and that
is with the price of his blood; which is therefore paid
into
the hands of
justice for them: hence they are said to be
redeemed, or
bought unto God by his blood, #Re 5:9. Being
sinners, and
offenders of the justice of God, that holds
under sin;
under the guilt of it, which binds over to
punishment, unless delivered from it; it holds them under
the sentence
of the law, transgressed by them; which not
only accuses
of and charges with sin, but pronounces guilty,
and condemns
and curses: it holds them in subjection to
death, even
eternal death; which is the wages and just
demerit of sin: the law threatened with it in case of sin;
sin being
committed, the sentence of death passed upon all
men; all
having sinned, judgment, or the judicial sentence,
came upon
all men to condemnation in a legal way; and sin
reigned unto
death in a tyrannical manner; or, in other
words, man became not only deserving of wrath, but obnoxious
to it; the
wrath of God was revealed from heaven against all
unrighteousness
and ungodliness of men; and indignation and
wrath,
tribulation and anguish, come upon every soul of man,
as upon the
children of disobedience, unless delivered from
it, through the redemption that is by Christ. In such an
enthralled
state are men to sin, to the justice of God, to
death, and
wrath to come.
1e2. That
redemption by Christ is a deliverance from all this. It
is a redemption from sin; from all iniquities whatever,
original and
actual, #Ps 130:8 Tit 2:14 from avenging
justice, on
account of sin; from the guilt of sin; for there
is no
condemnation by it to them that are interested in
redemption
by Christ; "Who shall condemn? it is Christ that
died!" and by dying, has redeemed his people from sin,
and
secured them
from condemnation, #Ro 8:1,33 and in virtue of
this they
are delivered from the dominion of sin; for though
this is done
in the effectual calling, by the power of divine
grace, it is
in virtue of redemption by Christ, by whom sin
is crucified, and the body of it destroyed; so that it
shall
not reign in
them, or have dominion over them: one branch of
redemption
lies in being delivered from a vain conversation;
and, ere
long, the redeemed shall be delivered from the very
being of
sin; when their redemption, as to the application of
it, will be complete; as it will be in the resurrection;
when
the soul
will not only be among the spirits of just men made
perfect; but
the body will be clear of sin, mortality, and
death; which
is called redemption that draws near, the
redemption
of the body waited for, and the day of redemption,
#Lu 21:28 Ro 8:23 Eph 1:14 4:30. Redemption is a
deliverance
from the
law, from the bondage of it, and from the curse and
condemnation
by it; so that there shall be no more curse; and
from eternal
death and wrath to come: life is forfeited into
the hands of
justice by sin; which life is redeemed from
destruction by Christ, giving his life a ransom for it; he,
by redeeming
his people, has delivered them from wrath to
come; being
justified through the redemption that is in
Christ, by
his blood, they are, and shall be saved, from
everlasting
wrath, ruin, and destruction.
1e3. That
redemption by Christ is such a deliverance, as that it
is setting
persons quite free and at entire liberty; such
who are dead
to sin by Christ are freed from it, from the
damning
power of it, and from its dominion and tyranny; and
though, not as yet, from the being of it; yet, ere long,
they will
be; when, with the rest of the members of the
church, they
will be presented glorious, without spot or
wrinkle, or
any such thing: and such are free from the law;
though not
from obedience to it, yet from the bondage of it;
they are delivered from it, and are no longer held in it,
as
in a prison;
but are directed and exhorted to stand fast in
the liberty
from it, with which Christ has made them free;
and this
will have its full completion on all accounts,
when the
saints shall be delivered from every degree of
bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God.