Chapter 7
Introduction
to Redemption
With this subject we are concerned with both redemption and
election for election is God's great comprehensive means of bringing about
God's glory in the salvation of His chosen. Redemption is not another
foundation distinct from election, as is sovereignty and righteousness, but
rather redemption is the chief cornerstone that has been laid by our Lord for
His churches.
All true Christians will agree that the Lord Jesus Christ has a
body or rather bodies, if you are local church, and those bodies are His
churches. The Head and Savior of each of the local bodies is the Lord Jesus
Christ, but who makes up the remainder of these bodies? Is it the whole of
mankind as the universalists would have us believe or just some persons in
particular? Did Christ in His death have the same respect to all or just to
some? Will any of those for whom He died miss out on the benefits that His
death gives, or will all of the chosen receive all the benefits that His death
has appropriated to each and everyone of them? These are questions of great
importance for our times of serious meditation for there are those who want us
to believe that whether or not we receive these benefits is up to us, including
our salvation, but if that is true, if God should withhold even one benefit
from one of His chosen then He is a liar for His benefits are ours, the Word of
God tells us so. Psalm 103 tells us about these benefits, we will just quote
some of them here, "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all
thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with
loving-kindness and tender mercies; Who satisfied thy mouth with good things;
so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." So the Psalm goes on to
tell us the benefits of being one of the Chosen of the Lord. Notice that it
even includes among the benefits of being one of the Lord's chosen that He
"redeemeth thy life from destruction;" so if the elect can lose even
one of the benefits that God has appropriated for His own then they might lose
their redemption and so their salvation and election could be written off as
figment of many men's imagination.
These questions and ideas are the very reason for these little
books, 1) The Sovereignty and Righteousness of God, 2) Election and Redemption.