Spurgeon also said:
"That word “redemption” sounds in my ears like a silver bell. We are ransomed, purchased back from slavery, and this at an immeasurable price; not merely by the obedience of Christ, nor the suffering of Christ, nor even the death of Christ, but by Christ’s giving Himself for us. All that there is in the great God and Savior was paid down that he might “redeem us from all iniquity.” The splendor of the Gospel lies in the redeeming sacrifice of the Son of God, and we shall never fail to put this to the front in our preaching. It is the gem of all the Gospel gems. As the moon is among the stars, so is this great doctrine among all the lesser lights which God hath kindled to make glad the night of fallen man. Paul never hesitates; he has a divine Savior and a divine redemption, and he preaches these with unwavering confidence. Oh that all preachers were like him!" (As cited here)
These words are pregnant with truth on this subject. Redemption is, as we have observed in our earlier chapters in this series, a "ransoming" or repurchasing of a slave by the payment of the stipulated price. And, according to Spurgeon, this act of payment by Christ shedding his blood, and with all that it entails, is the very "splendor of the Gospel." It is "the gem of all the Gospel gems." Yes, indeed! It must therefore be put "to the front in our preaching."
Our propositions are these:
1. The aim of redemption was to redeem, not merely from the penalty, but from the presence, control, and tyranny of iniquity.
2. Redemption has not been fully realized until what was intended to be effected by it has been accomplished.
3. Redemption is actualized or realized first in conversion, but is not then complete.
4. Redemption, denoting actual freedom from bondage, and restoration, is progressive.
5. Redemption is not complete till the body is resurrected and glorified with immortality.
Redemption is not realized until there has been a complete moral transformation of the soul and spirit, and until there has been a transformation of the body to fit it for immortality and eternal life.
Redemption, like salvation, is described in the scriptures by the use of all tenses; past, present, future. We have been saved and redeemed. We are being redeemed. We shall be redeemed.
Redemption Involves Moral Transformation
"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who 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: 11-15)
Moral transformation is the end design in God's work of redemption. This is clearly seen in these words of the apostle. The "grace" or gospel of God brings salvation, and that results, when received, in being "taught" or "disciplined" progressively in regard to moral and spiritual life in Christ. Redemption, which is deliverance from the bondage of moral corruption and depravity is begun in conversion, continued in the life of the new born soul in sanctification, and is completed in "the day of redemption" when we experience "the redemption of our bodies," when the body is also transformed along with "the whole creation."
In commenting upon the words "redeemed from all iniquity" Whedon's Commentary says: "The moralizing and sanctifying effect of Christ’s death is here alone specified, because it is the moral model of 1-10 that St. Paul is here illustrating."
Christ became the sacrificial lamb on the cross of Calvary, the new covenant altar of sacrifice. His sacrificial death and the blood of it, staining the cross, was in order to effect atonement and redemption. Redemption, as we have seen, sometimes refers to the transaction that takes place when the redeemer pays to the creditor the stipulated price for the redemption or deliverance of a slave or prisoner. But, redemption also sometimes refers to the actual experience of redemption by the slave or prisoner, to the time when he is freed from his bondage and loss, and when his possessions and rights are restored.
Sometimes, as in the text before us, both aspects of redemption seem to be in view, though the focus seems to be on complete redemption.
Redemption is the means to bring about justification (Romans 3: 24), something done for us, something objective; But it is also the means to bring about our complete sanctification (involving regeneration and continuous moral transformation), something done in us, something subjective. Whatever is lacking or incomplete in moral purity at death will be supplied and completed upon entering Paradise. Purification for the body will not occur until it is glorified and immortalized in "the day of redemption."
The Greek words ινα λυτρωσηται (hina lutrōsētai) means “that he might set free by means of a ransom.” In this liberating of bond slaves the thing binding or imprisoning is "iniquity," (Greek "anomos") meaning lawlessness.
Redemption, like deliverance, involves being saved or redeemed "from" something as well as being saved or redeemed "to" something. This is true in both objective (legal) and subjective (experiential) aspects of redemption. In simplest terms these words of the apostle denote the release of someone held captive (prisoner, slave) on receipt of a ransom payment. As we have seen, the "ransom" was the technical term for money (or compensation) paid to "buy back" a slave or prisoner of war; but, the word "redeem" was never divorced in thought from the actual freeing or "releasing" of a slave or prisoner. Complete redemption necessitated actual or an experienced liberation, deliverance, and restoration.
Said Spurgeon:
"Paul looks upon recovery from sin as being a wonderful proof of divine grace. He does not talk about a kind of grace that would leave men in sin, and yet save them from its punishment. No, his salvation is salvation from sin. He does not talk about a free grace which winks at iniquity, and makes nothing of transgression, but of a greater grace by far, which denounces the iniquity and condemns the transgression, and then delivers the victim of it from the habit which has brought him into bondage."
To say a man is "redeemed" when he still has all his shackles binding him, and when he still has not been released or freed in the least degree from his confinement, is to betray an ignorance on this subject of redemption. To "redeem from iniquity" includes the idea of being saved from the shackles and prison of sin. The end purpose in redemption was to restore holiness and likeness (conformity) to Christ, whose "face" is the very "face" of the Father, and the very "face of God."
Octavius Winslow commented upon our text, said (emphasis mine):
"There is no victory over the indwelling power of sin, and there is no pardon for the guilt of sin, but as the soul deals with the blood of Christ. The great end of our dear Lord's death was to destroy the works of the devil. Sin is the great work of Satan. To overcome this, to break its power, subdue its dominion, repair its ruins, and release from its condemnation, the blessed Son of God suffered the ignominious death of the cross. All that bitter agony which He endured, all that mental suffering, the sorrow of His soul in the garden, the sufferings of His body on the cross--all was for sin.
See, then, the close and beautiful connection between the death of Christ--and the death of sin. All true sanctification comes through the cross! Seek it there. The cross brought into your soul by the eternal Spirit will be the death of your sins. Go to the cross! Oh, go to the cross of Jesus! In simplicity of faith, go with the strong corruption; go with the burden of guilt; go to the cross! You will find nothing but love there, nothing but welcome there, nothing but purity there. The precious blood of Jesus "cleanses us from all sin." And while you are kept low beneath the cross, your enemy dares not approach you, sin shall not have dominion over you, nor shall Satan, your accuser, condemn you!" (see here)
In the "DOCTRINE OF SANCTIFICATION" by A.W Pink, we have these excellent words showing how redemption involves sanctifying the redeemed slave (emphasis mine):
"The salvation that Christ purchased for His people includes both justification and sanctification. The Lord Jesus saves not only from the guilt and penalty of sin, but from the power and pollution of it. Where there is genuine longing to be freed from the love of sin, there is a true desire for His salvation; but where there is no practical deliverance from the service of sin, then we are strangers to His saving grace. Christ came here to “Perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He sware to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life” (Luk 1:72-75). It is by this we are to test or measure ourselves: are we serving Him “in holiness and righteousness”? If we are not, we have not been sanctified; and if we are unsanctified, we are none of His!" (pg. 20 - see here)
I think the scriptures are very clear on this point! So have our Calvinistic and Baptist forefathers except for some Hyper Calvinists, and other Antinomians.
Pink wrote:
"One principal end of the design of God in sending His Son into the world was to recover us unto that state of holiness that we had lost: “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1Jo 3:8). Among the principal of the works of the devil was the infecting of our natures and persons with a principle of sin and enmity against God, and that evil work is not destroyed but by the introduction of a principle of holiness and obedience. The image of God in us was defaced by sin; the restoration of that image was one of the main purposes of Christ’s mediation. Christ’s great and ultimate design was to bring His people unto the enjoyment of God to His eternal Glory, and this can only be by grace and holiness, by which we are made “meet for the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1:12)." (pg. 28)
Along the same line Pink wrote:
"Now the exercise of Christ’s mediation is discharged under His threefold office. As to His priestly, the immediate effects were the making of satisfaction and reconciliation, but the mediate effects are our justification and sanctification: “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Ti 2:14)--no unholy people, then, have any sure evidence of an interest in Christ’s sacrifice."
"There are two things in sin inseparably connected and yet clearly distinguishable, namely, its criminality and its pollution." (pg. 41)
Yes, and "redemption" involves both salvation from the penalty (criminality) and from the pollution (moral depravity) of "anomia." To say a person is every way "redeemed" when he has not yet been converted or sanctified is to state a falsehood. Also, not even the redeemed souls in heaven can lay claim to having been fully redeemed, for their bodies wait their redemption in the coming "day of redemption."
Pink wrote:
"Fourth, scriptural sanctification is not something wholly objective in Christ, which is not in anywise in ourselves. In their revolt against sinless perfectionism, there have been some who have gone to an opposite extreme: Antinomians argue for a holiness in Christ which produces no radical change for the better in the Christian. This is another deceit of the devil, for a deceit it certainly is for anyone to imagine that the only holiness he has is in Christ. There is no such thing in reality as a perfect and inalienable standing in Christ that is divorced from heart purity and a personal walk in righteousness. What a flesh-pleasing dogma is it, that one act of faith in the Lord Jesus secures eternal immunity from condemnation and provides a lifelong license to wallow in sin. My reader, a faith that does not transform character and reform conduct is worthless. Saving faith is only proved to be genuine by bearing the blossoms of experimental godliness and the fruits of personal piety (Jam 2:17-26)." (pg. 47)
The "Primitive Baptists" (aka "hardshells") have had their troubles historically with the "no change" view of regeneration, and they are typically "Antinomian." Some in the "free grace movement" today, and those who oppose "Lordship salvation" and the "perseverance of the saints," also have a "regeneration" or "new birth" that produces no radical moral change.
Pink wrote:
"Once it be clearly perceived that God’s salvation is not only a rescue from the penalty of sin, but is as well, and chiefly, deliverance from the pollution and power of sin - ultimating in complete freedom from its very presence, there will be no difficulty in seeing that sanctification occupies a central place in the process. Alas that while there are many who think of Christ dying to secure their pardon, so few today consider Christ dying in order to renew their hearts, heal their souls, bring them unto obedience to God." (pg. 50)
This is exactly the truth that I have been laboring to prove in this treatise of redemption. Yes, we can sing "I have been redeemed" (past tense) because we look back to 1) Calvary and to the cross when and where the "redemption price" was paid in the blood of the innocent Lamb of God, and 2) the time when we were first converted and joined to Christ, when the Lord "broke the power of canceled sin." But, we can also sing "I am being redeemed" as well as "I will be redeemed."
Pink wrote:
"That one of the great ends of the death of Christ was the moral purification of His people is clear from many Scriptures. “He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again” (2Co 5:15); “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Ti 2:14); “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:14); “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” (1Pe 2:24). From these passages it is abundantly plain that the purpose of the Savior in all that He did and suffered was not only to deliver His people from the penal consequences of their sins, but also to cleanse them from the pollution of sin, to free them from its enslaving power, to rectify their moral nature." (pg. 52)
From All Iniquity
Redemption payment having been made by Christ's blood, the next thing is to actually liberate the slave, bring him out of his state of bondage, and to bring him into the service of Christ. Redemption will deliver the slave “from all unlawfulness.” (ἀπὸ πάσης ἀνομίας). "Iniquity" being the translation of "a-nomos" where "nomos" means "law" and the negative article "a" denoting "lawlessness."
No one who has been converted to Christ will ever become completely obedient, or lawful, in this life. "For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not." (Eccl. 7:20)
Yes, after conversion, what characterizes him are such negatives as 1) does not "continue any longer in sin" or lawlessness (Rom. 6: 1,2), and 2) "walks not after the flesh" (Rom. 8: 1). Positively, he will "walk after the Spirit" (Rom. 8: 1) and the words "patient continuance in well doing" (Rom. 2: 7) will characterize him. He will daily be delivered and redeemed as he lives the Christian life and more and more appetite for sin will be removed from him, like filth is removed from the body or lint is removed from clothing. But, Christ redeems from "all" sin, iniquity, and lawlessness, so that, though all iniquity is not conquered in this life, yet all will be conquered in death for the soul when it escapes the body and enters the presence of the Lord. The body's deliverance awaits the "day of redemption."
Wrote Gill:
"that he might redeem us from all iniquity: sin brings into bondage and, slavery, redemption is a deliverance from it; sin binds guilt upon the sinner, and lays him under obligation to punishment, and renders him liable to the curse and condemnation of the law; Christ was made sin, and a curse for his people, that he might redeem them from both, and deliver them from the punishment due to sin; which he has done by bearing it in his own body on the tree, whereby he has redeemed them from all iniquity, that so it shall not be their ruin, or they come into condemnation on account of it; even from original sin, and from all actual transgressions; from all which his blood cleanses, and his righteousness justifies, and which God, for his sake, freely and fully forgives. Christ was called to this work by his Father, to which he agreed; and the plan of redemption being drawn in the everlasting council, and the whole adjusted and fixed in the covenant of peace; promises and prophecies were given out of it, and in the fulness of time Christ was sent, and came to effect it; and he has obtained eternal redemption for us, through the price of his own blood, which could have never been wrought out by any creature; and wherein all the divine perfections are glorified and is a plenteous and complete one; it includes in it, or connects with it, the blessings of justification, peace, pardon, adoption, and eternal life. It follows as another end of Christ's giving himself, or what is a branch of redemption, or consequent upon it."
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