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Bought With a Price
Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. 1 Corinthians
7:23
We, in common with others, sustain different relations to God.
1.
As our Creator
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We owe to him our existence, our faculties, and we are sustained by him.
2.
As our Father
3.
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.
4.
As our moral governor
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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.
This redemption is peculiar to us not only as distinguished from other
men, but from all other creatures. No angels, no other sort of beings are
the subjects of redemption.
What is Redemption?
It is deliverance from captivity, or bondage, or death, by purchase.
1.
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.
2.
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.
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To be forever sinners was all that we could expect.
3.
We were in bondage to the law, subject to its demands, and to its penalty,
which is eternal death.
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There was no possibility of escape.
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Redemption 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.
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 look to any angel, nor on the throne of God, but on the
incarnate Son.
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Since he did not undertake the redemption of angels, neither did he assume
their nature.
To the Father 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:
That our relation is to Christ.
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.
The Price of Redemption Was Himself
He gave himself for us. It involves,
1.
His incarnation.
2.
His subjection to the law, to fulfill all righteousness.
3.
To its curse, including all the miseries of this life, the painful death
of the cross, and the wrath of God.
The End of Redemption
1.
The immediate end is our holiness and happiness; glorifying God in our
bodies and spirits which are his.
2.
This is to be done in honoring him ourselves, and in causing others to
honor him.
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We glorify God when we worship, love and serve him, and also when we cause
others to do the same.
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