TO have Christ for your Saviour is blessed indeed — to have Him for your object in life is the natural and happy consequence; and it is the work of grace in each case. Very clearly none can live for Him until they are calmly and divinely settled in the knowledge of redemption.
To know the value of His precious blood, and Himself as risen from the dead, so that all the claims of God’s holiness are met and satisfied, is the joy and comfort of the soul that believes.
Further, at the cross we see our sins borne, and sin itself dealt with. “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). That is, not only did He bear my sins, but “sin in the flesh” was then condemned. Hence He was crucified for me, and I am crucified with Him! “Our old man is crucified with him” (Rom. 6:66Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6)). And thus we see the end of the fallen and sinful man in the sight of God. Oh! how wondrous is the work of the cross! It was there the Son of man glorified God in obedience; and there it was that He wrought a full and perfect salvation for all who believe, bides laying a divine basis for the new creation.
What a work, and what a Workman! He is Son of man, but He is also Son of God! I repeat, then, that the first step on the ladder of the new life is a divinely-given knowledge of redemption.
I do not suppose that any one receives much of this at the moment of his conversion. Some, alas! learn but little throughout the entire course of their life, and that to their unspeakable loss and shame. Conversion is like the drowning man being placed in the lifeboat. He may apprehend little more than that he is out of danger. He has now to discover the virtues of the lifeboat, as he is being safely carried to the land ahead.
Conversion in like manner places the believer in grace. That is a safe and happy place, even though it is not glory. But what is it to be in grace? It is to be in the favor of God! Wonderful position! A poor guilty sinner, filled once with rebellion against God, to be now set down in His favor!
Yet so we read in Romans 5:1,2,1Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1‑2) “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also WE have access by faith into this grace (favor) wherein we stand, and rejoice in, hope of the glory of God.”
Notice―
1. We have been justified.
2. We stand in grace.
3. We rejoice in hope of glory.
Our justification is past; our place in glory is future; but our present standing and position are in God’s favor — and all comes to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have the consummation of this in verse 11, “We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.” All this flows to us, when we simply believe in the death and resurrection of our blessed Lord.
Thus we know redemption. And this delivers from the law. The principle of the law is that I must make myself fit for God! How absolutely impossible when I know myself to be as unholy in nature as God is holy! I am a sinner and full of sin. I have no power to do the good that I should. The law bids me “do this and live”! But, in truth, I lack both the life and the power to do this! My case is utterly hopeless on the ground of law.
But, thank God, the redemption that is in Christ Jesus meets the whole case and sets me free! It gives me liberty! “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor. 3:1717Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. (2 Corinthians 3:17)) — there and nowhere else.
There is no liberty in sin. License is not liberty. Sin enthralls, and enslaves, and demoralizes, and ends in death and judgment. There is no liberty in the law. It placed all under it in bondage. There is no liberty in human religion of any kind. Its ten thousand restrictions have nothing more in view than the amelioration of the flesh; but, however ameliorated, it is flesh still. There is liberty nowhere but in Christ!
What kind of liberty? One of looseness? Nay, we read in Titus 2 That “the grace of God that bringeth salvation (note these words) to all men hath appeared, 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 appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.”
These are the holy lessons of that grace which first brings salvation in perfect freeness to all men, and finally presents the blessed hope of the coming of the Lord and the appearing of His glory — lessons of self-denial and separation from the world, of sobriety, righteousness, and piety, which mark a higher standard of devotedness to God than the law demanded. But then it also supplies the needed power, in the Holy Spirit, in order to the enjoyment of Christian life and liberty, as well as for the practice of these holy precepts. Now; if redemption be so blessed, what of the Redeemer? “He gave himself for us.” There is love!
It was a love that not only abandoned all He had, but led to the giving of Himself. The cross is the only full measure of the love of Christ. “He gave himself.” And hence the infinite value of His work, and the attractive and sanctifying power of His death.
Oh! the omnipotence of loving-kindness! Therefore we read — “That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:1515And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. (2 Corinthians 5:15)). Let this be the object of all who thus live; let the two words “UNTO HIM” be deeply graven on the hearts of all who owe everything, for time and eternity, to Him, who, for their sakes, “endured the cross, and despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” He is worthy!
I would thankfully own that what, for these forty years, has shed a radiance of peace and joy over my heart, has been a divinely given knowledge of “the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,” together with a daily and sweet enjoyment of His love.
The enjoyment of these two blessed facts — love and redemption — is the secret of true deliverance.
May God grant this to every reader of these pages, so that he may know the joy, amid needed trial, of living for, and serving our Lord Jesus Christ, until He come.
J. W. S.