(3.) And now consider, thirdly, the practical result in Jeremiah’s attitude of mind. He could look calmly up to Him who had drawn nigh unto Him, and say, ‘O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.’ It is difficult to determine exactly whether this was his language in the low dungeon, or after he was taken out of it. We read in Jer. xxxviii., that Ebed-melech, one of the king’s eunuchs, obtained permission to draw him up out of the dungeon, and he was subsequently confined in the court of the prison. As I have frequently pointed out, the word redemption sometimes stands simply for deliverance, and it is possible that it may do so here, and refer to the deliverance by Ebed-melech. But I do not think it does, for the latter part of the chapter seems clearly to teach that when Jeremiah wrote these words he was not yet delivered, but was still enduring the bitter hostility of his revengeful enemies. I am, therefore, rather disposed to regard these words as the utterance of a trusting heart when he was still in the low dungeon. I look on them, not as the effect of Ebed-melech pulling him out, but of God drawing near to him when he was in it, and saying to his soul, ‘Fear not.’ I think the passage is faith’s reply to God’s address. God drew near, and said, ‘Fear not,’ and faith accepted it at once, though still in the pit, and said, ‘Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul, thou hast redeemed my life.’ The language seems to lead us far beyond anything done by Ebed-melech, to a divine redemption, and a divine pleading of his cause. They remind us of those other words of Jeremiah, ‘Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is his name; he shall thoroughly plead their cause;’ Jer. L. 34; and I cannot help thinking that Jeremiah looked forward, as David did, to the great redemption by the Lord Jesus, as purposed from eternity, and promised in the sure word of God. As David said, ‘Thou hast redeemed me;’ so he said, ‘Thou hast redeemed my life.’ It was the Redeemer Himself that drew near to him in his low estate, and as it were said unto his soul, ‘I am thy salvation.’ The promised work was not yet accomplished, but it was brought home to his heart, and, though the stone was still on the mouth of the dungeon, his soul was free, and his life was safe, for he was redeemed in the coming Christ.
If this be the meaning of the passage, does it not teach us that redeeming grace must always be our great help in trouble? If we are brought to the bottom of the pit, by sorrow, by sickness, by calamity, by the approach of death, or by the deep and painful sense of sin, all true source of strength must ever be in the great work of redemption wrought out for us by the Son of God. It is that which opens the way to the throne, and which enables us to rest in the assurance of the love of God. You may find many difficulties in the way of faith, and many drawbacks under the profound sense of your own unworthiness. But it is wonderful to find how they disappear before the cross of Christ; and if only you are enabled to say, ‘Thou hast redeemed my life,’ you will find in that one fact, a blessed, holy, peaceful resting-place, even though by outward circumstances or inward trial you may still be at the bottom of the pit.
But whatever view we take of the expression, ‘Thou hast redeemed my life,’ one thing is perfectly clear, that the redemption was applied to Jeremiah’s soul at the bottom of the pit. If it is to be explained of deliverance it was when he was sunk into the mire at the bottom of the low dungeon that the deliverance was applied. And if it describes the application to his soul of the Lord’s redemption, and his acceptance of it as something already as sure as if it were perfected, it was when he was bowed down in the very depths of trouble that the blessed work was brought home with peace to his soul. Whatever meaning you give to the word ‘redemption’ in this passage, redemption was brought home to him at the bottom of the pit.
Now I cannot imagine a more important principle than this for all those who really desire to partake of all the blessings of redemption. Of course there are some who do not trouble their minds about it, being satisfied with their own religious respectability; but there are multitudes deeply concerned about it. They earnestly desire to be able to say, ‘Thou hast redeemed my life,’ but they cannot do so; and yet possibly they have been really taking pains to do so for many years, although without the least sign of progress. Now may not their difficulties arise in many cases from their having reversed the order of the dealings of God? They have hoped to climb up partially out of the pit, and to reach redemption at the top, instead of accepting it as a free gift of God while they are still helpless at the bottom. In other words, they are endeavouring first to remove their difficulties, and then to trust redemption. No wonder then that they completely fail! for how are they to climb up out of the pit? and how are they to overcome their difficulties while they are still at a distance from redeeming grace? It is redemption that is to deliver, redemption that is to raise us from the dead, redemption that removes the difficulty, how then can we ever hope to rise until redemption is applied and realised? If redemption is not sufficient to reach down to one in a state of utter hopelessness, it is insufficient for the conscience-stricken sinner. Remember, therefore, the case of Jeremiah. Consider his case as an illustration of your own, and if you are yourself at the bottom of what I may term the religious pit, in a low dungeon from which you cannot rise, remember how the Lord drew near to him when he was at the bottom, and did not wait till he had climbed even half-way to reach His hand. Just so it must be with you. He must stoop to reach you before you can rise to reach Him. Your first act of faith must be when you are at the bottom. It will be there, and not at the top, or half-way up, that for the first time you will realise a finished redemption. If ever you have the unspeakable joy of saying in all the happiness of personal appropriation, ‘Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life,’ you will have to do so before you have risen above your present level. Do not therefore wait to make some poor, feeble, ineffective effort to rise; but as you are in the midst of your discouragements, though the stone still seems to stop the mouth of the low dungeon, trust at once with a bold act of fearless faith, and without waiting to deserve it, act at once on His own invitation, ‘Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.’
But as for those amongst you that have been brought up out of the pit, what should be the language of your thankful heart? You have not only seen the great redemption finished, but you have experienced its application. You have not merely been taught to trust Him in the bottom of the low dungeon, but you can say as David did, ‘He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.’ Ps. xl. 2. If so, will you not go on and add, ‘He hath put a new song in my mouth, even thanksgiving unto our God?’ Will you not join heart and soul in the language of our Communion Service, ‘We praise thee, we bless thee, we worship thee, we glorify thee, we give thanks to thee for thy great glory, O Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty?’
IX. ATONEMENT.
‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.’—Gal. iii. 13.
In tracing the doctrine of redemption through the types and illustrative narratives of the Old Testament, we found that redemption always includes two ideas—deliverance and ransom—and that in some cases, as e.g., in the redemption from Egypt, the deliverance is the more prominent of the two. I cannot help thinking that in this respect there is a difference between the Old Testament and the New. In the New, as well as the Old, the two ideas are always found, and the deliverance is always included; but the writers of the New Testament appear to have had their minds so full of the marvellous love that was shown on the cross of Christ, that the ransom, and the ransom price, appear in many passages to have been the prominent subjects of their thoughts. Hence it follows that in a great many religious books, and even in our Church Catechism, redemption is confounded with the atonement, and people lose sight of the fact that it includes the consequences of the atonement as well as the atonement itself, the release of the captive as well as the payment of the ransom; the actual salvation of the chosen people of God, as well as the satisfaction of the law by the substitution of the Son of God for man. In order, therefore, to get a clear view of the whole subject, we must consider the two parts separately; first, the ransom, satisfaction, or atonement, and after that the deliverance that follows. May it please God in His mercy to give us the sacred teaching of the Holy Spirit, and to lead us into the full realisation of the marvellous wonders of His redeeming love!
We must clearly begin with the great subject of the satisfaction for sin, and the deliverance from the curse, which was the immediate and first result of it. For this purpose we cannot have a finer passage than the text. It leads us straight to the root of the matter, and will suggest four most important subjects—the Redeemer Himself, the curse from which He has redeemed us, the act by which He redeemed us, and the persons whom He has redeemed. These, if God permit, we must consider in order.
I. The Redeemer Himself.