III. What, then, is our present position? of course I mean the position of those that are really in Christ Jesus? I think this may be very well illustrated by the words of Moses, Exod. xv. 13: ‘Thou in thy mercy hast led forth thy people whom thou hast redeemed.’ Those people had been set free from Egypt, and therefore were said to be redeemed. They were already free, but they were not yet in Canaan, or nearly so. They had not yet reached ‘his holy habitation.’ But meanwhile they were in His hand, and they might be perfectly sure that He would guide them every inch of their way.
Now that appears to be exactly our position. If we be in Christ Jesus we are already free. Our ransom has been paid, our atonement completed, and we are free. We are free from both the imputation and dominion of sin. From the imputation, because the curse is gone; and from the dominion, for we are not under the law but under grace. This part of redemption is not a future thing which we should be always seeking, and never finding; always praying for, and never enjoying; always aiming at, but never reaching. It is the present, blessed, sacred gift of every one of you that is in Christ Jesus. You are not like Israel in bondage in Egypt, nor even like Israel shut in by the rocks at Pi-hahiroth; but you are like Israel on the eastern bank of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh and his host sunk beneath the flood. The language of Scripture twice repeated is, ‘In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.’ (Eph. i. 7; Col. i. 14.) Accept it then, and live in the joy of your new position. Rejoice in the freedom and give thanks for it. Let the past bondage be forgotten in the joy of the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free; and go forward with a thankful heart to please Him who has thus graciously broken your chain.
(2.) But remember that you are not yet completely delivered. Moses was so sure that the people would be brought to the holy habitation that he praised God for it as if it was already theirs, though they had many a long mile to traverse, and many a hard battle to fight, before they reached it. So you may be perfectly sure of it, for you are ‘sealed unto the day of redemption,’ and no one can break the seal. That day of redemption is perfectly sure to come, and you cannot be disappointed. But meanwhile you have a journey, and a fight. To say nothing of all that is around you, there are two things that you still carry within, viz. death and sin. There is death, yes! that very death that was overcome when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, still working secretly within you; and, if the day of redemption does not come first, perfectly certain to bring you to the grave. And there is sin, the deadly sin of your fallen nature, not yet removed, but ready to poison the very fountains of your soul. If you think you have done with either death or sin, you will be sorely disappointed before you have travelled far. Your final redemption is not yet completed. You are free from the curse, free from the condemnation, free from the slavery, but you have not yet reached home. You must not, therefore, lay aside your armour, nor must you be disheartened even if you meet with that which makes you groan, for we read in Rom. viii. 23, ‘Even we ourselves,’ which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, ‘groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.’
(3.) But our delightful assurance is that all the while we are safe in our Redeemer’s hand. He has delivered; He will deliver; and He is delivering. Or, if we take the word ‘redeem’ in its full sense, He has redeemed; He will redeem; and He is now redeeming. He has set us free by His finished atonement. He will set us free by His resurrection power; and He is now setting us free by the mighty indwelling of God the Holy Ghost. See, then, the unspeakable blessedness of such a text as that in Jerem. L. 34: ‘Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of Hosts is his name: he shall thoroughly plead their cause.’ He is our Redeemer, for He has redeemed us by His blood: He is a strong Redeemer, for He is the Lord of Hosts: He is a gracious Redeemer, for He pleads for His people; and putting all together, He is a perfectly sure Redeemer, so we will trust Him never to leave us for a moment, till He give to every one of us a triumphant victory, and present us sinless and deathless before His glorious throne, saved by His grace, redeemed by His blood.
II. ISRAEL.
‘Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm, and with great judgments.’—Exod. vi. 6.
‘Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation.’—Exod. xv. 13.
These texts have a very important connexion with each other. The first contains God’s promise when He appeared to Moses and promised deliverance to Israel. The second is part of the thanksgiving of Moses when the first portion of the promise had been fulfilled and Israel was free. ‘I will redeem,’ said God. ‘Thou hast redeemed,’ said Moses. Of course both passages refer to the deliverance from Egypt, and both show perfectly clearly that the word ‘to redeem’ means ‘to deliver,’ and not merely to make atonement, or satisfaction, for sin. They both, therefore, throw great light on the subject of redemption.
We know, on the authority of the New Testament, that the redemption of Israel was typical of the great redemption of God’s people. But for my own part, I believe that it was more than typical. I believe it is to be regarded as the first great act of God in the redemption of His people. Up to that time there had been no deliverance, or no redemption. This was the first redemption in history, the first act in the great series which will be finally completed at the Advent, when death and hell shall be cast into the lake of fire. I believe this to be the reason why, at the commencement of it, God made Himself known by the name of ‘Jehovah.’ Many people think that the real meaning of that sacred name is ‘Yahveh,’ ‘the coming one.’ This ‘coming one’ appears to have been expected by Eve herself, and all the line of believing patriarchs had lived and died in expectation of His advent. But their hopes had not been realized, as the time had not come for the manifestation of His power. But when Israel was in the depths of his deep calamity, a bondsman in a foreign land and far away from home, then God appeared to His chosen servant whom He had raised up as His leader, and said to him, ‘I am the Yahveh, the coming one;’ and through him He promised to Israel, ‘I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm, and with great judgments.’
If this be the case, it gives a peculiar interest to the narrative, because it shows that we are to regard this deliverance of Israel as the act of the pre-existent ‘Coming One,’ the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It was not merely a type of the coming salvation; but it was wrought by the same person who is now saving us, so that we may see in it the actual commencement of the saving work of our own beloved Redeemer. It was both a type and a reality. It was a prophetic picture of what He was about to do, and at the same time the commencement of His work as the Deliverer. Let us, then, study it with care, and may He who has redeemed us by His blood teach us by His Spirit!
You will remember that we found in the previous lecture, that redemption is deliverance through ransom, and, therefore, consists of two parts—the saving act and the atoning blood, or, in other words, the power and the satisfaction. Let us consider both, as exhibited in the deliverance of Israel.