Question 25: Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?
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 continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures
and one person, forever.
DAY 1 - Galatians 3:13
In last
week’s question we were introduced to the word redeemer. This week we will be seeing exactly what a
redeemer is. In our first verse the word
is used. Paul’s letter to the Galatians
is one that is filled with attempts at bringing their minds and hearts back to
the understanding that they cannot justify themselves in any fashion before God
in their works. While the Scriptures do
teach that our works are to be those which are good because of the grace that
God has shown us, they are not to be the avenue of our salvation. So Paul is in the process of reminding those
at
Paul then uses the term “redeemed” in verse thirteen. He ties it with the person of Christ. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. The curse of the law is simply its condemnation of us. The law merely points out our sin. It cannot save us from it. The word redeemed is “exagorazo”. It means, “to buy up, to buy up for one's self, for one's use; to redeem by payment of a price to recover from the power of another, to ransom, buy off”. Exagorazo comes from “Ex” which means “out of, from, by, away from” and “agorazo” which means, “to be in the market place, to attend it; to do business there, buy or sell”. What does it mean that Christ redeemed His elect? It means that He purchased them. He paid a price to recover them from the power of another. He did not pay Satan for the elect. Rather He paid God. God’s justice demanded that sin be paid for. Christ willingly paid for the sins of those whom He had chosen. We could easily reference both the story of Ruth and the story of Hosea to see how the picture of Christ’s redemption was illustrated in both of these stories. Both illustrate a redeemer that showed tremendous patience and love. The story of Hosea shows a picture of the filthiness of the one being redeemed. The story of Ruth also lends itself to the idea that Ruth was sort of looked down upon because she was a Moabite among the other kinsmen that Boaz speaks to.
Paul tells us that though the Law revealed the curse upon us, Christ took our curse and became a curse for us. He allowed Himself to be judged in our place for our sins. Notice the text says that He was made a curse for us. It was not that Christ did this without concern as to who it was for. No, as we saw in Romans 8:29, He foreknew and predestined us. As a result His death on our behalf was very personal. Our minds should be set to think that Christ didn’t just die for some numbered elect, which He did, but that He died for me.
Paul then quotes from Deuteronomy. There was a law that was given that in the event that there was an execution the body was not to remain out over night, but rather it was to be buried. The execution method that God prescribed was stoning. However, in some instances the crime may have been extremely serious and so the body of the executed would be hung up on a tree. This was to be a display of the judgment that would come upon those who followed in like manner. I wonder if Moses had any idea that this would be a picture of what Jesus Christ would do 1500 years later. He would be one, that as He hung there would be receiving the sentence that sinners deserve, but that He would also be on display for the world to see that God will judge sin and its consequences are great! Paul speaks of one being cursed who hangs upon a tree. He is literally saying that they are epikataratos, they are under divine judgment. Again, as in the days of Moses when one was on display it was a display that God had judged them. Christ too, was a picture of the divine judgment upon Himself.
DAY 2 – 1 Timothy 2:5
Paul has just told Timothy that he is to give himself to praying for all men. This is a good and acceptable thing in the sight of God. For God is desirous that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. He is not speaking about every individual person, for we know that every individual person will not be saved. Rather he is speaking of those whom He has chosen from out of the world, both Jews and Gentiles. Unless there are two distinct wills of God, this is exactly what is referred to in this passage. Timothy is to give himself to praying for all men, pleading with God as it were that He would accomplish that which He has foreordained concerning the salvation of men.
Then Paul
reminds him of the important point of who the “go between” between himself and
God is. First Paul simply states that
there is only one God, which means there is only one correct view of Him and
must also mean that there be only one correct message from Him. This one God has only one Mediator. The Greek word for mediator is mesites.
Mesites means “one who intervenes between two, either in order to make
or restore peace and friendship, or form a compact, or for ratifying a
covenant; a medium of communication, arbitrator”. Jesus is our middle man, so to speak. He is the negotiator between God and us. The mediators of our day might be seen in the
current
Our
Mediator is Christ Jesus. In the text
He is referenced as “the man”. Jesus
Christ claimed to be God and the Son of God throughout His ministry here on
earth. His disciples likewise claimed
that He is the Son of God. The witness
born by those He has redeemed is that He is the Son of God. However, Jesus Christ was also fully man. He was born of a virgin. He was mysteriously God and man at the same
time. We call this the incarnation. However,
upon ascending back to the Father, Jesus did not leave behind His identity as
man and go back as God only. He returned
to the Father as the God-man. There he
sits at the right hand of God and makes intercession for us (Heb.
DAY 3 – John 1:14
In John’s gospel, the author is concerned with presenting Jesus as the Son of God. While the other gospel accounts to reference and give credit to His deity, John’s primary focus is upon the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He accounts the miracles, the “I am” statements, and authoritative power in the words of Jesus to identify the claims made by Christ Himself that He is indeed who He claimed to be, God in the flesh. John begins his gospel by simply referencing Christ as “The Word”. He says that the Word was in the beginning and as we have already said, “If He was in the beginning, then He must have been around before the beginning”. John also tells us that He was with God. That would stand to reason that if He was around in the beginning and even before it, that He would have been with God. However, the text goes on to say that the Word was God. So right up front we know that John is biased about Jesus Christ. He knows who Christ is. He has lived with Him constantly for 3 ½ years. He has learned from and of Him. There is no mistake in the mind of the apostle that Jesus Christ is indeed the Creator of the universe and the reason for his very existence.
Now we come to the verse we are looking at. Much of the context of chapter one is a testament to the deity of Christ. Verse fourteen then introduces a concept that is foreign to any other religion, and that is that God, who is a spirit, clothes Himself in human flesh and comes to live among people as one of them. John tells us that Jesus came in the flesh. Though He was above that, He humbled Himself in order that he might be obedient to His Father (cf. Phil. 2:6-7).
John also tells us that he dwelt among us. The word he uses here is skenoo. It means, “to fix one's tabernacle, have one's tabernacle, abide (or live) in a tabernacle (or tent), tabernacle”. In parts of the New Testament we find other usages of the root word of skenoo, which reference the body as a tent or tabernacle. However, we are most familiar with the tabernacle of the Old Testament, which was nothing more than a giant tent that was carried with the Israelites everywhere they went and would house the glory and presence of God visibly in their midst. This again, was a picture of exactly what Christ would do. He would come and make His tabernacle or set up His tent among the people. He would indeed be in humankind’s midst.
Though His glory was veiled in His flesh, Jesus did reveal His glory to His disciples. John was one of three that was there on the Mount of Transfiguration. He was one who saw the glory of Christ in its fullness literally burst forth from Son of God. He was privy to what is to come in the future. He also says that His glory was of the only begotten of the Father. It was a glory that was befitting His deity. It was not a glory like men relish in today because of what they do. Rather this glory came from who He was.
He also tells us that Christ’s glory was full of grace and truth. It may be that just as the glory of God passed before Moses and He said, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth”, so John sees the same evidence of the character of God in Jesus Christ. For though they are distinct persons of the Godhead, they are one God. John uses the adverb rab, translated as abounding, which speaks of “much, exceedingly, more numerous”. Jesus does not just have a little bit of grace or just a touch of truth. Rather He abounds in it. He has much more and exceedingly more than anyone else. As a matter of fact, He claimed not just to give truth, but to be truth (John 14:6). He was trying to illustrate the fact that He was the source for all truth. His truth is not subjective to human thinking, nor is it subjective to human experience. Rather the truth of Christ is objective and comes outside of man and comes from the very mind of God Himself. However, He is also the source of grace. For the Lord is gracious. He is known for his kindness displayed before man. Whether it’s the sun that shines or the rain that falls, the food or the clothes provided, or the salvation from sin, God has shown Himself to be a gracious God. Jesus Christ is the manifest expression of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). All of God’s attributes are displayed in the person of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer.
Scripture: Galatians 3:13; 1 Timothy 2:5;