Our Redeemer

“*T know that my Redeemer liveth.” — Jos. xix.

REDEEMING means buying back something that has been sold or fallen into

the power of an enemy. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and obeyed the devil, it was like selling themselves to him to be his servants instead of God’s. For it says, “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?” (Rom. vi. ). And so all their children were sold too, “sold under sin” (Rom. vii. ); and every one of them, you and I as wellyas the rest, have done the same thing, disobeyed God. God says to,us all, “Ye have sold yourselves for nought” (Isa. lil. ). We could never redeem our souls ourselves, for we have nothing to do it with. And no one can do it for us (Ps, xlix. ); all the silver and gold in the world would not be enough to redeem only one soul. Nothing but Jesus Christ’s own blood could do it (1 Pet. i. He saw that there was no one else to do it (Isa. lix. ), and so “fin His love and in His pity He redeemed us” (Isa. I xiii. je hat is, He gave His own blood as the price of buying us back from Satan, taking us out of his service and out of his power, and buying us to be God’s own children and His own happy little servants. And now He says to you, “Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price” (1 Cor. vi. ). How we ought to thank Him for this! You see It 1s not something that we hope He will do for us, but something that He really has done for us and that can never be undone. And so even now we ought to echo the song of the saints around the throne, and say, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood” (Rey. v. ). He means us to Oy that He is our Redeemer, for He says, “thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemér’ (tsas ix, ). When you are quite sure a thing is true, you say “I know.” You are quite sure it is true that Jesus has redeemed us, because God’s word tells us so in a great many places (Eph. i. -“Fieb; (ix: é Luke 1, ); and you are quite sure that He has risen from the dead and is “alive forevermore” (Rev. i. ), and so you may say without fear, ‘‘ I vow that my Redeemer liveth.” And the Lord Jesus answers, “Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; thou art Mine” (Isa. xliii. ).

I could not do without Thee,
O Saviour of the lost!

Whose wondrous love redeemed me
At such tremendous cost.

Thy righteousness, Thy pardon,
Thy precious blood must be

My only hope and comfort,
My glory and my plea!