THE WEALTHY REDEEMER

The price paid by the Lord Jesus Christ for our redemption was huge.

It bankrupted heaven temporarily. It drained all the resources of an omnipotent God.

Christ could pay and He did pay, but at what a cost!

2 Corinthians 8:9 "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."

It is necessary to ascertain the legal tender Christ used in accomplishing redemption for man.

The night of the Passover Israel was redeemed out of Egypt. This marked the time of the accomplishment of Israel’s redemption. That night was the birthday of the nation. They were born at night in the brickyards of Egypt.

God told them that it would be

"the beginning of months" for them.

They were instructed to take a lamb for each house and to slay it.

The blood of the lamb was taken and sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels of the homes of the Hebrews that evening.

The Death Angel visited every home in Egypt that night, and at each home where he found the blood sprinkled, he passed over.

But where the blood was not sprinkled, death seized the firstborn of that family, both man and beast.

The sign of the Passover was blood.

The nation of Israel began on a bloody basis.

They were redeemed that first Passover night by blood.

Why was blood brought into such prominence?

It could never be a beautiful thing to see.

The sight of blood produces nausea in most people.

It is repulsive to the thought of man.

Blood could not have been chosen because of its appeal to the aesthetic nature of man.

Blood repels because it is abhorred by the normal person.

Redemption by blood has been abhorred by the natural man from the time that Cain brought the lovely fruit of the cursed ground as a sacrifice for his sin up to the bold modernism of the present hour.

The hideous specter of a bloody lamb offended Cain’s nobler feelings, but in reality it was his fallen nature rebelling against God’s way.

Certainly God was not seeking to emphasize beauty in religion, nor was He attempting to please the natural man when He instituted the bloody sacrifice.

The explanation was contained in the Levitical ritual:

Leviticus 17:11 "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."

The blood is the life principle of man. The blood represents the life.

The shedding of the blood of animals sets forth the sacrificing of life in substitution for the one making the sacrifice.

But why should it be necessary for man to have a substitute to shed blood for him?

Why was man’s life demanded?

The human race stood in disobedience to the will of God, in rebellion to the authority of God, in treason to the government of God, and in ingratitude to the love of God.

The simple but satisfactory statement of Scripture is:

Romans 3:23 "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."

Man is a sinner in any way you care to look at him.

Before God, man is guilty.

There must be some penalty for a sinner, or else God is not the moral ruler of this universe.

There is such a penalty, for there comes thundering down from the throne of justice, out of the presence of a Holy God, the eternal and irrevocable law:

Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."

This places every man under the sentence of death,

Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

The sons of Adam have drawn wages faithfully for the penalty of sin, as every cemetery silently testifies.

Physical death is the outward evidence of the accuracy of this law.

Physical death is not all, for spiritual death is included, which means eternal separation from God.

The only hope for man is to get someone to pay a penalty for him that is satisfactory to God.

It is reasonable that the death of animals could not atone for sins,

Hebrews 10:4 "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins."

There must be found a man who is satisfactory to God and who is willing to pay with His blood the price of redemption for the penalty of sin.

The big problem is to find someone satisfactory to God.

We have noted that he must be related to the human family by blood, but if he has the blood of Adam flowing through his veins, he, too, would need a substitute.

It is impossible for man to produce a redeemer who can pay the price of redemption.

No man could be free from the guilt of sin, and no man could escape its penalty for himself.

As far as man is concerned, redemption is an impossible achievement.

No man could present anything that would be legal tender in heaven; no man could even redeem himself.

In his own strength, man is hopelessly lost for eternity.

At this juncture, God steps into the picture with a price that was legal tender in heaven.

God issued the currency that redeemed man.

That story is told in this sublime language:

Hebrews 10:5 "Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared for me."

The blood of bulls and goats could not redeem man.

The blood of man could not redeem man.

So God took upon Himself a human body.

This body was not contaminated with the sin nature.

No tainted blood flowed through His body.

This blood, which was free from sin, was the source of His earthly life.

He shed this blood and thereby sacrificed the life of this earthly body for the payment in full of man’s redemption.

Twenty-one times Scripture identified the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as the legal tender of redemption.

The value of any currency is measured in what it can accomplish.

Currency is worthless when it is not acceptable for articles of value.

Currency is valuable when it is accepted for things of value.

The only worthwhile question regarding money is, what is its purchasing power?

Some express their philosophy in this way:

"I am not interested in money as such but in what money can buy."

This test may be applied to the blood of Christ.

Nothing in this world can buy redemption.

What can wash away my sin?