“Barabbas, Part 19:” by Romans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUnDKD1NMH4
Last week, I shared with you that when I thought this Series was complete, I read a Daily Devotional that quoted Hebrews 6:19 which states, "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul...” and I realized that the phrase “we have” was another valid Rabbit Trail to review and examine in the Series. We reviewed and examined this verse last week. Let's go on to also see other things that “we have” now... right now... as believers.
The first “we have” occurrence that we will look at is found in Ephesians 1:7 where we read referring to Christ, “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.”
We have redemption. Before I cite any commentaries, I want to stop and look at the word “redemption.” Redemption is used
quite frequently in regard to one of the many things that we have received, have already received, past tense. In our modern every day living, the word redemption has been reduced to using a coupon to save money at the Supermarket to save 25-cents on a frozen entre` or a free fries at a Fast-Food Restaurant.
In the culture in which redemption appears twice in the Gospels, seven times in the epistles of Paul, and twice in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that word was used when a slave was purchased out of slavery. So... if a man approached a slave owner, for example, and asked how much money do I need to give you to redeem your slave, he was not purchasing that slave for himself.
He would be buying that slave out of slavery, a captive out of captivity, or used to free a prisoner of war. If the price were accepted, and the money was paid, he or she would be completely free... no longer a slave or a captive.
The Apostle Paul named Jesus as our Redeemer in two different places. First, when he wrote, “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:3-5).
And then when he wrote, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:13-14).
Another thing about redeeming a slave that I want to share with you is that whatever money is paid to buy a slave out of slavery was called the ransom. Today, we think of a ransom as the money paid to buy a kidnap victim's freedom from his or her captors. But, again, in ancient culture, ransom had a very different application.
Albert Barnes tells us, “The word “ransom” means literally a price paid for the redemption of captives. In war, when prisoners are taken by an enemy, the money demanded for their release is called a ransom; that is, it is the means by which they are set at liberty. So anything that releases anyone from a state of punishment, or suffering, or sin, is called a ransom.
People are by nature captives to sin. They are sold under it. They are under condemnation... They are under a curse... They are in love with sin. They are under its withering dominion, and are exposed to death eternal. They must have perished unless there had been some way by which they could berescued.”
We find the word “ransom” used three times in the New Testament, twice in the Gospels, and once in an Epistle of Paul.
In each case it refers to the price paid for our redemption. The price that was paid was the Life of the Son of God. Jesus said, “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). The Apostle Paul wrote, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
Now, with all of that in mind, let's look our first verse, again, and think about it in this new cultural light: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”
The Sermon Bible tells us of this, “The Forgiveness of Sins. I. The Apostolic doctrine of the Atonement rests on Christ’s own teaching. To understand this doctrine it is necessary to have a clear conception of what is meant by the forgiveness of sins. (1) It is not a change in our minds towards God, but a change in God’s mind towards us.
(2) It must not be confounded with peace of conscience. It is clearly one thing for God to be at peace with us and quite a different thing for us to be at peace with ourselves. (3) There is another possible error. We must not suppose that as soon as God forgives us we escape at once from the painful and just consequences of our sins. The sins may be forgiven, and yet many of the penalties which they have brought upon us may remain.
II. What is it then for God to forgive sins? (1) When God forgives men, His resentment ceases. He actually remits our sin. Our responsibility for it ceases. The guilt of it is no longer ours. That He should be able to give us this release is infinitely more wonderful than that He should be able to kindle the fires of the sun and to control through age after age the courses of the stars.
(2) He can forgive sin because He is God. Sin is a violation of the eternal law of righteousness, and that law is neither above God nor below God. The eternal law of righteousness is one with the eternal life and will of God. When His resentment against us ceases, the eternal law of righteousness ceases to be hostile to us.
The shadow which our sins have projected across our life, and which lengthens with lengthening years, passes away. We look back upon the sins which God has forgiven, and we condemn them still, but the condemnation does not fall upon ourselves, for God, who is the living law of righteousness, condemns us no longer.
R. W. Dale, Lectures on the Ephesians, p. 52.
The Riches of God’s Grace. It is quite clear from the whole teaching of the New Testament that faith—faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—is the critical act which determines the eternal destiny of all to whom the everlasting God in Christ is made known. Penitence for sin may be most bitter, and yet sin may remain unforgiven.
Prayer may be most passionate, and yet the soul may find no rest. The endeavour to break away from old courses of evil may be sincere and earnest, and yet be altogether unavailing. Forgiveness is not granted to us, nor the gift of eternal life, until we trust in God to save us through Jesus Christ our Lord.
I. The riches of God’s grace are illustrated by the nature and cause of those evils from which God is willing to redeem us. All the evils of our condition, from which God is eager to save us, are the result of our own fault. We have sinned, and the sin is regarded by God with deep and intense abhorrence. It is to the guilty, and not merely to the unfortunate, that God offers redemption. It is to the guiltiest as well as to those whose sins have been less flagrant, and thus He shows the riches of His grace.
II. Again, the riches of His grace are illustrated in what He has done to effect our redemption. "We have redemption through the blood of Christ." If Christ had descended and declared that God was ready to be at peace with us we should have had infinite reason to speak of the riches of God’s grace; but He came unasked. The price of our redemption has already been paid. We have not to entreat God to redeem us; He has provided for our redemption, and thus He has illustrated the riches of His grace.
III. Again, the condition on which God offers salvation illustrates the riches of His grace. If I were to speak with strict accuracy, I might speak of the absence of all conditions, for it is a free gift, and the only condition is that we should receive it. As Peter rose at the touch of the angel and found that his fetters were gone, and that the prison doors were open, we have only to rise up free.
R. W. Dale, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 691
The Forgiveness of Sins and the Death of Christ. The two truths which Paul affirms in the text are in a sense equally mysterious; but the first may be more accessible than the second. He says, first, that we have forgiveness of our trespasses in Christ, and, secondly, that we have the forgiveness of our trespasses in Christ through His blood.
I. We are assisted to approach the first truth by what he has said in the earlier verses of this chapter. The eternal springs of the Divine life of the human race are in Christ. Whatever strength, and wisdom, and blessedness, and glory are possible to us are possible through Him and through our union with Him.
Christ’s eternal righteousness, His eternal relationship to the Father, the Father’s delight in Him, are the origin of all the greatness for which the human race was created. It was from Christ, according to the Divine idea of the race, that we were to receive all things. Every spiritual blessing was conferred upon the race in Him.
II. But what special relation can be discovered between the death of Christ and the remission of sins? (1) In Christ we have found the ideal righteousness of the race. Shall we be surprised if we also find in Christ the ideal submission of the race to the justice of the Divine resentment against sin?
His eternal righteousness made it possible for us to be righteous, for we were created to live in His life: His voluntary endurance of agony, spiritual desertion, and death made it possible for us to consent from our very heart to the justice of God’s condemnation of our sin. In another sense than that in which the words are used by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "He was made perfect through suffering."
(2) The death of Christ has another effect which constitutes it the reason and ground of our forgiveness. His death is the death of sin in all who are one with Him. (3) The death of Christ was an act in which there was a revelation of the righteousness of God which must otherwise have been revealed in the infliction of the penalty of sin on the human race.
R. W. Dale, Lectures on the Ephesians, p. 68.
In Paul’s idea the redemption in Christ stands out as something altogether unique, enshrined in distinctive grandeur. The definite article is used—"in whom," he says, "we have the redemption"—the one great deliverance of sinful men. That redemption is procured for us through "His blood," and it consists in "the forgiveness of sins."
I. The New Testament nowhere represents God as a Father only. A Father of infinite love and tenderness He is; it is our Lord’s supreme revelation of Him; but is He not Sovereign and Magistrate as well? If His words are words of infinite love, are they not also words of inflexible holiness? The word "redemption" is strictly a legal word. It refers to penalty, not to mere moral influence. It is an act of grace on the part of Him against whom we have sinned, but founded on principles of righteousness.
II. It is clear that Christ did not suffer to appease any implacable feeling in God, to incline God to save. Every representation of Scripture is of God’s yearning pity and love. Christ, a holy and loving Man, realised what the sin of His brother-man was—sin against the loving Father, sin that filled the soul with evil; and the realisation agonised Him, the pure, the holy, Man and Brother. Was not this bearing human sin?
Feeling all this anguish for others’ sin, the anguish that they should have felt, that was the natural consequence of sin. And was not this a sacrifice for sin, a homage to righteousness, a manifestation of the inviolability of holiness, of the inevitable misery of sin, the satisfaction of a great principle, "magnifying the law and making it honourable"? "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Have we not here the key to the holiness, the love, and the profound moral philosophy of Christ’s propitiatory sacrifice?
H. Allon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxiii., p. 104.
Ephesians 1:7 (with Colossians 1:14) What we have in Christ Jesus is here indicated by two phrases or forms of expression, which explain and define one another. The redemption through His blood is the forgiveness of sins; the forgiveness of sins is the redemption through His blood.
I. This limits the meaning of the term "redemption." It is restricted by the qualifying clause, "through His blood," and it is restricted also by the explanatory addition, "the forgiveness of sins." The transaction is wholly and exclusively an act and exercise of the Divine sovereignty.
II. The forgiveness of sins is the redemption through Christ’s blood. The statement or definition thus reversed is significant and important. It is not the simple utterance of a sentence, frankly forgiving. It is that, no doubt; but it is something more.
There is the offended Father Himself providing that the irreversible sentence of law and justice lying upon His rebellious children shall have fitting and sufficient execution upon the head of His own well-beloved Son, who is willing to take their place; so that they may come forth free, no longer under condemnation, but righteous in His righteousness and sons in His sonship.
This is the redemption through the blood of Christ. And this is what we have when we have the forgiveness of sins, this and nothing short of this. It is something more than impunity, something more than indulgence, something very different from either impunity or indulgence, and indeed the opposite of both.
III. We have this great benefit in Christ. The gift of God held out freely to the acceptance of all the guilty alike, the gift of God, His free gift, is Christ, and not Christ as the medium or channel through which the redemption or forgiveness reaches us, but Christ having in Himself the redemption and the forgiveness.
R. S. Candlish, Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, p. 18.
References: Eph_1:7.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 334; Ibid., Sermons, vol. vi., No. 295; vol. xxvi., No. 1555. Eph_1:7-14—Homilist, 4th series, vol. i., p. 337. Eph_1:9, Eph_1:10.—F. H. Williams, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 262; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., pp. 85, 225.
Our next “we have” statement is the result of of having received redemption and forgiveness: It speaks of Jesus is the unbroken thought in the last verse of Romans 4, and the first verse of Romans 5: “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 4:25-5:1). We have peace.
Albert Barnes writes of this: “Romans 4:25
Who was delivered - To death; For our offences - On account of our crimes. He was delivered up to death in order to make expiation for our sins. And was raised again - From the dead. For our justification - On account of our justification. In order that we may be justified.
The word “justification” here seems to be used in a large sense, to denote acceptance with God; including not merely the formal act by which God pardons sins, and by which we become reconciled to him, but also the completion of the work - the treatment of us as righteous, and raising us up to a state of glory. By the death of Christ an atonement is made for sin. If it be asked how his resurrection contributes to our acceptance with God, we may answer,
(1) It rendered his work complete. His death would have been unavailing, his work would have been imperfect, if he had not been raised up from the dead. He submitted to death as a sacrifice, and it was needful that he should rise, and thus conquer death and subdue our enemies, that the work which he had undertaken might be complete.
(2) His resurrection was a proof that his work was accepted by the Father. What he had done, in order that sinners might be saved,
was approved. Our justification, therefore, became sure, as it was for this that he had given himself up to death.
(3) His resurrection is the main-spring of all our hopes, and of all our efforts to be saved. Life and immortality are thus brought to light, (2 Timothy 1:10). God “hath begotten us again to a lively hope (a living, active, real hope), by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” Thus, the fact that he was raised becomes the ground of hope that we shall be raised and accepted of God.
The fact that he was raised, and that all who love him shall be raised also, becomes one of the most efficient motives to us to seek to be justified and saved. There is no higher motive that can be presented to induce man to seek salvation than the fact that he maybe raised up from death and the grave, and made immortal.
There is no satisfactory proof that man can be thus raised up, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In that resurrection we have a pledge that all his people will rise. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him,” (1 Thessalonians 4:14). “Because I live,” said the Redeemer, “ye shall live also,” (John 14:19).
Romans 5:1: Therefore - οὖν oun Since we are thus justified, or as a consequence of being justified, we have peace. Being justified by faith - We - That is, all who are justified. The apostle is evidently speaking of true Christians. Have peace with God - True religion is often represented as peace with God;
This is called peace, because, (1) The sinner is represented as the enemy of God, (Romans 8:7; Ephesians_2:16; James_4:4; John_15:18, John_15:24; John_17:14; Romans_1:30. (2) The state of a sinner’s mind is far from peace. He is often agitated, alarmed, trembling. He feels that he is alienated from God.
The sinner in this state regards God as his enemy. He trembles when he thinks of his Law; fears his judgments; is alarmed when he thinks of hell. His bosom is a stranger to peace. This has been felt in all lands, alike under the thunders of the Law of Sinai among the Jews; in the pagan world; and in lands where the gospel is preached. It is the effect of an alarmed and troubled conscience.
(3) The plan of salvation by Christ reveals God as willing to be reconciled. He is ready to pardon, and to be at peace. If the sinner repents and believes, God can now consistently forgive him, and admit him to favor. It is therefore a plan by which the mind of God and of the sinner can become reconciled, or united in feeling and in purpose.
The obstacles on the part of God to reconciliation, arising from his justice and Law, have been removed, and he is now willing to be at peace. The obstacles on the part of man, arising from his sin, his rebellion, and his conscious guilt, may be taken away, and he can now regard God as his friend.
(4) The effect of this plan, when the sinner embraces it, is to produce peace in his own mind. He experiences peace; a peace which the world gives not, and which the world cannot take away, (Philippians_4:7; 1 Peter_1:8; John_16:22). Usually in the work of conversion to God, this peace is the first evidence that is felt of the change of heart. Before, the sinner was agitated and troubled. But often suddenly, a peace and calmness is felt, which is before unknown.
The alarm subsides; the heart is calm; the fears die away, like the waves of the ocean after a storm. A sweet tranquillity visits the heart - a pure shining light, like the sunbeams that break through the opening clouds after a tempest. The views, the feelings, the desires are changed; and the bosom that was just before filled with agitation and alarm, that regarded God as its enemy, is now at peace with him, and with all the world.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ - By means of the atonement of the Lord Jesus. It is his mediation that has procured it.”
Alexander MacLaren adds, “‘Therefore, being justified by faith, let us have peace.’ To be justified by faith is a certain process, to have peace with God is the inseparable and simultaneous result of that process itself. But that is going rather too fast.
‘Being justified by faith let us have peace with God,’ really is just this - see that you abide where you are; keep what you have. The exhortation is not to attain peace, but retain it. ‘Hold fast that thou hast; let no man take thy crown.’ ‘Being justified by faith’ cling to your treasure and let nothing rob you of it-’let us have peace with God.’
Now a word, in the next place, as to the necessity and importance of this exhortation. There underlies it, this solemn thought, which Christian people, and especially some types of Christian doctrine, do need to have hammered into them over and over again, that we hold the blessed life itself, and all its blessings, only on condition of our own cooperation in keeping them;
and that just as physical life dies, unless by reception of food we nourish and continue it, so a man that is in this condition of being justified by faith, and having peace with God, needs, in order to the permanence of that condition, to give his utmost effort and diligence. It will all go if he do not.
All the old state will come back again if we are slothful and negligent. We cannot keep the treasure unless we guard it. And just because we have it, we need to put all our mind, the earnestness of our will, and the concentration of our efforts, into the specific work of retaining it.
For, consider how manifold and strong are the forces which are always working against our continual possession of this justification by faith, and consequent peace with God. There are all the ordinary cares and duties and avocations and fortunes of our daily life, which, indeed, may be so hallowed in their motives and in their activities...
There are all the daily tasks that tempt us to forget the things that we only know by faith, and to be absorbed in the things that we can touch and taste and handle. If a man is upon an inclined plane, unless he is straining his muscles to go upwards, gravitation will make short work of him, and bring him down.
And unless Christian men grip hard and continually that sense of having fellowship and peace with God, as sure as they are living they will lose the clearness of that consciousness, and the calm that comes from it. For we cannot go into the world and do the work that is laid upon us all without there being possible hostility to the Christian life in everything that we meet.
Thank God there is possible help, too, and whether our daily calling is an enemy or a friend to our religion depends upon the earnestness and continuousness of our own efforts. But there is a worse force than these external distractions working to draw us away, one that we carry within, in our own vacillating wills and wayward hearts and treacherous affections and passions that usually lie dormant, but wake up sometimes at the most inopportune periods.
Unless we keep a very tight hand upon ourselves, certainly these will rob us of this consciousness of being justified by faith which brings with it peace with God that passes understanding. ‘Being justified, let us have peace with God,’ and remember that the exhortation is enforced not only by a consideration of the many strong forces which tend to deprive us of this peace, but also by a consideration of the hideous disaster that comes upon a man’s whole nature if he loses peace with God.
For there is no peace with ourselves, and there is no peace with man, and there is no peace in face of the warfare of life and the calamities that are certainly before us all, unless, in the deepest sanctuary of our being, there is the peace of God because in our consciences there is peace with God. If I desire to be at rest... there is but one way to realise the desire, and that is the retention of peace with God that comes with being justified by faith.”
This concludes this evening's Discussion, “Barabbas, Part 19”
This Discussion was originally presented “live” August 17th, 2022.
I have designed a website to serve as an Online Book Store for the things I have written and published on Amazon. These are in the form of both Kindle eBooks, and paperback books. Some of you may recall a Series I presented on "The Lord's Prayer" several years ago. My original notes for this and other Bible Studies have been greatly revised and expanded for these publications. For further details on the books that are available, and for ordering information, click the following:
https://arvkbook.wixsite.com/romansbooks
If you purchase and read any of my books, Thank you! I would also greatly appreciate a review on Amazon!