The Unsearchable Riches of Christ # 12

According to the Riches of His Grace: Redemption and Wisdom

"In whom we have our redemption through His blood ... according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7)

We are going to consider another aspect of the riches of Christ in connection with "our redemption according to the riches of His grace." This matter of redemption is a very big one, and it could take many hours of consideration, because like election, it is a matter which has been misunderstood and in some ways it has been distorted. There has been a good deal of confusion over the matter of this priceless wonder of our redemption, and the meaning of that word. The confusion arises when redemption is pictured as a matter of taking a slave out of bondage by paying the redemption money. Well, I say, there may be an element of truth in that idea of interpretation, but the difficulty and the confusion arises when you ask the question: "To whom is the money paid? Has God got to pay the devil something to get back that which he has taken? Is God a debtor to satan? Has God got to go into satan's slave market and put up a price to redeem that which satan has captured?' You see, it is an untenable idea, an unthinkable thing to ever contemplate that God is at the mercy of satan, that satan is in the position of saying, 'If You would like to pay me an adequate price, I will let you have what is in my possession.' We will never recognize that. So we have got to revise our idea of this matter of redemption. I say thee may be an element of truth in it. It may go just so far, as we shall probably see, but that is really not the whole truth, and if we are not clear about this matter of redemption, we shall be in some confusion.

So, I want to try and make this thing clear, for it is important that we have a right understanding of things. We rejoice in redemption and we sing about redemption and we can never make too much of redemption, but there is some real value in understanding what we are talking about by having a right apprehension of the words and the terms that we use so commonly. So, I just trust that what I say about this may not make it seem to be a complicated thin, but rather to help us to appreciate the real meaning of redemption.

"Hath Redeemed Us Unto God"

Now let us begin where it does begin. Redemption begins with being "unto God." It is redemption "unto God." No, the great word at the beginning of the Book of the Revelation says: "hath redeemed us unto God, unto God." That means that something has been taken from God which is God's right. And, as a result, if something has been taken from God, then the balance of things has been upset. Therefore, things are not equal, and things are not complete, because there is something lacking which belongs to God. And that being the case, then of course, things are unequal and things are unbalanced. If there is a family, and in that family there are two sons belonging to the one father, and one so is removed then the balance of the family is upset. It is lopsided, you see. It is one-sided, and the father's possession is divided and incomplete, and an unequal position obtains. If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and that is his complete lot, that is everything he owns - his fullness - and one of those sheep is lost, the balance is upset and the thing is not complete, and his possession is interfered with and disturbed. Then, consequently, things are out of proportion. If a woman has a necklace with ten pieces of silver hanging from it, and one of those pieces of silver is lost, then the balance is upset and she has not go all that belongs to her. So, then, things are unequal, and the balance is disturbed.

However, bringing back of those lost things, whether it is a son or a sheep or a piece of silver restores the balance to the owner, and that is redemption unto God. God has all that belongs to Him, all that is His right, and there is completeness restored - "Redemption unto God." But what is it really that has been lost? Of course we have the parables and the illustration in the Scriptures, it is like an illustration of a son, a sheep, a piece of silver. Many other things are employed to illustrate the truth, but they are only illustrations. What is it really that has been lost and that has, by being lost, upset the balance? It is life. It is life. Now here is the deep mystery of redemption.

This is what we are met with in the Bible throughout, and, of course, I cannot trace this thing in half an hour, but what are we met with in the Bible throughout is the very matter of the disturbance of the balance of life. And God's demand is that that balance shall be restored. He is the Author, the Fountain, the Origin of the Whole Sum of Life. Life is God. He alone is the rightful Lord of Life. Life is God's, and so, it belongs to God. It is as though, if I may put it this way, God has so much Life, an ultimate of Life - Life is just so much in God and with God, it is not less, not more, but just so much in God that if something of That Life is taken away, you upset the balance of life. The whole thing is out of proportion. And redemption means restoring that balance, by restoring the fullness. Well, then, thee you have you Bible.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 13)