The Unsearchable Riches of Christ # 14

According to the Riches of His Grace: Redemption and Wisdom (continued)

Hath Redeemed Us Unto God (continued)

There follows this: that man is in bondage by this terrible thing that has happened. He is in a position of weakness, of defectiveness, of helplessness, and because of this he is helplessly in bondage.

Now you, of course, can take your illustration from the Old Testament. Israel in Egypt is always referred to as the land of bondage. They were in bondage, that is the word which governs their position there. Now how were they delivered from that bondage? Oh, we say it is by the blood of the Lamb. That is true, but the operation was two-sided. On the one side, it depended entirely upon the attitude of the heart, the attitude of faith. And on the other hand, if unbelief and rebellion of heart persisted, as in Pharaoh and the Egyptians, the blood testified against them; it was their undoing. But Israel was just as much in bondage to sin and the the world as Egypt was. Just as much, there is no difference. But the difference which did come about was by their attitude toward the blood. If any Israelite had refused by unbelief or rebellion of heart to take that shed blood and sprinkle it upon the doorposts, the lentel, making a circle of blood, they would have gone the same way as the Egyptians. They would have remained in bondage and death and under judgment. But we need to recognize that they did not understand, they did not know what we are talking about. However they had the simple prescription, the simple command, that they should take that blood of the lamb without spot, without blemish, and sprinkle it upon the doorposts. Therefore, with that simple command, there arose the demand for the obedience of faith, and thereby that blood answered for them God's requirements.

God knew the secret, the mystery of that blood. God Who is the Timeless, the Eternal God was not moving,, so many hundreds or thousands of years before, on the ground of that symbolic lamb. No, He was moving then and there  on the ground of His Own Son at Calvary, the Passover Lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7); and He knew the meaning of it, while Israel did not have the understanding. But God knew, and He just made His simple requirement, but bound up with this deep, this fathomless mystery of life, God has a right to life. God must have that which is His Own Life, and so the lamb with its shed blood symbolically answers to God's demand and in that life's blood poured out, it is unto God. You remember, that through all the Old Testament ritual in Israel, the blood belongs to God; it is sacred unto God. It is God's, it represents the life which belongs to God, and in the giving of that, God has His right, His portion, what belongs to Him.

So, when we come to this word in Ephesians 1, and at verse 7, it says: "We have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses." "And hath," says John, "redeemed us unto God by His Blood" (Revelation 5:9). If you would like to change the word you can, "We have redemption through His poured-out Life, redeemed unto God through His poured-out Life," that is the meaning of it. The Lord Jesus, because of the "infinite" value of His Blood, the "infinite" measure of that which He gave in His Cross unto God, has satisfied God perfectly in this matter of His requirement, His demand. And, although the explanation may sound a little complicated and difficult - well, of course, it is - it is the unsearchable riches, oh the depth of the riches is beyond us, but after all in experience it is very simple.

You know, dear friends, when you and I at the beginning of our Christian life take by faith the virtue of the Blood of Jesus Christ, we do not understand that, we do not comprehend its meaning, but in simple faith we see that it is by way of the Blood of Jesus Christ that we are saved, and in that simple but genuine heart-faith in the efficacy and virtue of the Blood of Jesus Christ, we take it and give ourselves to God on the ground of it. What is our first consciousness? Everything is all right, the dislocation has been adjusted, the unbalanced state of things has been put straight, we call it peace with God. This is only another way of saying the same thing, God has what he requires for His satisfaction, and if God is satisfied, you and I will be well satisfied. If there is that in us which satisfies Him, the Spirit will bear witness.

And, although I say again, we do not understand, we are in the depths, the mighty depths, a depth which it will take eternity to comprehend, there is a simple beginning with this fact, everything was distorted, deranged, unbalanced, there was something lacking that was essential, that was vital to our peace, all that sort of thing, and now we have peace with God, the balance is restored, God is satisfied, in our hearts we feel, although we cannot explain it, we feel, well somehow or other a great adjustment has taken place. Things are equal now, things are straight now. Put it as you will, but it is a consciousness, is it not?

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 15)