Redeemer

“ How unspeakably happy is the lot of sincere Christians. The blessed Redeemer, though seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, yet manifests himself unto them as he does not unto the world. He still addresses you by his word and Spirit in the same tones of love, tenderness and compassion, that charmed the hearts of that little band that followed him in the days of his humiliation. ”

“ O my dear Sir, what a blessed thing is it to have the Redeemer to be our friend. If we can but truly say, “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” how safely may we put our souls into his hands, as into the hands of a faithful creator! I hope my dear Mr. D―― will not rest till he can say so.—The frequent indispositions of body that you are under, are so many loud calls to prepare for another world.—Nothing but the righteousness of Christ imputed, and the holiness of Christ imparted to your soul, can make you happy in a dying hour. ”

“ The Redeemer, then, must be a Lord of life, hence Deity. He must not only have the power of life within himself, but the power to impart it to others—a God-like power; and to inspire faith in his possession of such power, the manner of the Atonement must be such as to include demonstration of that fact, else how shall men have faith in him? All these considerations lift the Redeemer and the Atonement far above man and what man can do. Truly the redemption of man is to be the work of God. ”

“ And from the interweaving of these two traditions with the craving for the Redeemer, you at last get the conviction that when the Redeemer comes he will be immortal; he will give us his body to eat and his blood to drink; and he will prove his divinity by suffering a barbarous death without resistance or reproach, and rise from the dead and return to the earth in glory as the giver of life eternal. ”

“ They shall lift up their heads with unspeakable triumph, as knowing that their complete redemption comes along with him. On the contrary, those that have deserted him shall be ashamed before him; they shall be ashamed of themselves, ashamed of their unbelief, their cowardice, ingratitude, temerity, and folly, in forsaking so glorious a Redeemer. ”

“ And now that the beginning is made, and the foundation laid for the Redemption of the world, no man, no one at least who will loyally join the banner of the Redeemer, is forbidden, but every one has freely offered to him the divine, flaming, two-edged sword of the Spirit—or of the Word, and of the thoughts of the heart united to Him, enlightened by Him, and emanating from Him. ”

“ Thus shall the blest Redeemer's voice
Call forth his servant's to rejoice.
For He, whose word is truth, hath said,
His power to life shall wake the dead,
And summon those he loves, on high,
To "put on immortality!" ”

“ I am now thirsting after his purity and holiness; help me, dear Sir, help me by your prayers, that I may feel the power of the Redeemer’s blood. He hath done great things already for me; but as yet I have asked nothing. Greater things are yet before me. There is an inexhaustible fulness, out of which the Redeemer would have me draw continually. O for faith, for strong faith!
I more would bless, I more would thank,
I more would live to Jesu’s praise.
Since my return, I have been visiting the churches. They grow and increase daily. I preach twice every day. The Lord is among us. ”

“ Thou, my Redeemer, hast shown that regard for my soul, as to shed thy blood for its salvation, and I have been so wretched as to allow it to perish for a mere nothing, for a caprice, for a maddening passion, for a miserable gratification, for contempt of thy grace and love. Ah! if faith did not assure me that thou hast promised to pardon those who repent, I should not now dare to implore thy forgiveness. ”

“ After twenty-five centuries’ slow but needful preparation, He now reveals Himself as the Redeemer. A people whom He had chosen and formed for Himself He gives up to oppression and slavery, that their hearts may be prepared to long for and welcome a Deliverer. In a series of mighty wonders He proves Himself the Conqueror of their enemies, and then, in the blood of the Paschal Lamb on their doors, teaches them what redemption is, not only from an unjust oppressor here on earth, but from the righteous judgment their sins had deserved. ”

“ If I am seeking to hold fast redemption on lower ground, I may be deceived. If I have become unwatchful or careless, I should tremble at the very idea of trusting in redemption apart from holiness as its object. To Israel God spake, ‘I brought you up out of the land of Egypt: therefore ye shall be holy, for I am holy.’ It is God the Redeemer who made us His own, who calls us too to be holy: let Holiness be to us the most essential, the most precious part of redemption: the yielding of ourselves to Him who has taken us as His own, and has undertaken to make us His own entirely. ”

“ But she will be seen on the right hand of her Redeemer at the last day, and will again appear to his glory, a miracle of grace and monument of mercy.
My reader, rich or poor, shall you and I appear there likewise? Are we “clothed with humility,” and arrayed in the wedding garment of a redeemer’s righteousness? Are we turned from idols to serve the living God? Are we sensible of our own emptiness, and therefore flying to a Saviour’s fulness to obtain grace and strength? Do we indeed live in Christ, and on him, and by him, and with him? Is he our all in all? Are we “lost, and found?” ”

“ When I consider the purity and holiness of my Redeemer's life, and compare my own corrupt inclinations, and evil thoughts and actions, with his faultless character, surely I must feel humbled in the dust. But when I remember that that divine Being shed his blood to wash away my sins, can I fear any sufferings, any trials, by which I may prove my love and gratitude? ”

“ He imagined he saw his blessed Redeemer on earth, and that he was following him through a large field, following him whom his soul loved, but much troubled, because he thought his blessed Lord did not speak to him, till he came up to the gate of a burying-place, when, turning about, he smiled upon him in such a manner as filled his soul with the most ravishing joy, and on after reflection animated his faith in believing that whatever storms and darkness he might meet with in the way, at the hour of death his glorious Redeemer would lift up upon him the light of his life-giving countenance. ”

“ He who has come to know, with a clear discrimination, that he is in a guilty bondage to his own inclination and lust, has taken the very first step towards freedom. For, the Redeemer, the Almighty Deliverer, is near the captive, so soon as the captive feels his bondage and confesses it. The mighty God walking upon the waves of this sinful, troubled life, stretches out His arm, the very instant any sinking soul cries, "Lord save me." ”

“ This great act of redeeming mankind, is, next to the work of creation itself, the highest proof of the Divine goodness. Redemption, indeed, may be termed a second creation, a re-creation, inasmuch as, without it, the purpose of creation, which is man's happiness, could not have been accomplished. Without the Redemption, the Creation would have been in vain. In the Lord the Redeemer, then, we behold the beauty and love of God the Creator, shining with redoubled splendor: the Father is beheld doubly glorified in the Son. ”

“ The Redeemer, by a significant act, shews them where alone, at such an hour, comfort can be found. He points the mourning spirit to its only true source of consolation and peace in God Himself, teaching it to rise above the mortal to the immortal—the corruptible to the incorruptible—from earth to heaven. ”

“ All men that live, and that go perforce about this world like blundering lost children whose rescuer is not yet in sight, have a vital need to believe in this sustaining legend about the Redeemer, and about the Redeemer’s power to make those persons who serve him just and perfect. ”

“ It is the glory of the Redeemer to dwell in the redeemed: it is his rest for ever, and he has desired it. Let us therefore make sure our union with Christ, and then take the comfort of his intercession. This prayer had an end, but that he ever lives to make. ”

“ Here the redeemed are represented as ascribing praise to both the Creator and the Redeemer. And again, every created intelligence in the universe, in joyful sympathy with man in view of his redemption, is represented in chap. v, 13, as ascribing “blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, unto Him that sitteth upon the throne [the Creator] , and unto the Lamb [the Redeemer] , forever and ever.” ”

“ Everything of the nature of satisfaction or merit on the part of the offender is precluded, by the utterly gratuitous nature of the gift, by the sufficiency of the Redeemer's expiation. Every assertion of the necessity of works or merit on the side of the offender, as the ground of forgiveness, is a disparagement of the Redeemer's Mercy and of his expiatory office. Faith, thus laying hold of a free forgiveness and reconnecting the soul with God, is the fountain of a new life of holiness, which depends not on fear and homage to law, but on gratitude and on filial sentiments. ”

“ Thou hast redeemed us!—that is the song of the saints on earth. Thou hast redeemed us;—that is the song and joy of my heart.’ In the same posture, after another short interval, he said, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.’ ‘I know in whom I have believed, and that what I have committed to him he will preserve against that day.’ ‘The Lord is my light, and my salvation, whom shall I fear? ”

“ Is it not true that he not only saves us from our sins, but saves us in a way most considerate, most tender, most regardful of our feelings and sufferings? Does not the Bible tell us that, in order to fulfil his office of Redeemer the more perfectly, he took upon him the condition of humanity, and endured the pains, and wants, and temptations of a mortal existence, that he might be to us a sympathizing, appreciating friend, "touched with the feeling of our infirmities," and cheering us gently on in the hard path of returning virtue? ”

“ Surely you can need no exhortations to run to your Redeemer, to beseech him to do every thing in you and for you that your corrupted heart, and polluted body are in need of. He now stands as near you, as full of love to you, as he did to Lazarus when he raised him from the dead. ”

“ Those guileless men whom the Redeemer chose as His instruments for carrying out His great work of the redemption of the world, were endued with miraculous powers, which it was and ever will be apparent, were not of their own strength, but of His. ”

“ I conceive it to be most abundant in instruction, and the strongest possible incentive to practical goodness, and that in a great variety of ways. The death of our Redeemer shows us the infinite value of our souls, by showing the inestimable price paid for them, and thus leads us to more diligence in securing their eternal felicity. It is calculated to inspire us with an unfeigned hatred of sin, and more especially to convince us of God's hatred to that, for the pardon of which such a sacrifice was deemed necessary. ”

“ But do we all desire it? Are we all looking out with loving and longing hearts for the appearance of our beloved Redeemer? I fear that many would be very far from glad if they thought it would come to-morrow. ”

“ Those in need of redemption could never find any real religious support outside of the faith in a divine redeemer, they could never find satisfaction and deliverance but in the idea of the God sacrificing himself for mankind—the God whose redeeming power and whose distinct superiority to the other Mystery-deities the apostles could portray in such a lively and striking fashion. ”

“ That there is a Redeemer: That the redemption relatively to each individual captive is, if not effected under certain conditions, yet manifestable as far as is fitting for the soul by certain signs and consequents: — and That these signs are in myself; that the conditions under which the redemption offered to all men is promised to the individual, are fulfilled in myself;
these are the four great points of faith, in which the humble Christian finds and feels a gradation from trembling hope to full assurance; yet the will, the act of trust, is the same in all. ”

“ The great work which the Redeemer performed—that of making an atonement for sin—was thus represented to John in such a way that he at once recognized him, and saw the reason why the office of breaking the seals was intrusted to him. It should be remarked that this representation is merely symbolic, and we are not to suppose that the Redeemer really assumed this form, or that he appears in this form in heaven. We should no more suppose that the Redeemer appears literally as a lamb in heaven with numerous eyes and horns, than that there is a literal throne and a sea of glass there ”

“ Thou, O Lord! art our Father, our Redeemer, from everlasting is Thy name." (Is. lxiii. 16.)
II. We were redeemed, "not with corruptible gold or silver, but with the precious blood of Christ." (i Pet. i. 18, 19.) Although one drop of His blood were perfectly adequate to our redemption, He nevertheless shed it all, and underwent the most severe torments, " because with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him plentiful redemption." ”

“ Place yourself in spirit at the foot of the cross, and consider how much it cost your Redeemer to purchase for you the happiness of communicating. Far from being admitted to the honour and advantage of sacramental union with God, you would have been condemned to eternal separation from him, if Jesus had not died to save you. Your approaching happiness is then the purchase of your Redeemer’s sufferings — the adorable body you are going to receive as your spiritual food, is the same which was exposed to insult, contempt, and misery, during three-and-thirty years ”