Redemption

“ It is redemption that is to deliver, redemption that is to raise us from the dead, redemption that removes the difficulty, how then can we ever hope to rise until redemption is applied and realised? If redemption is not sufficient to reach down to one in a state of utter hopelessness, it is insufficient for the conscience-stricken sinner. Remember, therefore, the case of Jeremiah. ”

“ The dream of Redemption. It is not technical creeds for which the Church as a whole stands, but for certain vital principles which concern the life of the soul, and its relation to God and man. Virtue has always been a dream of the heart. But how inaccessible is virtue, with a past of unforgiven sin! The height of our ideal of redemption is conditioned upon the depth of our realization of sin. To the shallow, redemption is an easy-going process, a way of healing the scratches which the world makes. To the deep and serious-minded, redemption involves the regeneration of the race. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Was our whole life to be one continued act of praise, it would be nothing in comparison to the blessings we have received; nay, even the eternity, which we shall spend in continual praise, is not enough fully to express all we owe to our redeeming God—Redemption, how much is comprehended in this word! And how sweet does it sound to a soul sensible of its wants! May that pathetic prayer my dear **** has made for me be heard; then shall I experience that fulness of redemption for which I long! Then shall I indeed be intirely dead to the world and sin, and live only to Christ. ”

“ When we realize this, we get some idea of the scope of the redemption which he proclaims. It is not a superficial or a sentimental thing that he proposes; it takes hold of life with the most comprehensive grasp; it proposes to redeem not only man but his environment. ”

“ These in all lands, all times, all causes, these
⁠That law by innocence appease;
By their sublime attractiveness they win
The world from its fatality of sin,
⁠And from the common lot
⁠Desiring no exemption,
Their blamelessness with mighty power is fraught
⁠When joined with pain,
⁠For so Redemption,
Redemption lifts its mighty cross again! ”

“ REDEMPTION, n. Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin, through their murder of the deity against whom they sinned. The doctrine of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holy religion, and whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but have everlasting life in which to try to understand it. ”

“ There is another reason for the mysterious manner of our redemption, a further explanation of the extreme condescension on the part of our Lord towards the frail creatures whom He came to save. Had he come to us in a foreign attire, with a nature unlike our own, would it not have been difficult for us to approach Him, and to put our confidence and trust in Him? If He had appeared like an angel, all bright and dazzling with glory, if He had come as an earthly king and ruler, crowned and clad in regal splendor, would it not have been hard for the poor ones of earth? ”

“ No examples of vital religion, no one to urge or encourage you to seek redemption! But the Almighty can indeed work by the weakest means, and the poorest instruments; nothing is too hard for the Lord: and Oh may he perfect the work he has begun!—Oh gracious and ever-blessed Redeemer, continue thy mercy to this brother of my soul; convince him more and more of the dreadful state he is in by nature, and the absolute necessity of justification by faith alone! ”

“ The purpose of redemption is Possession, and the purpose of Possession is likeness to Him who is Redeemer and Owner, is Holiness.
In regard to this Holiness, and the way it is to be attained as the result of redemption, there is more than one lesson the sanctifying of the first-born will teach us.
First of all, we want to realize how inseparable redemption and holiness are. Neither can exist without the other. Only redemption leads to holiness. If I am seeking holiness, I must abide in the clear and full experience of being a redeemed one, and as such of being owned and possessed by God. ”

“ It is my own belief that a great deal of the confusion respecting the subject arises from the indistinct use of words; and I am thoroughly persuaded that before we can ascertain whom He has redeemed, we must clearly understand what is meant by redemption. If we do not understand redemption itself, we shall never understand its limits. Now I cannot help thinking that I have proved that, throughout the word of God, redemption means deliverance; and in the case of the great salvation, deliverance through atonement. ”

“ And now without redemption all mankind Must have been lost, adjudg'd to Death and Hell By doom severe, had not the Son of God, In whom the fulness dwells of love divine, His dearest mediation thus renew'd. ”

“ 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 forms of the universe are seen in a series which is in the main ascendant, and in which the survivor is supreme. The watchword of to-morrow is Redemption. The Thinker will some day live, who will make that great word Redemption stand out in all its vast majesty and significance. This, I take it, is the work of our new century.
Redemption is the explanation of the existence of man, of his present progress, and his future destiny. It is the great mystery of joy in which the race partakes ”

“ The deliverance is the consequence of atonement, and the atonement is the cause of deliverance, but both one and the other are included in the full idea of redemption, as we may see, for example, in the song sung before the throne, ‘Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.’ Rev. ”

“ He came into the world, not to rule over the world, but to give his life for the redemption of a great number. He came, not like a usurer, to swallow up the riches of the world, but to redeem, by his blood, those whom sin had sold to the devil. ”

“ The redemption is only the result of the suffering; the suffering is the cause of the redemption. Hence the suffering takes deeper root in the feelings; the suffering makes itself an object of imitation;—not so the redemption. If God himself suffered for my sake, how can I be joyful, how can I allow myself any gladness, at least on this corrupt earth, which was the theatre of his suffering?4 Ought I to fare better than God? ”

“ Most certainly, then, redemption cannot be without cost to the redeemer of men—not only that cost to the hero of the superior showing of superior character in a superior task, but that other cost, indissolubly linked indeed with this, of reverently, patiently, to the bitter end, helping another to conquer himself—the inevitable suffering of all redemptive endeavor for those whom one loves. ”

“ Will you not expose this redemption sham and enjoin upon man to gird up his loins and redeem himself? For Godsake turn his eyes away from that well-meaning rustic who may or may not have been crucified some 2,000 years ago. Direct man to rely upon righteousness and love and high endeavour to redeem himself from crime and sorrow and man's inhumanity to man. ”

“ 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. ”

“ But if redemption be the giving of life from God; and if redemption be the change of position in reference to God's love and God's law as well, neither of these two changes can a man effect for himself. ”

“ Wherefore it must be true which was said before, to wit, That the knowledge of redemption, and the faith of redemption, is the only means of settling, composing, and upholding of the soul of the thoroughly awakened, in the hope of enjoying a portion in mercy for ever. He that hath the Son of God, hath the Father, hath life ”

“ Paul teaches us that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, for the whole is affected by the fall; and that a time is coming when, through redeeming grace, the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. No wonder, then, that creation itself is here represented as taking part in the joy of redemption. ”

“ But redemption is an accomplished fact in the sense that all the conditions of the final success are already there. The ideal may be freely realized in every Christian because he has received the 'earnest' or pledge of the Spirit, the pledge, that is, of all that is to be accomplished in him. ”

“ To think of the world’s activity as God’s activity; of mankind’s development, filled with struggles and sufferings, as the story of a divine struggle and Passion; of the world-process as the process of a God, who in each individual creature fights, suffers, conquers and dies, so that he may overcome the limitations of the finite in the religious consciousness of man and anticipate his future triumph over all the suffering of the world—that is the real Christian doctrine of redemption. ”

“ Redemption is too often looked at from its negative side as deliverance from: its real glory is the positive element of being redeemed unto Himself. Full possession of a house means occupation: if I own a house without occupying it, it may be the home of all that is foul and evil. God has redeemed me and made me His own with the view of getting complete possession of me. He says of my soul, ‘It is mine,’ and seeks to have His right of ownership acknowledged and made fully manifest. ”

“ There God made the people, there He redeemed them. In lawbook as in prophecy, it is the fact of redemption which forms the main ground of His appeal. Redeemed by Him, the people are not their own, but His. ”

“ If we are brought to the bottom of the pit, by sorrow, by sickness, by calamity, by the approach of death, or by the deep and painful sense of sin, all true source of strength must ever be in the great work of redemption wrought out for us by the Son of God. It is that which opens the way to the throne, and which enables us to rest in the assurance of the love of God. You may find many difficulties in the way of faith, and many drawbacks under the profound sense of your own unworthiness. But it is wonderful to find how they disappear before the cross of Christ ”

“ It is the service of the Redeemer Himself. In redeeming us from iniquity He makes us His own, and sets us apart unto Himself. If redeemed we belong to the Redeemer. We love Him, we follow Him, we serve Him, we are His. ”

“ He went on to speak of the blessing of the Redemption, and he besought the people to do what lay in them to hasten it forward, by raising up the fences of the Law, and by constant and scrupulous obedience. "Let all repent," he said, "of former slackness and misdoings; for the Lord your God is merciful, long suffering, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth Him of the evil. ”

“ And our insight into the need of redemption will largely depend upon our knowledge of the terrible nature of the power that has entered our being. ”

“ It isn’t the fall of him that’s difficult; that’s easy, too easy—we see so much of it. But the redemption—unless we go back to the old explanation, puerile to us complicated moderns, perhaps from its very obviousness—the old theory of purification through suffering. ”

“ Luke, xxi. 28, our Lord said, ‘When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.’ In Rom. viii. 23, those who have the first-fruits of the Spirit are described as waiting for ‘the redemption of the body,’ or, in other words, for the final deliverance of the body itself at the resurrection, i.e., for the gift promised through the prophet Hosea, ‘I will redeem them from death.’ So in the Epistle to the Ephesians the saints are said both to have redemption, and to be looking for it. ”

“ 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.” ”

“ The word 'redemption' is meant to suggest a price paid by God, or by Christ, for our being {152} made free; it is the price of the Son's death. He 'gives His life a ransom for many.' The word 'propitiation' again is meant to suggest that the offering of the life in sacrifice was the means to win for us forgiveness from God. So far, both metaphorical words have their clear and harmonious meaning. But in old days the metaphor of redemption was worked out by Origen and others beyond the exact point of the original suggestion. ”