February 17th, 2023
by Tyler Graber
by Tyler Graber
QUESTION 25. WHO IS THE REDEEMER OF GOD’S ELECT?
The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures and one person, forever.
To be regarded as forgiven is a blessed state for someone to be in, for if someone is forgiven, there is some wrong that they have been forgiven of. If I am forgiven, I am no longer accountable to the wrong that I have done, and if I am held accountable for the wrong I have done, I am no longer forgiven. Yet if I am held accountable for the wrong I have done, it would be just. You could say to forgive someone is to not enact justice. They would be pardoned from their crime, and not be attached to the wrong that they have done, as if they had never done it. If this is how our courts acted, they would be considered unjust. If they pardoned all criminal activity that they handled, they would be crossing from mercy to injustice. If God forgave our sins against him, and no price was paid, he would not be a just God.
The god of the Muslims, Allah, is said to be a merciful god. He forgives his people. However, he forgives and no price is paid. The crime is treated as if it never happened. Someone can defile this “holy” god’s will, and the act is left untouched. It appears a line has been crossed from mercy to injustice. The need arises for a redeemer, someone to pay the fine, and, in Muslim theology, there is none. The fine is left unpaid, and the crime left untouched. Some sins are paid for in hell, some are left as they are.
Our God too forgives His people. He does not leave us in the darkness we were born into. He delivers his people from a state of condemnation to one of salvation. His lost sheep hear his voice. He forgives us our sins and reconciles us unto Himself. How then is he different than Allah? How is this just or holy? Notice what our own scriptures say:
He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.
-Proverbs 17:15
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
-Isaiah 5:20
So it is evil to justify the wicked, but are not all wicked? It is cursed to call evil good, yet does not God justify the ungodly? Doesn’t He forgive them as if they had no sin? How can he do this and still be just? This is all made possible in our Redeemer’s life, death, and resurrection.
The Judge of the universe came robed in flesh, and instead of righteously judging us, he was judged for us. He was God. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily -Colossians 2:9. Yet he was cursed as man. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed -Isaiah 53:5. He who was the eternally loved Son of God became the despised and rejected man. He was falsely accused, betrayed by his brothers, and hung on a tree as a common thief. The wrath that we deserved to take, he bore on that tree. Was this some mistake? What is the point of sending a Messiah just to die?
Unbeknownst to the world, God was working out his plan of redemption. Some focus more on the life of Christ, some more on his death, and some more on the resurrection, yet it is in all of these that we are redeemed. He lived a life that no mere man could live.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
-John 1:14
He was spotless. Not one mark of sin stained his soul. The only dirt you could find on him was that which collected on his feet from walking among us. He redeemed us in life by living as no man could live before, fulfilling all righteousness that men were accountable to. It is the righteous life he lived that is placed upon those who are in Christ. It is Christ’s righteousness that God sees in his children, not their own.
In His death we find redemption because our sins debt is paid on the cross. Our sins can be forgotten because they can be nailed to the cross. All the condemnation that we accumulate upon ourselves is dissolved away in the body of His death.
For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
-2 Corinthians 5:21
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
-Galatians 3:13
His resurrection is the icing on the cake. It is the paradigm of the Christian’s hope. It is in the power of Christ's resurrection that we both walk in faith and anticipate our bodily resurrection on that final day. To be redeemed is to bought back, bought back with the blood of Christ. This blessed transaction secures our lives as the Lord’s eternal possessions.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
-1 Peter 1:3-5
- Tyler Graber
The only Redeemer of God’s elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be God and man, in two distinct natures and one person, forever.
To be regarded as forgiven is a blessed state for someone to be in, for if someone is forgiven, there is some wrong that they have been forgiven of. If I am forgiven, I am no longer accountable to the wrong that I have done, and if I am held accountable for the wrong I have done, I am no longer forgiven. Yet if I am held accountable for the wrong I have done, it would be just. You could say to forgive someone is to not enact justice. They would be pardoned from their crime, and not be attached to the wrong that they have done, as if they had never done it. If this is how our courts acted, they would be considered unjust. If they pardoned all criminal activity that they handled, they would be crossing from mercy to injustice. If God forgave our sins against him, and no price was paid, he would not be a just God.
The god of the Muslims, Allah, is said to be a merciful god. He forgives his people. However, he forgives and no price is paid. The crime is treated as if it never happened. Someone can defile this “holy” god’s will, and the act is left untouched. It appears a line has been crossed from mercy to injustice. The need arises for a redeemer, someone to pay the fine, and, in Muslim theology, there is none. The fine is left unpaid, and the crime left untouched. Some sins are paid for in hell, some are left as they are.
Our God too forgives His people. He does not leave us in the darkness we were born into. He delivers his people from a state of condemnation to one of salvation. His lost sheep hear his voice. He forgives us our sins and reconciles us unto Himself. How then is he different than Allah? How is this just or holy? Notice what our own scriptures say:
He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.
-Proverbs 17:15
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
-Isaiah 5:20
So it is evil to justify the wicked, but are not all wicked? It is cursed to call evil good, yet does not God justify the ungodly? Doesn’t He forgive them as if they had no sin? How can he do this and still be just? This is all made possible in our Redeemer’s life, death, and resurrection.
The Judge of the universe came robed in flesh, and instead of righteously judging us, he was judged for us. He was God. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily -Colossians 2:9. Yet he was cursed as man. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed -Isaiah 53:5. He who was the eternally loved Son of God became the despised and rejected man. He was falsely accused, betrayed by his brothers, and hung on a tree as a common thief. The wrath that we deserved to take, he bore on that tree. Was this some mistake? What is the point of sending a Messiah just to die?
Unbeknownst to the world, God was working out his plan of redemption. Some focus more on the life of Christ, some more on his death, and some more on the resurrection, yet it is in all of these that we are redeemed. He lived a life that no mere man could live.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
-John 1:14
He was spotless. Not one mark of sin stained his soul. The only dirt you could find on him was that which collected on his feet from walking among us. He redeemed us in life by living as no man could live before, fulfilling all righteousness that men were accountable to. It is the righteous life he lived that is placed upon those who are in Christ. It is Christ’s righteousness that God sees in his children, not their own.
In His death we find redemption because our sins debt is paid on the cross. Our sins can be forgotten because they can be nailed to the cross. All the condemnation that we accumulate upon ourselves is dissolved away in the body of His death.
For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
-2 Corinthians 5:21
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
-Galatians 3:13
His resurrection is the icing on the cake. It is the paradigm of the Christian’s hope. It is in the power of Christ's resurrection that we both walk in faith and anticipate our bodily resurrection on that final day. To be redeemed is to bought back, bought back with the blood of Christ. This blessed transaction secures our lives as the Lord’s eternal possessions.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
-1 Peter 1:3-5
- Tyler Graber
Recent
Archive
Categories
Tags
no tags
No Comments