Is He Able?

 

ŇThen thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.Ó (Psalm 89:19)

 

Is the Lord Jesus Christ qualified to be our Redeemer? Is the Son of God fit to be our Savior? To you who believe, such questions are redundant. Yet, it will do our hearts good to meditate once more upon our SaviorŐs glorious fitness to be our Redeemer. What a fit Redeemer He is! There are none fit to redeem our souls but Him. No animal sacrifices could redeem us. No mere man could redeem us. No angel could redeem us. Not even God Himself in his strict character as God could redeem us. The incarnate Son of God alone is a fit Redeemer for sinners. This is what God himself says about his SonŐs fitness to redeem and save His people. — ŇThen thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the peopleÓ (Psalm 89:19).

 

God and Man

 

Christ's fitness for the work of redemption lies in the fact that He is both God and man in one glorious person. It was God the Son who was sent to redeem us. He is of the same nature, and possesses the same perfections and attributes as His Father. He is the brightness of His FatherŐs glory, and the express image of His person. This man was and is in the form of God. Therefore, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Jesus Christ is God the Son, the second Person of the holy Trinity. He is the great and true God. Therefore, He is fit to be the Redeemer and Savior of men. What a mighty Redeemer He must be! He is Jehovah, the Lord of hosts. Therefore, He is equal to such a great work as this (Galatians 4:4; 1 John 5:20; Titus 2:13; Jeremiah 50:34).

 

      Our great Savior and Redeemer is both God and man (Isaiah 9:6). He is the child born as man, and the Son given as a Divine person. He is Immanuel, God with us, God in our nature, God manifest in the flesh. As such, as the God-man, the man who is God, Christ is fit to be a Mediator between God and man; an umpire, a daysman to lay hands on both, and to do the work required of the Redeemer of men. Only because He is both God and man in one glorious person was He able to make reconciliation for our sins and to take care of all things pertaining to the glory of God, His justice, and His holiness.

 

As Man

 

As man, He could be made, as He was made, under the law, and so capable of yielding obedience to it, and of bearing the penalty of it. It was necessary that He do so, if He would be the Surety and Redeemer of GodŐs elect. As man, He had blood to shed. It was with this most precious blood that He redeemed us unto God.   As a man,  He had a life to lay down,  a  sufficient  ransom  price  for  His people. As a man, the Son of God was capable of suffering all the wrath of God and dying in our room and stead, thereby making full satisfaction to the wrath and justice of God for us.

 

As God

 

As God, He was zealously concerned for the glory of God in all the perfections of His nature. He secured the honor of all the Divine attributes in that redemption which He wrought out and accomplished as our Substitute.

 

      As God, He put an infinite virtue into His blood. Divinity united to humanity in one person made His sacrifice of Himself a full and adequate ransom price for the purchase of His church and the redemption of our souls. Our great SaviorŐs divinity gave support to His human nature under the load of sin as He suffered the wrath of God for us. His divinity was able to carry His humanity through the work, enabling Him to endure the horrendous ordeal. Otherwise He could never have endured the cup of GodŐs wrath and stood before His indignation until His indignation and wrath were satisfied.

 

      As both God and man He had a right to redeem. As Lord of all, He had a right, as well as power to redeem them that were His. The right of redemption also belongs to Him as a man as our near kinsman. Therefore, He wears the name Goel, which signifies a redeemer and a near kinsman (Leviticus 25:47-49). No one could be so fit a Redeemer of the Church as Christ, our near Kinsman, who is our Head and our Husband. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Son of Man, is our Boaz! He is our fit Redeemer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

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