GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #421
REDEMPTION BY CHRIST
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
The
only hope for fallen, guilty, depraved sinners is redemption, a redemption
which includes atonement for sin, satisfaction for justice, and effectual
deliverance from the guilt, power, dominion, and consequences of sin. Such
redemption could be accomplished by only one Person, the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, our Savior. Not only could he alone do it, he has done it; and he
has done it alone. He declares, "I
looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to
uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it
upheld me" (Isa. 63:5).
When we consider the
doctrine of redemption, we have come to the most important of all gospel
truths. In our day, men more quickly attack the doctrine of the cross than any
other. They more vehemently deny the glorious efficacy of Christ’s sin-atoning
blood than any other doctrine. Multitudes who sing the words of Cowper’s hymn…
“Dear dying Lamb, Thy
precious blood Shall never lose its power,
‘Til all the ransomed Church
of God Be saved to sin no more…”
assert with absolute dogmatism that there is no real
saving power and efficacy in Christ’s blood; for they declare that multitudes
are in hell today for whom Christ died. Thus demonstrating that they know
nothing of that Savior revealed in Holy Scripture of whom the hymn was written.
Because
the doctrine of redemption by the precious blood of Christ is so very
important, I urge you to listen very carefully to each of our brief studies
this week on this most glorious, God honoring subject. Then study the
Scriptures for yourself, comparing scripture with scripture, asking God the
Holy Spirit to give you a clear understanding in the teachings of Holy
Scripture about redemption.
The Holy Spirit declares in
Hebrews 10:1 - "For the law having a
shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never
with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the
comers thereunto perfect."
According to those words of
inspiration, the law in the Old Testament Scriptures had a shadow of good
things to come. That is to say, God, in the Old Testament, under the types and
shadows of the law, gave many pictures and prophecies of what he would do for
and give to his people through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The sacrifices offered to
God in the Old Testament could never take away one sin. However, the law did
have many instructive pictures, types , and shadows of our redemption by the
blood of Christ. In each of those types , pictures, and prophecies setting
forth the redemptive work of Christ several things are obvious. Here are three very
obvious facts revealed in the Word of God about our redemption by Christ. These
three revealed facts teach us much about the subject.
1.
The
redemption portrayed and promised in the Old Testament was revealed only to a
chosen people. Only the nation of Israel had the passover sacrifice and the
promise of a redeemer, because only the Israel of God, God’s elect, are the
people for whom Christ the true Passover was sacrificed.
2.
The
redemption sacrifice was made, offered to God, and accepted by God for a specifically
chosen people, named by God himself. Even so, our Lord Jesus Christ died for
those people given to him by the Father in the covenant of grace before the
world began. He said, “I lay down my life
for the sheep.” The good Shepherd died for his sheep, not for the goats of
the world.
3.
The
redemption portrayed the effectual deliverance of all those for whom it was
accomplished. Every soul for whom the passover lamb was slain walked out of
Egypt by the power of God. Even so, every sinner for whom the Son of God made
atonement by his substitutionary death at Calvary shall be delivered from the
curse of God’s holy law and saved from sin, death, and hell by the merit and
power of his precious blood. Not one of those for whom Christ died under the
wrath of God shall perish in hell. They all must and shall be saved.
AMEN