REDEMPTION

"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers." -- I Peter 1:18

     Every good Jew held the traditions of the fathers in great respect. Very often they placed greater stress on such things than they did on the written word. Jesus even accused them of making void the law by their traditions.

     Peter had heard Jesus rebuke the Jews for their extreme notions concerning the Sabbath, had heard His defense when the Pharisee had rebuked Him for eating with unwashed hands, and had heard the scathing rebuke so justly administered to those who tithed mint, anise and cumin, but neglected the weightier matters of the law; but for some reason his Jewish prejudices still clung to him, until he so dissembled that Paul felt called upon to administer a stinging rebuke. It is to be hoped that this was the last time he was guilty of such an offense, and we have strong reasons to believe that it was, for in this verse he speaks of being delivered from the vain conversation received by tradition.

     "Forasmuch." Seeing or considering that they knew how they were redeemed from their vain conversation, another reason is added why they should pass the time of their sojourning here in fear. From their present experience of the truth of God they are convinced of the further truth that God shall judge the world in righteousness.

     "Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things." This verse presents the negative side of redemption from two angles; for in addition to stating what redemption saves us from, it states some things that do not redeem the soul.

     "Our English word redemption," says Dr. Gill, is from the Latin, and signifies buying again; and several words in the Greek language of the New Testament are used in the affair of our redemption which signify the obtaining of something by paying a proper price for it." H. B. Smith, in Christian Theology, says, "Redemption implies the complete deliverance from the penalty, power and all the consequences of sin: Atonement is used in the sense of the sacrificial work, whereby the redemption from the condemning power of the law was insured." Atonement is the price paid for all men whether they are ever converted or not; while redemption is actual deliverance from the power and penalty of sin through that atonement.

     Redemption implies a finished operation which in grace only comes from personal contact with the Redeemer. Since sin and guilt are actualities, the remedy must be actual. Like disease of the body, sin is a disease of the soul, and as bodily disease requires the immediate application of a specific remedy, in like manner soul disease requires the immediate application of God's remedy.

     As sin is the monster which has led humanity captive, it is perfectly natural to conclude that, if a soul is delivered from its awful thralldom, that soul will know the work is done and it is also natural to suppose that along with the consciousness of deliverance will come the knowledge of the source from which the deliverance proceeds. Would the Almighty God finish as infinite a work as the redemption of a soul and leave that soul in ignorance of the fact that the work accomplished is God's work? I think not.

     There is no power in corruptible things to redeem a soul. "Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God.' Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgressions, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? "

     Earthly riches of any kind are contemptible when weighed in the balance against the worth of an immortal soul. Though one could possess the riches of the whole world, with all the pleasure, honor and pomp that such great riches could purchase, and though he were so constituted that he could enjoy all these things to their utmost, yet he must die, and, if his soul is lost, of what value are all his riches? If riches are of so little value to give enduring happiness, of what value would they be to redeem the soul?

     Men's souls are immortal, and since they are immortal there is no material thing that possesses enough value to redeem them. An immortal soul must be redeemed by an immortal sacrifice. Life must be given for life.

     "Vain conversation." "Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Yea all our works are sin and death till God breathes upon us his quickening Spirit. The wise man sought after mirth, and pleasure, "this also was vanity;" he gave himself to wine and folly; Made great works, builded houses, and planted orchards and vineyards; he got servants and maidens, and had great possessions of cattle; he gathered silver and gold and men and women singers and musical instruments; but when he looked on all his works he declared that "all was vanity and vexation of spirit."

     Yet vain men are prone to follow the vain traditions of those who have gone before. Sin does not become any less sinful because its traditions are inherited. I once knew a family of young men who excused their neglect of God on the ground that their ancestors were sinful. Their father, grandfather and great-grandfather were infidels. Did this excuse them? By no means. "What mean ye that ye use this proverb ... The fathers have eaten sour grapes and their children's teeth are set on edge?... Behold all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die."

     If a man cannot trust in his inheritance as a valid excuse for his sins, neither can he trust in his possessions or even in his own moral worth as a purchase price for his redemption. Very often God strips a man of all he has and even allows him to sink deep in the scale of immorality that he may learn his own weakness and insufficiency and lean alone on God.