2. The price of redemption is to be paid to him who detains the captive by way of jurisdiction, right, and law-power. That God is he who thus detained the captive was also proved before. He is the great householder that calls his servants, that do or should serve him, to an account, ewapai Koyov, Matt, xviii. 23, 24 ; and wicked men are xardpag rixva, 2 Pet. ii. 14, the children of his curse, obnoxious to it. It is Ids judgment "that they which commit sin are worthy of death," Rom. i. 32 ; and Christ is a propitiation to " declare his righteousness," chap. iii. 25; and it is his tvrath from which we are delivered by this ransom, chap. ii. 5, 1 Thess. i. 10; the law was his to Avhicli Christ was made obnoxious. Gal. iv. 4; the curse his which he was made, chap. iiL 13; it was his will he came to do and suffer, Heb. X. 7, — it was his will that he should drink <fff the cup of his passion, Matt. xxvi. 42; it pleased him to bruise him, Isa, liii. 10; he made all our iniquities to meet upon him, verse 6: so that, doubtless, this
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ransom was paid to him. We intend no more by it than what in these places is expressed.
3. This ransom was also a sacrifice, as hath been declared. Look, then, to whom the sacrifice was offered, to him the ransom was paid. These are but several notions of the same thing. Now, the sacrifice he offered to God, Eph. v. 2 ; to him, then, also and only was this ransom paid.
4. Christ paid this ransom as he was a mediator and surety. Now he was the mediator between God and man, and therefore he must pay this price to one of them, either to God or man, and it is not diffi- cult to determine whether. 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6, gives us this fully. He is the mediator, and as such he gave himself avriXvrpov, a price of re- demption to God.
From this description of redemption properly so called, and the ap- plication of it to the redemption made by Jesus Christ, we thus argue: —
He who by his own blood and death paid the price of our redemp- tion to God, in that he underwent what was due to us, and procured our liberty and deliverance thereby, he made satisfaction properly for our sins; but when we were captives for sin to the justice of God, and committed thereon to the power of sin and Satan, Christ by his death and blood paid the price of our redemption to God, and procured our deliverance thereby: therefore he made satisfaction to God for our sins.
For the farther confirmation of what hath been delivered, some few of the most eminent testimonies given to this truth are to be explained and vindicated, wherewith I shall close this discourse of our redemption by Christ. Out of the very many that may be in- sisted on, I shall choose only those that follow : —
1. Rom. iii. 24, 25, " Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteous- ness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." Redemption in itself, in its effect in respect of us, with all its causes, is here expressed. Its effect in respect of us is, that we are "justified freely," diKaiov/jAvo/ dupsdv. not brought easily, and with little labour, to be righteous or honest, as some vainly imagine (Grot, in loc), but accepted freely with God, without the perform- ance of the works of the law, whereby the Jews sought after right- eousness. The end on the part of God is the declaration of his righteousness. The means procuring this end is the blood of Christ, redemption by Christ and in his blood. The means of communi- cating this effect, on the part of God, is the setting forth Christ a pro- pitiation ; on our part, as to application, it is faith in his blood.
(1.) As to the effect (jf our justification, it shall afterward be con- sidered. The manner, or rise of it rather (for both may be denoted), on the part of God, is dupidv, that is, " freely;" or, as it is expounded
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in the next words, rfi auTov %a^/r/, " by his grace." Our redemption and the effects of it are free on the part of God, in respect of his purpose and decree, which is called IxXoyn yi^dpiTos, Rom. xi. 5, his great design and contrivance of the work of our salvation and de- liverance. This he did " according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace," Eph. i. 5, 6 ; " according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself," verse 9 ; "according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," verse 11. And it is free in regard of the love from whence Christ was sent, John iii. 16; which also is ascribed rfj x'^P''' Qsoij, Heb. ii. 9. And it is free in respect of us; we do not obtain it by the works of the law, Rom. iv. 6, neither can it be so attained, nor is that required of us: and free on our part, in that nothing of us is required in way of satisfaction, recompense, or ransom. " He spared not his own Son," but " with him freely gives us all things," Rom. viii. 32. Aixaioufisnoi dupedv, "We are justified freely;" that is^ we are delivered from our bondage without any satisfaction made by us, or works performed by us to attain it, God having freely designed this way of salvation, and sent Jesus Christ to do this work for us.