The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 43

tion. Hie own Son bnd to be parted with that we might be adopted as sons. It was under no sudden impulse of obedience that Abraham lifted the knife against Isaac. He bad time to think of what he was doing, a three days' journey to take to the place which God was to show him, and he was animated throughout by a calm, abiding spirit of obedience. So it was no momentary impulse that led God to make so inconceivable a sacrifice; but it was the deep, unchangeable feeling of bis heart. It was all well thought over and arranged beforehand. It was deliberately written down in the book of the Divine counsels. 3. It was an adoption unto himself. "Unto himself." It was taking men from the street, as it were, that he might surround himself with them in his own home. 4. It was a BO'Vereign adoption. "According to the good pleasure of his will." While we were the gainers by it, God, in so acting, had a supreme regard to himself. It was his sovereign desire that man should be lifted so high, and lifted by so wondrous means. 6. lt was an adoption that magnified the grace of God. " To the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on 1lB in the Beloved." The great and ultimate end of adoption was to magnify the Divine love in its freeness. It was not called forth by any excellence or merit God saw in us. In Christ that love could find its fitting object. He is the beloved, the unadopted Son of God; and it is only because of the infinite excellence and merit the Father sees in him that we are adopted into his family. This love of God, then, is most free, and, as such, is to be praised. Other attributes of God we see elsewhere; but it is in the Church that the Divine grace shines forth. III. THE CHURCH IN CONNECTION WITH THE REDE"MPTIVE PURPOSE OF Goo. 1. It is in Chri,t that we e'11:foy redemption. "In whom." It was only in a very limited way that the children of Israel were redeemed in Moses. He had not the redemption in his own person.. But the person of Christ is of infinite consequence in the matter of our redemption. It is in him that redemption has its everlasting subsistence and sphere of operation. "Neither is there Ealvation in any other." And it is only as we nre united to him and live in him that we are redeemed. 2. We are the Church of God by redemption. "We have our redemption." Redemption implies a. previous state of bondage. " Out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage: " so the children of Israel were often reminded. Sin brings us under a worse than Egyptian bondage. The most galling tasks are those imposed upon us by our own foolishness. 'l'he ·most crushing tyranny is that which we bring upon ourselves by our own evil habits. It is out of the gall of bitterness, and bond of iniquity, that we ha.ve come. Redemption is to be taken in its widest sense. To the Israelites it meant deliverance from Egyptian bondage. It meant also the setting up for them in Canaan of those conditions which were best fitted to develop their national life. So redemption for 1s means deliverance-from all the evil under which sin brings us. It also means the setting up of those conditions, and the bringing unto us of those influences, which are most conducive to 011r spiritual development. 8. The procuring cause of redemption is the blood of Ghrist. "Through his blood." The word translated "reclemption" points to deliverance through a ransom; and the ransom is here stated to be blood. And it is the sacrificial association of blood that we a.re to lay hold of. The apparent procuring cause of the redemption of the children of Israel was the blood or animals slain in sacrifice, which was sprinkled on their doorposts. That was manifestly an insufficient account of the matter. It was, however, typical, as all blood similarly shed was typical, of what is the real procuring cause of all redemption for men, viz. the blood of Christ. (1) It points to life given/or life. The animal was the substitute of the worshipper. 'l'hat lies at the root of all sacrifice. When, therefore, the animal gave its life, it was as though the worshipper gave his life. So Christ was our Sub3titute, and, when he shed his blood, it was as though we shed our blood. (2) It points to life given in the same kind. This was wanting in the case of the old sacrifices. But It is manifestly an indispensable condition of all true substitution. And so Christ had the same flesh and blood as those for whom he became a sacrifice. (3) It points to unforfeited life given for forfeited life. The animal had done nothing to forfeit its life. It was therefore, in this respect, a fit substitute. It bad o. life to part with, in order that the senlonce of forfeiture might be removed from the offerer, upon whom ~in rested. So Christ had no sin of his own, and therefore ho had o.n uuforfoilcd life to give for those who hacl sinned, in order that forfeiture might be remoY,J from them, 40 THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.