Effectual Redemption

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.  (Hebrews 9:12)

   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. The Holy Spirit declares in Hebrews 10:1 — “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 contained 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 redemption Christ has obtained for His elect.

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.

Pastor Don Fortner
March 13, 2011 edition of The Grace Bulletin – Grace Baptist Church of Danville, KY