DISCOURSE IV.

ON THE REDEMPTION EFFECTED BY

CHRIST.

EVERY reader of the New Testament must be aware that the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the deliverance of man from his state of sin, is frequently represented by language borrowed from pecuniary transactions among men; sometimes by the liquidating of a debt, and so obtaining the release of the imprisoned debtor; and sometimes by the payment of a ransom for the deliverance of a captive taken in war. Both these are familiar ideas to men; especially in turbulent times and countries, such as were those in which the phraseology of the scriptures was formed. That, in application to our present subject, they are metaphorical; and that they both coincide in the leading idea of relief from a state of ruin by means of a commutation; scarcely need to be observed. But, as this figure has furnished occasion for unjust and impious scoffing on the one hand; and

on the other, for ignorant, extravagant, and highly mischievous declamation, by persons professing to hold the orthodox doctrine; it is a desirable object to place it in a clear and scriptural light.

It will be useful, first, to elucidate the signification of λver and its derivatives belonging to our case, by a few examples from authors who wrote in Attic or in common Greek, the nearest approach of the classical to the New Testament diction. This verb, whose general meaning is to release, is used to denote both the act of him who has a captive in his power, and who, for any consideration (arova or λúrpa,) sets him at liberty, and the act of one who procures the liberation, by paying a ransom or any other means: but in the latter sense the middle voice is most generally, and with stricter propriety used. So we read in Demosthenes, "The laws enjoin that (ó λveis) he who is ransomed from the enemy, should be the property (rov Avoaμévov) of the person who has redeemed him, unless (drod Xúrpa) he repay the ransom-price.' Hence, λύτρον, ἐπιλύτρον, and the plural λύτρα denote the ransom-price; ávτiλúτpov expresses the idea of commutation a little more strongly : λυτροῦν, ἀπολυτροῦν, and ἐκλυτροῦν signify to pay that price ; λύτρωσις, ἀπολύτρωσις, and ἐκλύτρωσις, the act of ransoming, and, by a metonymy which is almost universal in the use of abstract nouns, the effect of such ransoming or the state produced by it. Some of these words occur more rarely in the general sense of their primitive to denote deliverance by any means. A small number of citations will answer our purpose of

indicating the force of the words in their ordinary use and application. Aristotle mentions it among the difficult questions in morals. "Whether to a man who has been (Avrpwleìs) ransomed from a company of banditti; it is a duty (ròv λvoáμevov avτIAvrρwrέov) to ransom in return the person who had before ransomed him, whosoever he might be, or to repay the amount to that person, supposing him to require it; at the very time when his own father had been taken, and the sum of money, being all that the person had, was wanted for his (the father's) redemption." (Ethic. Nicom. lib. i. cap. ii.) Diodorus says, of the inhabitants of the Balearic isles, that "when any of their females are carried off by pirates making a descent on their shores, they (αντι μιᾶς γυναικὸς γ' ἢ δ' ἄνδρας διδόντες λυτροῦνται) will give three or four men in ransom for one woman.' (Diod. Sicul. lib. v. cap. xvii.) He relates that Hercules "released Melanippe, (απελύτρωσεν, ἀντιλαβὼν τὸν ζωστήρα) taking her girdle as the price of her ransom." (lib. iv. cap. xvi.) Similar instances are contained in other passages of this author, whose age and style number him among such Greek writers as approach the language of the New Testament.

These examples will lead us at once to the right conception of the sense of the terms in the New Testament declarations. "The Son of Man came,— to give his own life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 28. "Who gave himself a ransom for all." 1 Tim. ii. 6. "Who gave himself for us, that he might ransom us from all iniquity," that is, from the state

and condition of sin. Tit. ii. 14. "Ye were redeemed -with the precious blood of Christ." 1 Pet. i. 18. "Justified freely, by his grace, through the redemption which is by Christ Jesus." Rom. iii. 24. "Christ -made unto us from God-redemption." 1 Cor. i. 30. "By whom we have the redemption, through his blood; the forgiveness of our offences." Eph. i. 7. Col. i. 14. "Through his own blood,having obtained eternal redemption." Heb. ix. 12. "Death being inflicted, in order to the redemption of the transgressions which were under the first covenant." v. 15. Here arоλúтpwσis is rendered by Michaelis expiation or atonement. See above, page 109. The great Ernesti translates the verse thus:- "And on that account also he is, and is declared, Mediator of the new covenant, in order that, by the intervening of death to atone for sins which could not be expiated under the first covenant, believers might receive the possession of eternal life." Schleusner thinks that the reference is to the sins of the believing Hebrews before their conversion.*

There is another class of passages in which the metaphor is represented by dyopále to buy, and ¿ayopáɛiv to buy back again, or often simply to buy, but with a frequent application to the redemption of captives. "Ye are not your own: for ye are bought with a price of great value;" (riμñs, very properly so

*The instances in which the terms are used in a more large and general signification, appear to be these: Avтpovσlar Luke xxiv. 21. Λύτρωσις i. 68. ii. 38. ̓Απολύτρωσις xxi. 28. Rom. viii. 23. Eph. i. 14. iv. 30. Heb. xi. 35. AUTρWTŃS Acts vii. 35.

rendered by De Sacy, Le Cène, Michaelis, and Van Ess.) 1 Cor. vi. 20. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, becoming the curse instead of us." Gal. ii. 13. ""Yrèp with a genitive, over, for, on account of, in the name, or in the room of another." Schneider's Wörterbuch.-" For, that is, for the protection, security, or deliverance of any :-Yep TOU σώζεσθαι, for the saving of any one; ὑπὲρ τοῦ μὴ ἀποθανεῖν, to save from death." Passow's Wbch. "Made under the law, that he might redeem those [who were] under the law." iv. 5. "Thou wast slain (éopáyns, strictly slaughtered, the word commonly used to denote the slaying of sacrifices :) and thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." Rev. v. 9. "The redeemed from the earth :-the redeemed from men." xiv. 3, 4.

A form of expression, which is so frequently and solemnly employed in "the oracles of God," cannot, however figurative it may be, but have suitableness and wisdom in it. The impious ridicule which some persons are in the habit of throwing upon it, who still would be called Christians, ought to excite our pity for them, but not for a moment deter us from making full use of it, provided we transgress not the sobriety and chasteness of scripture. A little reflection may shew us that the metaphor rests upon very just and instructive analogies, and that it involves no suppositions inconsistent with the attributes of God, or the dignity of sacred things.

* For the reason of the omission of the article, though Kaтáρa is definite, see Bishop Middleton on the Greek Article, p. 62-66.