[THIRD. THE AMPLIFICATION OF THE REASON 'TO HOPE IN THE LORD.']
But I shall pass from this to the third thing found in the text: the AMPLIFICATION of the reason. I told you that these three things were in the text: I. An exhortation to the children of God to hope in the Lord: 'Let Israel hope in the Lord.' II. A reason to enforce that exhortation is, 'For with the Lord there is mercy.' III. An amplification of that reason, 'And with him is plenteous redemption.' I have gone through the first two and shall now come to this last.
In these last words, which I call the Amplification of the reason, we have two things. FIRST. A more particular account of the nature of the mercy was propounded to encourage Israel to hope. SECOND. An account of the sufficiency of it. The nature of the mercy propounded is expressed by that word 'redemption.' Its sufficiency is described by the word 'plenteous.' 'Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.'
[FIRST. The nature of the mercy propounded.]
Redemption may be diversely taken, as shall be further showed anon; but forasmuch as the term here is made mention of indefinitely, without nominating of this or that part of redemption particularly, I shall speak to it in the general, with respect at least to the principal heads thereof.
To redeem is to fetch back, by sufficient and suitable means, those in an enthralled, captivated, or imprisoned condition, and there are two sorts of this redemption. First, Redemption by purchase. Second, Redemption by power. Redemption by purchase is caused by captivities. Redemption by power is from the effects.
First, if we speak of redemption by purchase, three things are present to our consideration: I. The person redeeming. II. The nature of the price paid to redeem withal. III. The thing or state from which this redeemer with this price redeemeth.
[I. The Person redeeming.] The subject of this redemption, or person redeemed, is Israel, of whom we have spoken before. For the person redeeming, it is Jesus of Nazareth; Jesus that was born at Bethlehem, at the time, and as the Scriptures relate (Matt 1; Luke 2). Now, concerning his person, we have two things to inquire after. What this person was. How he addressed himself to this work.
1. What this person was. This Jesus was and is the natural and eternal Son of God Almighty, without beginning or end, from everlasting; the Creator and Upholder of the world (Prov 8; John 1; Heb 1).
2. How he addressed himself to the work of redeeming, take as follows. He became true man: for he was conceived through the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a maid, and in the fulness of time brought forth of her, true, accurate, natural man; I say, though not in the worst, yet in the best sense (Luke 2:31-35). Being thus brought forth without spot or blemish, he began to address himself to the work. (1.) By works preparatory, and then, (2.) By the act itself.
(1.) The preparatory works were as follows. He prepares himself a priestly robe, which was his own obediential righteousness; for without these holy garments he might not adventure to come into the presence of God to offer his gift (Rom 5:19; Exo 28:40, 40:13). Before he provided his gift for the people, he was to be himself sanctified to his office: and that—by blood—by prayers and tears (1 Peter 1:19). (a.) By blood; for before Aaron was to offer his sacrifice for the people, he must be sprinkled with blood (Exo 29:19-22). And because Jesus could not be sprinkled with the blood of beasts, therefore was he sprinkled with that of his own: not as Aaron was, upon the tip of his ear, and upon the tip of his toe; but from top to toe, from head to foot, his sweat was blood (Luke 22:44). So that from his agony in the garden to the place where he was to lay down the price of our redemption, he went as consecrated in his own blood. (b.) He also offered his sacrifice of intense crying and tears as his drink-offering to God, as a sacrifice preparatory, not propitiatory, in pursuit of his office; not to purge his person (Heb 5:5-8). This person was redeeming, and this was his preparation for the work.
(2.) The act itself. Now the redemption is often ascribed particularly to his blood; yet in general, the act of his redeeming of us must either more remotely or more nearly be reckoned from his whole suffering for us in the flesh; which suffering I take to begin at his agony, and was finished when he was raised again from the dead. By his flesh I understand his whole man, as distinguished from his Divine nature; so that word doth comprehend his soul and body, as by the 53rd of Isaiah appears. His soul after that manner which was proper to it; and his body after that manner which was appropriate.
[II. The nature of the price paid to redeem.] His sufferings began in his soul some time before his body was touched, by which was his bloody sweat in his body. The sorrows of his soul started at the apprehension of what was coming from God, for our sakes, upon him; but the bloody sweat of his body was from that union it had with such a soul. His sufferings were from the hand of God, not of man; not by constraint, but of his own will (Lev 1:3; John 10:18); and they differ from ours in these six things. 1. His sufferings were by the rigour of the law; ours according to the tenor of the gospel (Gal 3:13; Heb 12:10). 2. His sufferings were from God's hand immediately; ours are by and through a Mediator (Isa 53:6; Heb 9:22). 3. God delighted himself in every stroke he gave him; he doth not willingly grieve nor afflict his people (Isa 53; Psa 103; Lam 3:33). 4. He suffereth as a familiar or public person; we for our own private offences (1 Cor 15:3; Lam 3:39). 5. He suffered to make amends to justice for the breach of a holy law; we to receive some minor correction, and to be taught to amend our lives (Heb 9:26; Rom 10:3,4; Deut 8:5; 2 chron 6:27). 6. He was delivered from the nature of suffering by the merit of his person and sufferings; we from ours by the mercy of God through Christ (Acts 2:24; Eph 4:32, 5:2). Redemption, then, by a price, was this; the blood of Christ, which he willingly suffered to be spilt on the cross, before the face of God.
