MY REDEEMER

Job 9:2 (from “but how”); 27:6 (to “let it go”); 9:33; Romans 3:20-26; Job 42:5,6; 19:25-27(to “another”)

We have been reading Job locally, and have been impressed by some of these verses. It would be true to say that Job wrestled with what we call ‘the sin question’. In the first verse that we read, he succinctly sums up the great matter of the question of sin and sins: “how can man be just with God?”, that is, the God of whom Scripture speaks as the One “with whom we have to do”, Heb.4:13. We will all have to do with God; there is nothing surer than that. Every man and woman and boy and girl will have to do with Him. God’s glad tidings concerning His Son are preached in order that you might have to do with Him now, while His favour is available to you.

The question of how man could be just with God is a very important question, a question that could not have been answered by any mere man. Consider the two parties involved in that question. You have a just, holy and perfect God who is entirely righteous. When we speak of God, we can speak of what is absolute: He is absolutely righteous, He is absolutely holy, He is absolutely just. Then you have man, created in innocence and yet fallen. We see all around us the result of Adam’s fall, and those of us who know our own hearts know that in them is the effect of the fall. Man has become corrupted as away from God, independent of God, actually at enmity with God and hateful of God, and as the scripture in Titus says, “hating one another”, Titus 3:3. Think of the features of sin that have come into expression in the human race; they are hateful to God and they are hateful to the renewed mind too. The question is, how could man be right with God? How could these two parties be reconciled? But the real question is, how could man be reconciled to God? God did not need to be reconciled to man, but man had to be reconciled to God. It is the most important question that any person could ever answer, the question of whether they are just with God, and how they can be just with God.

The verse in chapter 27 says “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go”, and it is a sober and sad fact that there are, alas, many persons like that. They have some apprehension of God and what is due to Him, and yet they do not understand their own condition and state, and they hold to their own righteousness. They perhaps moralise and say ‘Well, I am a good person, I do not do what persons I read of in the newspapers have done. I have never committed anything serious, I have never transgressed the law’. But the scripture in the epistle to the Romans is clear and simple, and it is all embracing; it simply says that “all have sinned”, Rom.3:23. All have sinned, all have offended God. Distance came in on account of that, a distance which could not be bridged by any man. God would appeal to our hearts in the glad tidings, even though it is nevertheless true that all have sinned, and that all have offended God. Scripture says that “the wages of sin is death”, Rom.6:23. Scripture also says that “it is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment”, Heb.9:27.

So there is nothing surer than that you will have to do with God, and what will you say to Him? What will you say to Him about your sins? Not about anybody else’s, but your offences. There will be no use in proclaiming your own righteousness, for we have none. Scripture speaks about the righteousnesses of unregenerate man as being “as filthy rags” (Isa.64:6); that is what they are in the sight of God.

Another preacher said that you might have a list of persons in this town, and you might have a credit and a debit balance for each of them. You could write down all the good things they have done and all the bad things they have done, and the person with the most good things and the least bad things would be at the top of the list, while the person with the most bad things and the least good things would be at the bottom of the list. And the preacher said that the person at the top of the list might pass muster with man, and be held high in their esteem, but they will not pass muster with God. God has in view His own righteousness in the glad tidings. That is what we read about in Romans, “righteousness of God”.

There is another category of persons, we might say, of those who believe mistakenly that they are already righteous and do not have anything to fear in relation to facing God. Then you have another category, I suppose we could say, of persons who realise that they will have to do with God, that they will have to answer to Him, yet they reckon that by their own good works they can merit their own salvation. They have confidence in their entitlement to blessing on account of their own merits. That is another work of the devil, the great deceiver, who blinds the thoughts of the unbelieving that the glad tidings of the glory of Christ should not shine forth for them (2 Cor.4:4).

About five hundred years ago, there was a German monk called Martin Luther, a God fearing man who took a vow to live in a monastery. One of the wrong teachings of the Roman church which was so dominant at that time was that a person had to confess all their sins, and that any unconfessed sin would lead to their damnation and judgment. Luther was an earnest man, God fearing in a right way, and so he undertook to try to get right with God by doing exactly that. He would go to another monk to confess his sins. That was another wrong teaching of that church, that confession was to another man and not to God. Luther would spend literally hour upon hour, going over his recent history and his past and distant history, trying to recall everything that he had ever done wrong in his life, every wrong thought, every wrong word. Even anything that he had done which had caused a little pride to well up in his heart, he would try to recall and confess it. Another monk was listening to his confessions, and sometimes Luther would go on for six hours at a time, because he was so earnest about getting right. He would come to the end of a long session of confession and he would think that, yes, he had cleared the slate, and God would have nothing to hold against him now because he had confessed everything. Then he would think, but I have a little pride welling up in my heart now, because I can see that I have done well. And so, even after all that time, Luther would never have peace with God because he could never be sure that there had not been a sin that he had overlooked; perhaps there had been one that he had forgotten. In spite of his best efforts, and because of false teaching, he never had peace with God, and he could never be sure and never be certain.

But because Luther was an educated man, he was one of the few at that time who had access to the Scriptures in a language that he could read, and he read them avidly. Something of the truth of the glad tidings began to dawn on his soul, so that he began to see something of the greatness of what God had effected in providing His own salvation. The great principle of justification by faith began to dawn on his soul, and rather than bow to the teaching of men, which no doubt Satan was behind, Luther held tenaciously to that principle and began to promulgate it. He began what became known as the Reformation, and the truth of the glad tidings, after being beclouded and hidden under all sorts of wrong teaching of men for centuries, was found again and men were able to get peace with God. Luther was able to get peace with God, on a different basis than he had ever been taught – he received it by relying implicitly on God’s word. It is a wonderful thing to be able to do that.

The epistle to the Romans gives you the great truths of the glad tidings. We read about works of law, “Wherefore by works of law no flesh shall be justified before him; for by law is knowledge of sin”. That was the principle on which Luther had been working before, to seek to merit his own salvation by doing works or by confessing all his wrongdoings. So “by law is knowledge of sin” is another great cardinal truth to lay hold of. Paul learned that experimentally in Romans 7 where he described going through soul exercise. He could say “But I had not known sin, unless by law: for I had not had conscience also of lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust; but sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust; for without law sin was dead. But I was alive without law once; but the commandment having come, sin revived but I died” (vv.7-9). The commandment actually brought out the innate badness that is in every one of our hearts, the innate rebelliousness of the human nature as fallen under sin.

Job said that “There is not an umpire between us”, an umpire between man and God, and when Job lived, which I understand was about Abraham’s time, that was true. There was not an umpire between man and God. But what we can tell you tonight in the glad tidings, friend, is that there is an umpire, there is a Mediator, “the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”, 1 Tim.2:5. God has approached man in lowliness in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a way it is in which the Creator has come in:

‘Nor yet in triumph passing,

But human infancy!’       (Hymn 188).

What a wonderful and gracious matter that God should come here in the person of Jesus. The Lord Jesus was always God, He never ceased to be God, and yet He was a real Man, taking the likeness of men in order to draw near to men in grace and to display all the love of God to man. That love of God was entirely unmerited by you or me. He purposed from a past eternity to pour it out, and the way in which He has done it is in drawing near in the person of the Saviour, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, a blessed Man here, always doing the will of God, and then particularly in Christ’s death. “For he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground” (Isa.53:2), drawing nothing from this scene. All His resources were in heaven; “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, Isa.50:4. Think of the Lord Jesus taking up the position as the Son of the Father, the One who was here to set out for God all that He desired to see in man in perfection, “in likeness of flesh of sin” (Rom.8:3), and yet “sin apart” (Heb.4:15), a glorious Man for the pleasure of God. Another has spoken of Him as a ‘green spot’ here in this wilderness¹, in whom the Father could have absolute complacency.

There were others before Jesus came here in whom God took pleasure. Noah walked with God, and He had pleasure in Old Testament saints such as David, Moses and others, but there were none in whom God could have absolute trust, absolute complacency, absolute delight. And yet Jesus was here to be the sin bearer, to take up man’s cause, to settle the whole question of sin and sins once and for all for God’s glory eternally. He provided a righteous basis on which God could approach man and make known His blessed heart and provide a basis on which you can get right with God. So that, unlike Luther, you no longer need to have any doubts or worries or concerns, because another Man has met the whole question of each believer’s sins through “the redemption which is in Christ Jesus”.

Well, that redemption is in this Man, but how did He do it? The work of redemption was a great work. No other could have done it, because it involved not only leading a perfect life and displaying all the love of God to man, displaying God in all His blessed nature to man, but it involved that Jesus should go into death and that He should suffer, so that the whole question of sin should be settled. Isaiah says, “thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin”, Isa.53:10. Think of that whole great principle of sin. I struggle to say much about it, but sin was judged root and branch in Christ’s death. But also, and crucially for every man and woman and boy and girl in this world, the Saviour, when He went into death, bore the sins of every believer in His body on the tree (1 Pet.2:24). The Old Testament points so much to Christ. You have the priest and the offering and the altar, and these types all coalesce in one Man, “who himself bore our sins” – that is, He was the offering – “in his body” – you get some representation of the altar there. Yet He offered Himself (Heb.9:14); He was also the offering Priest. Every thought of God was fulfilled in that blessed Man. All God’s wrath against sin and against the sins of every believer was not only borne there, borne individually, but exhausted. I have often been affected by what another has said, that God’s righteousness was such that not a sin could be overlooked or passed by or swept away. They were borne righteously. That involved Jesus suffering for each one, yet not only could He bear them, but only He could exhaust the judgment against them.

Who else could bear the wrath of God? No one except this one Man could, and He would, and He has done that work. He could say at the end “It is finished” (John 19:30), and commit His spirit into the hands of the Father, and then go into death. But then He could break death’s power – what a wonderful thing that is. Scripture speaks about death as something that held men in bondage for so many years (Heb.2:15). Jesus did not break the power of death by coming out of it, He broke the power of death by going into it, and so the apostle could say “Where, O death, is thy sting? where, O death, thy victory?”, 1 Cor.15:55. It occurred to me, as we spoke together about the hymns and the songs this afternoon, that many of the hymns that have been composed for burial meetings are actually hymns of triumph:-

‘For ever with Thee Lord,

And like Thee to be’       (Hymn 19)

What a wonderful prospect! The scripture says, “Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a well-spring”, Ps.84:6. Believers are able to do that; they can have triumph even in a time of human sorrow. What a wonderful thing that is, and it is available to you because there is “the redemption which is in Christ Jesus”. That blessed Man not only rose from the dead and appeared to His own, but He was received up in glory, received into heaven. What does that mean for you? Why is that important? One thing that it means for you is that it demonstrates that Christ, and what He has done, is absolutely acceptable to God – that God is perfectly satisfied with that work. So the work having been done, He is installed in glory at the Father’s right hand, received in glory bright up there and crowned with glory and honour. He is now available as a Saviour for you by faith and by repentance. God is setting Him forth as “a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood”, another remarkable matter. Jesus not only died, but after He died, His blood was shed, that efficacious blood which is enough to satisfy God and provide Him with a basis to come out in forgiveness to the repentant sinner.

We had a touch in the preaching at home recently about one of the offerings in the Old Testament which was a bullock. It was slaughtered and its blood was poured out. Think of the bullock as the largest of the offerings, think of the volume of blood that must have flowed out. The preacher said, ‘There is enough there for you’. It is a wonderful matter that Christ’s work is enough. It has satisfied God and it is available to you by repentance and through faith in His blood. The mercy seat was of course part of the tabernacle system; it was placed over the ark. God says of it in Exodus, “there will I meet with thee, and will speak with thee …”, Exod.25:22. God is presenting Christ tonight and He is saying ‘There is the point at which I can meet with you’.

I suppose most of us here were brought up in households with believing parents and were brought to gospel preachings week after week. I can speak for myself, that for years they passed over me and did not make much of an impression on me. That is why I read in Job 42. He said there “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear”, and I suppose most of us have heard of the Lord Jesus by the hearing of the ear, week after week, fifty-two times a year, for year after year. But then Job said after this long experience that he had had, “but now mine eye seeth thee”. That was something different, something more. He had heard of God by the hearing of the ear but now he saw Him, and there was an effect. I suppose Job had a sense of coming into the divine presence, and it had an effect. He then said, “Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes”. That is, he came to a true estimation of himself when he had a sense of what it was to be in the divine presence and in the presence of a perfect and holy and just God. Job began to get a right estimation of himself. I suppose Simon Peter had that experience when he was fishing, and there was a wonderful miracle; Simon fell down at Jesus’ knees and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord”, Luke 5:8. He had a sense that he was in the divine presence, and the greatness and perfection of that Man brought home to Simon’s soul what he was in himself. That is essential for salvation. God has appointed a way for salvation, He has made it simple, and He has made it easy for us because the work has been done by Another, but it is essential that we are repentant. That is, we come to some estimation of what we are before God, and what our history has been, that we are not fundamentally righteous persons, but because of the sin in our hearts there is what is hateful to God, and we must repent of it towards God.

The scripture in Romans says, “righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ towards all”. That is, God is holding it available for you, towards all in His favour in this blessed dispensation of grace, but it is only upon those who believe. We must believe – a great fundamental, cardinal truth of the glad tidings. “For he that draws near to God must believe that he is”, Heb.11:6. Simple belief is needed, faith in a Man who has been here and done all that God required, glorified God on the earth, settled the whole question of sin and sins. He is the one in whom salvation is available. Salvation is by simple belief that Jesus has borne your sins vicariously on the cross, and at that point the righteousness of God will be upon you. No one can raise a question. God will never raise a question as to your righteousness, nor a question about what you will say to Him. You will have God’s righteousness. God cannot say that He is not satisfied with that righteousness; He Himself provides it in the glad tidings. What a wonderful thing that is. It goes on to say, “for the shewing forth of his righteousness in the present time, so that he should be just …”. That is another great thing, that God should be just. God must be seen to be just, and He has been seen to be just. He has provided salvation by being righteous, He has provided a righteous basis on which you can be before Him eternally, and eternally blessed.

Then, “… and justify him that is of the faith of Jesus”. What does it mean? It means that you are judicially clear before God. Repentance, you might say, gives us moral clearance before God, and justification gives us judicial clearance before God. Everything for the believer is clear and free before God:

‘Not a cloud above, not a spot within’ (Hymn 22).

Is it not wonderful? Think of what it must have been to Luther in his day to see something of the glory of God’s glad tidings, having striven for all those years to please God in his own strength and being unable to, and then the glorious light of this message dawned in his soul. And partly as a result of what that man did, the truth of the glad tidings can now be preached freely and is available for you by faith tonight.

Job was a remarkable man and his history was remarkable. I read that verse in chapter 19; we do not perhaps think of Job as being a prophet, but I think he was. Peter speaks of “… the salvation of your souls. Concerning which salvation prophets, who have prophesied of the grace towards you, sought out and searched out; searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them pointed out, testifying before of the sufferings which belonged to Christ, and the glories after these”, 1 Pet.1:9-11. Job certainly had some insight, and what he says here is a wonderful thing, “as for me, I know that my Redeemer liveth”. Is not that a wonderful thing to be able to say? Whatever else may happen, I know that my Redeemer lives, that there is a Man on high who is my Redeemer.

Then Job says, “and the Last, he shall stand upon the earth”. I cannot say how much Job knew, but it is a wonderful thing to think of Jesus as “the Last”. The Lord Jesus speaks of Himself in such a way in Revelation, where He says, “I am … the first and the last”, Rev.22:13. A verse at the beginning of Hebrews was in my mind. It says there that “God having spoken in many parts and in many ways formerly to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of these days has spoken to us in the person of the Son, whom he has established heir of all things”, Heb.1:1,2. There is a certain final speaking in the Son. God spoke through the prophets, and there was many a faithful prophet who suffered much to bring God’s word to His people. But God’s final speaking is in the Son, and He has nothing more to offer. He has given His very best; that is the glad tidings. God’s ideal is available to you in the glad tidings. God’s righteousness is available to you as a result of what Christ has done and there is nothing that can be improved upon. God has everything available for you in Christ. We had a local brother who used to remind us often that we do not have to go outside of Christ for anything. You get peace with God; you get forgiveness of sins – all great, fundamental, blessed matters – and the Holy Spirit is available. God would give you His own Spirit to dwell in your heart, to give you an appetite for divine things, things which are pure and holy and blessed and uncorrupted. God has His own world where sin has no entry and He desires to have you in it for His own glory and pleasure. Then too, He would give you the company of persons who have come the same moral journey by way of repentance and faith, and who seek to walk here for the pleasure of God, who have in their hearts a living hope – having “begotten us again to a living hope”, 1 Pet.1:3. I wonder if Job could see something of that when he said, “yet from out of my flesh shall I see God; Whom I shall see for myself”. Is that not a beautiful touch? Every believer can say, ‘I shall see Jesus face to face one day in the glory’. We see Him by faith now, the Man at God’s right hand, in whom every blessing is available; “every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies” (Eph.1:3) is available in that blessed Man. But we will see Him face to face, because He is going to come again and take every blood-bought saint to be with Himself for all eternity, an eternity of glory. What a wonderful prospect!

Well, it is available to you, and it is available now; “now is the well-accepted time”, 2 Cor.6:2. But just to give a word of warning, this dispensation of grace may end at any moment. And so we would say to you simply in the glad tidings, get right with God while He is still available as a Saviour God, through simple repentance towards God and faith in that blessed Man. The Lord Jesus gives you title to the enjoyment of everything in God’s heart for man. May you do so, for His name’s sake.

Preaching of the gospel, Linlithgow

11 March 2018

C.J. McKay