Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 1:7

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

In whom we have redemption – On the meaning of the word here rendered redemption – ( apolutrosis) – see the notes at Rom 3:24. The word here, as there, denotes that deliverance from sin and from the evil consequences of sin, which has been procured by the atonement made by the Lord Jesus Christ. This verse is one of the passages which prove conclusively that the apostle here does not refer to nations and to national privileges. Of what nation could it be said that it had redemption through the blood of Jesus, even the forgiveness of sins?

Through his blood – By means of the atonement which he has made; see this phrase fully explained in the notes at Rom 3:25.

The forgiveness of sins – We obtain through his blood, or through the atonement which he has made, the forgiveness of sins. We are not to suppose that this is all the benefit which we receive from his death, or that this is all that constitutes redemption. It is the main, and perhaps the most important thing. But we also obtain the hope of heaven, the influences of the Holy Spirit, grace to guide us and to support us in trial, peace in death, and perhaps many more benefits. Still forgiveness is so prominent and important, that the apostle has mentioned that as if it were all.

According to the riches of his grace – According to his rich grace; see a similar phrase explained in the notes at Rom 2:4. The word riches, in the form in which it is used here, occurs also in several other places in this Epistle; Eph 1:18; Eph 2:7; Eph 3:8, Eph 3:16. It is what Paley (Horae Paul) calls a cant phrase, and occurs often in the writings of Paul; see Rom 2:4; Rom 9:23; Rom 11:12, Rom 11:33; Phi 4:19; Col 1:27; Col 2:2. It is not found in any of the other writings of the New Testament, except once in a sense somewhat similar, in James Jam 2:5, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and Dr. Paley from this fact has constructed an argument to prove that this Epistle was written by Paul. It is unique to him, and marks his style in a manner which cannot be mistaken. An impostor, or a forger of the Epistle, would not have thought of introducing it, and yet it is just such a phrase as would naturally be used by Paul.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Eph 1:7

In whom we have redemption through His blood.

Redemption in Christ

God has made Christ an Adam, head, root, receptacle and storehouse, in whom are treasured all those good things which from Him are communicated to us.

1. By nature we are no better than in a spiritual bondage.

(1) Under a stern taskmaster the law.

(2) Unable to do anything spiritually good.

(3) Forced to endure many things most grievous (Heb 2:15).

2. We have deliverance from our spiritual thraldom by Christ.

(1) Reason for thanksgiving. For such redemption we should sing with Mary our Magnificat.

(2) Reason for joy (Isa 44:23).

3. That by which we are ransomed and redeemed is the blood of Christ.

(1) From the guilt of sin.

(2) From the power of the devil.

(3) From the captivity of lusts, etc., through the Spirit dwelling in us.

(4) From evil of every kind.

All tears, in Gods time, shall be wiped from our eyes; and meanwhile all our sufferings are so changed, that we know them to be not the result of Gods vengeance, but of His fatherly love and care, His design being that we may partake further, by means of them, in the quiet fruit of righteousness. (Paul Bayne.)

Our redemption

I. Who are the subjects of this redemption? We who were chosen in Christ to be holy; we who have believed and trusted in Christ. Redemption, though offered to all, is actually bestowed only on those who repent and believe.

II. What is the nature of this redemption? It is the redemption of the soul from the guilt of sin by pardon.

III. The way and manner, in which believers become partakers of this privilege. Through the blood of Christ.

IV. The fountain from which our redemption flows. The riches of His grace. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)

Redemption

I. The meaning of redemption. Suppose any article, pledged for a certain sum, and that it was redeemed, would it not revert to its owner again, and be his own, and be free? Suppose a man a prisoner, and ransomed, or redeemed by having a ransom paid for him. If the ransom were sufficient and accepted, would he not be free? Suppose an estate mortgaged and redeemed from its mortgage, would it not be free? Does not redemption in all these cases mean a complete and perfect deliverance, so that if there be not deliverance, then the term redemption cannot be applied; for the person or the thing is really not redeemed.

II. the means of its accomplishment. The price–through His blood. If any other means had been sufficient, is it possible, think you, that Christ would have died? Would the precious blood of the Lamb of God have been poured out if any price less costly had been sufficient? If you could save your children from destruction by any other means than the peril of your life, would you risk that life unnecessarily? And surely the Father had not sent His beloved Son to die upon the cross if other ransom could have been found for guilty man.

III. How different is the ground of our forgiveness from the natural expectation of the heart. How different from the miserable hope that men derive from the thought that they are not So bad as others. How different from the miserable hope they derive from the idea that they have amended their lives and reformed their habits, and are better than their former selves, and therefore trust that they are on this ground more acceptable to God. How different from any such miserable hope–if hope it can be called, which must ever be clouded by the consciousness of sin, by the feeling that, however imperfect and false, the standard of attainment be which we have raised, we must fall short of our own standard, and sink beneath its level, when measured even by our own conscience. True it is, indeed, that if a sinner believes the gospel his life will be totally changed; he will be different from those who believe it not, and different from what he was himself as an unbeliever; but this is the effect, not the cause, of his salvation; he is changed not to be saved, but because he is saved. (R. J. McGhee, M. A.)

Blessings resulting from the death of Christ

I. We must notice the privileges themselves. These are twofold–we have redemption, and we have the forgiveness of sins. We shall speak of them in order:–and, First, with respect to redemption. It denotes a change of state from bondage to liberty; and thus may be considered as implying–

1. Deliverance from the power of our adversary the devil.

2. Redemption respects our deliverance from sin. It no longer reigns in those who are Christs, although it may not yet be thoroughly eradicated.

3. This redemption, again, respects our deliverance from the fears of death–death corporeal, and death eternal.

We now pass on to notice the other privilege mentioned in the text, and that is, the forgiveness of sins.

1. This forgiveness is full. It reaches to all sins–past, present, and future.

2. This forgiveness is altogether free. The distinctive excellency of the gospel of Jesus Christ is freeness. All the blessings it brings are as free as the air we breathe.

II. The procuring cause of these privileges. Says the apostle, In whom we have redemption. But who is He? Why the same who is referred to in the preceding verse. He in whom we are blessed with all spiritual blessings. He in whom we were chosen before the foundation of the world. He by whom we have received the adoption of children, and in whom we stand accepted in the sight of God. And who is He but the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom we read in another place, that God having in time past spoken unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son; and by Him alone, for there is no other name given among men whereby we can be saved. Hence you will observe that it is seldom, perhaps never, that the sacred writers fail to direct us to Christ, when they unfold any distinguishing privilege, or fundamental doctrine of the gospel: so it is here, the apostle is tracing our salvation up to its source, the love of God, but he also refers to the channel through which it flows, and that is Christ.

III. We must glance at the original source. It is according to the riches of His grace. Everything that God has done for sinners, shows us that He is a God of grace; but more especially in the coming of Christ, and in His elevation upon the cross, do we see the riches of His grace. This surely ought to encourage sinners to draw near to God; that they may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Essex Remembrancer.)

Redemption by the blood of Jesus

I. The certainty with which Christ has, in point of pact, redeemed His people.

1. Show how we came to need redemption.

2. Christ Jesus, as Mediator, at a certain period of this worlds history, gave Himself a ransom for His people.

II. I come now to mention some of the properties of that redemption with which Christ redeems His people.

1. It is free or unmerited on the part of man.

2. A full redemption.

3. This redemption takes effect in time.

4. This redemption is for eternity.

5. Redemption by Jesus implies that we could not redeem ourselves.

It is a law in nature that like produces like; and if it be once settled that our progenitors were corrupted and depraved, and at the same time granted that we are descended from them, the contrary of which is self-contradictory; then as sure as the corrupted fountain sends forth a polluted stream, so sure are we backward to that which is good, and forward to that which is evil. And sooner may the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots–which would be nature inverting natures course, for it is natural for them to be as they are–than can man who is born of a woman cease to do evil, and learn to do well. I shall now conclude this discourse with a few remarks, by way of improvement.

1. From this subject learn the high privilege of the children of men to be redeemed by the blood of Christ (1Jn 3:1). Redemption is doubly endeared to man by the love of God, and by the sufferings of Jesus.

2. From this subject learn the duty of Christian diligence (2Pe 3:14).

3. Learn from what has been said, that the end of refusing this redemption is eternal death (Isa 30:33).

4. From this subject learn the blessedness of the redeemed h Corinthians 2:19). (R. Montgomery.)

Redemption

The expression redemption as direct and immediate reference to our ruined and wretched condition in consequence of the fall; and it is used to signify our entire deliverance from all the evils involved or implied in our being sinners against God under His righteous and holy law. It is a term which comprehends our complete emancipation from sin and its consequences.

1. In the first place, and most important of all, he is a guilty being, because he is a sinner.

2. Man through sin has become habituated to sin. He is incarcerated in a prison house of sinful vices and habits, and held fast by legal chains of spiritual wickedness. Now, from its actual slavery, we are redeemed by Christ, in consequence of His atonement, and by virtue of His gracious Spirit. Ye are not under the law, but under grace; sin, therefore, shall not have dominion over you.

3. We must consider all the outward and physical evils which sin has brought into the world, of which death may be said to be the climax. From all these, however sad and melancholy, redemption effects a substantial deliverance now, whilst we have to battle against them, and a complete and glorious riddance at last, in our recovery from the grave. The first thing to be effected in the case of sinners under a sovereign God and a righteous law, is to remove their guilt, that they may stand free from all blame worthiness, and become exempt from the curse. But, this effected, the rest may be expected certainly and surely to follow, from the same grace and mercy which have already been brought into exercise. The forgiveness of sins is just a way of expressing the idea that all guilt whatsoever is removed; so that the sinner stands before God, in the eye of His law, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. In the completeness of this forgiveness, we recognize its highest excellence; for did but one sin remain against the sinner, that alone were sufficient to condemn him. As by one sin man originally fell, so, if but one were to abide unforgiven, he could not be raised up again. But, blessed be God! the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. It is not by a system of moral recovery; it is not merely by truth, that you are redeemed. A prior difficulty must be surmounted, and that could only be accomplished by the surrender of His well-beloved.

But we are redeemed by blood–by the sufferings of Jesus Christ–by His atoning sacrifice.

1. This wondrous plan is Gods own device or method. It originated in Him–in His love and wisdom.

2. The sacrifice was offered up freely by Christ. He gave Himself. He had power to lay down His life and He had power to take it up again. But He said, Lo! I come. I delight to do Thy will, O My God. Christ also hath loved us, and gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.

3. The offering was accepted by God as a full satisfaction for the sins of His people. (W. Alves.)

Redemption through Christs blood, with royal forgiveness

I. Redemption only through Christs blood.

1. What is redemption? Ransom or deliverance. It is love, mercy, grace, and glory–all in one.

2. Illustrate this great Christian doctrine by a few examples.

(1) Suppose a Christian man, or benevolent rich man, went into the East, or some land of captives–a matter done often during the Crusades in former times. He sees there some lovely or noble slave, perhaps a countryman of his own, doomed to base servitude, to the galling chains, to labour at the oar, to dig in the mines, or toil beneath the lash in the fields for life. Pity fills his breast, and he buys the slave for the money demanded; he does more–he gives him freedom. Such is redemption.

(2) A mighty warrior leads forth his army to battle against the foes of his country. Some of his brave soldiers are overwhelmed by numbers, or taken captive by stratagem. There is no way of obtaining their liberty, unless by exchange of prisoners, or by ransom money, as in ancient times; but this is readily done for their release; and this restoration is an emblem of redemption.

(3) There is war between civilized and savage tribes. Some Christians are circumvented; the savages care not for money; they doom some poor captive to terrible death by torture or fire; the general hears of the fatal design; he starts at once with a brave band of soldiers to deliver the captive, who is bound to the fatal stake; conflict ensues, but he is just in time to rescue the prisoner from all the agonies of fire, although the deliverance was only achieved with great difficulty, and perhaps the death of the leader himself; but the rescue is accomplished with victory over the foe. This is redemption.

3. Now, can anyone tell me of the soul-thrilling delight of a person thus rescued from slavery, from galling bondage, from impending death. The sailor on London Bridge, of whom I once heard, may shadow its joys. He purchased a large cage full of birds, and went to the riverside; then he took from the cage one bird after another, and let it fly in the golden light of heaven, rejoicing in its sudden freedom with a sweet note or song of joy. When remonstrated with for spending his money so foolishly, he said, quietly: Wait a little. I have reason for this–to give happiness to these birds! And when all the cage was empty, he turned round triumphantly, with a bright eye, and said: I was once a captive myself in bondage, in a strange land. I vowed, if I got freedom, to give liberty to the first captives I found at home. The birds have got it, and my heart rejoices in the deed! But how burning must be the emotions of a man rescued from instant death by some unforeseen deliverance! Redemption commands our highest gratitude; more gratitude than rescue from death by water or fire by some powerful arm. Dr. Doddridge once obtained a pardon from the sovereign for a prisoner condemned to death. He went himself to the convicts cell, and presented it to the unhappy man. He fell at the feet of the Doctor, and said, with deep feeling; Sir, I am yours ever; every drop of my blood is yours; it thanks you for having mercy on me; all my life is yours! Such, indeed, must be the deathless gratitude of a soul saved, to Christ the Lord for His great work of redemption, which infinitely transcends all deliverance here!

4. Remark how this great work was effected; it is redemption by His blood. He who is both God and man, shed His blood for sinners, obtaining for us redemption, pardon, sanctification, and salvation.

II. Free forgiveness of all sin by Christ alone.

III. The absolute fulness of Divine blessings. (J. G. Angley, M. A.)

Errors with respect to the doctrine of the Atonement

I. The Atonement has frequently been represented as if it was intended to pacify the wrath of an offended, an angry, and a displeased Creator. It is very true that the Scriptures do describe God as in the exercise of wrath banishing men from His presence; but it is equally true that the Scriptures must be taken in many instances as employing metaphorical and figurative language, which we are bound to interpret upon the principles of metaphorical and figurative interpretation. If we overlook these principles, and take every term literally and every phrase literally, we shall be found to misrepresent the whole wilt of God, and the whole system of our common Christianity. But if we take the wrath of God, as it is mentioned in the Scriptures, to indicate nothing more than the course of just punishment which it inflicts–if we understand that He is described to be wrathful when He does that which we do when we are wrathful, putting forth His power to punish, but doing it under principles very different from those under which we act–we may then have a right view of what is meant by the wrath of God. It means nothing more, in the Scripture, than His displeasure with sin–His disapprobation of all that is impure and all that is unholy–His sentence against all that is morally unclean, and His rejection of all that would pollute His government.

II. The Redeemer is frequently represented as suffering precisely the degree of punishment due to the parties whom He came to redeem. We forget altogether the dignity of the Atonement of Christ, when we speak thus of the degree of suffering that He had to endure. It was because the Redeemer was God as well as Man, that His suffering was infinitely valuable; and not because He sustained exactly the measure of suffering which His people ought to have endured. Such a mercantile, such a commercial mode of viewing the Atonement of Christ is unknown to the Scriptures of truth. An exact payment for the required discharge is not known to the glorious economy of the gospel. A sacrifice of infinite value was given, no matter what the amount of the sufferings; and from its infinite value those sufferings, however light or however severe, must derive all their value and all their efficacy. We rejoice in resting upon the Atonement of the Son of God; not in resting on the blood of one who suffered as much as we had to suffer.

III. Again, it is sometimes said that Christ came into the world for the purpose of dying for particular persons, to the exclusion of all others. This is another idea connected with the Atonement. Here, again, we find a variety of evil consequences resulting from error. Tell an assembled multitude that Christ came to die for particular persons, and that all others were to be excluded from the range of His Atonement; and would not any thinking assembly say: Then if we were of that number we must be redeemed, for He died for us; if we were not of that number it is useless for us to attempt to share the privilege. What answer could we give to this? But when we come to the Word of God, we find no foundation for this.

IV. But again, in the fourth place, another error connected with the doctrine of Atonement is, that it was intended to introduce a relaxed administration of government; that, in other words, it was intended to bring before the world a remedial system–a subdued, a modified demand on the obedience of mankind, and that it was intended to make the law of more easy aspect to persons that had fallen, and that if they could not come up to its requirements, the efficacy of the Atonement would make up for their deficiency, and that in that case they might themselves be saved by doing the best they could, the Atonement supplying their lack of service. Now the Word of God contains nothing of this description. Heaven and earth shall pass away, says the Redeemer; but one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. The New Testament admits of no relaxation of the law of God. When the Redeemer demands the obedience of His people, He says: Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

V. Another error is this: that the atonement of Christ was intended to abolish the obligation to obey the moral law. But what does such a doctrine as this really teach us? It teaches us that the moral law was broken, and it teaches us that God sent His own Son to be an Atonement, not to mend the breach, but to justify the breach I

VI. The Atonement is very frequently so misrepresented, as if deity had suffered. Such a notion never belonged to Christianity, although it has very often been advanced with reference to the Atonement of Christ. Then, if the Deity could not suffer, what did suffer? The perfect humanity of Christ. What gave efficacy to the sufferings of that humanity? Its union with the Deity of Christ. The union of the humanity of Christ with His divinity, gave to all His acts and all His sufferings an infinite value; and from that union, and that union alone, must be derived all the efficacy and all the glory of the Atonement; and the efficacy and glory of the Atonement will be found to be abundant, when connected with the union of the perfect humanity of Christ and the infinite glory of His Divine nature. We are wrong, therefore, in speaking of the sufferings of God. We are misrepresenting the Atonement of Christ.

VII. But without adding any more of the errors that may be current upon this subject (and I think I have embraced the principal part of them), it is due now to you that, in a few moments, I should state to you what i conceive to be the real character of the atonement. Let us look, first, at the nature of sin itself. What is it but the direct violation of the law of God? Here is the Majesty of heaven, the great Lawgiver; here is the perfect law that He reveals; He demands perfect obedience from the creature; we rebel against that demand; we are at variance with Him on the ground of that rebellion. What is to be done to heal the breach that has taken place between us? He is a God of love as well as a God of power and justice; He is willing to save, but He must do it in a way that will not encourage human rebellion. He seeks that His own hands shall be free to be gracious; He seeks that His own law shall permit Him to be merciful; He seeks that the perfection of His own purity shall permit Him to be kind, without for a moment sinking the character and the rectitude of His administration. How is He to be placed in a position in which He can honourably, and without disparagement to the public law of the universe, tell a man that he can be saved? He desires to tell him this; but He desires to find means to vindicate that act. He turns to His own Son; and the Son volunteers to accept the service assigned to Him. Volunteering to accept it, we find Him going forth, taking upon Him our nature, in that nature suffering and dying, and presenting Himself, not to man but to God. The priest presented the sacrifice on the altar to the Majesty of Israel; the sacrifice had direct reference to God–the mercy had reference to the people. In the same way the sacrifice presented in the Atonement of Christ has reference Go God; it is to Him that its incense, its perfume arises; the mercy has reference to us. The sacrifice, therefore, is presented to the King of kings that He may be able, consistently and worthily and holily, to proclaim mercy through the blood of the Lord Jesus. He looks to no specific individuals; He looks to no specific sins; He looks to the altar–the Cross where the Redeemer died. God looks to that sacrifice, and He sees in that sacrifice the means by which He can be vindicated in the proclamation of His kindness throughout the world, in the announcement of His love, in the extension of His mercy. Now His hands are free; His law is magnified and made honourable, and yet He can condescend to be gracious. We can now have redemption through the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. There is now ample scope made for free and sovereign grace to proclaim its readiness to be merciful. No one can point to the Cross and say, The offering there made was for me; no individual can point to the Cross and say, There the anger of the Father against me was appeased, and I may approach and find Him gracious; no, but the Father Himself looks down upon the Cross, and lifting the light of His countenance on the wondrous offering of His own Son in His own love, and the love of the Father concurring in accepting that offering, He looks round on the whole human race, and says: Behold the measure of My love, and behold at the same time the vindication of My justice, while I proclaim My mercy, and invite all to come. This view of the Atonement makes it a great sacrifice to public justice; and when I speak of a sacrifice to public justice, I speak of justice as vindicated before the whole universe. Why do I call it public justice? Do not the angels of heaven look to it? Do not the angels of hell look to it? Do they not expect to see God consistent with what He has proclaimed? Does not the whole intelligent universe look to it? Will not the whole assembled creation at the day of judgment look to it? Is it not, then, public justice? And is it not necessary for God to have a vindication ready when He assembles the intelligent universe? He has it ready–He has it ready now–a satisfaction to public justice and public law; and now grace can invite all the sinners of mankind, and accept every returning transgressor. (John Burnet.)

Gratitude for redemption

A gentleman, visiting a slave mart, was deeply moved by the agony of a slave girl, who had been delicately reared, and fearing lest she should fall into the hands of a rough and unkind master, inquired her price, paid it to the slave dealer; then, placing the bill of sale in her own hands, announced to her that she was free, and could now go home. The poor slave girl could not realize the change at first; but, running after her redeemer, cried out: He has redeemed me! he has redeemed me! Will you let me be your servant? How much more should we serve Him who has redeemed us from sin, and death, and hell?

Gods motives in redemption

How should we extol and adore the wisdom which discovered a way to harmonize the glory of a holy God and the good of guilty men! In the salvation of the human family God was undoubtedly moved by a regard to both these ends, It is an imperfect vision that sees but one motive here. This subject may be compared to those binary stars which seem to the naked eye but one, yet, when brought into the range of the telescope, resolve themselves into two distinct and shining orbs, that roll in brightness and beauty around a common, but invisible, centre, Though He loved His own glory, yet He so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that by Him the world might be redeemed from perdition. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Effects of redemption

A few years ago I was going away to preach one Sunday morning, when a young man drove up in front of us. He had an aged woman with him. Who is that young man? I asked. Do you see that beautiful meadow, said my friend, and that land there with the house upon it? Yes. His father drank that all up, he said. Then he went on to tell me all about him. His father was a great drunkard, squandered his property, died, and left his wife in the poorhouse. And that young man, he said, is one of the finest young men I ever knew. He has toiled hard and earned money, and bought back the land; he has taken his mother out of the poorhouse, and now he is taking her to church. I thought, that is an illustration for me. The first Adam, in Eden, sold us for nought; but the Messiah, the Second Adam, came and bought us back again. The first Adam brought us to the poorhouse, as it were; the Second Adam makes us kings and priests unto God. (D. L. Moody.)

Redemption through the blood of Christ

I dare assert, without fear of successful contradiction, that the inspired writers attribute all the blessings of salvation to the precious blood of Jesus Christ. If we have redemption it is through His blood; if we are justified, it is by His blood; if washed from our moral stains, it is by His blood, which cleanseth us from all sin; if we have victory over the last enemy, we obtain it not only by the Word of the Divine testimony, bus through the blood of the Lamb; and if we gain admittance into heaven, it is because we have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and therefore are we before the throne of God. Everything depends on the blood of Christ, and without shedding of blood is no remission. (R. Newton.)

The forgiveness of sins.

Forgiveness and redemption

Gods forgiveness is, so to speak, the preliminary grace, which enables the beginning of a new life, so that we become holy and loving children. Forgiveness is the prerogative of him who has been sinned against. Who can forgive sins save God only? He forgives on grounds sufficient in the estimation of His own righteous love. He cannot be coerced or coaxed into forgiveness. He cannot forgive until He sees it right to forgive. He cannot connive at the sinner being let off, if righteousness demands that he should suffer penalty. Nothing can be weaker or more immoral than to represent God as moved merely by pity, by a merciful compassion. That He is infinitely pitiful and loving is the uniform representation of Scripture. But His love works in a far profounder and holier and greater way than by mere pitiful feeling. He Himself gave the only begotten Son to redeem us, to die as a sacrifice for sins, that He might righteously forgive, that He might be a just God and yet a Saviour. The entire representation is of Gods love as the moving cause of Christs mission and redeeming work. Christ is given by the leather to redeem us–that is, as the apostle here explains it, to obtain for us the forgiveness of sins. Sin is not a misfortune, a necessity of our nature–it is a guilty act. We need not sin; we wilfully sin: and before we can become loving children of God, our sin must be forgiven. This is the first step in our redemption; forgiveness is made possible for us, is obtained for us by Jesus Christ. The further phrase redemption through His blood, shuts us up to the idea that the shedding of His blood by Christ, was that which made forgiveness a possible thing. It is only natural that men should ask, How, in what way, did the death of Christ constitute a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of men? Such questions have been asked from the beginning of Christianity, and have in a hundred ways been answered in creeds and in systems of theology. These are purely human conceptions of the great fact which the New Testament affirms, and they have continuously changed as the spiritual intelligence of the Church has grown. Perhaps no one could now be found capable of entertaining the gross notions of the earlier and middle ages of Christianity. Whatever theory we may form, it must be taken only as our fallible human idea. The fact of the great sacrifice for sin is authoritatively affirmed; very little is said in explanation of what we may call the philosophy of it. That it had an aspect Godward, that it is the ground or reason of Gods forgiveness of sins, we are expressly told. And that it has an aspect manward, that it is a moral constraint upon human feeling, the power of God unto salvation is equally affirmed. Lifted up from the earth, He draws all men unto Him. One or two things may be said. Christ suffered, of course, as a man–a perfectly holy man, suffering for human sin as if He Himself had sinned. To enable this He became incarnate. He was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. It is clear that He did not suffer to appease any implacable feeling in God–to incline God to save. Every representation of Scripture is of Gods yearning pity and love. His love was the origin, the cause, of Christs Incarnation–He spared not His only-begotten Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all. That God is angry with sin is only to say that He is a Holy Being. If God can delight in the holiness of His creatures, He must hate their sin. He is not a passionless Being, incapable of feeling. How could He be loved if He were? No expressions can be stronger than those which represent Gods feeling towards sin. He is angry with the wicked every day; The wrath of God abideth upon him; The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, for those that obey unrighteousness there is indignation and wrath. We are saved from wrath through Him. We are by nature children of wrath; the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience. That God was not angry with His well-beloved Son needs not be said, save that this, too, is a misrepresentation that the rejectors of the Atonement are not ashamed to persist in. Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life for the sheep. That Jesus Christ ever thought the Father angry with Him it is impossible to think. When, in the extreme anguish of His spirit, He felt as if His Father had forsaken Him, He immediately added: Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit. Was not His anguish simply the vivid realization by His human heart of what human sin was? If any of us had a brother or a sister, a father or a mother, who committed a murder, would not our anguish at the crime be greater than even that of the murderer himself, just in proportion as his heart was murderous and ours was humane? Many a father, many a mother, feels infinitely more anguish for the sin of a profligate son, of a fallen daughter, than the sinner himself. May not this suggestion help us to understand the agony of the garden and of the cross? (H. Allen, D. D.)

The glories of forgiving grace

The forgiveness of sins is an article in the creed, but I want it to be a substantive in your lives. Most men say that they believe it, but their belief is often nominal, and a nominal faith, like nominal wealth, only makes the absence of the reality the more deplorable. In two instances there is clearly no faith in forgiven sin.

1. Those who have never felt that they are sinful. How can he who does not believe in the existence of sin believe in the forgiveness of it? His whole confession on that matter belongs to the region of fiction. If sin is not a terrible fact to you, pardon will never be more than a notion.

2. Those who know the guilt of sin, but are not yet able to believe in the Lord Jesus for the remission of their transgressions. They need to be admonished as Luther was by the godly old monk. When he was greatly distressed under conviction of his guilt, the aged man said, Didst thou not say this morning in the creed, I believe in the forgiveness of sins? Oh, be not theoretical believers. You believe in sin, believe also in its pardon. Let the one be as much a truth as the other.

I. From the text we learn the measure of forgiveness.

1. Observe, then, that the measure of forgiveness is the riches of Gods grace, and this statement leads us to observe that it is not the character or person of the offender which is the measure of mercy, but the character of the offended One. Is there not rich consolation in this undoubted fact? The pardon to be hoped for is not to be measured by you and what you are, but by God and what He is. One man will forgive a grievous wrong, while another will not overlook a wry word. Take an instance from English history: John had most villainously treated his brother Richard in his absence. Was it likely that when he of the lions heart came home he would pass over his brothers grievous offence? If you look at John, villain that he was, it was most unlikely that he should be forgiven; but then, if you consider the brave, high-souled Richard, the very flower of chivalry, you expect a generous deed. Base as John was, he was likely to be forgiven, because Richard was so free of heart, and accordingly pardon was right royally given by the great-hearted monarch. Had John been only half as guilty, if his brother Richard had been like himself he would have made him lay his neck on the block. If John had been Richard and Richard had been John, no matter how small the offence, there would have been no likelihood of pardon at all. So is it in all matters of transgression and pardon. You must take the offence somewhat into account, it is true, but not one half so much as the character of the person who has been offended. Let us establish this fact, and then see what light it throws upon the probability of pardon to any of you who are seeking it. With whom are you dealing? You have offended–who is He whom you have offended? Is it one whose anger is quickly aroused? No, the Lord is long suffering, and exceedingly patient. Forty years long was He grieved with one generation; and many a time did He pity them and remove His wrath from them.

2. Since the forgiveness of sins is according to the riches of His grace, then it is not according to our conceptions of Gods mercy, but according to that mercy itself, and the riches of it. Gods love is not to be measured by a mercers yard, nor His mercy to be weighed in the balances of the merchant.

3. If, again, the measure of mercy is according to the riches of His grace, then no limit to pardon can be set by the amount of human sin which can be forgiven. Sin is no trifle, and yet pardon is no impossibility.

4. Another comfortable conclusion follows from this, that no limit is set to the time in which a man has sinned, so as to bound the reach of grace by the lapse of years. Our text does not say that there is forgiveness of sins according to such and such a time of life, but according to the riches of His grace.

5. Let me draw another inference. If pardon be according to the riches of His grace, it is not according to the bitterness of the sorrow which has been felt by the sinner. There is a notion abroad that we must pass through a period of keen remorse before we can expect to be accepted with God.

6. And let me say that the measure of Gods forgiveness is not even the strength of a mans faith. The measure of Gods forgiveness is according to the riches of His grace. You, dear soul, are to come and trust in what Jesus Christ did when He bled away His life for sinners, and then your pardon shall be measured out to you, not according to the greatness and strength of your confidence, but according to the immeasurable mercy of the heart of God. You may have faith but as a grain of mustard seed, your faith may only dare to touch the garments hem of the great Saviour, you may get no further than to say, He hath said, Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out, and I do come to Him: if I perish, I will perish trusting Him, and yet that faith will save you. Thy sins which are many are all forgiven thee if thou believest in Jesus; for the measure of thy forgiveness is not thy faith, nor thy tears of repentance, nor thy bitter regrets, nor thy sin, nor thy conception of Gods goodness, nor thy character, either past or present or future; but the forgiveness which is granted from the Lord is according to the riches of His grace.

II. The manner of forgiveness.

1. Absolute freeness. According to the riches of His free favour, for that is the meaning of the word grace. God forgives none because of payment made by them in any form. If we could bring Him mountains of gold and silver, they would be nothing worth to Him. Forgiveness, like love, is unpurchaseable by us. Gods pardons are absolutely free.

2. Royal ease. When you and I give away money to the poor, we have to pause, and see how much is left in our purse; we have to calculate our incomes to see whether we may not be spending too much in charity; but those who have great riches can give and not calculate: even so God when He grants forgiveness gives it according to the riches of His grace. He never has to think whether He will have grace enough left; He will be none the richer if He withholds it, none the poorer if He bestows it. There is a magnificent ease about the benefactions of God: He scatters the largesse of His mercy right and left with unstinted liberality. The Roman conquerors, traversing the Via Sacra in triumph, were accustomed to scatter gold and silver with both hands as they rode along, and the eager crowd gathered up the shower of gifts. Our Lord, when He ascended on high and led captivity captive, scattered gifts among men with royal splendour and munificence.

3. Unquestionable fulness. The blood of Jesus makes us whiter than snow, and absolute innocence cannot be more white than that.

4. Irreversible certainty. No condemnation.

5. Unfailing renewal. Daily forgiveness for daily sin, a flesh spring rising for fresh thirst.

III. The manifestation of this pardon.

1. Forgiveness of sin comes to us entirely through Jesus Christ our Saviour; and if we go to Jesus Christ, fixing our eyes especially upon His atoning sacrifice, we have pardon by virtue of His blood. Pardon by any other means is impossible, but by Jesus Christ it is certain. Everything else fails, but faith in Christ never fails.

2. This pardon is a possession. We have it. No longer is the weight and burden of sin lying on your conscience and heart: your load is lifted; you are forgiven. If your child has been offending you, and you are angry with him, he feels ill at ease in your presence. At last you say, My boy, it is all gone now; do not offend again. You are quite forgiven; come here, and let me kiss you. Does he reply, Father, I am afraid? If so, it is evident that he does not understand that you have forgiven him: and even if he receives your kiss, but still remains unhappy in your presence, it is clear that he does not believe in you or in the sincerity of your forgiveness. As soon as the light dawns on his mind Father has quite put all my fault away, then he is merry in his play and easy in his conversation with you. Now, be with God like a child at home. Do not act towards Him as if still He frowned upon you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The forgiveness of sins

The earlier verses of this chapter contain Pauls conception of the Divine ideal of human nature. It was the Divine purpose before the foundation of the world that men should share the life and sonship of the eternal Son of God. It was for this that human nature received its wonderful capacities. Its sanctity and righteousness were to be secured by union with Christ. The human race was to be a great spiritual organism, having Christ for the root of its life and blessedness. Abiding in Christ, the race was to abide in God; and only by abiding in Christ could the race achieve the perfection and glory for which it was created. But the Divine purpose did not suppress human freedom. It could be fulfilled only by the free concurrence of the race with the Divine righteousness and love; and the whole order of the development of the Divine thought has been disturbed by sin. In His infinite goodness God has delivered us from the immense catastrophe which came upon us through our revolt against His authority. In Christ we have redemption and forgiveness.

I. What forgiveness is not.

1. Forgiveness is not a change in our minds towards God, but a change in Gods mind towards us. Take an illustration. A son has been guilty of flagrant misconduct towards his father; has insulted him, slandered his character, robbed him, and almost ruined him. The son discovers his guilt and is greatly distressed. He does all he can to atone for his wickedness. He has become a better man, and there is a great change in his mind and conduct towards his father. But it is possible for all the change to be on one side. He may be unable to remove or even to lessen his fathers indignation against him. His father may continue for years bitter, relentless, unforgiving. I do not mean to suggest that God will be hard with us when we repent; but if we are to have any clear and true thoughts about this subject we must see distinctly that it is one thing for us to repent of sin and to become better, and quite another thing for God to forgive us.

2. Nor must the Divine forgiveness be confounded with peace of conscience. I have known many people who were restless and unhappy, dissatisfied with themselves, and unable to find any rest of heart in the Divine mercy. The reason was plain: they were not troubled by the Divine hostility to their sin, and therefore the assurance that God was willing to forgive them afforded them no relief. It was not Gods thoughts about them that occasioned their distress, but their own thoughts about themselves. They did not want to obtain the Divine forgiveness, but to recover their own self-respect, which had been wounded by the discovery of their moral imperfections. But it is clearly one thing for God to be at peace with us, and quite a different thing for us to be at peace with ourselves.

3. We must not suppose that as soon as God forgives us we escape at once from the painful and just consequences of our sins. The sins may be forgiven, and yet many of the penalties which they have brought upon us may remain. There is a certain alliance between the laws of nature and the laws of righteousness, and there is a similar alliance between the natural laws of society and the laws of righteousness. No Divine act arrests the operation of the natural laws which punish the penitent for his former drunkenness. There are vices, such as flagrant lying, gross treachery, deliberate dishonesty, which involve a man in heavy social penalties. He does not escape these penalties when he repents of the vices and receives the Divine pardon. He is maimed for life. His chances are lost. He will recover with difficulty the confidence of even kindly and generous men. Positions of public trust and honour will be closed against him, He will be excluded from many kinds of usefulness.

II. What it is for God to forgive sins.

1. Forgiveness among ourselves implies that there has been just resentment against the person whom we forgive, resentment provoked by his wrongdoing. When we forgive him the resentment ceases. And so also does God regard, not with disapproval only, but with resentment, those who sin; and when He forgives men, His resentment ceases.

2. When God forgives, He actually remits our sin. Our responsibility for it ceases. The guilt of it is no longer ours. When His resentment against us ceases, the eternal law of righteousness ceases to be hostile to us. When He pardons our transgressions, the eternal law of righteousness no longer holds us responsible for them. The shadow which they had projected across our life, and which lengthened with our lengthening years, passes away. We look back upon the sins which God has forgiven and we condemn them still, but the condemnation does not fall upon ourselves; for God, who is the living law of righteousness, condemns us no longer.

3. The peace and blessedness of this release from guilt are wonderful. The soul is conscious of a Divine freedom. It can approach God with happy trust and with perfect courage, for the past is no longer a source of terror, and the future is bright with immortal hope. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

Forgiveness defined

Forgiveness may be defined–

1. In personal terms–as a cessation of the anger or moral resentment of God against sin.

2. In ethical terms–as a release from the guilt of sin, which oppresses the conscience.

3. In legal terms–as a remission of the punishment of sin, which is eternal death. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

The forgiveness of sin and the death of Christ

That our Lord Jesus Christ declared that men were to receive redemption or the remission of sins through Himself, and especially through His death, appears from several passages in the Gospels; and the great place which His last sufferings occupied in His thoughts from the very commencement of His ministry, the frequency with which He spoke of them, the wonderful results which He said were to follow them, the agitation and dismay which He felt as they approached, and His anxiety to pass through them and beyond them, show that to Christ His death was not a mere martyrdom but an awful and glorious crisis in His own history and in the history of the human race. The apostles Peter, Paul, and John, though each had his own characteristic conception of the work of Christ and the Christian salvation, are agreed in declaring that the ground of our forgiveness is in Christ, and they are also agreed in attributing a mysterious importance and efficacy to His death (2Co 5:14; 2Co 5:21; Rom 4:25; 1Co 15:3; Gal 1:4; 1Pe 3:18; 1Pe 2:24; 1Jn 2:2; 1Jn 4:10; 1Jn 1:7; 1Th 5:9; Rom 5:8; Rom 3:24-26). But no collection of isolated passages gives an adequate impression of the strength of the proof that both our Lord and His apostles taught that in Him we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of [Gods] grace. This truth is wrought into the very substance of the Christian gospel.

I. We have the forgiveness of our trespasses in Christ. It is in harmony with the fundamental law of human nature that the reason and ground of our forgiveness should be in Christ; for the reason and ground of our creation, of our righteousness, and of our blessedness as the sons of God, are in Him.

II. We have the forgiveness of our trespasses in Christ through His blood.

1. The relations of Christ to the Father are the transcendent expression and original root of our relation to the Father. We are related to the Father through Him. And since the relation of moral submission on our part to the righteousness of Gods resentment against sin was an indispensable condition of the forgiveness of sin, it became necessary that Christ Himself should assume this relation of moral submission to the righteousness of Gods resentment against sin, that His submission might be the transcendent expression of ours.

2. There is no righteousness in us which is not first in Christ. And since our submission to the righteousness of Gods resentment against sin was an indispensable condition of our forgiveness, Christs submission became necessary to render ours possible. His submission carries ours with it.

3. His death is the death of sin in all who are one with Him.

(1) Christ, the eternal Son of God and the root of our righteousness, having become Man, endured death in order to render possible our moral consent to the justice of the Divine resentment against sin, and to the justice of the penalties in which that resentment might have been revealed. Had God withdrawn from us His light and life, and destroyed us by revealing His moral resentment against our sin, this would have been an awful manifestation of the moral energy of His righteousness and of His abhorrence of moral evil. Its moral value would have been infinitely heightened by the intensity of His love for us. But God in the greatness of His love shrank from depriving us of that blessed and glorious destiny for which we were created; and in order to secure our moral submission to the righteousness of His resentment, a moral submission which was the necessary condition of our forgiveness, He surrendered His own eternal Son to spiritual desertion and to death. In this surrender, made for such a purpose, there was a sublimer moral manifestation of the Divine thought concerning sin than there would have been in condemning the race to eternal death.

(2) The Lord Jesus Christ is Himself the Moral Ruler of the human race. The moral supremacy of God is manifested and exerted through Him. It was His function to punish sin, and so to reveal His judgment of it. But instead of inflicting suffering, He has elected to endure it, that those who repent of sin may receive forgiveness and may inherit eternal glory. It was greater to endure suffering than to inflict it. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

The forgiveness of sins

Forgiveness is much more than pardon. Pardon is not a New Testament word at all; it does not occur in the New Testament, only in the Old Testament. Pardon is only the remitting the punishment of sins; forgiveness goes deeper–it is the taking away the memory of sins; it is an act of the heart which cancels both the punishment and the sin itself. Both words, pardon from the French, and forgiveness from the English, or Saxon, both have in them the word gift. It is a gift. Both the remitting the penalty, and the banishment of the thought of the wrong thing that has been done out of the heart, both are a gift. But forgiveness is the greater gift; it is pardon and forgiveness as well, for if you are forgiven, the sin itself is divided from the person forgiven, as though it had never been. All that is wanted is to go for your forgiveness in a right state of mind. That state of mind means four things.

I. You must feel and confess that you have sinned–sinned against God. It is not enough to feel that you have sinned against man, or to your own injury: you must feel and own from the bottom of your heart that you have offended God. Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned.

II. You must have a sincere and holy resolve in you heart that you will not commit that sin any more; that you will lead a better and religious life. This resolve must be firm and earnest, with a deep sense of your own weakness and inability to keep the promise; but you are prepared to meet any sacrifice, and overcome all difficulties, God helping you.

III. You must come with the faith that God can, and will, and does forgive you, for the sake of Him who has already paid all your debt, and satisfied His justice.

IV. You must be in a state of forgiveness, forgiveness with all who have ever injured you. These four are the only prerequisites which God has laid down as necessary for the forgiveness of every sin. Besides these, not only you need not, you must not bring anything in your hand. No merit, no plea, but that you are a poor sinner, and that God is love, and that Christ has died for you and instead of you, and suffered your punishment. Can those forgiven sins ever rise up again? Never, never! See what God says upon that subject: The scapegoat is borne away into a land not inhabited. Who shall see them, or talk about them, where there is none to speak? A land not inhabited. They shall not be mentioned. They are nailed to the cross. They are dead and buried, and there is no resurrection to a forgiven sin. God has put them behind His back, where He cannot see them! Do you say I make it too easy? Would it not be presumptuous to believe in such an instant and complete forgiveness? Would there not be encouragements for the careless to go on and sin again, because they can again be so easily forgiven? Let me tell you what will be the effect. The feeling of that forgiveness, the wonderful surprise that you are forgiven; that Gods eye is on you; that you are His own dear child, and that you may, notwithstanding all the past, serve Him and please Him, and be happy in this world and go to heaven when you die; this will melt you to tears, it will melt your heart to tears. You will be so soft. Your penitence, after you feel forgiven, will be much deeper than before you were forgiven. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Value of forgiveness

History relates the story of a many a sagacious and far-sighted man, whose example it is our safety, our salvation to follow. He had committed heinous crimes against his sovereign and the state. He knew his life to be forfeited; and that if, allowing events to take their course, he waited to be tried, he was certain to be condemned. The case is exactly ours. In these circumstances he repaired to the palace to fling himself at the feet of his sovereign, and making full confession of his crimes, to beg for mercy. Through the clemency of his king, and the intercession of a powerful friend at court, he found mercy; and, with a full pardon in his bosom, signed by the kings own band, left the royal presence a happy man. In course of time, the day of trim arrives, gathering a great concourse of people. He repairs to the place. Ignorant of his secret, anxious friends tremble for his fate; and the spectators wonder at his calm and placid bearing as he passes the scaffold where they think he is so soon to die, and enters the court, certain, as they fancy, to be condemned. He steps up to the bar as lightly as a bridegroom to the marriage altar; and, to all men s surprise, looks boldly around, on the court, his judges, and his accusers. At this, however, they cease to wonder, when, after listening unmoved to charges enough to hang twenty men in the place of one, he thrusts his hand into his bosom to draw forth the pardon, to cast it on the table, and find himself, amid a sudden outburst of joy, locked in the happy embraces of his wife and children. Let us go and do likewise. The bar of Divine judgment is a place not to sue for mercy, but to plead it. Appearing there robed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, justified, forgiven, in our hands a pardon signed and sealed with blood, we shall look around us undismayed on all the terrors of the scene -to ask with Paul, Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

According to the riches of His grace.–

The riches of Gods grace

I. The riches of Gods grace are illustrated by the nature and cause of these evils from which God is willing to redeem us. It is not misfortune we are suffering from, but guilt; the anger of God has not come upon us by accident; hell is not a mere calamity, the pains of eternal death are not undeserved. All the evils of our condition, from which God is eager to save us, are the result of our own fault. We have sinned; and the sin is regarded by God with deep and intense abhorrence. If a man whom you have trusted lies to you again and again, you fling him off from you with contempt. If you have detected a man whom you have trusted in an attempt to commit deliberative fraud upon you, you close your doors against him and forbid him ever to enter your house. If he be drunken, profane, and profligate, you think of him with disgust. And whatever abhorrence and loathing we may feet for gross sin, God, who is infinitely purer than we are, feels for all sin, and it is sin which has brought all our woes upon us. We have sinned, not ignorantly, but knowingly. We have sinned for years, and perhaps some of us are only now beginning to think of amendment. And yet to us sinners, to the guiltiest and most flagrant sinner among us, God offers redemption, and shows the riches of His grace.

II. The riches of His grace are illustrated in what He has none to effect our redemption. Through the blood of Christ. The Son of God, the Creator of our race, the moral Ruler of the universe, with whom it rested, when we had sinned, fully to express the Divine sense of the magnitude of our guilt, and to inflict the penalties which we deserved; laid His glory by, in order that He might endure the penalty instead of inflicting it, that He might express His sense of our sin by enduring death before He forgave it, instead of inflicting death on us because we had transgressed.

III. The conditions on which God offers salvation illustrate the riches of His grace. A free gift–the only condition being that we be willing to receive it. Arise, and be free! is Christs message to all.

IV. The very name by which the Christian revelation is known illustrates this. It is not called a system or doctrine, else it might be necessary to master the doctrine before you could secure redemption. It is not a moral but a spiritual discipline, else it might be necessary that you should subject yourself to its vivifying and invigorating power before redemption could be yours. It is not a law, else you would have to obey it before its promises could be fulfilled. It is not a promise of redemption, nor an assurance that God is willing to accomplish your redemption, else there might be conditions attached to the promise by which you might be perplexed and hindered. No; but it is a gospel–good news from heaven to earth, from God to man; good news of the Divine love which anger against sin has not quenched; good news of a great redemption wrought out in us; good news that God through Christ is nigh at hand and eager to forgive sins; good news that everything that is necessary to complete our salvation God has actually conferred upon us through Christ Jesus our Lord, and that we have only to receive it in order to rejoice in eternal blessedness.

V. The concern God has shown about our salvation illustrates the riches of His grace. We sometimes speak of those who are seeking God. The New Testament speaks of God seeking us. The Good Shepherd goes out into the wilderness after the sheep that has gone astray, before there is any terror felt at its danger, or any desire on its part to return. This is Gods conduct towards us. Is it not so? Why is it that any of you are at this moment restless because of your guilt, alarmed because of your danger, and longing to find your way into the peace of God? Is it the result of strenuous and laborious effort of your own to discover whether or not you had incurred guilt and exposure to danger? Has it not all come to you, you know not how? And yet, when you begin to consider, you conclude that it has been awakened in your heart by God. Can you be so ungrateful for His persistent love? (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)

The treasure of grace

I. First, consider the riches of His grace. In attempting to search out that which is unsearchable, we must, I suppose, use some of those comparisons by which we are wont to estimate the wealth of the monarchs, and mighty ones of this world. It happened once that the Spanish ambassador, in the halcyon days of Spain, went on a visit to the French ambassador, and was invited by him to see the treasures of his master. With feelings of pride he showed the repositories, profusely stored with earths most precious and most costly wealth. Could you show gems so rich, said he, or aught the like of this for magnificence of possessions in all your sovereigns kingdom? Call your master rich? replied the ambassador of Spain, why, my masters treasures have no bottom–alluding, of course, to the mines of Peru and Petrosa. So truly in the riches of grace there are mines too deep for mans finite understanding ever to fathom. However profound your investigation, there is still a deep couching beneath that baffles all research. As by necessity of His Godhead He is omnipotent, and omnipresent, so by absolute necessity of His Divinity is He gracious. Recollect, however, that as the attributes of God are of the like extent, the gauge of one attribute must be the gauge of another. Or, further, if one attribute is without limit, so is another attribute.

1. Now, you cannot conceive any boundary to the omnipotence of God. What cannot He do? He can create, He can destroy; He can speak a myriad universes into existence; or He can quench the light of myriads of stars as readily as we tread out a spark. As He hath power to do anything, so hath He grace enough to give anything–to give everything to the very chief of sinners.

2. Take another attribute if you please–Gods omniscience, there is no boundary to that. We know that His eye is upon every individual of our race–He sees him as minutely as if he were the only creature that existed. It is boasted of the eagle that though he can outstare the sun, yet when at his greatest height, he can detect the movement of the smallest fish in the depths of the sea. But what is this compared with the omniscience of God?

3. There is no limit to His understanding, nor is there to His grace. As His knowledge comprehendeth all things, so doth His grace comprehend all the sins, all the trials, all the infirmities of the people upon whom His heart is set. The next time we fear that Gods grace will be exhausted let us look into this mine, and then let us reflect that all that has ever been taken out of it has never diminished it a single particle. All the clouds that have been taken from the sea have never diminished its depth, and all the love, and all the mercy that God has given to all but infinite numbers of the race of man, has not diminished by a single grain the mountain of His grace. But, to proceed further; we sometimes judge of the wealth of men, not only by their real estate in mines and the like, but by what they have on hand stored up in the treasury. Gods treasury is His covenant of grace, wherein the Father gave His Son, the Son gave Himself, and the Spirit promised all His influence, all His presence, to all the chosen. This, my brethren, if ye think it over, may well make you estimate aright the riches of Gods grace. If you read the roll of the covenant from beginning to end, containing as it does, election, redemption, calling, justification, pardon, adoption, heaven, immortality–if you read all this, you will say, This is riches of grace–God, great and infinite! Who is a God like unto Thee for the riches of Thy love! The riches of great kings again, may often be estimated by the munificence of the monuments which they reared to record their feats. We have been amazed in these modern times at the marvellous riches of the kings of Nineveh and Babylon. Modern monarchs with all their appliances, would fail to erect such monstrous piles of palaces as those in which old Nebuchadnezzar walked in times of yore. We turn to the pyramids, we see there what the wealth of nations can accomplish; we look across the sea to Mexico and Peru, and we see the relics of a semi-barbarous people; but we are staggered and amazed to think what wealth and what mines of riches they must have possessed ere such works could have been accomplished. Solomons riches are perhaps best judged of by us when we think of those great cities which he built in the wilderness, Tadmore and Palmyra. When we go and visit those ruins and see the massive columns and magnificent sculpture, me say, Solomon indeed was rich. We feel as we walk amid the ruins somewhat like the Queen of Sheba, even in Scripture the half has not been told us of the riches of Solomon. My brethren, God has led us to inspect mightier trophies than Solomon, or Nebuchadnezzar, or Montezuma, or all the Pharaohs. Turn your eyes yonder, see that blood-bought host arrayed in white, surrounding the throne–hark, how they sing, with voice triumphant, with melodies seraphic, Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. And who are these? Who are these trophies of His grace? Some of them have come from the stews of harlotry; many of them have come from the taverns of drunkenness. Nay, more, the hands of some of those so white and fair, were once red with the blood of saints. I see there Manasseh, who shed innocent blood so much, and the thief who in the last moment looked to Christ, and said, Lord, remember me. Now we turn to another point to illustrate the greatness of the riches of Gods grace. A mans riches may often be judged of by the equipage of his children, the manner in which he dresses his servants and those of his household. It is not to be expected that the child of the poor man, though he is comfortably clothed, should be arrayed in like garments to those which are worn by the sons of princes. Let us see, then, what are the robes in which Gods people are apparelled, and how they are attended. Here, again, I speak upon a subject where a large imagination is needed, and my own utterly fails me. Gods children are wrapped about with a robe, a seamless robe, which earth and heaven could not buy the like of if it were once lost. For texture it excels the fine linen of the merchants; for whiteness it is purer than the driven snow; no looms on earth could make it, but Jesus spent His life to work my robe of righteousness. Look at Gods people as they are clothed too in the garments of sanctification. Was there ever such a robe as that? it is literally stiff with jewels. He arrays the meanest of His people every day as though it were a wedding day; He arrays them as a bride adorneth herself with jewels; He has given Ethiopia and Sheba for them, and He will have them dressed in gold of Ophir. What riches of grace, then, must there be in God who thus clothes His children! But to Conclude this point upon which I have not as yet begun. If you would know the full riches of Divine grace, read the Fathers heart when He sent His Son upon earth to die; read the lines upon the Fathers countenance when He pours His wrath upon His only begotten and His well-beloved Son. So much, then, concerning the riches of His grace.

II. For a minute or two, let me now dwell upon the forgiveness of sins. The treasure of Gods grace is the measure of our forgiveness; this forgiveness of sins is according to the riches of His grace. We may infer, then, that the pardon which God gives to the penitent is no niggard pardon. Again: if pardon be in proportion to the riches of His grace, we may rest assured it is not a limited pardon, it is not the forgiving of some sins and the leaving of others upon the back., No, this were not Godlike, it were not consistent with the riches of His grace. When God forgives He draws the mark through every sin which the believer ever has committed, or ever will commit.

III. And now I conclude by noticing the blessed privileges which always follow the forgiveness which is given to us according to the grace of God.

1. Peace of conscience. That heart of yours which throbs so fast when you are alone, will be quite still and quiet. When once a man is forgiven, he can walk anywhere; and, knowing his sins to be forgiven, he has joy unspeakable.

2. Then, to go further, such a man has access to God. Another man with unforgiven sin about him stands afar off; and it he thinks of God at all it is as a consuming fire.

3. Then another effect of this is that the believer fears no hell.

4. Once more, the forgiven Christian is expecting heaven. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The riches of Gods grace

In a country village if a man has a few hundred pounds he is thought to be quite rich. In a large town a man must have several thousands. But when you come to London and frequent the Stock Exchange you inquire of so and so–Is he a rich man? And someone will perhaps reply, Yes, yes, he is worth a hundred thousand pounds. Put the same question to a Rothschild with his millions, and he answers, No! he is a little man: he is not rich: he only owns a hundred thousand pounds; for these great bankers count their money by millions. Well, but what are these great Rothschilds with all their millions when they are reckoned up according to the wealth of heaven? The Lord alone is rich. God is so rich in mercy that you cannot tell how rich He is. His is overflowing riches, marvellous riches, exceeding riches. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God abounds in grace

An indigent philosopher at the court of Alexander sought relief at the hand of that sovereign, and received an order on his treasurer for any sum he should ask. He immediately demanded ten thousand pounds. The treasurer demurred to the extravagant amount; but Alexander replied, Let the money be instantly paid. I am delighted with this philosophers way of thinking: he has done me a singular honour. By the largeness of his request, he: shows the high opinion he has of my wealth and munificence. Even so they do most honour Gods grace who remember that it abounds towards us. Abounding grace:–Payson, when he lay on his bed dying, said, All my life Christ has seemed to me as a star afar off; but little by little He has been advancing and growing larger and larger, till now His beams seem to fill the whole hemisphere, and I am floating in the glory of God, wondering with unutterable wonder how such a mote as I should be glorified in His light. But he came to that after a long life. (H. W. Beecher.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 7. In whom we have redemption] God has glorified his grace by giving us redemption by the blood of his Son, and this redemption consists in forgiving and delivering us from our sins; so then Christ’s blood was the redemption price paid down for our salvation: and this was according to the riches of his grace; as his grace is rich or abundant in benevolence, so it was manifested in beneficence to mankind, in their redemption by the sacrifice of Christ, the measure of redeeming grace being the measure of God’s own eternal goodness.

It may not be useless to remark that, instead of , his grace, the Codex Alexandrinus and the Coptic version have , his goodness.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

In whom; in Christ, God-man, the immediate worker of this redemption; for though the Father and the Spirit concurred to it, yet the redeeming work was peculiarly terminated in the Second Person. The other two Persons have a right of propriety to redeem us; Christ only a right of propinquity, as assuming our nature, and being of kin to us.

We; we elect, before mentioned.

Have redemption; freedom from the wrath of God, and curse of the law, to which we are obnoxious, and consequently the power of sin and tyranny of Satan, as the effects of the former.

Through his blood; i.e. by the sacrifice of his death upon the cross, where his blood was shed. This was the price of redemption paid to God for us, and wherewith his justice being satisfied, we could no longer be detained under the custody of the devil, or the dominion of sin.

Even the forgiveness of sins; redemption is not formally forgiveness, but causally, forgiveness being the effect of it; and it is mentioned not as the only or adequate, but the prime and principal fruit of redemption, and upon which the other depend.

According to the riches of his grace: what he called glorious grace, Eph 1:6, here he calls riches of grace, meaning plentiful and superabundant grace, by a phrase frequently used by him elsewhere in the same sense, Rom 9:23; 2:4,7.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

7. In whom“the Beloved”(Eph 1:6; Rom 3:24).

we haveas a presentpossession.

redemptionGreek,“our (literally, ‘the‘) redemption”; THEredemption which is the grand subject of all revelation, andespecially of the New Testament (Ro3:24), namely, from the power, guilt, and penal consequences ofsin (Mt 1:21). If a man wereunable to redeem himself from being a bond-servant, his kinsman mightredeem him (Le 25:48). Hence,antitypically the Son of God became the Son of man, that as ourkinsman He might redeem us (Mt20:28). Another “redemption” follows, namely, that “ofthe purchased possession” hereafter (Eph1:14).

through his blood (Eph2:13); as the instrument; the propitiation, that is, theconsideration (devised by His own love) for which He, who was justlyangry (Isa 12:1), becomespropitious to us; the expiation, the price paid to divine justice forour sin (Act 20:28; Rom 3:25;1Co 6:20; Col 1:20;1Pe 1:18; 1Pe 1:19).

the forgiveness ofsinsGreek, “the remission of ourtransgressions“: not merely “pretermission,“as the Greek (Ro 3:25)ought to be translated. This “remission,” being theexplanation of “redemption,” includes not only deliverancefrom sin’s penalty, but from its pollution and enslaving power,negatively; and the reconciliation of an offended God, and asatisfaction unto a just God, positively.

riches of his grace(Eph 2:7); “the exceedingriches of His grace.” Compare Eph 1:18;Eph 3:16, “according to theriches of His glory”: so that “grace” is His “glory.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

In whom we have redemption through his blood,…. Redemption supposes captivity and slavery, and is a deliverance out of it; God’s elect by nature are in bondage to sin, Satan, and the law; through the grace of Christ, they are redeemed from all iniquity; ransomed out of the hands of him that is stronger than they; and are freed from the law, its bondage, curse, and condemnation, and from every other enemy: and this benefit Christ is the author of; he was called to be the Redeemer of his people from all eternity; and he was sent in the fulness of time, to procure the redemption of them; to which he had a right, being their near kinsman; and for which he was every way fit, being God as well as man; and which he has obtained by his obedience, sufferings, and death: and in whom it resides, as in its proper subject and author; who, by imputation, is made redemption to all the chosen ones; for not angels, but men, share in this redemption; and not all men, but elect men; such as are chosen in Christ, predestinated to the adoption of children by him, and who are accepted in the beloved: and this comes to them through the blood of Christ, which was freely shed on the cross to procure it; and was a sufficient ransom, or redemption price; it being not only the same blood with those who are redeemed, but the blood of an innocent person; and not of a mere man, but of one who is truly and properly God, as well as man; see more of this [See comments on Col 1:14]. A branch of this redemption follows, or a blessing that comes by it, and along with it,

the forgiveness of sins; of all sins, original and actual, past, present, and to come; and this is through the blood of Christ, which was shed for the same: and yet is

according to the riches of his grace; for God of his rich grace found the ransom price, and gave his Son, as well as he gave himself, his life, a ransom for many; and how much soever it cost Christ to procure redemption and pardon, they are free to his people; who are redeemed without money and price of theirs, and whose sins are forgiven freely for Christ’s sake.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

In whom ( ). Just like Col 1:14 with (trespasses) in place of (sins) and with the addition of (through his blood) as in Col 1:20. Clearly Paul makes the blood of Christ the cost of redemption, the ransom money (, Matt 20:28; Mark 10:45; , 1Ti 2:6). See Col 1:9.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

We have. Or are having. The freely bestowed (ver. 6) is thus illustrated by experience. The divine purpose is being accomplished in the lives of believers.

Redemption [ ] . See on Rom 3:24. Note the article : our redemption.

Through His blood. Further defining and explaining in whom.

Forgiveness [] . See on Luk 3:3; Jas 5:15; Rom 3:25. Forgiveness specifies the peculiar quality of redemption.

Sins [] . Rev., better, trespasses. See on Mt 6:14. Riches. See on glory, ver. 6, and Rom 2:4.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “In whom we have redemption” (en ho echomen ten apolutrosin) “In whom we have the redemption.

Redemption, repossession, recovery from the market place, slave-block of sin, is both in and through Jesus Christ, never said to be in or through a) self- righteousness, Isa 64:6-7; b) reformation, c) good works, d) baptism, or e) church membership.

2) “Through his blood” (dia tou haimatos autou) “Through”, or by means, instrument, or agency of the blood of Him,” Jesus Christ Salvation is affirmed to be “By faith in His blood,” never by faith in baptism, church membership, etc., Rom 3:24-25, One never reaches the benefits (redemption of Christ) of His blood by baptism or by faith in baptism, but through trust or faith in His blood, Rev 5:9. Even the redeemed in heaven sing this way.

3) “The forgiveness of sins” (ten aphesin ton paraptomaton) “The forgiveness or bearing away of our trespass penalty for breaking divine law.” If redemption and the forgiveness of sins are borne away, carried from one, “by or through faith in His blood,” (and it is!) there remains no sin for baptism to remit or wash away, except symbolically to declare that one baptized had already been cleansed through faith in the blood of Jesus, 1Jn 1:7.

4) “According to the riches of his grace” (kata to ploutos tes charitos; autou) “According to or based upon the plutocracy (unlimited, invaluable riches) of his grace, or unmerited favors.” Eph 1:3 certified that these favors, blessings have been made available by Almighty God, who is to be eulogized, blessed, praised or glorified for all that He offered to all men from eternity in and through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, to the praise of His glory, through the church, Eph 3:20-21.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

7. In whom we have redemption. The apostle is still illustrating the material cause, — the manner in which we are reconciled to God through Christ. By his death he has restored us to favor with the Father; and therefore we ought always to direct our minds to the blood of Christ, as the means by which we obtain divine grace. After mentioning that, through the blood of Christ, we obtain redemption, he immediately styles it the forgiveness of sins, — to intimate that we are redeemed, because our sins are not imputed to us. Hence it follows, that we obtain by free grace that righteousness by which we are accepted of God, and freed from the chains of the devil and of death. The close connection which is here preserved, between our redemption itself and the manner in which it is obtained, deserves our notice; for, so long as we remain exposed to the judgment of God, we are bound by miserable chains, and therefore our exemption from guilt, becomes an invaluable freedom.

According to the riches of his grace. He now returns to the efficient cause, — the largeness of the divine kindness, which has given Christ to us as our Redeemer. Riches, and the corresponding word overflow, in the following verse, are intended to give us large views of divine grace. The apostle feels himself unable to celebrate, in a proper manner, the goodness of God, and desires that the contemplation of it would occupy the minds of men till they are entirely lost in admiration. How desirable is it that men were deeply impressed with “the riches of that grace” which is here commended! No place would any longer be found for pretended satisfactions, or for those trifles by which the world vainly imagines that it can redeem itself; as if the blood of Christ, when unsupported by additional aid, had lost all its efficacy. (112)

(112) “ Comme si le sang de Christ sechoit et perdoit sa vigueur.” “As if the blood of Christ were dried up, and lost its force.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

REDEMPTION BY THE BLOOD

Eph 1:7-8

ONE cannot read this Epistle to the Ephesians without being impressed by the fact that the Apostle Paul has introduced into this Epistle a unique style, or custom, namely, that of setting forth some sweet and essential doctrine, and then closing His statement with a doxology such as praise to the glory of His grace, or praise to His glory. And, if at some time you will read the Epistle to the Ephesians at a single sitting, you will see better occasions for these outbursts of praise from the Apostle than any cursory reading would ever bring.

The first of these doxologies occurs in the sixth verse, and is a signal for a new start upon another phase of the great subject of this Epistle, and that phase is redemption.

Three things only will I attempt in the few minutes allotted to this talk.

The first is the clear statement of the text; the second comes of its interpretation in the light of other Scripture, while the third lesson to be learned is the one without which the other two are in vain.

REDEMPTION IS PURCHASED BY THE BLOOD

That is the statement of the text, In whom we have redemption through His Blood. I have employed the word purchase, because every student of Scripture understands that the Blood of Jesus is the price paid for our redemption.

In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, 6th chapter, 20th verse, Paul says, For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods (1Co 6:20). And again, in 1Co 7:23, Ye are bought with a price: be not ye the servants of men. And the context is in evidence that the price paid was the precious Blood of Jesus. That is why we sing,

Christ has for sin atonement made,What a wonderful Saviour!We are redeemed, the price is paid,What a wonderful Saviour!

Ill praise Him for the cleansing Blood,What a wonderful Saviour!That reconciled my soul to God,What a wonderful Saviour!

What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus, my Jesus!What a wonderful Saviour is Jesus my Lord!

The purchase price was precious. In 1Pe 1:18-19 we read, Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, * * but with the precious Blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

You will remember that in the Book of Acts, Act 20:28, Paul says to the elders of the Church at Ephesus, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own Blood. And in his Epistle to the Heb 9:12, the same Apostle writes, 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. The most precious thing in Heavens possessionthe life of the Son of Godwas laid on the altar of redemption.

God paid all the price

I hear the Saviour say,Thy strength indeed is small,Child of weakness, watch and pray,Find in Me thine all in all.

Jesus paid it all,All to Him I owe;Sin had left a crimson stain,He washed it white as snow.

Lord, now indeed I findThy power, and Thine alone,Can change the lepers spots,And melt the heart of stone.

For nothing good have IWhereby Thy grace to claimIll wash my garment white In the Blood of Calvarys Lamb.

Jesus paid it all,All to Him I owe;Sin had left a crimson stain,He washed it white as snow.

Mr. Spurgeon says, I had the pleasure of visiting the Leonine City in Rome a short time after the Italian troops had taken possession, and I noticed that every house had marked up most conspicuously the arms of the Kingdoms of Italy and the name of Victor Emanuel. They were not content to have it over their doors, but all over the fronts of the houses you read Victor Emanuel, King of Italy, showing that they were right glad to escape from the dominion of the pope, and to avow their allegiance to a constitutional king. Surely, if for a human monarch, and earthly freedom which he brought, man would thus set up his escutcheon everywhere, you and I who believe in Jesus are bound to exhibit the Blood-red token, and to keep it always conspicuous. Let others believe the priest, we believe Jesus. Let others trust their works, we trust the shed Blood. Let others rely on frames and feelings, discipline and development, we believe in Jesus Christ, and Him only; and we are to nail to the mast the Blood-red banner of atoning sacrifice.

My faith is built on nothing less,Than Jesus Blood and righteousness.I dare not trust the sweetest frame But wholly lean on Jesus Name.On Christ the solid rock I stand All other ground is sinking sand.

REDEMPTION IS PROFERRED TO ALL

It is rare that I find myself disposed to dissent from anything Mr. Spurgeon says, but he has a printed sermon in which he discusses the subject of redemption, saying, There is one class of men who believe in what is called general redemption, affirming it to be an undoubted truth that Jesus Christ has shed His Blood for every man, and that the intention of Christ in His death was the salvation of all men, and then he goes on to combat that idea, and to set forth the doctrine of particular redemption in which view I hold he was wrong, and for the following reasons:

First,God is no respecter of persons. In II Samuel we read, Neither doth God respect any person (2Sa 14:14), And in Act 10:34, touching the conversion of Cornelius, Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him. The simple reason is that God does not see men as men see one another, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart, and He knows what is in man, recognizes always his immortal part, and in consequence his immortal worth.

One of the grievous sins of the hour is in this respect of persons, this bowing down before people that are in high station, and fine feathers, without any reference to whether they have much character; this despising of people who are in humble station and in mean clothing, een though they have excellent character; it is not of God.

A mans a man for a that! Robert Burns had a better conception at this point than many a professed Christian. He was once taken to task by a young English blood, with whom he was walking, for recognizing an honest farmer in the open street, when Burns exclaimed, Why you fantastic gomeral, it was not the great coat, the schone bonnet, and the saunders boat-hose that I spoke to, but the man that was in them; and that man, sir, for truth and worth, would weigh down you and me and ten more such any day.

God was no respecter of persons, and so I believe that when He wrought redemption, He wrought it for every man, for God is love.

Surely the shed Blood was sufficient for every man, for we read in Rom 5:17-18,

If by one mans offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

Therefore as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

Martin Luther says the devil once appeared unto him with a long scroll, upon which he had written the catalogue of his sins. At first Luther was affrightened, but suddenly remembering, he said, Ah, Satan, you have told the truth, but not the whole truth. Attach this sentence to what you have written, The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.

You will remember that in the Book of Revelation the Apostle says, I heard a loud voice saying in Heaven, Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night, And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb (Rev 12:10-11).

My third reason for saying that redemption is proffered to all is that the Scriptures speak to all. In Joh 1:29 the Word is, Next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, and in Johns First Epistle 1Jn 2:2 we read, And He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, hence I say redemption is proffered to all.

REDEMPTION IS ONLY TO BE APPROPRIATED

It is already perfected according to our text,

To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved;

In whom we have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins.

And to the Colossians Paul wrote the same thing,

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son,

In whom we have redemption through His Blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:12-14).

Those who put this redemption aside must perish.

In Heb 10:28-29 the Scriptures say,

He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:

Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the Blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing; and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

It was the Blood of Jesus Christ that paid the price of our souls, and that Blood alone that can wash away the pollution of them.

If He were any other than the Son of God, this would not be so. As Dr. Talmage says, The blood of Paul that soaked the dust of the guillotine; the blood of Hugh Lattimer, that consumed in the fire; the blood of the high-souled martyrs that reddened the mouths of the lions in the Coliseum, have just as much worth to your soul as the Blood of Christ unless you take this last as expiatory, and feel the truth that the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sins.

But those that possess this redemption are safe. It is purchased by the Blood. It is perfected by the work of Jesus Christ. It is proffered to all, but it is only valuable to them that appropriate it. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, for they have appropriated His redemption. They are secure in His salvation.

Dr. Torrey, in his little book, How to Obtain the Fullness of Power, tells the story of an old woman who lay dying. Her rector heard of it and called upon her. They tell me, he said, that you are dying. Yes, she replied. And have you made your peace with God? No, came the answer. Then are you not afraid to meet God? No. The minister was excited and said, Woman, do you realize that you have but a short time to live, and that you will soon meet a holy God? Yes, I realize it perfectly. And you are not afraid? No, not at all. And you have not made your peace with God? What do you mean woman? exclaimed the minister. There was radiance in every feature as she answered, I did not make my peace, because I did not need to. Christ made peace more than 1800 years ago by the Blood of His Cross, and I have accepted the peace He made and am simply resting in that.

No wonder Dr. Torrey says, Oh, blessed is the one who has learned to rest in the peace Christ made, who counts his sins forgiven because Christs Blood was shed, and Christ says so. We have redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of sins according to His grace, and every saved soul has a right to join this morning in the song, once rejected, but now printed in every standard hymnal,

There is a fountain filled with blood,Drawn from Immanuels veins;And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day;And there have I, as vile as he,Washed all my sins away.

Thou dying Lamb, Thy precious Blood Shall never lose its power,Till all the ransomed Church of God Be saved to sin no more.

Eer since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme,And shall be till I die.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

(7) In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.This passage is identical in sense and expression with Col. 1:14, except that the word here used for sins means, properly, separate acts of transgression, while the word there is the more general word for sin in the abstract. (In Eph. 2:1, both are used.) In both passages we have united, as correspondent to each other, the two expressions under which our Lord Himself describes His atonementin Mat. 20:28, as the giving His life a ransom for many, in Mat. 26:28, as the shedding of His blood for the forgiveness of sins. These two expressions appear to be complementary to each other, rather than identical. (1) The primary idea in redemption is deliverance from a bondage, mostly the bondage of sin itself (see Rom. 8:23; Tit. 2:14; Heb. 9:15; 1Pe. 1:18-21); occasionally (and in this sense with a different Greek word), the bondage under sentence of punishment for sin (Gal. 3:13; Gal. 4:5). Into that bondage man has plunged himself; Gods mercy redeems him from it at an unspeakable price (Joh. 3:16; Rom. 7:24-25). (2) The primary idea in the forgiveness of sins through His blood is propitiation, that is, the offering to God a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for sin, by One who is the Head and Representative of the human race (Rom. 3:25; 1Jn. 2:2; 1Jn. 4:10). So St. Paul interprets our Lords words by the declaration that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us (1Co. 5:7); and it is notable that exactly in His words is the Atonement designated in the earliest apostolic preaching (Act. 2:38; Act. 5:31; Act. 10:43; Act. 13:38; Act. 26:18). Hence the former phrase looks at the Atonement from the side of God, the latter from the side of man; both being wrought by Him who is Son of God and Son of Man at once. Together they represent the whole truth.

According to the riches of his grace.As above, in relation to praise, stress is laid on the gloriousness of Gods grace, so here, in relation to enjoyment of it, on its overflowing richness. (See Eph. 2:7; Eph. 3:8; Eph. 3:16; and Rom. 3:24; Rom. 9:23.)

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

7. In whom Having mentioned Christ under the endearing title of the Beloved, that blessed name becomes the hinge upon which Eph 1:7-10 turn, being a climax of blessedness culminating in the final restitution of Eph 1:10. The successive steps of the climax are, redemption, forgiveness, grace, revelation, beneficence, universal restitution.

Redemption Release from a bondage to sin and death for a ransom price.

Through his blood The price of the ransom.

Forgiveness The immediate shape which the redemption takes.

Riches Parallel to glory in Eph 1:6: glory accruing to God, riches flowing down upon man.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘In whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. According to the riches of His grace which he made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence.’

And it has all been made possible by His redeeming work and resulting forgiveness. He has stepped in, borne the punishment for our sin, paid the price for our deliverance, and pours out His forgiveness on us. (This latter is in response to repentance and faith (Eph 1:13), but in this catalogue of God’s gracious working only God’s side is being described. For all is His effective working).

‘Redemption through His blood.’ Now we come down to the means by which this was carried out. It was carried out by the Redeemer, Who redeemed us with His own precious blood (1Pe 1:18-19). He gave Himself a ransom for all (1Ti 2:6). He bought us ‘with a price’ (1Co 6:20; 1Co 7:23). In these verses in 1 Corinthians there may be a deliberate contrast with Isaiah where His people were redeemed ‘without money’ (Isa 52:3 compare Isa 55:1). It was not, however, without cost, indeed the cost was the greatest that could be. He ‘gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity’ (Tit 2:14).

Redemption always results from special costly effort or the payment of a ransom. In this case Christ has done both. He has given Himself as a ransom instead of us (Mar 10:45; 1Ti 2:6), redeeming us through His blood (Eph 1:7; Col 1:14; Heb 9:12; Heb 9:15; 1Pe 1:18-19), and He has exercised His power at great cost in defeating the forces that are against us, triumphing over them in the cross (Col 2:15) and bearing our sin as a sacrifice for sin. He has taken what is on record against us and has nailed it to His cross, like a list of debts that have been crossed out as evidence that they have been paid, with ‘it is finished’ written across them. Indeed He has blotted out the Law (the handwriting of ordinances) which condemned us (Col 2:14). The stress in redemption is on the price that had to be paid and the power that was involved and the deliverance that was accomplished.

‘The forgiveness of our trespasses.’ The word for forgiveness here is ’aphesis which means ‘cancellation’ and is used to mean the cancellation of the guilt of sin. It is common in the New Testament, see Mat 26:28; Mar 1:4; Luk 1:77; Luk 3:3; Luk 24:47; Act 2:38; Act 5:31; Act 10:43; Act 13:38 (by Paul); Act 26:18 (by Paul); Heb 9:22; Heb 10:18. But it is rarely used by Paul in his epistles (only here, in Col 1:14, a parallel passage and in a quotation in Rom 4:7) who tends to think more in terms of ‘reckoning righteous’. Elsewhere he speaks of ‘pardon’ (charizomai) for sin (Col 2:13) and the ‘passing over’ of sin in the light of Christ’s future redemptive work (Rom 3:25). Thus its use here together with ‘trespasses’, ‘deviations from what is right’ (paraptoma), suggests that the main thought is of the cancelling of our particular failures to do what is right, restoring our personal relationship with God, and removing all that was against us. Usually it is used with ‘sins’ (hamartia), a more general word for sin. For such forgiveness see Psa 51:1; Psa 51:9; Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22. See also Jas 5:15; 1Jn 1:9; 1Jn 2:12.

‘According to the riches of His grace.’ Again Paul emphasises that it is the richness of the grace of God that has brought about this redemption and forgiveness, and that it is full and complete in accordance with those riches. There is no stinting in His forgiveness. It is rich and overflowing. Redemption involves our deliverance, forgiveness involves the restoration of our relationship with God and the putting right of the heart in its relationship with God, although the distinctions must not be over-pressed for they are all closely entwined.

‘Which He made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence.’ Some may have felt that God’s goodness to such sinners as we are is misplaced. But Paul assures us that God’s actions reveal the wisdom and prudence of God. He does nothing rashly. His actions have been carefully considered by the eternal will, and therefore are effective in the bringing about of His final purposes, and His wisdom is revealed in what will be accomplished. For what will result will prove once and for all His great glory.

Notice again the stress on the abounding nature of what He does for us and of what He offers to us. God withholds nothing from those who are His own. We may feel jaded and under attack by sin, and that God is not near, but if we are His through faith, all His grace and love is abounding towards us at every moment, and especially so in times of chastening.

Some see the ‘wisdom and prudence’ as that given by God to His own (Col 1:9), given along with His other spiritual blessings. But later (Col 1:11) we are told that God works everything ‘after the counsel of His own will’, which ties in with it being His wisdom and prudence here.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Justification: The Son Redeemed the Church Eph 1:7-12 tells us how the Son redeemed the Church in order to work all things after the counsel of God’s divine will through justification. These verses place emphasis upon the role that God the Father ordained for Jesus Christ the Son in Hiss eternal plan of redemption for mankind. This passage tells us that the shed blood of Jesus Christ will allow the Father to bring all things back into His perfect union, and that forgiveness granted by the blood of Jesus was effective because of the mercy of the Father. It is by the Father’s design that all things will be brought into union in Christ Jesus.

Comparison of Similar Passages on the Role of Jesus Christ in the Redemption of Mankind – Other passages in the New Testament reveal different aspects of Jesus’ role in redemption. For example, the Gospel of Matthew reveals Jesus Christ as the Messiah whose earthly ministry fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. The Gospel of Mark reveals Jesus Christ as a miracle worker. The Gospel of Luke reveals Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world. John’s Gospel reveals Him as the Eternal Son of God who proceeded from the Father. John’s first epistle again emphasizes Jesus’ role as the Son of God in whom we have fellowship as Jesus has fellowship with the Father. This was because John the apostle was combating a false doctrine denying His deity. The book of Hebrews discusses Jesus’ role as the Great High Priest in order to help us persevere. The epistle of Galatians tells us of His role in justifying the believer and delivering him from the bondages of this world. To the Colossians, Jesus Christ was the Head of the Church. For Joshua, He was the Captain of the Lord of Hosts who led Joshua into battle. To Job, Jesus was a “daysman,” or One who stood in the gap between God and man. To David, He was the Everlasting Seed of the royal Davidic lineage, the King of Kings. Isaiah saw the Messiah as the Suffering Servant in order to prophesy of His Crucifixion. However, in the epistle to the Ephesians, Jesus Christ is the One who shed His blood in order to obtain eternal redemption for mankind and to bring all creation back into divine unity.

The Son Redeemed the Church (In whom) The phrase “in whom” is used three times in Eph 1:7-12. In Jesus Christ we have:

1. redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7)

2. an inheritance (Eph 1:11)

3. we were sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise (Eph 1:13)

Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Eph 1:7 “In whom” – Comments The antecedent of “in whom” is found in the previous word in the Greek text, which is the “Beloved,” that is, Jesus Christ.

“we have redemption through his blood” Comments – The Greek word “redemption” comes from the verb meaning, “to redeem, liberate by payment of ransom” ( Thayer).

The price of our redemption is the blood of Jesus Christ. We were released from bondage to sin and from God’s eternal judgment. Jesus paid the price of our sins (transgressions) with His blood (Col 1:14, Heb 9:15).

Col 1:14, “In whom we have redemption through his blood , even the forgiveness of sins:”

Heb 9:15, “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”

We have been redeemed from sin and all forms of death that sin brings. Worry, anxiety, fear, strife, bitterness, resentment, sickness and disease are all manifestations of the process of death. They are produced in our lives as a result of sin dwelling in us.

Why did it take the precious blood of Jesus Christ to redeem us from our sins? Because the life of a soul is in the blood, and life is the only antidote for death. Just as when a person is bitten by a venomous snake and there is only one antidote to cure that species of snake bite, so there was only one blood that could redeem us from our sins, and that was the spotless blood of the Lamb of God. No other blood would have worked to redeem us.

Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

Eph 1:9 Comments – There are a number of mysteries mentioned by Paul in his New Testament epistles regarding our salvation that are not clearly understood; there is the mystery of Christ and His relationship to the Church (Eph 5:32), of His indwelling presence in every believer (Col 1:27), of the resurrection of the saints (1Co 15:51), and of the incarnation of Jesus Christ (1Ti 3:16).

Eph 5:32, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

Col 1:27, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:”

1Co 15:51, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,”

1Ti 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.”

The classical writers reveal that the concept of sacred mysteries being utters as divine oracles was practiced in the ancient world. Regarding the use of oracles, the ancient Greeks regarded divine oracles as a form of worship until the time of the Persian war (490-479 B.C.). [85] The temple of Apollo located at Delphi was famous in the ancient world for delivering oracles to men by those in a trance, or they interpreted dreams or patterns in nature. [86] The Greek historians Herodotus (484-425 B.C.) [87] and Plutarch (A.D. 46-100) [88] mention this place of oracles in their writings. While the Romans as a nation did not regard oracles as a religious practice, this custom continued within the Empire, but not without the contempt of the Romans. [89] This practice was later outlawed under the Roman emperor Theodosius (A.D. 379-385). [90] King Saul’s visit to the witch of Endor shows its popularity among ancient eastern cultures (1Sa 28:7-25). The damsel who prophesied over Paul and Barnabas in Philippi is an example of the proliferation of divination in the New Testament times (Act 16:16-24). The Sibylline Oracles, [91] a collection of Greek oracles compiled by Jews and Christians in the early centuries before and after Christ, reflect the widespread popularity that the Sibyl prophetesses held in ancient Greek and Roman history. Regarding the concept of “mysteries” ( ) revealed through oracles, Plutarch, writing about the Pythian priestesses who prophesied at Delphi, speaks of “interpreters of the sacred mysteries.” [92] Thus, when Paul refers to the mysteries hidden from the ages being revealed to the Church (Rom 16:25, 1Co 2:7, Eph 1:9; Eph 3:3-4; Eph 3:9; Eph 6:19, Col 1:26; Col 2:2; Col 4:3, 1Ti 3:9), or when Luke, Paul, and Peter speak of the “oracles” ( ) (G3051) of God (Act 7:38, Rom 3:2, Heb 5:12, 1Pe 4:11), they are speaking in a cultural language that the Greeks and Romans understood, where pagans frequently sought oracles through divine utterance at the temples to reveal hidden mysteries for their lives.

[85] C. H. Prichard, “Oracle,” in A Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 3, ed. James Hastings (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901), 629.

[86] R. F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), “Oracle.”

[87] Herodotus writes, “and he [Dorieus] asked the Spartans for a company of folks, whom he took away as colonists; he neither enquired of the oracle at Delphi in what land he should plant his settlement, nor did aught else that was customary” ( Histories 5.42) See Herodotus III, trans. A. D. Godley, in The Loeb Classical Library, eds. T. E. Page, E. Capps, and W. H. D. Rouse (London: William Heinemann, 1938), 46-47.

[88] Plutarch tells us that the Sibylline prophetesses of Delphi used poetic verses with their prophecies, saying, “for when we drew near that part of the rock which joins to the senate-house, which by common fame was the seat of the first Sibyl that came to Delphi from Helicon, where she was bred by eh MusesSerapio made mention of certain verses of hers, wherein she had extolled herself as one that should never cease to prophesy even after her death” ( Wherefore the Pythian Priestess Now Ceases to Deliver Her Oracles in Eph 1:9) He later writes, “but I am constrained to claim your first promise, to tell me the reason wherefore now the Pythian prophetess no longer delivers her oracles in poetic numbers and measuresand also the temple of Tellus, to which the oracle appertained, and where the answers were delivered in verses and song.” ( Wherefore the Pythian Priestess Now Ceases to Deliver Her Oracles in Eph 1:17) See William W. Goodwin, Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1911), 77, 86-87.

[89] The Roman poet Lucan (A.D. 39-65) reflects the contempt for such oracles by the Romans when he writes, “They had now come to the Temple, the only one which among the Libyan nations the uncivilized Garamantes possess. There stands Jupiter, the foreteller of destiny, as they relate; but not either brandishing the lightnings or like to ours, but Ammon with crooked horns.” ( Pharsalia 9.593-598) See H. T. Riley, The Pharsalia of Lucan (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853), 359.

[90] C. H. Prichard, “Oracle,” In A Dictionary of the Bible, ed. James Hastings (), 629.

[91] The Sibylline Oracles, translated by H. C. O. Lanchester, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English With Introductions and Critical and Explanatory Notes to the Several Books, vol. 2, ed. R. H. Charles (electronic edition), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004).

[92] Plutarch writes, “The interpreters of the sacred mysteries acted without any regard to us, who desired them to contract their relation into as few words as might be, and to pass by the most part of the inscriptions.” ( Wherefore the Pythian Priestess Now Ceases to Deliver Her Oracles in Eph 1:2) See William W. Goodwin, Plutarch’s Essays and Miscellanies, vol. 3 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1911), 70.

Rom 16:25, “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,”

1Co 2:7, “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:”

Eph 1:9, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:”

Eph 3:3-4, “How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)”

Eph 3:9, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”

Eph 6:19, “And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,”

Col 1:26, “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:”

Col 2:2, “That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;”

Col 4:3, “Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:”

1Ti 3:9, “Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.”

Act 7:38, “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:”

Rom 3:2, “Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.”

Heb 5:12, “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.”

1Pe 4:11, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

The reference to pillars and foundations of the Church in 1Ti 3:15 suggests that Paul had in mind the ancient Greek and Roman temples with their practice of divination, and that he compares this pagan scene of worship to the New Testament Church and the Holy Scriptures, which serve as its pillars and foundation.

Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

Eph 1:10 Comments – The gathering together of all things in heaven and in earth referred to in this verse sounds much like the rapture, when the Lord will gather together His saints both in heaven and those alive on the earth (1Th 4:16-17). The phrase “dispensation of the fullness of times” describes eternity, when there will be no longer a distinction between this mortal earth and Heaven. In eternity all of God’s children will be together in one place and partake of all things, those who are now in Heaven and those upon earth. Perhaps the Millennial Reign of Christ will provide a transitional period between mankind’s earthly life and eternity when Christ rules and reigns on earth with mortal man.

1Th 4:16-17, “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Eph 1:11 “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance” Scripture References – Note:

Mat 5:5, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth .”

Luk 10:25, “And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ?”

1Co 6:9, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,”

1Co 15:50, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.”

Gal 5:21, “Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God .”

Heb 6:12, ”That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises .”

1Pe 1:4, “ To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,”

1Pe 3:9, “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing .”

Rev 21:7, “ He that overcometh shall inherit all things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Eph 1:12 Comments – We were created for God’s glory (Isa 43:7). This is the reason God saved us.

Isa 43:7, “Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.”

Scripture References – Note similar verses:

Eph 1:6, “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”

Eph 1:14, “Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.”

Php 1:11, “Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Eph 1:7 . More precise elucidation, on the basis of experience ( ), of what had just been said, . .

] so that in Him our possession of the redemption has its ground. He it is, without whose person and work we should not have been redeemed; (Eph 2:12 ), no . Comp. Rom 3:24 . The relative has, as is often the case (see, generally, Stallbaum, ad Plat. Phil. p. 195 f.; Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 371), argumentative significance. Comp. here especially Eph 3:12 .

] the redemption , namely, from God’s wrath and penalties, which before our entrance into faith we had incurred through sin (Rom 1:18 ; Rom 3:23 ; Rom 5:5 ff; Rom 7:7 ff.; Eph 2:3 ; Eph 5:6 , al. ), as those who were under the dominion of the devil (Col 1:13 ; Act 26:18 ). The purchase-price (1Co 6:20 ; 1Co 7:23 ; Mat 20:28 ; Mar 10:45 ) through which Christ, in voluntary obedience towards God’s gracious counsel, accomplished this , was His blood, which He shed as an for the benefit of men (Rom 3:25 ; Rom 5:8-9 ; 2Co 5:21 ; Col 1:21 ; Col 2:13 f.). On , as the effect of the atoning death, in which case the blood of Christ is always conceived of as the purchase-price , see Rom 3:24 .

] by means of His blood , a more precise definition of the preceding . Paul might have written (Eph 2:13 ); but he in general prefers an interchange of prepositions (comp. 2Co 3:11 ; Rom 3:30 ; Gal 2:16 ; Phm 1:5 ), to which he was here specially led by his epexegetic purpose (comp. Eph 3:12 ; 1Th 3:7 ).

] apposition to , the essence of which is the forgiveness of sins obtained on account of the death of Christ. As to the distinction between (Rom 3:25 ) and (used by Paul also in Col 1:14 ), see on Rom 3:25 .

denotes always the actual individual sins (Eph 2:1 ff.; and see on Rom 5:20 ); hence Paul has not mentally included a forgiveness of inborn sinfulness (Olshausen).

] is not to be resolved into an adjective (“gratia liberalissima,” Koppe); but the riches , i.e. the great fulness (Codex 17 has ), of the divine grace is that, in consequence of which we have in Christ the redemption. It is to be noted that here, as well as in Eph 1:6 , the reference to the divine grace serves to wind up one element of the discourse, and (by ) to annex another. As to (Eph 2:7 , Eph 3:16 ), see on Rom 2:4 . We may add that Lachmann, Rckert, tischendorf have the form , following A B D * E (?) * min., to which also F G fall to be added with the transcriber’s error ; and rightly. See on 2Co 8:2 , Remark; and see Winer, p. 64 [E. T. 76].

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2093
THE WISDOM OF GOD IN REDEMPTION

Eph 1:7-8. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

IN no part of the inspired volume are the wonders of redemption more fully opened, than in the passage before us. The pardon of sin, adoption into Gods family, and a participation of eternal glory, are all distinctly specified as blessings which under the Gospel we enjoy: and all are traced to Christ as the procuring cause, and to the Father as the prime source, from the riches of whose grace they flow, and to the praise of whose glory they are all ordained But as the subject would be endless if we entered into it in this general view, we shall limit our observations to the words which we have just read, and notice from them,

I.

The substance of the Gospel

In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Here notice,

1.

What is implied in this declaration

[It is here supposed that we are in a state of bondage to sin and Satan, and under guilt and condemnation on account of sin. And this but too justly describes the condition of every child of man. We are in a state of bondage to sin and Satan And we are under guilt and condemnation on account of sin We cannot more truly mark the state of man, than by comparing it with that of the fallen angels. They fell; and for their sins were cast out of heaven, and consigned over to merited punishment in hell, where they are reserved in chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day. The difference between them and us is this: they are actually suffering the punishment of their sins; we are respited for a season: they are irremediably doomed to perdition; for us a remedy is provided, so that we may yet have redemption and forgiveness, if we seek it in Gods appointed way.

Labour, I pray you, to realize this idea in your minds: for it is only by apprehending justly your condition without the Gospel, that you can be prepared for a participation of its blessings.]

2.

What is expressed

[Redemption is provided for us, and forgiveness is offered to us, through our Lord Jesus Christ, and through the blood of his cross. The Lord Jesus Christ has, by his own obedience unto death, obtained eternal redemption for us, having suffered in his own person all that was due to our sins, and having so fulfilled the law in our stead, as to bring in an everlasting righteousness, whereby we may be justified. In Him are these blessings treasured up for us, and out of his fulness may be received by us. By believing in him, we become interested in all that he has done and suffered for us, and attain the actual possession of the blessings he has purchased for us
This is, in few words, the sum and substance of the Gospel; as St. John has plainly told us; This is the record, (the Gospel record,) that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son: he that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life [Note: 1Jn 5:11-12.].]

The point to which we would more particularly turn your attention, is,

II.

The character of the Gospel

It is a dispensation,

1.

Rich in grace

[All the glorious riches of Gods grace are here displayed. Consider the means by which this redemption is procured; even by the incarnation and death of Gods only-begotten Son Consider the persons for whom it is provided: not for angels, (they are left to reap for ever the bitter consequences of their sin;) but for men, who were an order of beings far inferior to them Consider how it is that any become interested in this redemption: it is in consequence of their having been from all eternity elected and predestinated to it by the sovereign and unmerited grace of God From first to last it is all of grace; and designed of God to exhibit to the whole universe, through all ages, the exceeding riches of his grace [Note: Eph 2:7.]. Let any one compare the state of the fallen angels in the lake of fire, and of the redeemed saints that are around the throne of God, and view the wonders of grace which have been wrought in favour of the redeemed; and then he will be able in some measure to comprehend the character of the Gospel, as a dispensation of grace.]

2.

Abundant in wisdom and prudence

[In order to render the salvation of man consistent with the perfections of the Deity, justice must be satisfied, and truth be kept inviolate, by the punishment of sin. But if sin be punished, how could the sinner be saved? This was a problem which not all the angels in heaven could solve. But God, by sending his own Son to be our substitute and surety, has removed the difficulty. Sin has been punished to the full in him: and the law, both in its penalties and requirements, has been fulfilled in him: so that mercy may flow down to us in perfect consistency both with law and justice; and God may be just, and yet the justifier of sinful man Indeed the law is the more magnified, in having executed its sentence against a person of such infinite dignity; and mercy is the more exalted, in being exercised at such a cost as the blood of Gods co-equal, co-eternal Son Here is indeed the wisdom of God in a mystery: and well may Christ be called in this view, The wisdom of God, and the power of God.]

Application
1.

Seek to appreciate this blessed Gospel

[We are grievously negligent in relation to this matter. Men will labour with indefatigable industry to comprehend the laws of nature; but are shamefully remiss in exploring the mysteries of grace, which are revealed to us in the Gospel Let your minds be intent on this subject, which can never be adequately comprehended, either by men or angels ]

2.

Labour to adorn it

[Let the character of the Gospel be exemplified in you. Is it full of grace? Be ye full of praise and thanksgiving; ever cleaving to him by whom your redemption has been wrought, and adoring him by whom the Saviour himself was sent into the world And is it full of wisdom? Do ye shew how harmoniously every grace may be exercised by you; and how perfectly all the attributes of the Deity, as far as they can be communicated to so frail a creature, may be transferred to, and illustrated by, his redeemed people ]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(7) In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

In this verse we now come to the subject of redemption. Redemption! A word, taken in all its vast dimensions, bigger than a thou sand such worlds as ours. Let us, however, proceed regularly into this mysterious subject. We have noticed, (though briefly,) in the former verses, the gracious personal acts of God the Father, in relation to the Church. Here we enter upon the gracious personal acts of God the Son, resulting, as this verse expresseth it, and as the former had done, from the riches of his grace. This is a precious point always to be kept in view. For, as it was said of the Father, his sovereign acts of grace flowed from the good pleasure, of his will; so the Son’s from the riches of his grace; and so the Holy Ghost’s, as we shall hereafter (when we come to that part of the subject) discover, from his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, Eph 1:9 .

I begin the subject contained in this verse, with observing, that when the Apostle, in reference to Christ, saith, that we have redemption in his blood, there is included in it the cause of this redemption, in the Church’s union with her LORD, as her Head and Husband. This is of course implied. Christ’s redemption of his Church presupposes his interest in his Church, and, of consequence, in all that belongs to her. It is a comprehensive way of speaking. Redemption includes everything, in relation to the Person, work, offices, and characters, in which the Son of God engaged, when assenting our nature, and when he came into this our world, in this time-state of the Church, and accomplished redemption by his blood and righteousness.

But though the vast subject of redemption compriseth everything that is blessed for the Church to meditate upon, night and day, during the whole of her present time-state upon earth, as it will call up her intellectual faculties, when full ripened hereafter in heaven, to dwell upon forever; yet, I must not in this place enter at large upon it. In several parts of this Poor Man’s Commentary, as the scriptures led to it, I have glanced at it, and, therefore, would there refer the Reader. See all the Gospels upon it. See also Rom 3:25 ; Gal 3:13 . and Commentary on both. A few of the outlines only can I here detain the Reader with.

And first. The Apostle speaks of this vast work of redemption, as a thing possessed. We have redemption. Yes! Christ on the cross declared it to be finished. Joh 19:30 . But for the matter itself, who shall speak its value? Its dimensions are infinite, for it reacheth through all time, and through all eternity. And the nature of it, as well as its duration and extension, is attended with such difficulty to explain, that unless we could determine the nature of sin, we can never determine the vastness of redemption. But, so infinitely important is it in itself, that without an interest in it, notwithstanding the Church being chosen in Christ, predestinated to the adoption of children in Christ, and accepted in Christ; yet, having forfeited all right to these blessings by the Adam-fall, and our whole nature, being thereby degraded and sunk, but for redemption we must have remained in the captivity of sin, and under the heavy penalty to the breaches of it, as well as also been totally unqualified to enjoy the privilege of children to all eternity. Oh! the unspeakable blessings included in redemption!

Secondly. The greatness of redemption is enhanced by the greatness of the Redeemer. We may in some measure form an idea, however imperfectly to what it really is, of the immensity of the blessings, by the immensity of his nature, who alone could accomplish it. God and man in one Person. In whom, (saith the Apostle,) we have redemption. How blessedly Scripture speaks of Christ in numberless places. For thy Maker is Mine Husband; the Lord of Hosts is his Name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, The God of the whole earth shall he be called ! Isa 54:5 . See also Isa 43:1-7 .

Thirdly. How redemption hath been wrought. Through his blood. Here again, all created wisdom is incompetent to enter into any adequate apprehension of the mysterious work. The Scriptures declare the fact itself. But no created powers, either angels or men; are able to conceive of it, with any clearness of knowledge. We are told, indeed, that the angels do not understand, but desire to look into. 1Pe 1:12 .

Fourthly. As the Person who alone could bring salvation, and the work he wrought in the accomplishment, exceed our utmost faculties to describe; so the effect baffles all conception also, to form equal ideas. We are told, that we have by it the forgiveness of all our sins; yea, in Him himself we have this vast mercy. But who shall calculate the greatness, or the number; the nature, or the quality of sins. It takes in, and includes our whole lives, past, present, and future. And, therefore, so infinitely extensive in its efficacy is redemption, from sin in all its consequences, that it reacheth through all time, and through all eternity. And so infinitely great in its power, that it cleanseth from all sin. 1Jn 1:7 .

And, fifthly, to sum up all, as if to silence forever all the pre tensions of the proud, and all the fears of the humble, the whole is said to be the sole result of the riches of his grace. So that grace, and the riches of that grace, provides the remedy, and grace accepts its own providing. And all, from beginning to end, is the sole effect of grace.

Some have stumbled at this account of the Holy Ghost, and in the pride of their unhumbled heart, have boldly questioned, how free grace can be, said to do all and yet Christ hath purchased this redemption of his people by his blood ? But such men have not been taught of GOD, and, therefore, err, because they know not the Scriptures, nor the power of God. Mat 22:29 . It was free grace to admit a Surety for the Church, when in the Adam-nature she had sinned, and come short of the glory of God. And it was not only free grace, but the riches of that grace, not only to admit a Surety, but to provide One and this God the Father did, when he gave his dear Son as the Head, Husband, and Surety of his Church. For Jesus was made a Surety. Heb 7:22 . Now the Lord Jehovah magnified the riches of his grace, in this very way and manner. He had chosen the Church in Christ, to be holy in Christ, to a sonship in Christ, and to an acceptation in Christ, and that from all eternity. But to magnify the riches of this grace the Church, during the time-state of her being, falls into sin, and forgets her adoption-character, and comes under the curse of a broken law. Here then opens a way for the fullest display of grace, in causing her recovery, and by such a plan of wisdom, love, and power, as enhanceth every blessing tenfold. Jesus shall redeem her by his blood. So that redemption is the effect of the original grace. And so far is it from militating against the freedom of that grace, that it, is in fact, one of the highest fruits of it. God’s children in Christ, when fallen in sin, shall be redeemed by Christ, and redemption, which is the biggest of all blessings, in the time-state of the Church, shall he found to be the result of the first, original, and eternal design of God, in his purposes towards the Church, from all eternity. And God the Holy Ghost elsewhere beautifully expresseth the precious truth, when he saith, we are justified freely by his grace; but he adds, it is through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Rom 3:24 . Redemption purchaseth not our sonship, for that was from all eternity. But redemption purchaseth our pardon, when as children we had sinned, and come short of God’s glory. Hence this, blessed Scripture declares the soul refreshing truth; In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Hence, also, the song of heaven. Rev 5:9 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Ver. 7. In whom we have redemption ] As captives ransomed at a price. What this price was, see1Pe 1:191Pe 1:19 . Should not Christ therefore reap the travails of his soul? Isa 53:11-12

The forgiveness of our sins ] This David counted his crown, and prized it above his imperial diadem,Psa 103:3-4Psa 103:3-4 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

7 .] Now the Apostle passes, with , to the consideration of the ground of the church in the SON (7 12): see the synopsis above. But the Father still continues the great subject of the whole; only the reference is now to the Son. In whom (see on . Eph 1:3 cf. Rom 3:24 ) We have (objective ‘ there is for us .’ But not without a subjective implied import, as spoken of those who truly have it have laid hold of it: “are ever needing and ever having it,” Eadie) the Redemption (from God’s wrath or rather from that which brought us under God’s wrath, the guilt and power of sin, Mat 1:21 . The article expresses notoriety ‘of which we all know,’ ‘of which the law testified, and the prophets spoke’) through (as the instrument: a further fixing of the ) His blood (which was the price paid for that redemption, Act 20:28 ; 1Co 6:20 ; both the ultimate climax of His obedience for us, Phi 2:8 , and, which is most in view here, the propitiation , in our nature, for the sin of the world, Rom 3:25 ; Col 1:20 . It is a noteworthy observation of Harless here, that the choice of the word, the BLOOD of Christ, is of itself a testimony to the idea of expiation having been in the writer’s mind. Not the death of the victim, but its BLOOD, was the typical instrument of expiation. And I may notice that in Phi 2:8 , where Christ’s obedience , not His atonement, is spoken of, there is no mention of His shedding His Blood, only of the act of His Death), the remission (not “ overlooking ” ( ); see note on Rom 3:25 ) of (our) transgressions (explanation of . : not to be limited, but extending to all riddance from the practice and consequences of our transgressions: at least equipollent with : so Thdrt., , . , . This against Harless), according to the riches (Ellic. compares Plato, Euthyphr. 12 A, ) of His grace (this alone would prevent applying to merely the forgiveness of sins. As Passavant (in Stier), “We have in this grace not only redemption from misery and wrath, not only forgiveness, but we find in it the liberty, the glory, the inheritance of the children of God, the crown of eternal life: cf. 2Co 8:9 ”),

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Eph 1:7 . : in whom we have the redemption . Here and in the parallel passage in Col 1:14 the readings vary between and . In the present sentence, though has the support of some good authorities ( [26] [27] , Copt., Eth., etc.), the weight of documentary evidence is largely on the side of ( [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38] , Vulg., Syr., Goth., etc.). What is in view, therefore, is something possessed now, and the writer describes that as “ the redemption,” i.e. , the redemption familiar to every Christian, long expected and now accomplished. This is viewed sometimes as a thing of the future (Luk 21:28 ; Rom 8:23 ; Eph 4:30 ; and probably also Eph 1:14 ; 1Co 1:30 ); sometimes as a present possession (as here; Rom 3:24 ; Col 1:14 ; Heb 9:15 ). That the here is a redemption not from the power or pollution of sin, but from its guilt, its condemnation, its penalty, is made plain by the defining clause which follows, identifying it with the forgiveness of sins. This is not the only aspect in which it is presented in the Pauline Epistles. The verb is applied there to a redemption from “all iniquity,” Tit 2:14 , as in 1Pe 1:18 it is used of a redemption from a “vain manner of life”. But it is the primary aspect of the word and its cognates, and the one that is at the foundation of the other. The noun is of rare occurrence, found only in a few passages in profane Greek (Plut., Pomp. , xxiv., 2; Joseph., Antiq. , xii., ii., 3; Diod., Frag. , lib. xxxvii., 5, 3 (Dindorf.); Philo, Quod omn. prob. lib. sit. , 17); and in the NT itself only ten times in all. The verb is not found in the NT at all; the simple , thrice (1Pe 1:18 ; Luk 24:21 ; Tit 2:14 ) and the noun thrice (Luk 1:68 ; Luk 2:38 ; Heb 9:12 ). The proper idea is that of a release, deliverance, or redemption effected by payment of a price or ransom ( ). It is argued indeed that this idea cannot be said to be the essential or primary idea of , because it is used in connections in which the notion of a payment is not in view (so Abbott); and that, therefore, we are not entitled to say that it means more than deliverance . It is true that, as is the case with most words, the definite, specific sense passes at times into the more general sense of “deliverance” (Heb 11:35 ; cf. Exo 6:6 ). But in profane Greek and in the LXX the primary sense of the verb. the noun, and their cognates is that of a redemption effected by payment of a price, or a release granted on receiving a price (Plut., Pomp. , 24; Plato, Leges , 11, p. 919( a ); Polyb., xxii., 21, 8; Exo 21:8 ; Zep 3:1 ); and in the Pauline Epistles it denotes the deliverance accomplished at the cost of Christ’s death from the Divine wrath and the penalty of sin. So it is understood, e.g. , by Origen, in loc. , Mey., Alf., Ell., etc.; and as the . . . shows that the “redemption” here in view is one in relation to the guilt or penalty of sin, so the shows that it is a redemption by payment of a price. This is consistent with Paul’s doctrine of the Divine wrath, redemption, propitiation, expiation, and the curse of the law (Rom 1:18 ; Rom 3:23 ; Rom 5:5 ff.; 1Co 6:20 ; Gal 4:4 ). It has its foundation also in Christ’s own declaration of the purpose of His coming, viz. , to give His life a (Mat 20:28 ; Mar 10:45 ). : through His blood . Christ’s “blood,” therefore, is that by which the redemption is effected the price ( , 1Co 6:20 ; 1Co 7:23 ) of the deliverance, the “ransom” that had to be paid for it (Mat 20:28 ; Mar 10:45 ). The same idea appears in the teaching both of Peter and of John (1Pe 1:18 ; Rev 5:9 ). The term occurs repeatedly in the NT, and in various forms (1Co 10:16 ), (1Co 11:27 ), (Rev 7:14 ; Rev 12:11 ), (Col 1:20 ). What is its import? It means more than the death of Christ. It means that death in a particular aspect as a sacrifice, a death having a definite efficacy. It is a sacrificial term, based on the use of the blood of victims, offered under the OT Law, for purposes of purification and expiation (Lev 17:11 ; Heb 9:7 ; Heb 9:12 ; Heb 9:18-22 ; Heb 9:25 ; Heb 10:4 ; Heb 11:28 ; Heb 13:11 ). It looks back also to Christ’s own words in the institution of the Supper (Mat 26:28 ; Mar 14:29 ), and denotes the ratification of a new relation between God and men by a new covenant sacrifice. It is used with reference to the purchase of the Church (Act 20:28 ; Rev 5:9 ), the grace of access to God (Heb 10:19 ), the admission of the Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews (Eph 2:13 ), the reconciliation of all things to God (Col 1:20 ); but also and most definitely to the changed condition of sinful men, and that most frequently on the objective side, as a new relation. As in the Levitical system there was a purificatory use of blood in the case of certain matters of uncleanness (Lev 14:5 ; Lev 14:50 ), so in the NT the “blood” of Christ is used with reference to the ethical power of Christ’s death in purifying or in overcoming (1Pe 1:19 ; 1Jn 1:7 ; Rev 12:11 ). But its special use is with reference to justification (Rev 5:9 ), the position of non-condemnation (Heb 12:24 ), the cleansing of the conscience (Heb 9:14 ), the making of peace between God and the world (Col 1:20 ), the manifestation of the righteousness of God in the passing over of sins (Rom 3:25 ), the remission of sins (Heb 9:22 ). Its primary idea, as is shown by usage and by OT analogy, is not that of renewing power or moral effect, but that of expiation, the removal of guilt, the restoration of broken relations with God. The important passage indeed in Lev 17:11 , which speaks of the “blood” as reserved by Jehovah for the altar, for the purpose of “covering” sin or making “atonement” for it, and declares that the atonement is made by the blood by reason of “the life of the flesh” that is in it, has been held by not a few (including Bhr and other distinguished scholars) to express only the idea of self-surrender. On this ground the piacular efficacy of the OT sacrifices, and, therefore, of the sacrifice of Christ, has been denied. But the “covering” of sin or making “atonement” for it by sacrifice, is in many passages of the OT definitely connected with the forgiveness of sin (Lev 4:26 ; Lev 5:18 , etc.); the passage in Lev 17:11 embodies the idea that “life” is the offering by which the transgressor “covers” his sin or finds forgiveness for it; and in passages like the present it is this kind of efficacy that is definitely ascribed to the “blood” of Christ.

[26] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[27] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[28] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[29] Corrections of introduced by a scribe of the seventh century.

[30] Corrections of introduced by a scribe of the seventh century.

[31] Codex Alexandrinus (sc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[32] A reading of Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852 introduced by correctors of the seventh centuries respectively.

[33] A reading of Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852 introduced by correctors of the seventh centuries respectively.

[34] Codex Sangermanensis (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., now at St. Petersburg, formerly belonging to the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prs. Its text is largely dependent upon that of D. The Latin version, e (a corrected copy of d), has been printed, but with incomplete accuracy, by Belsheim (18 5).

[35] Codex Augiensis (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

[36] Codex Boernerianus (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis ( ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.

[37] Codex Mosquensis (sc. ix.), edited by Matthi in 1782.

[38] Codex Angelicus (sc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

The attempt has been made to prove that this great phrase, “the blood of Christ,” covers two ideas which ought to be distinguished, namely, that of the blood as shed and that of the blood as offered , or death and life as two different conceptions. Thus the phrase in question is interpreted as setting forth Christ’s life in two distinct aspects, namely, as laid down in the act of dying and as liberated by the same act and made available for us, so that we are saved by having it communicated to us. So West., Epistle to the Hebrews , pp. 293 ff.; Epistles of St. John , pp. 34 ff. But neither in the present paragraph nor in any other Pauline passage is there anything to bear this out. Paul, indeed, speaks largely of the Christ who having died is now alive, and of what is effected for us by His life (Rom 5:8-11 ; Phi 3:10 , etc.). But what the Living Christ does for us in the forgiveness of sin, or in the subjugation of sin, is done as the power of what He did in dying for us. : the forgiveness of our trespasses . The term , while used occasionally in the general sense of release (Luk 4:18 ; cf. Isa 61:1 ), expresses statedly the idea of the letting go of sin ( , Mat 18:32 ; , , Mat 6:12 ; Mat 6:14 , etc.), its dismissal or pardon, in the sense of the remission of its penalty (Mat 26:28 ; Mar 1:4 ; Luk 1:77 ; Luk 3:3 ; Luk 24:47 ; Act 2:38 ; Act 5:31 ; Act 10:43 ; Act 13:38 , etc.), and as distinguished from , the praetermission or passing by of sin in simple forbearance (Rom 3:25 ). The term describes sin as lapse, misdeed, trespass (nearly equivalent to , transgression , and , evil deed , these differing not so much in their use as rather in the metaphors underlying them), as distinguished from , lawlessness or iniquity , , unrighteousness or wrong , and , which is applied not only to acts of sin, but to sin as a power , a habit , a condition ( cf. Trench, Syn. , lxvi.; Fritzsche, Rom. , i. 289; Light., Notes, ut sup. , on Rom 5:20 ). : according to the riches of His grace . The readings vary between (TR, following [39] 3 [40] 3 [41] [42] , etc.) and (LTTrWHRV, following [43] [44] 1 [45] [46] 1 , etc.). The masculine is the usual form, but the neuter is found in the best MSS. in several passages in the Pauline Epistles (2Co 8:2 ; Eph 1:7 ; Eph 2:7 ; Eph 3:8 ; Eph 3:16 ; Phi 4:19 ; Col 1:27 ; Col 2:2 ). Elsewhere in the NT the masculine prevails. Winer explains the exchange between the two forms as due to the popular language, as and are used indifferently in modern Greek (Winer-Moult., Gram. , p. 76). The great word , “grace,” which has been used twice already in these opening verses, touches the pulse of all Paul’s teaching on the redemption of sinful man. It has a large place in all his Epistles, and not least in this one. For here it meets us at every turning-point in the great statement of the Divine counsel, the securities of the forgiveness of sin, the way of salvation. While it has the occasional and subordinate senses of loveliness (Col 4:6 ), favour or good will , whether of God or of man (Luk 2:40 ; Luk 2:52 ; Act 2:47 ; Act 4:33 ; Act 7:10 , etc.), in the Pauline writings it has the particular sense of free gift, undeserved bounty , and is used specially of the goodness of God which bestows favour on those who have no claim or merit in themselves (Rom 3:24 ; Rom 5:17 ; Rom 5:20 ; 1Co 15:10 ; Gal 1:15 , etc., etc.), or of that free favour of God as a power which renews men and sustains them in the Christian life, aiding their efforts, keeping them from falling, securing their progress in holiness (2Co 4:15 ; 2Co 6:1 ; 2Th 1:12 , etc.). The freeness of this Divine favour in the form of grace, the unmerited nature of the Divine goodness, is what Paul most frequently magnifies with praise and wonder. Here it is the mighty measure of the largesse, the grace in its quality of riches , that is introduced. This magnificent conception of the wealth of the grace that is bestowed on us by God and that which is in Christ for us, is a peculiarly Pauline idea. It meets us, indeed, elsewhere ( cf. the plenteous redemption of the Psalmist, Psa 130:7 ; the multitude of the Divine mercies, Psa 69:13 ; Psa 69:16 , and loving kindnesses, Psa 63:7 ; the fulness of Christ, Joh 1:16 ; Col 1:19 , etc.); but nowhere so frequently or with such insistence as with Paul. Cf. the riches of God’s goodness (Rom 2:4 ), His glory (Rom 9:23 ), His wisdom (Rom 11:33 ), His mercy (Eph 2:4 ), the glory of His inheritance (Eph 1:18 ), the glory of the mystery (Col 1:27 ); also the exceeding riches of His grace (Eph 2:7 ), his riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Phi 4:19 ), the riches of the pre-incarnate Christ (2Co 8:9 ), the riches of Christ the Lord (Rom 10:12 ), the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph 3:8 ). That our redemption cost so great a price, the blood of Christ, is the supreme evidence of the riches of the Divine grace. And the measure of what God does for us is nothing less than the limitless wealth of His loving favour.

[39] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[40] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[41] Codex Mosquensis (sc. ix.), edited by Matthi in 1782.

[42] Codex Angelicus (sc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[43] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[44] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[45] Codex Alexandrinus (sc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[46] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

EPHESIANS

ACCORDING TO’-II.

Eph 1:7 .

We have seen, in a previous sermon, that a characteristic note of this letter is the frequent occurrence of that phrase ‘according to.’ I also then pointed out that it was employed in two different directions. One class of passages, with which I then tried to deal, used it to compare the divine purpose in our salvation with the historical process of the salvation. The type of that class of reference is found in a verse just before my text, ‘according to the good pleasure of His will.’ There is a second class of passages to which our text belongs, where the comparison is not between the purpose and its realisation, but between the stores of the divine riches and the experiences of the Christian life. The one set of passages suggests the ground of our salvation in the deep purpose of God; the other suggests the measure of the power which is working out that salvation.

The instances of this second use of the phrase, besides the one in my text, ‘according to the riches of His grace,’ are such as these: ‘According to the riches of His glory’; ‘According to the power that worketh in us’; ‘According to the measure of the gift of Christ’; ‘According to the energy of the might of His power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.’

Now it is clear that all these are varying forms of the same thing. They vary in form, they are identical in substance. What a Jew calls a ‘cubit’ an Englishman calls a ‘foot,’ but the result is pretty nearly the same. Shillings, marks, francs, are various standards; they all come to substantially the same result. These varying measures of the divine gift which is at work in man’s salvation, have this in common, that they all run out into God’s immeasurable, unlimited power, boundless wealth. And so, if we gather them together, and try to focus them in a few words, they may help to widen our conceptions of what we ought to expect from God, to bow us in contrition as to the small use that we have made of it, and to open our desires wide, that they may be filled.

I only aspire, then, to deal with these four forms which I have already suggested.

I. The measure of our possible attainments is the whole wealth of God.

‘According to the riches of His grace.’ Another angle at which the same thought is viewed appears in another part of the letter, where we have this variation in the expression, ‘According to the riches of His glory.’ ‘Grace’ and ‘Glory’ are generally opposed antithetically; in this epistle they are united, for in the verse before my text I:read: ‘To the praise of the glory of His grace.’ So the first thought is, the whole wealth of God is available for every Christian soul.

Now it seems to me that there are very few things that the popular Christianity of this day needs more than a furnishing up of the familiar old Christian terminology, which has largely lost the freshness and the power that it once had. They tell us that these incandescent burners, that we are using nowadays, are very much more bright when they are first fixed than after the mantle gets a little worn. So it is with the terminology of Christianity. It needs to be re-stated, not in such a way as to take the pith out of it, which is what a great deal of the modern craze for re-statement means, but in such a way as to brighten it up again, and to invest it with something of the ‘celestial light’ with which it was ‘apparelled’ when it first came. Now that word ‘grace,’ I have no doubt, sounds to you hard, theological, remote. But what does it mean? It gathers into one burning point the whole of the rays of that conception of God, with which it is the glory of Christianity to have flooded and drenched the world. It tells us that at the heart of the universe there is a heart; that God is Love, that that love is the motive-spring of His activity, that it comes and bends over the lowliest with a smile of amity on its lips, with healing and help in its hands, with forgiveness for all sins against itself, with boundless wealth for the poorest, and that the wealth of His self-communicating love is the measure of the wealth that each of us may possess.

God gives ‘according to the riches of His grace.’ You do not expect a millionaire to give half-a-crown to a subscription fund; and God gives royally, divinely, measuring His bestowments by the abundance of His treasures, and handing over with an open palm large gifts of coined money, because there are infinite chests of uncirculated bullion in the deep storehouses. ‘How great is Thy goodness which Thou hast manifested before the sons of men for them that fear Thee. How much greater is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up in store.’ But whilst He gives all, the question comes to be: What do I receive? The measure of His gift is His measureless grace; the measure of my reception is my-alas! easily-measured faith. What about the unearned increment? What about the unrealised wealth? Too many of us are like some man who has a great estate in another land. He knows nothing about it, and is living in grimy poverty in a back street. For you have all God’s riches waiting for you, and ‘the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice’ at your beck and call, and yet you are but poorly realising your possible riches. Alas, that when we might have so much we do have so little. ‘According to the riches of His grace’ He gives. But another ‘according to’ comes in. ‘According to thy faith be it unto thee.’ So we have to take these two measures together, and the working limit of our possession of God’s riches comes out of the combination of them both.

Let me remind you, before I pass on, of what I have already suggested is but another phase of this same thought, Paul says in this epistle that God gives not only ‘according to the riches of His grace,’ but ‘according to the riches of His glory,’ and that the latter expression is substantially identical with the former, is plain from the combination of the two in an earlier verse of this chapter: ‘To the praise of the glory of His grace.’ Thus we come to the blessed thought that the glory of God is essentially the revelation of that stooping, pitying, pardoning, enriching love. Not in the physical attributes, not in the characteristics of the divine nature which part Him off from men, and make Him remote, both from their conceptions and their affections, but in the love that bends to them is the true glory of God. All these other things are but the fringes; the centre of glory is the Love, which is the mightiest and the divinest thing in the Might Divine. The sunshine is far stronger than the lightning, and there is more force developed in the rain than in an earthquake. That truth is what Christianity has made the common possession of the world. It has thereby broken the chains of dread; it has bridged over the infinite distance. It has given us a God that can love and be loved, can stoop and can lift, can pardon and can purify. ‘According to the good pleasure of His goodness,’-there is the foundation of our salvation. ‘According to the riches of His grace,’-there is the measure of our salvation.

II. We have another form of the same measure in another set of verses which speak of the present working of God’s power.

The Apostle speaks in regard to his own apostolic commission of its being given ‘according to the working of His power’; and he speaks of all Christian men as receiving gifts ‘according to the power that worketh in us.’ So there we have a standard that comes, as it were, a little closer to ourselves. We do not need to travel up into the dim abysses above, or think of the sanctities and the secrecies of that divine heart in the light which is inaccessible, but we have the measure in ourselves.

The standards of length are kept at Greenwich, the standards of capacity are kept in the Tower; but there are local standards distributed throughout the land to which men may go and have their measures corrected. And so besides all these lofty thoughts about the grace and the glory which measures His gift, we can turn within, if we are Christian people, and say, ‘According to the power that worketh in us.’

Ah, brethren! there are few things that we want more than to revive and deepen the conviction that in every Christian man, by virtue of his faith, and in proportion to his faith, there is in operation an actual, superhuman, divine power moulding his nature, guiding, quickening, ennobling, lifting, confirming, and hallowing and shaping him into conformity with Jesus Christ. I would that we all believed not as a dogma, but realised as a personal experience, that irrefragable truth, ‘Know ye not that the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you, except ye be reprobate?’ The life of self is evil; the life of Christ in self is good, and only good. And if you are Christian men, and in the proportion, as I have said, in which you are living by faith, you have working in your spirits the very Spirit of Christ Himself.

And that power is the measure of your possibilities. Obviously ‘the power that worketh in us’ is able to do a great deal more than it is doing in any of us. And so with deep significance the Apostle, side by side with his adducing of this power as being the measure of our possible attainments, speaks about God as being ‘able to do for us, exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.’ ‘The power that works in us’ transcends in its possibilities our present experience, it transcends our conceptions, it transcends our desires. It is able to do everything; it actually does-well, you know what it does in you. And the responsibility of hampering and hindering that power from working out its only adequately corresponding results lies at our own doors. ‘A rushing, mighty wind’-yes; and in myself a scarcely perceptible breathing, and often a dead calm, stagnant as in the latitudes on either side of the Equator, where, for long, dreary days, no freshening motion in the atmosphere is perceptible. ‘A fire?’-yes; then why is my grate full of grey, cold ashes, and one little spark in the corner? ‘A fountain springing into everlasting life?’-yes; then why in my basin is there so much scum and ooze, mud and defilement, and so little of the flashing and brilliant water? ‘The power that works in us’ is sorely hindered by the weakness in which it works.

III. In the third place another form of this measure is stated by the Apostle, ‘According to the measure of the gift of Christ.’

That means, of course, the gift which Christ bestows. It is substantially the same idea as I have just been dealing with, only looked at from rather a different point of view. Therefore, I need not dwell upon its parallelism with what has just been occupying our attention, but rather ask you simply to consider one point in reference to it, and that is that, side by side with the reference to the gift of Christ as being the measure of our possible attainments, the Apostle enlarges on the Infinite variety of the shapes which that one gift takes in different people. ‘He gave some apostles, some prophets,’ etc.; one man receiving according to this fashion, and another according to that, and to each of us the distribution is made ‘according to the measure of the gift of Christ.’ That is to say, it takes us all, the collective goodness and beauty of the whole community of saints, to approximate to the fulness of that gift, and all are needed in their different types and forms of excellence, sanctity and beauty, in order to set forth, even imperfectly, the richness and the manifoldness of His great gift. And so ‘we all come’-there is a multiplicity-’unto the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ’-there is a unity in which the multiplicity inheres.

So try to get a little more of some different type of excellence than that to which you are naturally inclined. Seek, and consciously endeavour, to appropriate into your character uncongenial excellences, and be very charitable in your judgments of the different types of Christian conformity to Christ our Lord. The crystals that are set round a light do not quarrel with each other as to whether green, or yellow, or blue, or red, or violet is the true colour to reflect. We need all the seven prismatic tints to make the perfect white light. The gift of Christ is many-sided; try not to be one-sided in your reception of it.

IV. And now the last form of this measure is ‘according to the energy of the might of His power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.’

When we gazed upon the riches of God’s grace, they were high above us, when we looked upon ‘the power that worketh in us,’ we saw it working amidst many hindrances and hamperings, but here there is presented to us in a concrete example, close beside us, of what God can make of a man when the man is wholly pliable to His will, and the recipient of His influences. And so there stands before us the guarantee and the pattern of immortal life, the Christ whose Manhood died and lives, who is clothed with a spiritual body, who wields royal authority in the Kingdom of the Most High. And that is the measure of what God can do with me, and wishes to do with me, if I will let Him. Christ is my pattern, and the measure of my own possibilities.

To be with Him, where and what He is, is the only adequate result of the power that works in us, and of the process that is already begun in us, if we are Christian people. You are sometimes-there is one eminent example of it in that great Medicean Chapel at Florence-a statue exquisitely finished in all its limbs, but one part left in the rough. That is the best that Christian people come to here. Shall it always be so? Do not the very imperfections prophesy completion, and is it not certain that the half-finished torso will be carried to the upper workshop, and be there disengaged from the dead marble and made to stand out in perfect beauty and fullest completeness? Christ is the object of our hopes, and no hopes of the Christian life are adequate to the power that works in us, or to the progress already made, which do not see in the ‘energy of the might of the power’ which wrought in Christ, the example and the guarantee of the exceeding greatness of ‘His power which is to usward.’

And now, one last word. Besides all these passages which have been occupying us, there is another use of this same phrase in this letter which presents a very solemn and grim contrast. I can do no better with it than simply read it: ‘Ye were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh’-mark the allusion to the other words that we have been referring to-’in the children of disobedience.’ So there you have the alternative, either ‘dead in trespasses and sins,’ whilst living the physical and the intellectual life, or partaking of the life of Him ‘who was dead, and is alive for ever more’; either ‘walking according to the course of this world,’ which is ‘disobedience’ and ‘wrath,’ or walking ‘according to the power that worketh in us’; either ‘putting on,’ or rather continuing to wear, ‘the old man which is corrupt according to the lusts which deceive,’ or ‘putting on the new man, which according to God is created in righteousness and holiness and truth.’ The choice is before us. May God help us to choose aright!

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

we have. Compare Rom 5:1.

redemption = the redemption. See Rom 3:24; Rom 5:1.

through. Greek. dia. App-104. Eph 1:1.

His blood. The price of the redemption. Compare Act 20:28. 1Co 6:20. 1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19; &c.

sins = transgressions. App-128.

riches, &c. Compare Eph 1:18; Eph 2:7; Eph 3:8, Eph 3:16. Rom 9:23. Col 1:27.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

7.] Now the Apostle passes, with , to the consideration of the ground of the church in the SON (7-12): see the synopsis above. But the Father still continues the great subject of the whole;-only the reference is now to the Son. In whom (see on . Eph 1:3-cf. Rom 3:24) We have (objective-there is for us. But not without a subjective implied import, as spoken of those who truly have it-have laid hold of it: are ever needing and ever having it, Eadie) the Redemption (from Gods wrath-or rather from that which brought us under Gods wrath, the guilt and power of sin, Mat 1:21. The article expresses notoriety-of which we all know,-of which the law testified, and the prophets spoke) through (as the instrument:-a further fixing of the ) His blood (which was the price paid for that redemption, Act 20:28; 1Co 6:20; both the ultimate climax of His obedience for us, Php 2:8, and, which is most in view here,-the propitiation, in our nature, for the sin of the world, Rom 3:25; Col 1:20. It is a noteworthy observation of Harless here, that the choice of the word, the BLOOD of Christ, is of itself a testimony to the idea of expiation having been in the writers mind. Not the death of the victim, but its BLOOD, was the typical instrument of expiation. And I may notice that in Php 2:8, where Christs obedience, not His atonement, is spoken of, there is no mention of His shedding His Blood, only of the act of His Death), the remission (not overlooking (); see note on Rom 3:25) of (our) transgressions (explanation of . : not to be limited, but extending to all riddance from the practice and consequences of our transgressions: at least equipollent with :-so Thdrt., , . , . This against Harless), according to the riches (Ellic. compares Plato, Euthyphr. 12 A, ) of His grace (this alone would prevent applying to merely the forgiveness of sins. As Passavant (in Stier), We have in this grace not only redemption from misery and wrath, not only forgiveness,-but we find in it the liberty, the glory, the inheritance of the children of God,-the crown of eternal life: cf. 2Co 8:9),

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Eph 1:7. , we have) in the present.- – , redemption-forgiveness) The peculiar benefit derived from the New Testament; Rom 3:24. [Another redemption (viz. of the purchased possession hereafter) follows, Eph 1:14.-V. g.]-[9] , the riches of His grace) ch. Eph 2:7 : the riches of the glory, Eph 1:18. Comp. ch. Eph 3:8, where we have the riches of grace, and consequently of glory; likewise in Eph 1:16, where the exceedingly rich glory of the Father Himself is understood.

[9] , of blood) Eph 2:13.-V. g.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Eph 1:7

Eph 1:7

in whom we have our redemption-Jesus redeemed all who would trust him, follow him, become his servants. To redeem is to rescue or relieve from enthrallment. Man was enthralled in sin, Jesus suffered, shed his blood, and died to redeem from bondage to the evil one. Through sin man had become enthralled to the devil. Jesus subjected himself to death to rescue man from the bondage of death. Only those who accept the redemption on the terms offered can appropriate it, or be its beneficiaries. Only those who are in Christ are redeemed, purchased, ransomed.

through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,-Jesus shed his blood to secure for man the remission of sins. For this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins. (Mat 26:28). Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. (Rom 3:24-26). This shows that the redemption was provided in Christ, and that it was such that enabled God to be just while justifying him that believes in Christ. To the Ephesian elders Paul said: Take heed unto yourselves, and all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood. (Act 20:28). The statement that he purchased with his own blood is doubtless equivalent to he laid down his life for us. The blood is the life. (Deu 12:23). The shedding of his blood is giving up his life. He gave his life for our lives.

according to the riches of his grace,-The great word grace, which has been used twice already in these opening verses, touches the sentiment of all Pauls teaching on the redemption of sinful men. It has a large place in all his epistles, and not least in this one. For here it meets us at every turning point in the great statement of the divine counsel, the securities of the forgiveness of sin. The way of salvation. It has the particular sense of free gift, undeserved bounty, and is used specially of the goodness of God which bestows favor on those who have no claim or merit in themselves. That our redemption cost so great a price-the blood of Christ-is the supreme evidence of the riches of the divine grace. And the measure of what God does for us is nothing less than the limitless wealth of his loving favor.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Redemption by His Blood (Eph 1:7)

In studying the first six verses of Ephesians Chapter 1 we have noticed that we were thought of and our happiness planned for by God long before the world began. When the fullness of time had come, He sent the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to carry out His divine purpose. Since His death and resurrection, since His ascension to Gods right hand in Heaven, He has accepted us in Christ. In verse Eph 1:7 we have the assurance of our salvation, In whom we have redemption. I wish that we might have that firmly fixed in our minds. We do not have to pray, Take all my guilt away; we do not have to plead with God to save or to justify us, because these things are blessedly settled and setded for eternity if we have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we do not hope someday to receive the redemption of our soul. We have redemption. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

There are three very distinct words used in the New Testament for redemption. One of these words means simply to go into the market and buy-to purchase-and when you buy a thing, of course it is yours. We have been bought with a price, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been redeemed to God by Him and belong to Him. He purchased us; He paid the price for us, made us His own. We sold ourselves for nothing, but we have been redeemed without money.

There is a little fuller word for redemption, and this means to buy out of the market, so that that which has been purchased will never be put on sale again. For instance, in the old slave markets when a slave was bought, the money was paid, and the slave was handed over to the purchaser. In a few rare instances the new owner gave the slave a legal paper, a writ that granted him complete freedom. He was never to be placed in jeopardy again. This is the definition of the word redeemed in 1Pe 1:18

Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and goldBut with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God (1Pe 1:18-21).

We have been bought out of the market, we are not going to be put on sale any more. We are free.

The third word for redemption is the one found in our text. It is a Greek compound, the first part, apo, means away from, going away from something or some condition. The second part, lutrosis, means to be free, to be loosed, and so it literally means, to be loosed away from something. We have been loosed away from the curse of the law that once hung over us. We have been loosed away from the judgment of God toward which we were one time speeding, loosed away from the guilt of our sins. That is why I wont sing, Take all my guilt away. My guilt was taken away, for we have been loosed away from the entire question of guilt. God will never permit that question to be raised again. It was raised with His own blessed Son at Calvarys cross when all the judgment that my guilt deserved fell on Him, and now I can say:

Death and judgment are behind me,

Grace and glory are before;

All the billows rolled oer Jesus,

There exhausted all their power.

It ought to thrill our souls and fill us with a flood of joy continually. No wonder we sometimes sing:

Redeemed, redeemed, from sin and all its woe.

Redeemed, redeemed, eternal life to know,

Redeemed, redeemed, by Jesus blood!

Redeemed, redeemed! Oh, praise the Lord!

If we hold our peace when we realize what grace has done on our behalf, the very stones will cry out.

Then notice the price of our redemption-In whom we have redemption through his blood. No less a price would do; no less a price would have availed to set us free, to deliver us from the curse and the judgment once hanging over us. In Old Testament times the sinner came to the altar bringing a lamb or a goat from the flock, or a bullock from the herd, or if very poor, two turtle doves or young pigeons. These were slain, the blood poured out, and they were offered on the altar and consumed by the fire of divine judgment, a typical sacrifice for sin. But,

Not all the blood of beasts

On Jewish altars slain,

Could give the guilty conscience peace

Or wash away its stain.

Isaac Watts

Why? Because there was not sufficient value in those creatures that were offered up through all past dispensations. They did not have intrinsic worth. When that shed blood was sprinkled on the altar and on the sinner, it was powerless to avail, it was powerless to settle the sin question. But, thank God, in our Lord Jesus Christ we see a sacrifice of infinite worth.

People try to reason sometimes as to the extent of His atonement. Some theologians have talked about a limited atonement, for they believe that our Lord made atonement for the elect only, and that outside of that group there is no possibility of salvation for anyone. But let me say this-knowing in my very soul that I have the backing of the Word of God: If every sinner who has ever lived in the world and every sinner who will ever live were to come to God in faith confessing his sin and guilt and putting his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, so infinite is the value of the work of the cross and the life that was given there, that every sinner could be redeemed from judgment. So precious was the blood that was shed on the cross that every sinner could be freed from every charge, and still there would be untold value in the atonement of Christ, which would avail for the sinners in a million universes like this one. The atoning value of the blood of Jesus cannot be measured.

I remember hearing a Roman Catholic priest say that one drop of the precious blood of Jesus could wash away all the sins that have ever been committed in this world. He was right because on the one hand you have finite sinners, and on the other hand you have the infinite atonement of the Son of God. We have redemption through his blood. Do you fear then to rest in this wonderful gospel truth? Do you fear then to trust your soul to the Savior who died for your sins on the cross?

Dr. Joseph Parker of London, the noted English preacher, who for many years proclaimed the Word of God in the great City Temple, wrote in his autobiography that there was a time when he gave too much attention to the modern theories of his day. Men were reasoning and speculating and undervaluing the Word of God and he found himself, as he read their books and mingled in their meetings, losing his grip intellectually on the great fundamental doctrine of salvation through the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. But there came into his life the most awful sorrow that he ever had to bear. His devoted wife, whom he loved so tenderly, was stricken, and in a few short hours was snatched away from him.

Dr. Parker wrote that he was unable to share his grief with others, and walking through the empty rooms of his home with a breaking heart, his misery felt for some footing in modern theory and there was none. And then, he said, addressing a company of his congregational brethren, my brethren, in those hours of darkness, in those hours of my souls anguish, when filled with doubt and trembling in fear, I thought of the old gospel of redemption alone through the blood of Christ, the gospel that I had preached in those earlier days, and I put my foot down on that and found firm standing. I stand there today, and I shall die resting on that glorious truth of salvation alone through the precious blood of Christ.

On Christ the solid Rock I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

Edward Mote

In what way does the blood of Christ save us? The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls (Lev 17:11). What blood is given on the altar to make an atonement? It is the precious blood of Christ, of which all the sacrifices of the old covenant were simply symbolic. On the cross God gave Jesus, and there He gave up His life when He poured out His blood. It is through the giving of His life, and not through our imitating the life of Jesus, that we are saved. It is through the outpouring of the life of Jesus in the shedding of His blood that we find redemption: The Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Gal 2:20). And so we have redemption through His blood, and this necessarily involves the forgiveness of sins.

This subject of forgiveness of sins perplexes people sometimes. Forgiveness is presented in Scripture in three very distinct aspects. First, there is eternal forgiveness, and that is what the apostle is speaking of in Eph 1:7. Every believer is eternally forgiven the moment he comes to God through Jesus. He stands before God justified, every trespass forgiven and as clear before the throne of God as if he had never committed a sin. He never again has to come to God appealing for forgiveness, for He has forgiven all his trespasses. But you may say, Well, do you mean by that, all my trespasses up to the hour of my conversion? I mean something far more than that, something far better than that. I mean that the believers sins, all of them, past, present, and whatever sins may be committed in the future, were all taken into account and were all atoned for when Jesus died. This is the eternal forgiveness of God, the Judge of all. The moment a man trusts in Christ, all the value of that atoning work is put down to his account and every sin is forgiven. That is the first great aspect of forgiveness.

In the second place, there is the restorative forgiveness of the Father. The moment my responsibility for my actions as a sinner ended, that moment my responsibility as a child of the heavenly Father began. And if I fail (and I do, and you do) I come to Him not to beg forgiveness, for that was settled at the cross, but I come knowing that, If we confess ours sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1Jn 1:9). When as a believer I fail, I come to God as my Father and tell Him the story of my failure and my sin. As I confess my sin, it is put away and my communion with the Father is restored. Sin on the part of the believer does not affect his eternal life, for his life is hid with Christ in God, but it does affect his communion with the Father, and that is not restored again until the failing believer comes confessing his sins. Then he receives restorative forgiveness.

The third aspect has been called governmental forgiveness. It has to do with the temporal consequences of sin. I think of a Christian man whom I have known for a great many years, who in his unsaved days was given to drunkenness. Though that man lived a wonderful Christian life for over thirty years, he suffered all his life in his body because of his early sins. Sometimes he was tempted to wonder whether God had really forgiven him when the punishment of sin seemed to be going on in his body. Again and again you will find this. God permits temporal punishment to follow sin, but when the believer learns to take everything as from the hand of God and bows to the will of God, He sometimes even grants him governmental forgiveness and restores the body. He may even restore the years the locusts have eaten, and bring back temporal blessings that one might have supposed were lost forever.

On what is His forgiveness based? It is according to the riches of his grace. It does not say out of the riches of His grace, but according to the riches of his grace. Can you estimate the riches of Gods grace? How rich is He in grace? Is He a millionaire? More than that. Is He a multimillionaire? More than that. Is He a billionaire, a trillionaire? More than that. Shall I go on? It is useless, for Gods grace is infinite, and you and I have been blessedly saved, forgiven, redeemed, according to the riches of his grace.

I repeat, it is not merely out of the riches of His grace. For example, let us say that you approach a millionaire on behalf of some worthy cause. He listens to you and says, Well, I think I will do something for you, and he takes out his wallet and gives you a ten-dollar bill. Perhaps you had hoped to receive a thousand dollars from him. He has given you out of his riches, but not according to his riches. If he gave you a book of signed blank checks all numbered, and said, Take this, fill in what you need, that would be according to his riches.

We who are saved may well rejoice, for we have been forgiven, we have been redeemed, not out of the riches of Gods grace but according to the riches of His grace. If you grasp this thought, you will never feel poor again. And you owe it all to the work of the cross, to the blessed One who there died for you. Through eternity we are going to join with all the redeemed and ascribe all power and praise and honor and glory to the Lamb that was slain, who redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation (Rev 5:9).

May I quote the beautiful words of one of our Christian poets, as emphasizing this precious truth?

O spotless Lamb, my Sacrifice,

Thou art my souls salvation;

In Gods eternal counsel, Thou,

Before the earths creation,

Wert slain; our God had planned it all

Ere Satan caused Thy creatures fall

That shrouded them in darkness.

Naught we could do the gulf to span

Twixt God and sinful fallen man,

Created in Gods likeness.

God saw us in our deep, deep need,

He undertook to save us;

Twas not a trifling thing to Him,

His very best He gave us.

Then mercys fountain to reveal,

Our weary, sinsick souls to heal,

His Father-heart not sparing,

From Godheads fullest glory,

He Sent His own Son to earth-

I see Him now my burden bearing.

Oh, love of God, how great and strong

Beyond all human telling!

Oh, wondrous gift! The Fathers Son,

All doubt and gloom dispelling,

The Lord of glory come to earth,

A Virgin chosen gave Him birth,

His bed a lowly manger;

Angels adoring hover near,

Shepherds the great glad tidings hear,

But to Thine own a stranger.

In adoration, praise, and love,

My heart is bowed before Thee;

I trust Thy grace, believe Thy Word.

It full assurance gives me

That all my sins are washed away

By Thine own blood! Oh, let me stay

Close by Thy side forever.

I am Thine own, and Thou art mine!

Who from Thy heart and love sublime,

And joy and peace, can sever?

H.A.M.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

sins

Sin. (See Scofield “Rom 3:23”).

grace Grace (in salvation). Eph 1:6; Eph 1:7; Eph 2:5; Eph 2:7; Eph 2:8; Rom 3:24. (See Scofield “Joh 1:17”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

whom: Job 33:24, Psa 130:7, Dan 9:24-26, Zec 9:11, Zec 13:1, Zec 13:7, Mat 20:28, Mat 26:28, Mar 14:24, Act 20:28, Rom 3:24, 1Co 1:30, Col 1:14, 1Ti 2:6, Tit 2:14, Heb 9:12-15, Heb 9:22, Heb 10:4-12, 1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19, 1Pe 2:24, 1Pe 3:18, 1Jo 2:2, 1Jo 4:10, Rev 5:9, Rev 14:4

the forgiveness: Exo 34:7, Psa 32:1, Psa 32:2, Psa 86:5, Psa 130:4, Isa 43:25, Isa 55:6, Isa 55:7, Jer 31:34, Dan 9:9, Dan 9:19, Jon 4:2, Mic 7:18, Luk 1:77, Luk 7:40-42, Luk 7:47-50, Luk 24:47, Joh 20:23, Act 2:38, Act 3:19, Act 10:43, Act 13:38, Act 13:39, Rom 4:6-9, Col 2:13, Heb 10:17, Heb 10:18, 1Jo 1:7-9, 1Jo 2:12

to: Eph 1:6, Eph 2:4, Eph 2:7, Eph 3:8, Eph 3:16, Rom 2:4, Rom 3:24, Rom 9:23, 2Co 8:9, Phi 4:19, Col 1:27, Col 2:2, Tit 3:6,*marg.

Reciprocal: Exo 12:7 – General Exo 24:8 – Behold Exo 34:6 – abundant Exo 40:6 – General Lev 3:17 – blood Lev 4:35 – and the priest shall make Lev 7:26 – ye shall eat Lev 15:28 – General Lev 17:11 – I have Lev 25:24 – redemption Num 14:18 – longsuffering Deu 15:15 – General 1Ki 20:31 – merciful kings Neh 9:17 – gracious Job 19:25 – I know Psa 25:7 – for thy Psa 31:16 – save Psa 59:16 – sing aloud Psa 86:15 – But thou Psa 89:2 – Mercy Psa 103:3 – forgiveth Psa 103:8 – merciful Psa 111:9 – sent Isa 1:27 – redeemed Isa 44:23 – glorified Isa 63:7 – according to his Hos 2:19 – in righteousness Hos 14:2 – receive Zec 4:7 – Grace Zec 9:17 – how great is his goodness Mat 6:12 – forgive Luk 1:68 – he Luk 7:42 – he Act 5:31 – forgiveness Act 15:11 – that Act 26:18 – that they Rom 10:12 – rich Rom 11:33 – riches Rom 16:27 – only 1Co 15:3 – Christ Gal 4:5 – redeem Eph 1:18 – the riches Eph 2:13 – are 1Ti 1:14 – exceeding Tit 2:11 – the grace Tit 3:5 – according Heb 8:12 – General Heb 9:15 – for Jam 2:13 – and 1Pe 1:3 – which 2Pe 2:1 – bought 1Jo 5:6 – blood

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

GRACE IN RELATION TO THE ATONEMENT

In Whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

Eph 1:7

Let us consider the subject of grace, in relation to the atonement, and the forgiveness of sins.

I. The forgiveness of sins is associated with the death of our Lordis associated with the precious blood. It is said in these days, Let us get away from the subtleties and speculations of the theologians, and go back to the Christ. Well, sometimes that cry of back to the Christ is very fallacious, because in going back to the utterances of Christ there is a disposition to forget the utterances of the inspired Apostles of Christ. But in this relation let us go back to the Christ. Our Lords words are perfectly clear: The Son of Man, He said, is come to give His life a ransom for many. Let us turn to St. Paul. St. Paul says, I delivered you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins; so again, And God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And St. Peter, a very different type of mind, tells us of Him Who in His own body bare our sins upon the tree. And St. John, again a very different type of mind, tells us The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin; and when he heard the anthem of the Blessed, as recorded for us in that wonderful last book of the Bible, we know that the theme of the Blessed was that they had washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb; that they were redeemed by the precious Blood. Therefore, let us get perfectly clear, as Christian people, that we are committed to the old theological view, that forgiveness comes through the precious Blood; that the Atonement is no invention of the theologians of the Middle Ages; that the forgiveness of sins is some way, somehow, for the Christian inseparably associated with our Lords death.

II. The true significance of the term, the Blood of Christ. The term, of course, is always to be taken in its Old Testament sense. The blood, it says, is the life. The blood represents the energy of the physical life; and therefore the first idea of the shedding of our Lords blood which is very familiar to us all is that it is the highest expression of an absolute self-surrender, the giving up of everything. This is a most important point in relation to the forgiveness of sins, if you will bear in mind that the essence of sin is the self-assertion of the finite against the infinite, that the essence of sin is self. The offering of the Blood conveys the idea of the absolute surrender of self, of the very essence of self. We are not to regard our Lord as merely offering His Blood upon Calvary. His life was, so to speak, set free by death. This idea of the life set free by death entering into the higher plane of existence and of the presentation of the Blood before the throne of God is necessary to a complete realisation of what the Atonement means.

III. If you would get clear upon this subject of the Atonement, you must analyse the word into its constituent parts. The ordinary pronunciation of the word atonement is unfortunate. At-one-ment is the full analysis of the word. Let me trace the stages in broad outline.

(a) First of all, once there was at-one-ment between God and man. God created a creature capable of appreciating his Creator, and God saw creation as it found its completion in man, and, behold, it was very good. Perfect at-one-ment between God and man is the message of Paradise, and if we may venture for the moment into the region of speculative theology, if the Fall had not taken place, in all human probability there would have been a steady development of the human creature on and on, until the Incarnation would have been effected apart from the Fall. The Nicene Creed says, Who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from Heaven, and was Incarnate. For we must remember that the Incarnation was no mere expedient; it expresses the eternal purpose of God that there should be union between the Creator and creature.

(b) Now let us draw strongly and clearly a second line. The at-one-ment ceases to be; sin comes into the world, and as generation after generation of mankind stands upon this earth there is a gradual declension; the gulf between God and man becomes wider and wider, and man with a darkened mind, with a seared conscience, with a weakened will crouches away from his God; ceases to believe that God is his Father; he is in a settled state of alienation, and he begins, as you find still in certain parts of Africa, to worship the powers of evil. His whole conception of God has changed. Now along with this change there is also the necessary alienation on the other sidethough who would dare to attempt to peer too closely into this? But there is the necessary alienation on the side of God; not that the Father ceases to love His fallen child, but because there is a necessary averting of the face of God from all that is unholy. So the gulf widens more and more.

(c) And now we draw our third line, and ask ourselves the question, How is this gulf to be bridged over? The answer is that it has been bridged over by the Incarnation. The root idea of all forgiveness is union. There must be nothing between. There must be the removal of the hideous thing which has come between. Now, in the initial fact of the Incarnation there is absolute unity between God and man; but the Incarnation finds its more completed expression in the Cross. There is a phrase which the Apostle uses, which I think we could only have used with the greatest caution if he had not used it, but which he does use, and so we have a right to use it. St. Paul speaks of the Blood of God, and when you think of the offering of our Lords Blood, what does it mean? Why, that there is perfect at-one-ment between God and man.

Rev. G. F. Holden.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

(Eph 1:7.) -In whom we have redemption by his His blood. The apostle now specifies some fruits of that grace-illustrates . From a recital of past acts of God toward us, he comes now to our present blessing. Redemption stands out to his mind as the deliverance-so unique in its nature and so well known, that it has the article prefixed. It is enshrined in solitary eminence. The idea fills the Old Testament, for the blessing which the Levitical ritual embodied and symbolized was redemption-deliverance from evil by means of sacrifice. Lev 1:4; Lev 1:9; Lev 4:26; Lev 17:11. Blood was the medium of expiation and of exemption from penalty. Umbreit, Der Brief an die Rmer ausgelegt, p. 261: Gotha, 1856. , as its origin intimates, signifies deliverance by the payment of a price or ransom-. It has been said that the idea of ransom is sometimes dropped, and that the word denotes merely rescue. We question this, at least in the New Testament; certainly not in Rom 8:23, for the redemption of the body is, equally with that of the soul, the result of Christ’s ransom-work. Even in Heb 11:35, and in Luk 21:28, we might say that the notion of ransom is not altogether sunk, though it be of secondary moment; in the one case it is apostasy, in the other the destruction of the Jewish state, which is the ideal price. We have the simple noun in Luk 1:68; Luk 2:38, Heb 9:12; and in Luk 24:21, Tit 2:14. The human race need deliverance, and they cannot, either by price or by conquest, effect their own liberation, for the penal evil which sin has entailed upon them fetters and subdues them. But redemption is not an immediate act of sovereign prerogative; it is represented as the result of a process which involved and necessitated the death of Christ. The means of de liverance, or the price paid, was the blood of Christ- ; as in Act 20:28, where we have , and 1Co 6:20, where we have, under a different aspect, , and similarly in Gal 3:13. Blood is the material of expiation. The death of Jesus was one of blood, for it was a violent death; and that blood-the blood of a sinless man, on whom the Divine law had no claim, and could have none-was poured out as a vicarious offering. The atonement was indispensable to remission of sin-it was -the price of infinite value. Mat 20:28; Mat 26:28; Mar 10:45; Heb 9:22. The law of God must be maintained in its purity ere guilty man can be pardoned. The universal Governor glorifies His law, and by the same act enables Himself to forgive its transgressors. The nexus we may not be able to discover fully, but we believe, in opposition to the view of Schleiermacher, Coleridge, and others, that the death of Christ has governmental relations, has an influence on our salvation totally different in nature and sphere of operation, from its subjective power in subduing the heart by the love which it presents, and the thrilling motives which it brings to bear upon it. See Reuss, Hist. de la Thologie Chrtienne au Sicle A postolique, tome ii. p. 182.

-in whom; not as Koppe, Flatt, and others would have it, on account of whom. The points to the instrumental connection which the death of Christ has with our redemption, but to the method in which that redemption becomes ours. Rom 3:24. regards the means of provision, the mode of reception-in Christ the Beloved, in loving, confiding union with Him as the one sphere-a thought vitally pervading the paragraph and the entire epistle. For how can we have safety if we are out of the Saviour? Rom 8:1; Rom 8:33.

The apostle places the forgiveness of sins in apposition with redemption, not as its only element, but as a blessing immediate, characteristic, and prominent-

-the forgiveness of sins. Col 1:14. -falling aside, offence, differs from , not exactly, as Jerome affirms, that the first term means the lapse toward sin, and the second the completed act in itself, for is expressly applied by Paul in Rom 10:15, etc., to the first sin of the first man-that offence of which , or a sinful state, is the sad and universal result. The word, therefore, signifies here that series and succession of individual sinful acts with which every man is chargeable, or the actual and numerous results and manifestations of our sinful condition. -sometimes standing by itself, but generally with -is release from something which binds, from the chain which fetters-Luk 4:19 -or the debt or tribute which oppresses. Est 2:18. It frees from the -from debt, as at the year of jubilee. Lev 25:31; Lev 27:24. It is, therefore, the remission of that which is due to us on account of offences, so that our liability to punishment is cancelled. It is surely wrong in Alford to make coextensive with . In the New Testament the noun does not signify all riddance from the practice and consequences of our transgression, but definitely and specially remission of the penalty. Mar 3:29; Act 2:38 (the gift of the Spirit there succeeding that of forgiveness); Act 13:38-39; Act 26:18; Heb 10:18. But is much wider, being not only man’s deliverance from all evil-from sin, Satan, and death-but his entrance into all the good which a redeeming God has provided-peace, joy, and life-a title to heaven and preparation for it. The of this verse is not, therefore, equipollent with , but the following paragraph is; for the contains the series of blessings described in it, and among them forgiveness of sins has a first and prominent place. differs from (Rom 3:25), for the latter is praetermission, not remission; the suspension of the penalty, or the forbearing to inflict it, but not its entire abrogation. Fritzsche, Ad Rom., vol. i. p. 199; Trench On Synon., 33. But the blessing here is remission. And it is full, all past sin being blotted out, and provision being made that future guilt shall also be remitted. Permanent dwelling in Christ ( ) secures continued forgiveness. That forgiveness also is free, because it is the result of His sacrifice- ; and it is irreversible, since it is God that justifies, and who shall impeach His equity? or shall He revoke His own sentence of absolution?

And the apostle says, -in the present time; not like , , , -descriptive of past acts of God. The meaning is not-We have got it, and now possess it as a distinct and perfect blessing, but we are getting it-are in continuous possession of it. We are ever needing, and so are ever having it, for we are still in Him, and the merit of His blood is unexhausted. Forgiveness is not a blessing complete at any point of time in our human existence, and therefore we are still receiving it. See under Col 1:14.

But those are many and wanton-not only numerous, but provoking, so that forgiveness, to reach us, must be patient and ample, and the apostle characterizes its measure as being-

-according to the riches of His grace. With Rckert, Lachmann, and Tischendorf, on the authority of A, B, D, F, G, we prefer the neuter , a form which occurs, according to the best MSS., in Eph 2:7; Eph 3:8; Eph 3:16; Php 4:19; Col 1:27; Col 2:2; Winer, 9, 2, 2. is what Paley calls one of the cant words of the apostle, that is, one of the favourite terms which he often introduces-riches of goodness, riches of glory, riches of full assurance, riches of wisdom, etc. It serves no purpose to resolve the formula into a Hebraism, so that it might be rendered His rich grace, or His gracious riches, for the genitive is that of possession connected with its pronoun. Winer, 30, 3, 1. The classic Greeks use a similar construction of two substantives. The evidently refers to God, and some MSS. read . -see under Eph 2:8. The spirit of the clause may be thus illustrated:-The favour of man toward offenders is soon exhausted, and according to its penury, it soon wearies of forgiving. But God’s grace has unbounded liberality. Much is expended; many sinners of all lands, ages, and crimes are pardoned, fully pardoned, often pardoned, and frankly pardoned, but infinite wealth of grace remains behind. It is also to be remarked, that and are really not opposed. Atonement is not in antagonism with grace. For the opulence of His grace is seen not only in its innumerable forms and varieties of operation among men, but also in the unasked and unmerited provision of such an atonement, so perfect and glorious in its relation to God and man, as the blood of the Beloved One.

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Eph 1:7. Whom is a pronoun that stands for the beloved in the preceding verse, who is Christ. The blood of Christ not only made men free from the bondage of the old law, but it brought forgiveness of sins to all who appropriated it through obedience to the Gospel. It is true that the servants under the law received forgiveness of their sins when they offered their sacrifices or animals, but that favor was given them on the merits of the one and final offering of the body of Christ. Hence when a man obtains the forgiveness of sins under the system put forth by Christ, that favor is done by virtue actually invested in the blood so applied. That is why Paul says it is according to the riches of Ms grace.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Eph 1:7. In whom we are having. In Christ, as the living sphere of redemption, the purpose already set forth (Eph 1:4-5) finds its present accomplishment He it is without whose Person and work we were not redeemed (Meyer). Are having points to the continued possession; it should not be weakened into, there is for us.

Our redemption, lit,. the redemption, but in this connection our is the proper rendering. Redemption means literally, ransoming from, and is here to be understood of our being ransomed from the punishment our sins deserve (including all the results of sin) by the payment of a ransom price by our Redeemer. What that ransom price is, clearly appears; the redemption is through his blood. The expiation set forth in the types of the Mosaic ritual, is really made through the shedding of His blood. Comp. on Rom 3:25, where in His blood occurs in connection with the same thought. There, however, the reference is more to the objective atonement; here to the redemption accomplished by means of it; hence through instead of in. Not the death of the victim, but its BLOOD was the typical instrument of expiation. I may notice that in Php 2:8, where Christs obedience, not His atonement, is spoken of, there is no mention of His shedding His blood, only of the act of His death (Alford).

The forgiveness of our trespasses. On the word translated forgiveness as compared with that meaning pretermission, or passing over, comp. on Rom 3:25; on the word trespass, comp. on Rom 5:15. Ellicott distinguishes the two words translated trespasses and sins, by taking the former as pointing more to sins on the side of commission, sinful acts; the latter to sins as the result of a state, sinful conditions. This forgiveness is the essential part of the redemption.

According to the riches of his grace. Gods grace is the ultimate ground of our redemption; that grace has other forms of manifestation, but none greater than that of the atonement through the blood of the Beloved.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Our apostle having, in the foregoing verses, enumerated the great and glorious privileges which the children of God were made partakers of before all time, comes next to discover what they are admitted to the participation of in time: and here in this verse he mentions two of them, namely, redemption and remission of sin. In whom we have redemption through his blood, &c.

Here note, The privilege itself, redemption; the Redeemer, Jesus Christ; the price of his redemption paid down, his blood: one fruit of this redemption instanced in for all the rest, the forgiveness of sin: and, lastly, the spring or source of all this, the riches of his grace.

Learn, 1. The deplorable state into which the whole race of mankind was brought into by sin; namely, an estate of slavery and bondage, and spiritual captivity unto sin. Redemption supposses this; slaves and captives need a redeemer, none else; we are all by nature under slavery to sin, to Satan, and the curse of the law, and the wrath of God.

Learn 2. That there was no delivery to be had from this slavery but by a price paid down to the justice of God; redemption is a delivery by ransom and price.

Learn 3. That no other price did or could redeem us from our miserable captivity, but the blood of Christ: We have redemption through his blood.

Learn 4. That all belivers, and only they, have remission of their sins, through the redemption purchased for them by the blood of Christ.

Learn 5. That God’s free grace, and Christ’s full satisfaction, do stand well together in the work of redemption and remission of sin. True, God had a satisfaction from the hand of our surety Christ Jesus; but was it not free grace and rich mercy in God, to accept of a surety and a substitution, when the rigour of the law required none, and would admit of none, but demanded that the soul which sinned should die? Was it not free mercy, not only to accept a surety, but to provide a surety for us as God did, and this surety his own Son? And to deliver up this Son to a painful, shameful, and accursed death, that we might have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace?

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Redeemed

A redemption price is paid to buy something back. As Lipscomb says, in this case it is to rescue from bondage to the devil. It is in Christ and through his blood particularly, that we find release from, or forgiveness of, sins ( Heb 9:22 ; 1Pe 1:18-20 ; Mat 26:28 ; Joh 19:31-34 ; Rom 6:3-4 ). Coffman notes the word here used for forgiveness means “letting go” and is only used in Rom 4:7 and Col 1:14 . This is done through the great wealth of God’s unmerited favor bestowed upon sinful man ( Eph 1:7 ).

Out of the riches of His grace, God went beyond our need and provided wisdom, or the full knowledge of the divine plan of salvation. He also provided prudence, which is the understanding of that plan ( Eph 1:8 ). The plan was a mystery because it was covered or hidden. ( 2Co 3:9-18 .) The mystery was uncovered in Christ as it pleased God ( Eph 1:9 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Eph 1:7-8. In, or by, whom we have redemption By price and by power, are bought and delivered from the guilt and dominion of sin, the tyranny of Satan, and the final displeasure and wrath of God. Through his blood Shed for these purposes; or through what he hath done and suffered; having undertaken the great and awful work of making an atonement for us by the sacrifice of himself, by which we obtain, what is an introduction to all the other blessings here mentioned, the forgiveness of sins For, being pardoned, Gods wrath is removed from us; we are taken into his favour; adopted into his family; born of his Spirit; love him who hath thus first loved us; and, through this love, become holy, and without blame before him. And by these blessings in heavenly things, we are qualified to receive blessings in heavenly places; according to the riches of his grace According to the abundant overflowings of his free, undeserved mercy and favour, to such sinful and guilty creatures; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom Manifested by God in the whole scheme of our salvation; and prudence Which he hath wrought in us, that we may know and do all his acceptable and perfect will.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 7

Through his blood; through his sufferings and death.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

In whom – in Christ, we have redemption. “Redemption” is a word that relates to the paying of a ransom for release. A buying back of someone for a price. Whatever the price, Christ paid it on the cross, no other price is pending, He did all that was required, else wise we would not yet have redemption.

We were redeemed from death, we were redeemed from our old nature, and we are redeemed from all that Adam brought upon us.

In Adam we received spiritual death and a sin nature, both of which are now removed from our beings. He also incurred physical death because he was isolated from the tree of life. We still must go through physical death for the same reason, but we are fully prepared for the next life by Christ’s blood and work on the cross.

We also received forgiveness of all sins to that point in time when we responded to the Gospel. Why were we forgiven? Because of His rich grace.

This word translated “sins” is different from the normal word for sin; it is the thought of trespass or failing. This clearly would picture that our sins of action are forgiven, rather than our sin nature. Our sin nature was carried away when we were given a new nature at salvation.

It is of note that the verb “have” is a present tense, it is something that continues on – we ARE redeemed, we ARE forgiven for all past sins of action/thought, we ARE a new creature. All continue, no matter what false doctrine you might hear on the subjects.

It is also clear that all of this is THROUGH His blood. Some have suggested the blood is of no consequence, that it didn’t relate to anything, that it wasn’t really the blood itself. Now, I am not sure what they mean. If by saying this they say that the blood, the substance itself, did not have any importance, they might be correct. However, the shedding of that blood is of great significance.

I myself am not convinced the liquid itself did anything, but the fact that it was given for us is of great importance. It was the shedding of innocent blood for the guilty; it was the work of Christ for the likes of us. I suspect this is what the people are suggesting, and they have been taken just a little incorrectly. At any rate it is through this sacrifice, it is through this act, it is through this work that we enjoy the fruits of Christ’s work.

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

1:7 {11} In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

(11) An expounding of the material cause, how we are made acceptable to God in Christ, for it is he alone whose sacrifice by the mercy of God is imputed to us, for the forgiveness of sins.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The sacrifice of the Son 1:7-12

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The "Him" in view is the beloved Son (Eph 1:6). God can pour out His grace on us only because of what Christ has done for us.

Redemption (Gr. apolytrosin) means release from slavery (cf. Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30; Luk 21:28; Rom 3:24; Rom 8:23; 1Co 1:30; Col 1:14; Heb 9:15; Heb 11:35). It involves buying back and setting free by paying a ransom price. Jesus Christ has redeemed us from sin (Heb 9:15), namely, set us free from slavery to it (cf. Romans 6). The blood, representative of the life, of the perfect Sacrifice had to flow out of Him for this to happen (Rom 3:24-25; cf. Heb 9:22).

New Testament Words for Redemption [Note: Adapted from The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament, p. 153.]

Greek Words	English Meanings	References
agorazo (verb)	To buy, to purchase in the market (or slave market)	1Co 6:20; 1Co 7:23; 2Pe 2:1; Rev 5:9; Rev 14:3-4
exagorazo (verb)	To buy out, to purchase out of the market (or slave market)	Gal 3:13; Gal 4:5; Eph 5:16; Col 4:5
lytron (noun)	Ransom, price of release	Mat 20:28; Mar 10:45
lytroomai (verb)	To ransom, to free by paying a ransom price	Luk 24:21; Tit 2:14; 1Pe 1:18
lytrosis (noun)	Act of freeing by paying a ransom price	Luk 1:68; Luk 2:38; Heb 9:12
apolytrosis (noun)	A buying back, a setting free by paying a ransom price	Luk 21:28; Rom 3:24; Rom 8:23; 1Co 1:30; Eph 1:7; Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30; Col 1:14; Heb 9:15; Heb 11:35

The immediate result of our liberation from sin’s slavery is that God has forgiven our sins (Gr. paraptoma, false steps, transgressions).

Jesus Christ’s death accomplished our redemption. This was the extent to which God was willing to go for us. God’s grace was that great. The gift of Jesus Christ did not exhaust the supply of God’s grace, however (cf. Php 4:19). Rather that gift is an evidence of the extent of God’s favor to us (cf. Eph 1:5).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)