Redeemed by Blood; Rev. 5:9
Revelation 5:9 NASB
“And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to
take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God
with Your blood {men} from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.’”
Four points of introduction on the
significance of redemption
1)
Redemption is the
underlying image of salvation. From the Old Testament to the New Testament the
underlying image of what takes place on the cross is redemption. Justification,
regeneration, forgiveness are terms that affect the application of Christ’s
redemptive work to the individual believer.
2)
The importance of
redemption is that a price has been paid. That is what redeemed means. It is
that which makes everything else possible because a price has been paid.
Because that price/penalty is paid on the cross the Father’s justice is
propitiated.
3)
The redemption
price is paid in full. We see this in John 19here the last thing Jesus says
before He dies is TETELESTAI [tetelestai],
“If is finished,” a perfect tense verb indicating a transaction that has
already been completed, already finished, and it has results that go on. It was
something that in the Greek word would be written on the bottom of a bill, that
it was paid, nothing else could be done or added to
it.
4)
The redemption
price was paid by a perfect human being who alone could die as our substitute.
Results of Redemption
1)
The judgment of
the law is that no one can keep the law. From Galatians
2)
Redemption is the
foundation for the forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14.
Forgiveness is the application whereas redemption is the payment of a price.
Forgiveness is distinct from redemption but redemption is the basis for
forgiveness.
3)
Redemption is the
basis for our justification, Romans 3:24. In redemption Christ paid the penalty
for all sin, but justification is an application. When we put our faith alone
in Christ alone the first thing that happens after that is that God imputes,
reckons to us the righteousness of Christ. Then He declares us to be just
because you possess the perfect righteousness of Christ. But that is
application. Before that can happen the sins have to
be paid for.
4)
Redemption, then,
is the basis for our sanctification. Ephesians 5:25-27. This is the application
of all of this to spiritual growth. We are positionally
sanctified by being placed in Christ, but there is still the matter of
spiritual growth and spiritual growth takes place as a result of learning the
Word of God.
5)
Redemption is the
basis for the eternal inheritance of believers. We see this in the study of
Revelation because we are redeemed the redeemed have a future role with Jesus
Christ in the future kingdom. But there will be those believers who will have
no inheritance in the kingdom because they never grow.
6)
Redemption is the
basis for the strategic victory of Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict. What
Jesus Christ did on the cross not only relates to what happens in the salvation
of the human race but also deals with the consequences of sin in all of the
universe that came out of Satan’s original sin, Because of Jesus Christ’s
redemptive work on the cross He is able to come back at the second coming, able
to establish His kingdom, able to roll back the curse in the Millennial kingdom
and then eventually destroy the present heavens and earth which is scarred by
sin, create a new heavens and earth which will go on into eternity.
7)
Redemption of the
soul in salvation results eventually in redemption of the body in resurrection,
and also redemption of the planet. Ephesians 1:14; Romans 8:23; Ephesians 4:30.
8)
Redemption views
salvation from the standpoint of the complete payment of our sins, the option
of believing in Jesus Christ for eternal life.
9)
Since the
believer has been bought by Christ we now belong to Christ, He is our master.
This is, as it were, the application. Redemption is very important because it
is the foundation of everything in application to our salvation. But for the
believer it goes a step further, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:20 NASB
“For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
This drives it home to the believer after salvation. It is the imagery of
slavery. We were in the slave market of sin; Jesus Christ came and purchased
us. We did not become free agents, we just shifted masters. We went from being
under the dominion of the sin nature and in the dominion of Satan to being in
the
As we look at our passage in
Revelation chapter five, verse 9, we see that there is another phrase that is
frequently associated with redemption. The song that the twenty-four elders
were singing says, “[You have] purchased for God with Your blood {men}.” That
is the payment price that is given again and again in Scripture.
E.W Bullinger, in his book “Figures
of Speech in the Bible,” writes: “In the New testament the expression ‘the
blood of Christ’ is the figure metalepsis, because for t the blood is put by synectity for blood-shedding, i.e. the death of Christ as
distinct from his life. Then His [physical] death is put for spiritual death perfect
satisfaction made by it for all the merits of the atonement affected by it,
i.e. it means not merely the actual blood corpuscles, neither does it means His
death as an act, but the merit of the atonement affected by it and associated
with it.”
Scholars who are students of
language and how language works clearly understand how this phrase, “blood of
Christ,” is nothing more than a figure of speech that stands for what took
place on the cross between twelve noon and 3pm, when darkness covered the face
of the earth and God the Farther imputed to the Son the sins of humanity. And
it was only after that was done when He is separated from the Father and cries
out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” that it is finished—only at
the conclusion of that. John tells us twice that it was finished. The double
use of TETELESTAI there in two verses emphasizes the fact that before Jesus
died physically, before the Roman soldier put the spear into His side and the
blood and the water flowed out took place, sins were paid for on the cross and
the work of redemption was over. Crucifixion is not a bloody death, it is a
death by asphyxiation, and it was designed in many cases to last for two or
three days. In the case of Christ it only lasted a few hours, because once His
work was accomplished He willingly, voluntarily, gave up His spirit and died
physically. But the physical death was not what was related to the atoning work
on the cross. What took place on the cross was spiritual; it was a spiritual
atonement.
The term “blood of Christ” is
used again and again in Scripture, it is a legitimate way to talk about what
Christ did no the cross.
Acts 20:28 NASB “Be
on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His
own blood.”
Romans 5:9 NASB “Much
more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the
wrath {of God} through Him.”
Romans
Ephesians 1:7 NASB
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”
Ephesians
Colossians
Hebrews 9:14 NASB “how
much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God?”
Hebrews
Hebrews 10:4 NASB “For
it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” He takes
away our sins.
Hebrews
1 Peter 1:18, 19 NASB
“knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold
from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,
But this imagery goes back
to the Old Testament.
1) The phrase “blood of Christ” or “His blood” or “the
blood of the Lamb” is a common biblical phrase describing the death of Christ.
Five times it is used in the book of Revelation, ten times in the book of
Hebrews.
2)
Unfortunately this is
often a misunderstood phrase and people who ought to know better take it as a
literal description. We must understand that under the principles of literal
interpretation, which means that we understand the Bible in terms of the plain,
normal use of language, we clearly recognize the use of figures of speech. This
includes metaphors and similes, personification, hyperbole, and other figures
of speech. There are clearly understood idioms in the Bible and that is why we
have to interpret the Bible by the time in which it was written.
3)
Following the basic
rules of word study we see that throughout the Old Testament the phrase “shedding
of blood” takes its meaning from the original murder of Abel by Cain. He sheds
his blood. In that case there was a literal shedding of blood because he used a
sacrificial knife in order to kill his brother Abel. But there is an extension
of this to all kinds of wrongful death. Genesis 9:4 sows an extension of this
where blood is related to life: NASB “Only you shall not eat flesh
with its life, {that is,} its blood.” Blood therefore stand for life. The
shedding of blood is an idiom, then, that means the loss of life. Genesis 9:6 NASB
“Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be
shed, For in the image of God He made man.” This is the foundational verse for
capital punishment, and it has never been rescinded. It is part of the Naohic covenant which not only promised that God would not
destroy the earth by water but that whoever shed man’s blood, by man would his
blood be shed. The shedding of blood is talking about violent murder, not that
it has to literally be bloodshed.
4)
This is clearly
recognized in the standard, scholarly Greek lexicons. The blood of Christ
stands for the life of Christ that He gave for our atonement. This is a term
picturing the violent loss of life, but the loss of physical life stands for
His spiritual substitutionary death.