2.03.11. Bought with a price

XI. BOUGHT WITH A PRICE.

"But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” — 1 Peter 1:15-19.

T is an interesting study to search in the words of the Lord Jesus for the germs of all the doctrines which the apostles subsequently repeated and expanded. Peter intimates that it was in “ ignorance “ that the former lusts retained their power. He learned this from the Master at Jacob’s well. The Samaritan woman, previously to her interview with Jesus, had led a wild, impure life; but she knew no better till that eventful day. The words of the Lord are very full and precise on this point: “ If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” An invitation to holiness is enforced by an appeal to the holiness of God. Here again the Master has given the cue to his servant in one of the beatitudes, — “ Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Mark the sweep of the precept: the compass is planted in the centre, and the circle drawn round the circumference of a life. The demand is, “Be holy in all manner of conversation.” The meaning is, in all your intercourse with men, in every turning of your history. At home, or abroad; with your own family, or in presence of strangers; at work, or enjoying relaxation; at church, or in the market; — wherever you may be, or however employed, let lips and life be holiness to the Lord. A life is like a stream issuing from a mountain-lake. The water cannot be of different colours at different places. It cannot be pure at one spot and turbid a few yards further on. If the fountain be transparent, the outflowing stream will be clear over all its breadth. The holiness that is put on, as suitable at certain times and in certain places, is not holiness; it is hypocrisy. When the streams of a life, as they dispread themselves over the individual history, are found, like the waters of Jericho, to be all bitter, it is not possible, by any medicament, to sweeten portions of them here and there, where travellers may be expected to taste them. There is only one way of cure: a certain salt must be cast into the spring, and then all the water that flows over its brim will be wholesome — all wholesome alike. “ Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit withm me.” The warning is addressed to the children of God’s family; and the exhortation to sobriety is enforced by the consideration that they salute as Father him who judges without respect of persons. Neither mistrust of the Father nor jealousy of any brother should have place in this house.

Favouritism is a fatal flaw in parental discipline. Seen, or even suspected, it ruins all. But there is no such flaw in the Divine administration. There is great variety of treatment, indeed; but all is regulated by wisdom and love. Absolute confidence in the Father’s fairness should banish all fretting from the children’s hearts. This is not your home; it is only a sojourn. The heirs, detained for a time in a strange country, should be watchful lest they contract relations and habits inconsistent with their station and prospects. To make their actual life solid and true, he bids them remember that they have been redeemed. Here the melody touches the key-note of all Scripture, — redemption is the power that purifies and elevates a life. In entire accordance with this representation, the aspect of redemption presented is deliverance from a frivolous course. True it is that when any one is, in the gospel sense, “ redeemed,” he is no longer under condemnation; the sentence of guilt is removed, and he is at peace with God. But an immediate fruit and uniform accompaniment of that blood-bought pardon is an emancipation from the bondage of vain and vicious habits of life. “ If the Son make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Those of the Christians who were of Jewish origin were delivered from the intolerable load of rabbinical traditions which had ensnared their consciences and fossilized their lives; and those who were converted Gentiles had escaped the still more debasing idolatry of the heathen, whether Phenician or Greek.

There was no emancipation without a ransom; and the price was not paid in silver and gold. In presence of the ransom actually provided, even these are deemed “ corruptible things.” Their souls were redeemed from death, and their life on earth from vanity, by “ the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” The expressions point to the Passover lamb and the exodus from Egypt. Although Israel were a nation that God had chosen and called, they languished in slavery, their days were wasted in making bricks for their masters. Many terrible judgments were sent upon Egypt; but these strokes did not break the captive’s chain — they seemed only to weld its links more firmly on his limbs. After the nine plagues had come and gone, emancipation seemed as far distant as ever. Then was the lamb’s blood shed and sprinkled on the lintels: a nation of slaves, helpless under the tyrant’s hand, but obedient to the word of the Redeemer, crept beneath the sprinkled blood at night, and went out free with a high hand in the morning.

Beautiful and articulate symbol of the true redemption.

Terrors of the Lord in succession may tear the flesh and dry up the bones; a law work may keep the conscience for years like the sea in a storm; and yet there may be no peace and no liberty. Without shedding of blood there is no exodus, either to Israel or to us. The law may become a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ; but Christ only can save. I suppose Saul of Tarsus was as much racked and shaken by his self-righteous struggle as Egypt by the nine plagues. The law of God on one side, with the long array of merits on the other to meet it, — the circumcision, and the birth, and the tithes, and the phylacteries, and the long prayers, and the persecuting zeal. There they fought, these mighty adversaries, and poor Saul, body and soul, was the battle-field for contending powers. “ O wretched man that I am!” At last came a peace as sudden and as great as the calm that came over the Sea of Galilee when Jesus said, “Peace, be still.” But when he cast away all his grand array of merits — cast them away with intense disgust — we do not find that lie gathered up another list of better attainments in their stead: “ I count all but loss, that I may win Christ, and be found in him” In room of all he obtained one only; but that one was enough. He learned first in his own experience what he afterwards taught to the alarmed jailer, — “ Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”