Let us turn once again to God's
Word and return to that portion that we read in the New Testament.
Paul's first epistle to Timothy. Our text is found in the 2nd
chapter at verse 6. 1st Timothy chapter 2 and verse
6. who gave himself a ransom for
all to be testified in due time. In 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse
6. And of course the person being
spoken of here is the Lord Jesus Christ as we see from the previous
verse. For there is one God and one
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave
himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. In verse 5 then we see something
of Christ in his office as the mediator. the only one by whom
the sinner can approach unto God, the one who himself declared
in the course of his earthly ministry, I am the way, the truth
and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. And here in this fifth verse
Paul reminds us that there is but one God One only living and
true God and but one mediator between God and men. How often is this particular
verse misquoted? It doesn't say man, and yet that's
how so many quote it. One mediator between God and
man. as if there is a mediator between
God and mankind in general. But you will observe how that the noun is in the plural. It
literally says between God and men. That means he's the mediator
for certain men, not for all men. He's not the one who is
the mediator for all the worlds. We see how the Lord Jesus himself,
in the course of that great high priestly prayer that's recorded
in the 17th chapter of John, doesn't pray, doesn't intercede,
he doesn't mediate for all. But there he says in verse 9,
I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me, for they are thine. Again, at verse 20,
neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their works. He is a mediator then for certain
men, but not for all men. And when we think of him in that
office that he has as the great high priest, the one who has
made a sacrifice for sinners, which is of course a very significant
part of the priest's work. In the Old Testament the priests
were to offer sacrifices unto God. But besides that the priest
was also one who would intercede on behalf of the people and so
the Lord Jesus as a priest both sacrifices and intercedes. And we see how the two parts
of that priestly work of the Lord Jesus Christ are brought
together. There in the language of Romans
8 and verse 34 who is he that condemneth, it is Christ that
died, yea, rather that he is risen again, who is even at the
right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Why, he
who died, who made the sacrifice, is the one who also intercedes,
and as he intercedes for a particular people, and not for all men,
so also is sacrifice was for a particular people even those
that the father had given to him in the eternal covenant. Well here in the words that we've
named as our text this morning we see the Lord Jesus first of
all as that one who is the great mediator, but as the mediator
we are reminded how he has come to make redemption to pay the
price that will ransom the sinner. One God, one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for
all. And it's these words, particularly
these words at the beginning of this sixth verse, that I want
to center your attention upon for a while this morning. and
to say something with regards to this great doctrine of redemption,
the ransom price that the Lord Jesus Christ has paid, and to
consider the ransom under a twofold division. First of all, to say
something with regards to satisfaction and then secondly to consider
something of substitution. These two aspects of that great
work of redemption. First of all, we need to recognize
our satisfaction lies at the very heart of the work of redemption. To whom was this ransom price
paid? Paul says quite clearly that
the Lord Jesus is the one who gave himself a ransom. He gave himself a ransom for
all. Now, to whom was that price paid? Some imagine that the ransom
was paid to the devil. That is an erroneous idea, that's
an heretical idea. Satan is but a usurper. We read of him there at the end
of the second chapter in Paul's second letter to Timothy. He
speaks of those that may recover themselves out of the snare of
the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. How he has come as that one who
will usurp the place of God. And we have it, of course, recorded
quite clearly in the opening chapters of Scripture where we
read of God's great work of creation. And how man stands there at the
apex of all that work of creation, made in the image created after
the likeness of God. How he is set over all God's
works of creation. But how Satan comes by means
of the serpent and tempts the woman there in the Garden of
Eden. And now, both she and her husband
are deceived by Satan. He will usurp the position of
God. We're reminded of that at the
end of this chapter that we read. Adam was first formed, then Eve.
Adam was not deceived. but the woman being deceived
was in the transgression it says or the sad history that we have
there in that third chapter of the book of Genesis and Satan
himself coming and tempting the woman the woman
partaking of that forbidden fruit and as she gives to her husband
Adam and with open eyes he partakes Both of them then are in the
transgression. So some say that the price of
man's redemption must be paid to Satan, but that is not the
case. As I said, he is but a usurper. It is God who must be satisfied. It is God's justice that must
be satisfied. And we read that remarkable portion
at the end of Job 33. Those words that speak of God
finding a redemption. He says concerning man, deliver
him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom. Remarkable portion that we have
those words of of Elijah all really that he says at the
end of that particular chapter is worth a careful consideration
if there be a messenger with him an interpreter one among
a thousand to show unto man his uprightness then he is gracious
unto him and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit, I
have found a ransom. Now he looketh upon men, it says,
and if any say, I have sinned and perverted that which was
right, and he profited me not, he will deliver his soul from
going into the pit, and his life shall see the light. all that
ransom has been paid to God. God's justice is that that has
been satisfied. It is the justice of God that
must be satisfied. When the man Moses asks to see
something of the glory of God, remember at the end of Exodus
chapter 33 and God comes and God graciously reveals himself,
declares himself declares all his name unto Moses that he is
merciful and gracious and long-suffering but there in that revelation,
in that declaration of God in Exodus chapter 34 we also see
that God is the one who will by no means clear the guilty
he cannot wink at sins He is holy, he is righteous, he is
just, and the punishment must be meted out. God's justice demands
satisfaction, and so we have those various statements in Scripture. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. there is a price to be paid,
there is a ransom that the law of God demands. All law condemns
and law curses those who are the transgressors. Look at the
language that we have in the Old Testament at the end of Deuteronomy
chapter 27, Cursed be he that Confirmeth not, it says. Cursed
be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. If the law is not done, there
is a curse upon those who fall short. Again in the New Testament
it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do them. There is a price
to be paid. God's holy law must be satisfied. Though God be a gracious God
and a merciful God, we must never lose sight of those other attributes
in God that He is the Holy One. He is the righteous God. He is
the just God. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ
who by His death has come and paid that ransom price. By His death Christ is the one
who has redeemed His people from that awful curse of the broken
law. They had broken the law. They
were the transgressors. They had not confirmed it by
doing it. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the
very one who did confirm it all by the obedience of his sinless
life, then dies in their room and in their stead. Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a
throne. Oh, you're satisfied. all God's
holiness and all God's justice. And how has he done it? By the
shedding of his precious blood. What does Peter say? For as much as you know that
you are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but, he says, with the precious blood of Christ. Redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ. Paul says, in whom we have redemption
through His blood. For the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ did speak to us, does it not, of the giving of His
life as that great ransom price, the outpouring of His soul What
does the law say? Without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sins. Now this is the demand that God
in His holiness and in His justice makes. There must be that sacrifice,
that laying down of life and the Lord Jesus Christ is the
one who came to lay down His life and by the shedding of his precious
blood, what was he doing? He was pouring out all of his
soul. Oh, he experienced a very real
death, even that accursed death that was due to those who were
the transgressors of God's holy law. Remember, the soul that
sinneth is to die, and Christ has died, and Christ has died
for the unjust, and by his death he has made a full satisfaction.
That's the wonder of it. That's the wonder of it. Why
when the Apostle Paul addresses those elders of the Ephesian
church, remember the language that we have there in Acts chapter
20. Paul speaks of the church of
God which he has redeemed or purchased with his precious blood. God's church. And how has God's
church been purchased with God's blood? What are we to make of
such a statement of that? Well, it reminds us that the
one who died, the Lord Jesus Christ, is man, yes, but he is
also God. He is the God's man and we must
never, when we consider the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ divide those two natures. Those two natures in that one
blessed person. He is God-man. He is never anything
less than God. As we've said so many times even
in the great mystery of the Incarnation, when God is manifest in the flesh,
that little babe that is born, that that was conceived of the
Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, that human nature
that was joined to the person of the Eternal Son of God, even
as a little babe, so dependent upon His mother as all babies
are. Yet even then He is God, And once incarnate, he never
ceases to be man. Or when he dies upon the cross,
he dies as God-man. When he rises again from the
dead on the third day, he rises as God-man. When he ascends on
high, when he enters into heaven, and even now, at God's right
hand, there is one who is God-man. Here is the great mystery, you
see. Here is that that puts such efficacy into the doing and the
dying of the Lord Jesus. Because all His works, and He
is obedient throughout life, and He is obedient unto death.
In all His work we see the efficacy of His divinity. How He is altogether
satisfied. that holy, righteous justice
of God, when he made that great sacrifice for sins, who gave
himself, it says, a ransom for all. And we think then of this
ransom price in terms of the person who paid the price, who
paid that price to God. now he is fully satisfied all
of God's justice but then turning in the second place to say something
with regards to to the substitution that we also see in redemption
we have satisfaction God is satisfied with the sacrifice that Christ
has made but don't we Do we not also here see in the text the
great truth of substitution? He is dying to atone for sins
not his own. He gave himself, it says, a ransom
for all. For all. And what are we to understand
by this expression, for all? Well, we're not to think here
in an absolute sense. We cannot really. When Christ
died, and that was an historic event, although he is referred
to in the revelation as the Lamb of God slain from the foundation
of the world, there the reference is to that great eternal purpose
of God, that before ever the world before ever time was created. There was that great purpose
of God wherein sinners must be redeemed. There was that eternal
covenant entered into by the persons in the Godhead, that
covenant wherein the Lord Jesus became His Father's servant. And it was in the fullness of
the time that God sent forth His Son made of a woman and made
under the law. The fullness of the time clearly
there is referring to a particular and a specific point in time. The coming of the Lord Jesus
into this world, the dying of the Lord Jesus. These are events
that happened in history. Now, when Christ came to die,
there were those from the Old Testament who had already lived
their lives and died. There were many unbelievers,
evidently unbelievers. Those characters that we read
of in Old Testament Scripture. We read of Cain, and of Esau,
and of Ahab. We read of many wicked men who
had died and after death, the judgment, they had gone into
hell. Did the Lord Jesus Christ die
for those who were already suffering the punishment of their sins? We have to be very careful, you
see, with regards to our understanding and our interpretation of this
word or this expression for all. We're not to think in an absolute
sense, which is everyone. Everyone who had ever lived upon
the face of the earth, clearly not. Because there were those,
as I've said, who had already gone to their appointed place.
But furthermore, we know that it would be most unjust in God
if the punishment was visited upon the Lord Jesus Christ that
those in hell were already suffering that would be a double payment.
How could the Lord Jesus be required to pay the price all over again? It's an impossibility If the substitute is being punished,
while those for whom he is serving as a substitute and a surety,
those sinners cannot be punished. As the top lady so rightly says,
payment God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand, and then again at mine. There is nothing just in that,
that is most unjust. That is a double payment that
is being required. And what do we read concerning
God the Saviour? Why, He Himself declares through
the Prophet Isaiah, There is no God else beside Me, a just
God and a Saviour. There is none beside Me. He is
a Saviour, yes, but He is a just Savior. That is the truth that
He said before us here in Isaiah 45, 21. A just God and a Savior. And so we need, as we come to
consider the words of our text, and in particular this expression
concerning for whom Christ paid the ransom, for whom he died
as a substitute we need to carefully consider this expression for
all for all who gave himself it says a ransom for all now
how are we to understand it well look at the context we must always
do this of course we're never to take any verse of Scripture
and tear it out of its context. We have to see it in its setting,
we have to see it in its immediate context but more than that we
have to see it in the context of the wholeness of the Word
of God what the old writers would call the analogy of faith. Looking
here for a while at the particular chapter in which our text this
morning is found Now what do we read previously
in verse 4? Who will have all men to be saved? Again, you see, simply looking
at that statement in relation to the words of our text, who
gave himself a ransom for all, there are those who would immediately
say, well, it is so evident, is it not, that God desires to
save all men without any exception and the Lord Jesus Christ has
paid the ransom for all men but again let us look more carefully
and more closely at what is actually said there in verse 4 who will
have all men to be saved it says But all men is an expression
that is already used in verse 1. Paul says, I exhort therefore
that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving
of thanks be made for all men. So the expression all men used
in verse 1, surely we're to understand it in exactly the same way when
it's repeated in verse 4, who will have all men to be saved. Now it is evident there, in what
Paul says in verse 1, that all men is a reference to all sorts
of men, all types of men. because he says that prayers
are to be made for all men and he goes on for kings and for
all that are in authority that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty all men means all sorts, all
types, all classes of men even those who are mighty men
those who are in positions of authority, we are to pray for
them we know from what he says writing to the Corinthians that
not many mighty, not many noble are called but there are some
who are called, some who are saved amongst those who are the
mighty men of this world there in 1st Corinthians 1.26 he doesn't
say There are not any mighty, he says, not many of them, but
there are some. There are some men who are the
great men of the earth who are so. We know from what James says
that God has chosen the poor of this world which in fight
and so forth. The majority of those who are
the election of Christ are those who are the poor and the despised
of this world. But there have in history been
some mighty men, some noble men, who have experienced the grace
of God, who have known that effectual call of God. But the point that
we make is simply this, that when we see the expression, all
men, The reference is not to every single individual who has
ever lived upon the face of the earth, but the reference is to
the different sorts and types and classes of men. That's how
we're to understand the world. And then here in verse 4, it
will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge
of the truth, why that knowledge that he is speaking of, of course,
is an experimental knowledge. The Lord Jesus in that prayer,
that great prayer of John 17, that we've already made some
reference to, says that it is life eternal to know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Well, what
is that knowledge? That knowledge of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Why? It's that experimental knowledge,
that knowledge of His life, eternal life. This was Paul's own great
desire constantly, that I may know Him, he says, and the power
of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. being made
conformable unto his death. And Paul had such a desire that
he might know the reality of that vital union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. First of all, he must experience
time and again in his soul the power of his resurrection. No
matter how necessary. He couldn't keep alive his own
soul. He needed that power of the grace of God constantly.
that reviving, that refreshing that comes from the Lord Himself,
the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings,
He says, being made conformable unto His death. Oh, He wanted
that life of Christ to be such in His soul that there was a
dying to self, a dying to sin. He says again, I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."
Oh, he wanted to know that real experience of the life of the
Lord Jesus. He wanted to feel it in his soul
that I may know Him. And this is the knowledge that
we have here. This is the knowledge that sinners
must come to. to know themselves, to know their
sin and yet to know that grace of God which is laid up in the
person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here then coming again to the
words of our text and this expression for all who gave himself a ransom
for all. It's all thoughts. It's all types. It's all classes. It's all ranks
of men. It's not every individual. It's
many. It's a multitude. For even the
Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give His life. A ransom for many. It's a ransom
for many. It's those of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation, as we have it in the book of
Revelation. They are the 144,000 spoken of
in Revelation chapter 7. They are a particular, a specific
people, a definite number of people. And yet, as he goes on
to say there in that 7th chapter of the Revelation, It is a multitude
innumerable. It's that people that the Lord
God Himself has made choice of. The Lord Jesus has come to redeem
then a particular people. Now we know that. We have it
of course in so many portions of Scripture in that great opening
chapter of the Ephesian Epistle. Paul speaks there of God's choice
of His people, verse 4, according as He hath chosen us in Him that
is in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should behold
Him without blame before Him in love having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will 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 according to the riches of His grace. For these who have
redemption in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ are the ones
that God hath chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, the ones that God has predestinated onto the adoption
of children. This is that great work that
the Lord Jesus Christ has done and He has come to ransom sinners,
those that were given to Him by the Father. He has borne that
punishment that was due to their sins. He has satisfied the justice
of God on their vichar now here in the text these words ransom
in fact as a prefix in the original and it literally says if we might
paraphrase the word that is used it's a ransom instead of it's
a ransom in place of. That's the idea, that's what
is suggested by the prefix that is made to this particular noun. It's the very idea of substitution. Christ has been and paid the
price for this particular people. He has died in their room and
in their stead. And He has not done that for
all because if that was done for all then none would ever
suffer eternally in hell. No Christ has died for a particular
number of people. Though here the word all is used
But look again at the context, you see, Paul is speaking of
his ministry and he is that one who is an apostle. That's what he has been called
to as he makes plain in the opening verses of the epistle. But he
is an apostle principally to the Gentiles. who gave himself a ransom for
all to be testified in due time, whereunto I am ordained a preacher
and an apostle. I speak the truth in Christ and
lie not, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity." He quite
deliberately uses the word all because he wants the Jews to
understand that there is salvation for Gentiles. as well as for
Jews there is salvation for all the nations of the earth no more
can it be said as he said in the Old Testament to Israel you
only have I known of all the families of the earth all this substitution is for
sinners but not for all sinners but for those who have been given
unto the Lord Jesus Christ amongst Jews and amongst Gentiles. And these who are believers in
the Lord Jesus Christ, these are the very seed of Abraham. Remember the language of Hebrews
2.16 concerning Christ, verily he took not on him the nature
of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Oh, He comes
to ransom the seed of Abraham and He suffers. He suffers for
them, the just for the unjust to bring these sinners to God. He gave Himself the ransom. Again, let us observe these words
Himself He reminds us of the reality
of his human nature, himself, body and soul, his human life. When God created man, he made
his body out of the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and man became a living soul. Body and soul
belong together. And this is what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. He came and He gave Himself. And we experience the
real death. The separation of body and soul. This is what death is, is it
not? The body returns to the earth
as it was and the Spirit of God who gave it. and there upon the
cross we see how the Lord Jesus Christ utters those words at
the end of all his sufferings into thy hands I commend my spirit
and having said thus we are told he gave up the ghost or he experienced
a real debt he gave himself in all the fullness of that human
nature He was made of a woman. He was made unto the Lord. He was a real man. He came as
that seed of the woman. He was unto the Lord of God.
He gave himself to a life of obedience to all
that Lord of God. Made of a woman, made unto the
Lord, He chose to redeem. To redeem them that were unto
the Lord. that they might receive the adoption
of sons. But then when we have this expression,
himself, it doesn't only remind us of the reality of that human
nature, body and soul, the real himself, it also reminds us of
that union with the divine person of the eternal son of God. Remember what we said just now,
in all that he ever did was God-man. That's the himself. God was manifest
in the flesh. There's not only the union of
body and soul in his human nature, but there's that great mystery
that in this person In the Lord Jesus Christ, there is the divine
nature and there is the human nature. And as we said, we are
not to divide these two because they are united. He is ever and
always, since the incarnation, the God-man, even when he comes
to die. And what a death it was! It was
a voluntary sacrifice that he made when he paid the price of
the sinner's redemption. He gave himself, it says. He gave himself. Therefore doth
my father love me, because I lay down my life, that
I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, it
says. I lay it down of myself. I have
power, I have authority to lay it down. I have power, authority
to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. It was a voluntary sacrifice.
He was the one who made it. He gave himself a ransom. So
willingly. Oh, he loved his own and he loved
them until the end. He loved them to experience all
that bitter death that he must endure at the cross, but it was
not in vain why he purchased their salvation by his dying. What was the effect of that death
that he died when he paid the great ransom price to God? Oh,
there was a sanctifying effect in those for whom he made the
sacrifice. This is what Paul reminds those
Corinthians. There in 1 Corinthians 6 at verse
19, what he asks? What? Know ye not that your body
is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have
of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which
are God's. You are bought with a price. And that's what the believer
is ever to remember. The believer is not his own.
He is that redeemed possession. He belongs to the Lord Jesus
Christ. and if we are those friends who
know anything of that blessed experience to come unto the knowledge
of the truth that is being said before us in this portion of
scripture this morning we come to any true knowledge, any saving
knowledge it will have a sanctifying effect we'll be different men
and women we'll recognize that we're not
our own again remember the language of
the same apostle when he writes there in the 12th chapter of
his epistle to the Romans I beseech you therefore brethren
by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God which is your reasonable
service and be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed
by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Oh, what a statement
is this then that we have in our text this morning, who gave
himself a ransom for all. Dr. Gill remarks that here we
have the sum and substance of the Gospel, who gave himself
a ransom for what is the Gospel. And it is to be testified, it
says, in due time. It's a testimony in due time. It's that Gospel that was proved,
that was proclaimed by the Apostles. It's the Apostolic Gospel in
that sense. Again the language of the Apostle Paul when he addresses
those Ephesian elders there in Acts chapter 20 verse 24 he says none of these
things move me neither can I my life deal unto myself so that
I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I
have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. And now behold, I know that ye
all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God shall see
my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." Oh,
he has declared all God's counsel. How so? because that ministry which he
had received of the Lord was such that he was constantly testifying
to that gospel. To testify the gospel of the
grace of God, he says there at verse 24. It's the same as we
have here at the end of our text to be testified in due time. Oh, He preached. He preached
this blessed truth, the doctrine of redemption, the ransom price
paid by the Lord Jesus and by His dying He has satisfied all
God's holiness, all God's righteousness, all God's justice. And as He made that great satisfaction
for the sin of his people so those for whom he was a substitute they would experience the blessings
of that great salvation well here it is the great doctrine
then of redemption the Lord's willing will come again to consider
something more of the text where we meet again this evening, who
gave himself the ransom for all to be testified in due time. The Lord bless his word to us.
Amen.