Ruth 4:14-15. Kinsman Redeemer, part 7.

Wednesday July 18, 2018

 

Qualifications for a kinsman redeemer:

Near kinsman - The Son of God became a man.

Able to redeem -Jesus remained impeccable.

Willing to redeem - He wilfully laid down His life.

 

Last time we closed with the fact that when the Lord comes to our aid, He comes with truth. When that truth is believed, God the Holy Spirit works His power within us enabling us to see the lie that sin is all about and say no to temptation as our Lord did.

 

This leads us to the second qualification of our Lord as Redeemer. He remained impeccable.

 

The Lord overcame every single temptation, and this is what qualified Him as Redeemer. The K-R must be able to pay.

 

As the God-Man He was qualified as a perfect Mediator and He did so willingly.

 

2CO 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

 

2CO 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

 

1PE 2:18 Servants, be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

 

1PE 2:19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

 

1PE 2:20 For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.

 

1PE 2:21a For you have been called for this purpose [to do what is right and suffer for it and patiently endure it],

 

If suffering doesn’t come from the persecution of others, it may come from the sin nature’s resistance to doing what is right, and it may also come from the loss incurred from sacrificing time or material.

 

We must accept the fact that in doing what is right we will often suffer in some way, whether that feeling is minor or major.

 

1PE 2:21b since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,

 

1PE 2:22 who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth;

 

1PE 2:23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;

 

1PE 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

 

1PE 2:25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

 

Jesus was a perfect high priest, holy, innocent (without evil), undefiled (unstained, sinless), according to the order of Melchizedek.

 

HEB 7:26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens;

 

HEB 7:27 who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.

 

HEB 7:28 For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.

 

To understand this passage, we must understand the chapter. What is the priesthood of Melchizedek and why is it important?

 

There is something very important in this doctrine concerning the life of the OT saint vs. the life of the NT saint. We are redeemed and under the New Covenant. The OT saints were under the Mosaic Law, having only a shadow of the things to come, and were looking forward to their redemption, which, like righteousness, was credited to them, their sins covered through ritual cleansing of blood, waiting, through faith, for the time when the Redeemer would actually perform the one sacrifice.

 

The OT saints had a priesthood of the tribe of Levi and through the line or genealogy of Aaron. There were many priests because priests of Aaron all die. They were imperfect men, imperfect morally, and what they did ceremonially did not cleanse anyone, perfect anyone, or bring anyone to maturity.

 

What is the maturity of an OT saint? Maturity is a relative term. We can always be more mature. But what is the maturity of an OT saint compared to a NT saint? What the NT saint possesses in power and wisdom far exceeds the OT saint. What he has in position in Christ has no equivalent in the OT. The maturity of the NT saint should be and is far superior, since it is composed of wisdom and power.

 

As with 1Pe, 1Jo also relates the sinless sacrifice by Christ on behalf of us to our own maturity.

 

1JO 3:5-6

And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.

 

Our study of Melchizedek will help us to see the difference between sinlessness, which no man besides Christ can be, and spiritual maturity, which every church age believer is called to be.

 

This will also help you to love your Redeemer more and more. There is something about your Redeemer, many things, that should not be quickly passed over in the pursuit of finishing doctrines. We will never be done with doctrines. On this journey of study, slow down, look out the windows, take it all in, and enjoy every aspect of the ride.

 

The Kinsman Redeemer comes to your aid. He pays for you and sets you free. We have full bellies, warm beds, laws that protect our freedoms and are enforced. We are healthy, rested, and protected. It is hard for us to understand what slavery might be like. However, we are saved, delivered, and set free from the tyranny of sin and death.

 

There are instances of great slavery and injustice in our world. In light of this, this darkness that waits to spring forth in any place and generation, I read from The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn in his chapter on Interrogation.

 

“It seems a virtual fairy tale that somewhere, at the ends of the earth, an accused person can avail himself of a lawyer’s help. This means having beside you in the most difficult moment of your life a clear-minded ally who knows the law.

 

An indictment is presented: “Sign it!” “It’s not true.” “Sign.” “But I’m not guilty of anything!” It turns out that you are being indicted under the provision of Articles 58-10, Part 2, and 58-11 of the Criminal Codes of the Russian Republic. “Sign!” “But what do these sections say? Let me read the Code!” “I don’t have it.” “Well, get it from your department head!” “He doesn’t have it either. Sign!” “But I want to see it.” “You are not supposed to see it. It isn’t written for you but for us. You don’t need it. I’ll tell you what it says: these sections spell out exactly what you are guilty of.”

 

No one was ever allowed to see the Criminal Code or the Code of Criminal Procedure. They actually were not released to the public until long after the regime of Stalin.

 

Solzhenitsyn has already listed dozens of methods of torture, both psychological and physical that they use to get you to sign.

 

“The loneliness of the accused! That was one more factor in the success of unjust interrogation! The entire apparatus threw its full weight on one lonely and inhibited will. From the moment of his arrest and throughout the entire shock period of the interrogation the prisoner was, ideally, to be kept entirely alone. In his cell, in the corridor, o the stairs, in the offices, he was not supposed to encounter others like himself, in order to avoid the risk of his gleaning a bit of sympathy, advice, support from someone’s smile or glance. The Organs did everything to blot out for him his future and distort his present: to lead him to believe that his friends and family had all been arrested and that material proof of his guilt had been found. It was their habit to exaggerate their power to destroy him and those he loved as well as their authority to pardon (which they didn’t even have). They pretended that there was some connection between the sincerity of a prisoner’s “repentance” and a reduction in his sentence or an easing of camp regimen (No such connection ever existed) While the prisoner was still in a state of shock and torment and totally beside himself, they tried to get from him very quickly as many irreparably damaging items of evidence as possible and to implicate with him as many totally innocent persons as possible. Some defendants became so depressed in these circumstances that they even asked not to have the depositions read to them. They could not stand hearing them. They asked merely to be allowed to sign them and get it over with. Only after all this was over would thee prisoner be released from solitary into a large cell, where, in belated desperation, he would discover and count over his mistakes one by one.”

 

He goes on to say that when the prison system got overcrowded, they used the opposite method and put 15 prisoners in a cell made for one and 140 in a cell made for 25 and left them for days allowing prisoners to torture prisoners. That was in 1938 and 1945.

 

Most of us have no experience with that, thank God, but what will it be to be separated from God forever in the Lake of Fire? What have we each been redeemed from. Hallelujah, we are free!