Daily Devotionals

Discovering Christ Day by Day

Devotional: June 10th

Today’s Reading: Job 32-36

“I have found a ransom!”

Job 33:24

There is much to be learned from Elihu, but nothing more precious than this. — In Christ our Surety God found a ransom for our souls. In the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, he found a ransom for his chosen people. By the substitutionary sacrifice of his own well-beloved Son in the place of his people, the Lord God found a way to punish sin to the satisfaction of his divine Justice, and to be gracious in saving every believer. By this one mighty, all-sufficient, sin-atoning ransom, he would be perfectly just, while at the same time justifying every believer.

Satisfaction Demanded

God’s purpose of grace in predestination, and his execution of that purpose in providence is according to his sovereign choice of his people unto salvation in Christ before the world began in eternal election (Ephesians 1:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14; 1 Peter 1:2). Not only did the Lord God choose to save us, our heavenly Father found a way to save us that is altogether consistent with and honoring to his own glorious holiness, justice, and truth.

Love chose us; but justice demanded satisfaction. Mercy resolved to spare us; but truth said, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Grace cried, “Forgive!” But holiness insisted, “Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. It must be perfect to be accepted.”

Our heavenly Father looked on his darling Son, who stepped forward as our voluntary Surety, willing to become a man and live the full age of a man for the fulfilment of all righteousness, and die as a Substitute for us for the satisfaction of divine justice. The Father himself, willing to sacrifice his dear Son for us, looked upon his Holy One and said, Eureka! Looking upon the whole, innumerable multitude of his elect as one in Christ, he was gracious and cried, “Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.”

A Divine Work

This ransom was the invention of divine wisdom. Only the infinite mind of the eternal God could or would have devised such a gracious and just plan to save fallen man. Truly, the cross of Christ gloriously displays the manifold wisdom of God. Only by this mighty, sin-atoning ransom could the prophecy be fulfilled — “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven...Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.”

Infinite Love

This ransom was the gift of infinite love. — “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” — “God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” — “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” The price of our ransom was the precious blood of Christ. Justice could demand no more, and love could give no more than the precious blood of Christ. — “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!”

This ransom has been fully paid. Just before he breathed out his spirit, our Lord Jesus cried triumphantly, “It is finished!” Those words simply mean, “The ransom is paid, redemption is complete.” By his mighty atoning sacrifice, our Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied the law of God, honored the justice of God, brought in everlasting righteousness, and put away all the sins of all who will ever trust him. God neither requires, nor will he accept anything from the sinner to complete the work. Christ has done it all:

And this ransom is gloriously effectual. Every soul that was purchased from the hands of divine justice by the blood of Christ must be saved by divine power. The very justice of God demands it. In the fulness of time the Lord will “Deliver him from going down to the pit,” saying, “I have found a ransom!”

“Love found a way to redeem my soul,

Love found a way that could make me whole;

Love sent my Lord to the cross of shame,

Love found a away - O praise His name!”

The gospel of God has the stamp of Divinity upon it. No form of religion in the world, except that which is found in the Book of God, sets forth salvation by God himself sacrificing his own darling Son in the place of sinners. No man ever invented such a thing. Substitutionary atonement for chosen sinners by the incarnate God could never have been conceived, except in the mind of God’s infinite wisdom. The gospel sprang from the heart of that God whose name is “Love!” Again, I say, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!”