The Laws of Redemption: by S. Jones

THE LAWS OF REDEMPTION

By Dr. Stephen Jones:  3-20-2019

Another provision in the law by which such debts can be paid is found in the laws of redemption. In such cases a near kinsman may act as the debtor’s redeemer, paying the debt on his behalf (Leviticus 25: 47-49). The redeemer, in essence, purchases the debt note of the debtor. The debt is transferred to the redeemer, and the redeemed debtor now must work for the redeemer until the debt is paid (Lev. 25: 53).

Jesus came to earth as a near-kinsman (Heb. 2: 11) in order to have the lawful right of redemption. He purchased our debt note, for Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7: 23 that “you were bought with a price.” Paul also says of redeemed people in Romans 6: 22,

“But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”

In other words, the debtor-sinner has been freed from the old taskmaster (sin) in order to serve his Redeemer.  The Redeemer teaches him how to be law-abiding rather than lawless and how to be led by the Spirit for his sanctification.

Jesus did not redeem us to give us the right to continue serving sin. In other words, He did not purchase for us the right to be disobedient to His law. He purchased us in order that we might serve Him and learn righteousness, “resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”

During that final age of judgment upon the sinners, the believers will inherit the earth (Matthew 5: 5). These believers are the Body of Christ. They are the sons of God, who manifest Christ fully in His character and in His works. As such, they will receive a sacred responsibility of doing what He did. At the Great White Throne, the Judge of all the earth will sentence all unbelieving sinners by imposing upon them the debt incurred for every sin they ever committed. All sinners will be held fully accountable according to their deeds, as Revelation 20: 12 and 13 clearly tell us.

However, the law also mandates that there must always be provision for redemption of the land or any portion of it. Leviticus 25: 23, 24 says,

23 The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners  with Me. 24

Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.

All men are made of the dust of the ground, beginning with Adam (Gen. 2: 7). God owns all the land, including us, by right of creation. And so, the law above applies to all mankind. There must always be a provision for redemption of the land. God’s only justification for this law is on the grounds that He owns all the land and therefore has the right to set the terms of men’s inheriting His land.

Since God will judge the whole earth according to His law, this provision is very important. It gives us the basic outline of what life will be like during that final age of judgment. Redeemers will purchase their debt note and thereby receive authority over the sinners. This sheds light on Jesus’ parable in Luke 19, where He spoke of the righteous receiving authority over ten cities, or five, or even just one city. Who will they rule? What will be the basis of their authority?

The answer is in the law, which prophesies that which shall be. The righteous will be given authority over debtors to the law— those who did not avail themselves of Jesus’ provision to pay their debt. The sinners will be placed as servants of the sons of God.

The sons of God will receive authority, but also the responsibility to teach them righteousness. As we saw earlier in Romans 6: 22 in Paul’s application of the laws of redemption, the purpose of redemption was “sanctification and the outcome, eternal life.” Thus, each believer who inherits the earth will act as a redeemer (under Christ, of course) and be given authority over a certain number of judged sinners. These will serve out their sentences as “slaves of righteousness.”

The believers’ responsibility will be to teach the sinners the love of God and His ways. Isaiah 26: 9, quoted earlier, says, “When the earth experiences Thy judgments, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.” How will they learn? The believers will teach them through discipline when necessary, but always in love. In many ways it will be like parents training children by combining love with discipline.

These debtors, the law says, must serve their redeemers until their debt is paid, or until the Jubilee. In past times when the Law of God was enforced in the land of Israel, the sinner was held accountable for what he did overtly. The sinner was then restored to grace insofar as the nation was concerned, but such judgment did not address the underlying heart problem that all men received from Adam. Thus, the judgment was limited in its scope, and so also the grace and forgiveness that the sinner received.

But in that final age of judgment, God will address these deeper issues. The judgment must address not only the sins of the individual sinners, but also the debt of their fathers all the way back to Adam. Romans 5: 12 tells us that because of Adam’s sin, death (mortality) passed into all men— which means that all men are paying for Adam’s sin and not merely their own sins. We are born mortal because of something Adam did. This is the deeper issue that puts us all in need of a Redeemer.

Those who did not take advantage of Jesus’ redemptive work on the Cross must yet find redeemers at the Great White Throne, for there is no way they will be able to pay the debt that they owe. Theoretically, perhaps, some good people might be able to pay their debt, especially if they died young without doing much wrong to their neighbors. Will such people be able to pay their debt to the law within a few years? Yes— however, they will also still be liable for the original sin of Adam, even as we see today. This debt is unpayable, and so they will have to serve their redeemers until that final Jubilee mandates the cancellation of all debt. Hence, the Jubilee law mandates inLeviticus 25: 54,

54 Even if he is not redeemed by these means, he shall still go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his sons with him.

The unbelievers are still the children of the first Adam, who received this liability for sin that resulted in mortality. Only believers have become the children of the Last Adam, Jesus Christ. And so, all unbelievers will have to remain under the authority of the sons of God until the year of Jubilee. Then all creation— Adam and his sons with him— will be set free into the glorious liberty of the sons of God (Rom. 8: 21).

The Jubilee

The Jubilee occurred every 49 years (Lev. 25: 8-17). However, on this highest level, I believe that the Jubilee will occur at the end of 49,000 years of human history. (We are currently at the end of just 6,000 years and awaiting our first millennial Sabbath-rest.)

The Creation Jubilee will set all men free, for all debt to the law will be cancelled. Until that time arrives, however, they will have to remain under authority until the Jubilee. During that time, the saints in authority will teach them righteousness.

The Jubilee law was designed to limit all debt to the law for sin. Men’s traditions are thus not as merciful as God’s law. Men would have sinners punished harshly, and many Church traditions would have sinners pay their debt perpetually in fiery torture with no possible end. God’s law, on the other hand, includes mercy and forgiveness. All debt incurred by sin ends at the Jubilee.

The law of Jubilee applies to more serious crimes where a debt is so large that it cannot be paid. The same spirit of the law applies to lesser offences, for we read in Deuteronomy 25: 1-3,

1 If there is a dispute between men and they go to court, and the judges decide their case, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, 2 then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall then make him lie down and be beaten in his presence with the number of stripes according to his guilt. 3 He may beat him forty times but no more, lest he beat him with many more stripes than these, and your brother be degraded in your eyes.

Jesus referred to this law in Luke 12: 42-49. There we are told that God’s faithful stewards will be made rulers over all His possessions (12: 44). But the unjust servants who oppressed their fellow servants will be beaten according to their guilt. Those who sinned in ignorance will be beaten with few stripes; those who sinned with full knowledge of what they were doing will receive many stripes— that is, up to forty.

What is of interest to us here is that once the judgment has been administered, the sinner is to be set free— not burned in hell. In fact, Jesus concludes His parable by telling us that this judgment of the law is a FIRE. Verse 49 says,

49 I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled.

Let us not think that Jesus wished to bring people into the torture hell-fire as many understand it. His wish was to restore the earth by means of lawful judgments, but that time had not yet come.

Incidentally, in the passage in Luke 12 above, Jesus was not referring to unbelievers being judged in the lake of fire. He was referring to believers who will be “saved, yet so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3: 15). As we have shown in The Barley Overcomers as well as in The Laws of the Second Coming, there are two resurrections. The first is at the beginning of the thousand-year Sabbath millennium (Rev. 20: 1-6) that is the time that the overcomers will receive immortality and eonian life (life in “The Age”). The general resurrection at the end of that thousand years will include all the dead who did not attain to that first resurrection. This second resurrection will include both believers and unbelievers, as Jesus taught us in John 5: 28 and 29,

28 Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, 29 and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

Jesus was NOT describing the first resurrection, wherein we see a resurrection of only the few who will rule and reign with Christ during the thousand years (Rev. 20: 6). He can only be referring to the second, general resurrection, which will empty Hades. In this resurrection, Jesus says, some will receive life (immortality), while others will receive judgment (the lake of fire). Paul affirms this in his testimony before Governor Felix in Acts 24: 15.

Christian believers who are “saved yet so as through fire” will not be cast into the “lake of fire,” but they will be judged on some level according to the fiery law. Since it is the same law that will judge both the believers and the unbelievers, both are said to be a “fire.” But the believers will be judged by the “few stripes” or “many stripes,” and this is of short duration. God treats them as disobedient (lawless) children who need some discipline because they refused to be obedient to His law after Christ had redeemed them.

The unbelievers, however, will be judged for more serious crimes. Theirs is the “lake of fire,” which will only end at the Jubilee when all creation comes into the glorious liberty of the sons of God (Rom. 8: 21).