Jesus Christ is our Redeemer

RV98-02

The taking of the scroll causes the 24 elders to fall to the floor in worship of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. The great prayer of the saints, that God's will be done on earth as it is done in heaven, is about to be realized, and it sends a reverberation of rejoicing throughout the created universe.

A New Song

In Revelation 4:11, the 24 elders sing a song of praise to the Father. This has to do with the Father's role as Creator. Now, in Revelation 5:9, they sing another song of praise, this time to the Son in His role as Redeemer. This song which they sing is described as one which is "new." That is the Greek word "kainos." "Kainos" is an adjective, and it means "new in respect to form or quality." This is not "new in respect to time." There is a different Greek word for that. What this word means is that this song is different from the usual. It's fresh. That's the idea. It's not new in time, but fresh in quality. It is described as a song. The word in the Greek Bible looks like this: "ode." This word, again, is always used in the New Testament in reference to a song that expresses praise to God.

For example, this is used in Ephesians 5:19: "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." Right there is this word "songs:" "Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." It's the kind of praising that we are to be engaged in – singing songs that express that kind of adoration of the Lord Jesus Christ because of His work as Creator, and because of His work in redemption.

Colossians 3:16 uses this Greek word for "song:" "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." There, the word "song" ("ode") is used in reference to an expression of praise to God.

This song of the elders is new in kind in contrast to an old song which is described in Job 38:7: "When the morning stars sang together (referring to the angelic hosts), and all the sons of God shouted for joy." This old song that Job refers to is the song about creation. It's a song praising God because of His creative work, and it's about the angels being in all that marvelous creation as they saw it brought about.

Revelation 4:11 seems to deal with that old song: "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for You have created all things, and for Your pleasure they are and were created." Here is a song of praise to God specifically for His creative work. That is the old song. It seems that Revelation 5:9, speaking of the new song, is referring to the new creation; that is, the redemption which has been made possible through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. So, you have an old song praising God for the old material creation of the universe. You now have a new song praising God for the new creation of the new birth of the new body of human beings – believers who have become members of the family of God, and thus have become part of a new creation.

There is a new song in the Old Testament connected to deliverance from distress, which gives us a little clue of what the contrast here again is between the old and the new song. The new song in the Old Testament had to deal with the provision of divine salvation. We can look at a couple of those. For example, in Psalm 98:1-6, you have reference to a new song: "O sing unto the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten Him the victory. The Lord has made known His salvation." This is the new song connected with salvation: "He has openly shown His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God." This is the new song connected with salvation: "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all the earth. Make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and the sound of cornet, make a joyful noise before the Lord the King." So, here the psalmist speaks of a new song celebrating God's work in providing salvation for lost sinners. It is indeed a song of redemption.

You have a new song referred to in Psalm 40:1-5. Here, again, we read of a new song celebrating God's work, delivering sinners from the pit of sin, and establishing that sinner on the rock of Bible doctrine truth. It's a song again of salvation – a new song relating to deliverance: "I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cries. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the mire clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear, and show trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man who makes the Lord His trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done, and Your thoughts which are toward us (doctrine). They cannot be reckoned up in order unto You. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."

So, here in the Old Testament, again, the new song idea is associated with redemption and with divine deliverance. Again, we want to remember that when we read a book like the book of the Revelation, we have these symbols, and we have to interpret them in terms of the way these symbols are used in other places in the Bible.

Psalm 96 is a beautiful psalm. This whole psalm speaks of a new song celebrating God's salvation against the background of His marvelous creation. Here you have the two in contrast: the new song, celebrating redemption; against the contrast of the old song celebrating the creation: "O sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord. Bless His name. Show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations. Declare His wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods, for all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Give unto the Lord, O you kindreds of the peoples. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering, and come into His court. O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations that the Lord reigns. The world also shall be established, that it shall not be moved. He shall judge the peoples righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful in all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the forest rejoice before the Lord, for He comes. For He comes to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with truth."

There you see in comparison, one with another, the glorious prays to God for His redemption through salvation (that new song), over against the background of the glorious praise to God for His material creation, which was expressed in the praise of the old songs.

Psalm 144:9-10 speak again of divine salvation and deliverance from the evil one: "I will sing a new song unto You, O Lord. Upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises unto You. It is He who gives salvation unto kings; who delivered David His servant from the hurtful sword." So, here again, we have a new song in praise of divine deliverance. And this one is to be accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, which is what we have seen is the "kithara," which the elders are holding in their hands. You seem to have a connection here between the elders accompanying the praise of the new song of redemption.

So, in Revelation 5:9, that new song refers to the celebration of the redemption which the Lamb, Jesus Christ, has provided. Contrasting this with the old song which was commemorating the old material creation of God, the new song is commemorating the new spiritual creation of God through Jesus Christ.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, we read, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." That's the new song that they're singing about – this new creation of those who are in Christ: "Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new." The old things that it's referring to there are the old things of a place of death in Adam. All of that position in Adam that connoted death (that was connected with the old creation) is gone. And we are a new creation with a totally new kind of life – the eternal life through Jesus Christ.

So, great joy is being expressed in heaven here in this scene, and it is being expressed through music, because of the grace salvation provided by Jesus Christ, and there's a fresh new song to express it.

It is interesting that in the Bible, you may have observed, there is no music associated with hell. Whenever the Bible refers to singing, and whenever the Bible refers to music, it is always associated with heaven. If you just read a few passages describing hell, you'll see how music would simply be absolutely out of place. For example, Matthew 13:41: "The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them who do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire (the lake of fire). There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." People who are in enormous personal pain and suffering, gnashing their teeth to try to stand the pain, are not going to be inclined to want to sing or to be listening to music.

Another example in Luke 16:23-24 is of the frightfulness of the place to which people go who are lost: "And in Hades, he (that is, the rich man here in the story of the rich man and Lazarus) lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeing Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." This is that part of Hades before the resurrection, which was the part in which believers rested. "Abraham's bosom" was the description in the Hebrew point of view. Verse 24: "He (the rich man) cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.'" That's not a place where anybody wants to do any singing. It's not a place that will be associated with music.

The scene in heaven is in contrast to that – to have escaped that kind of an eternal destiny. And that's what these people who are in heaven, who represent the church in the form of these 24 elders, fully realize. That is what propels them when Jesus Christ the Lamb steps up and takes that book out of the Father's hands, indicating that finally justice is going to be imposed upon this earth, that causes them to burst out into a song of praise – a new song of rejoicing over the new creation, because of what that provision of the Savior has preserved believers from: the horrors of the joyless place of no music in the lake of fire.

So, on the basis of the Lamb's redemption, Satan's claim to the earth has been terminated, and the Kingdom of God is about to be set up on earth. The Redeemer here is qualified to break the seals of the scroll, which sets up God's kingdom on earth. The new song is in praise of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the world.

Part of the reason for this praise is because there is no other way. The praise is because, if Jesus Christ had not done what He has done in paying for the sins of the world, there would not be a chance for any of us. Acts 4:12 makes that so clear when it says, "Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." What that verse says is that anybody who rejects Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as the sacrifice (as the Lamb of God) for the sins of the world will not go to heaven. Anyone who rejects Jesus Christ as the key feature of (the key entrance into) heaven will spend eternity in the lake of fire.

Recently, in a national news media communication, a well-known pastor made the statement that: "God does not hear the prayers of the Jews." And he really took a lot of flak, and then he backed off from that statement (that was perfectly true). The Jew who rejects Jesus Christ can never go to heaven. Every Jewish person who dies thinking that Jesus Christ was a false Messiah opens his eyes on the other side in the lake of fire – in the torments of Hades. He cannot go anyplace else. Those who have believed, when they get to heaven and they realize how true all this indeed is, cannot help but explode in a song of praise, realizing then, perhaps as never before, if Christ had not done what He did, there was no other way. We had no chance.

So, every Muslim who rejects Jesus Christ as the avenue to eternal life is doomed to the lake of fire. Now, you can go around, if you want, and want to keep good relationships with all these folks who are on that broad highway because they've entered through that wide gate that everybody is attracted to, and that where it seems to be at, and you can go ahead and want to maintain a cordiality, and to be a non-offensive person, but just remember that that person is being sent to a place where they'll never sing again. But if you give them a warning that only through the name of Jesus Christ is there any hope for them, someday they may stand in heaven, and they'll sing the praises of Jesus Christ, and they'll be singing your praises in gratitude for what you have done in informing them as well.

So, Revelation 5:9 is referring to a tremendous expression of praise in terms of a fresh song having to do with the redemption provided by the Lamb. In the course of this song, we're told what they say. The word "saying" is the word "lego." This is the word that stresses the content of what they're saying. So, it is a word that says, "Look at the specific things that they are saying." It is the constant expression of the elders, perhaps with the living creature singing with them.

Jesus Christ is Worthy

It makes Him worthy, therefore: "To take." The word for "take" is "lambano." This is the word for securing possession of something. It is in the aorist tense, which means that there's a point in time when He takes this from the Father. He hasn't done it yet. It is going to be done at some point in time. At the right moment, He will walk up and take that scroll out of the Father's hand. It is active voice. Jesus Christ Himself takes the scroll, because only He is worthy (qualified) to do it. But, interestingly enough, this is infinitive mood, which indicates that this is the divine purpose. It is God's purpose for the Son to open the scroll. The scroll is that "biblion" – that little book.

Jesus Christ Opens the Scroll

Revelation 5:9: "And they sing a new song saying, 'You are worthy to take the scroll, and to break its seals." Then they tell why: "For." The Greek word is "hoti." That is a conjunction introducing the reason that Jesus Christ is worthy to break this seal, and nobody else. This is why only He can be the Savior. The reason that only He is qualified to be the Savior also indicates why you and I cannot be our own saviors – why you and I cannot be part of being our own salvation. Thus, we have here an indication of why our salvation is eternal and secure:

Because Jesus Christ was Slain

Redemption

I've told you before that when I used to work as a carpenter for Dallas Seminary, there was another man who worked on the job who used to hammer in nails to an arrhythmic chant of "agorazo." Periodically, we'd hear him say, "Agorazo, agorazo, agorazo," just banging away. Or he'd be sawing something with the skill saw, and he would say, "Agorazo." I thought at first he was practicing his Greek. Then when I looked up what "agorazo" meant, I found out that it was a very significant word. That was his way of rejoicing in the fact that Christ had redeemed. He had personal redemption.

The Aorist Tense

It's active voice. Jesus Christ did the redeeming of the humanity which was enslaved in Satan's sin market. It's indicative – a statement of fact. This word "redeemed" is undoubtedly looking back to what we have already had in Revelation 1:5-6, where we read, "And from Jesus Christ (indicating that this revelation was coming from Jesus Christ), who is the faithful witness and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth, unto Him that loves us (washed us from our sins in His own blood), and has made us a kingdom of priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory, dominion, forever and ever. Amen."

What those verses are describing is summarized here in this word "agorazo" – the redemption which is provided by the Lamb, so that people are removed from Satan's slave market control. Let's look at this word a little more carefully. There are actually three words that describe the work of divine redemption. As we put them together, an amazingly fantastic picture evolves. First we have this word, "agorazo" that we have here in Revelation 5:9. Another place that you have this word is in 1 Peter 1:18-19, where Peter says, "Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed ('agorazo') with corruptible things like silver and gold from your vain manner of life, received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot." This is why this is a new song – a new song of redemption. Peter says, "You weren't saved by buying masses from the priest. You were saved by buying indulgences for your sin from the pope. You were not saved with things like silver and gold and money, but you were saved with, again, the sacrificial-shed blood of Jesus Christ, who was Himself sinless – a Lamb without blemish, and who gave His life, therefore, to pay the price of death required for the sins of the world, to satisfy the justice of God.

This word "agorazo" means to buy in the "agora" (in the marketplace). It stresses the fact that unbelievers are slaves to Satan in the slave market of sin. Everyone born into the human race is a slave to Satan. He is in Satan's slave market. In the old days, they used to have places for women called "finishing schools," where you went to learn how to be a lady. You went to learn how to walk correctly; how to sit down correctly; how to eat correctly; and, how to look your best. They were just finishing schools. They were schools to put a polish of culture on the individual. But no matter how much veneer of culture there is, the Bible says that you are still Satan's dirty little slave. That's what you are on the inside. The word "agorazo" has to deal with people being removed from that slave market.

In Romans 7:14, the apostle Paul makes this statement concerning the status of the human race: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin." That means "sold under the sin nature." That word "sold" means "enslaved" – enslaved under the control of Satan. This was indicated in Ephesians 2:2, which says, "In which in times past, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the earth, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience." This was describing a condition of the person before his new birth, when he was a slave of Satan, and he was a slave of Satan's world. Those who are in this slave market are in a very serious condition, because the Bible says that while you are in Satan's slave market, you are under the sentence of eternal death.

Notice John 3:18-19: "He that believes on Him is not condemned, but he that does not believe on Him is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the condemnation – that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." John 3:18-19 are telling us that we, as unbelievers, are under the condition of the sentence of eternal death, and that is because we are in Satan's slave market.

The Price has been Paid

1 Corinthians 6:20 says, "For we are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

1 Corinthians 7:23 says, "You are bought with a price. You are not the servants of men."

Here in Revelation 5:9 we again have that specific idea stated in the statement that: "We have been redeemed to God." We have been purchased out of the slave market of sin.

So, here's the picture. You have this pen full of all of these little slaves here of the human race that belong to Satan – Satan's pen full of slaves. The Lord Jesus Christ comes along, and He pays the price to redeem the slaves. This word "agorazo" is simply telling us that God has paid the price. You're still in the pen; you're born in the pen; and you're in the slave market, but now you are a slave for whom a price of freedom has been paid. Jesus Christ is now entitled to be the owner of all of these slaves. But those who refuse Christ as Savior remain in the slave market of sin, and they remain slaves of Satan's. God's unlimited atonement has covered every slave. The word "agorazo" says that all of you slaves in that sin market have been paid for. The price of your freedom from your enslavement has been provided. But if you refuse to accept what Christ has done, you stay in the slave market.

2 Peter 2:1 says, "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you who secretly shall bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." They are even denying the fact that Jesus Christ has bought them, not with silver and gold, but with His precious blood. He bought the price of their freedom. If Jesus Christ had not paid the price of redemption at Calvary, there would be no way to freedom for anyone. So, when you talk about redemption in the Bible, the first thing you want to get from this word is that the price has been paid. Nobody has to stay in the slave market.

In the old days of slavery, until somebody paid your way out, you had to remain a slave. Somebody had to pay for your freedom. What has happened now on the cross, "agorazo" says, is that the price is paid.

Removal from the Slave Market of Sin

Again, in Galatians 4:4-5, we read, "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent for His Son made of a woman, made under the Law, to 'exagorazo' them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." So, this word is saying that God has come along through Jesus Christ, and He not only paid for you slaves in that market, but He also brings you out in order to make you a son and a daughter of God. He wants to make you His child.

So, "exagorazo" adds a dimension to the doctrine of redemption. The redemption of Jesus Christ is a final purchase, and it is to remove us from Satan's control. You can never be lost again once you have been redeemed. Christ not only paid for you, but He also took you out. It would be terrible for someone to come along to a slave market where there are slaves (and there are parts of the world where slaves are still sold), and to pay for somebody's redemption (to pay the owner of this market for this slave), and then for the person who paid the price just to leave without taking the slave with him. What do you think the owner would do? He'd leave them in that market, and sell them again. But Jesus Christ said, "I'm not only paying for you, but I'm seeing to it that you're coming out of that market."

Freedom

1 Peter 1:18 uses this word "lutroo:" "For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers." This didn't set you free from sin. It's not only that you're not a slave. It's not only that you're out of the slave market. It's now that you don't have to act like a slave.

Israel and the Promised Land

However, the people, because they were still slaves within their character, couldn't believe it. What did they do? They refused to go in. Moses, in desperation, goes to God and says, "What am I going to do?" God comforts His man and says, "This is what's going to happen. Everybody who's above 20 years of age is going to die in the wilderness. I'm going to take you back out there, and you're going to wander for 40 years until every one of these slaves is dead. Only the new generation of their children, who can appreciate freedom, are going to go across in the new land." When Moses went back and told them that, they realized what an enormous mistake they had made. And they foolishly thought, as we often do, that we can do our sin, and then we can realize that that was a bad move. We can do our sin even when we've been warned about the consequences of sin. We grew up hearing these warnings about sin, but we thought, "Well, maybe I better try it and see if it's really that bad. It doesn't look all that bad to me."

Then we find indeed that that sin of immorality is that bad. Then we want to back off. But the consequences are there, and we can't leave it. And God says, "You're going to have consequences. You cannot go in." And they said, "But Lord, we will go in. We made a mistake. We're sorry. We're going to go in." And the Lord said, "Moses, you better tell them that if they go in there, I'm not going to go in as their leader now. They're going to be slaughtered." They wouldn't listen to Moses again. There were still slaves. They did not have the freedom to respond to the Word of God. That's what a slave does. He can't respond to doctrine.

So, instead, the next morning, what did they do? They charged up the hill through the pass into the Promised Land, and all of the enemy was there waiting for them, and there was a great slaughter that day. Those who survived came trailing back, and Moses said, "OK, pack up and turn around. You're going back out into the wilderness until every one of you dies. That is the consequence of being a slave in your character. Without the Word of God (without doctrinal understanding), you never can come to freedom.

What "lutroo" tells us is that God has paid the price. He has taken you out of the market, and He has given you a personal freedom to no longer live like a pig in sin; no longer to be subject to the evils of the sin nature; and, no longer to be a yo-yo manipulated by the devil. It stresses the fact that believers have been set at liberty from the control and authority of Satan and the sin nature. The Christian is a free man who can now choose to be enslaved to Jesus Christ. Real freedom is when our life is under the control and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So, this is the reason that these people in heaven burst out with this magnificent hymn of praise to Christ as the Redeemer. This is what they now, by experience, have fully come into. They understood "agorazo." Our sins are paid for. We're no longer under the slave master's ownership. They understood being let out of the slave market, but only now in heaven do they fully understand "lutroo," because now they have ultimate sanctification. Now they are totally free from all evil. Now they have freedom in the fullest sense of the word.

There are a few more things that we should say about redemption in order to understand why these people got so excited and burst out into this new song, and we'll look at those next time.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1982

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