Redemption From Who?

I was listening to the dividing Line today and heard a clip of Shabir Ally speaking on the doctrine of Redemption. This clip is not from the debate in Seattle, but what is stated by Shabir is very similar. You may listen to the short clip here.

During the clip and debate Shabir mentions that some church fathers and "scholars" believed that God was redeeming His people from the Devil. Now Dr. White had answered that argument during the debate, yet his words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Shabir asserted it is simply illogical (without providing any argumentation) and immoral for God to punish and innocent man for sinful people. There is something about Islam that places a Tradition that blinds the eyes of the mind to see such a basic truth of the holiness of God.

After the debate, someone from the audience was discussing with Shabir about the use of the term Redeem when , again, Shabir asked the simple question, "Who did God purchase the Israelites from?" At this point I stepped into the conversation and explained to Shabir that often the term is used in Scripture in a way that is not simply the same as when people use it for ever day common purchases. I then referred Shabir to Dr. White's reading list and explained how Leon Morris argued in The Apostolic Preaching of the Cross.

Morris says on page 22,

"This stress on Yahweh's efforts seems to be the reason for applying the redemption terminology to His dealings. The effort is regarded as the 'price' which gives point to the metaphor. Yahweh's action is at cost to Himself. While He could, so to speak, cope with the situation with a small expenditure of effort, yet because He loves His people He 'hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations'."

Ultimately, we see the fulfillment of the shadows of Redemption throughout the Old Testament in Christ. On page 48 Morris says,

"To speak of a future redemption is not to imply that here awaits us a redemption which has no relationship to that accomplished at Calvary, being simply a deliverance from some outward enemy in the typical Jewish style. On the contrary, the future redemption is the consummation, the outworking of the redemption which was accomplished once for all by the death of the Redeemer."

On page 51 he argues,

"There is no need to water down the language of the biblical writers, to reduce their colourful metaphors to a uniform drabness. They did not intend ransom to be taken as a full and sufficient statement of what the atonement was and did, but as far as it goes it gives a picture of one aspect of that great work. It is a metaphor which involves the payment of a price which is plainly stated in several places and understood in others to be the death of Christ. From the very nature of the imagery this involves a substitutionary idea; instead of our death there is His, instead of our slavery there is His blood. All our verbal juggling cannot remove this from the New Testament."

God at His own expense of energy and love for His people has indeed sent His Son as a perfect sacrifice. Jesus accomplished what God intended. He satisfied the wrath of God and perfect Justice God's Law demands.

Mat 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

Mat 20:28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."