This is an amazing Truth. It is even more amazing when we consider the occasion when Job made it. Here he was, covered from head to foot with painful sores. His children were all killed; his wife was urging him to curse God; his property was destroyed. Now to add stroke upon stroke, his friends who had come to comfort him point the accusing finger at him. In spite of this, however, he was able to look through these clouds and have a faith’s view of Jesus, the Author and Finisher of his faith. Even though he lived centuries before the blessed and glorious Redeemer died on Calvary’s Cross, Job saw Him as clearly as John did when he stood at the foot of the cross when the Saviour actually hung and died there.
See also the language of personal knowledge. Job was not here speaking of mere speculation, but of sure and certain knowledge: “I know,” I know as a certain fact. This is faith “giving substance to things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” The words of the text can also be rendered: “I know my Eternal Redeemer . . .” Here, then, Job is speaking of personal acquaintance. He does not say that he knows about the Redeemer, but knows Him personally. This is saving faith. “This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (Jn. 17:3). Let me ask you at the opening of this sermon: “Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ in such a personal way? Is He your personal Saviour? Can you say with holy Job, ‘I know my Eternal Redeemer?’ Only then can you enjoy a hope of eternity. Otherwise, I need to warn you, you have nothing to look forward to, but an eternity of woe.
Let us consider then more closely what Job had when he declared “I know that my Redeemer liveth — I know my Eternal Redeemer.” As I am helped from Above, I will show you that he meant three things:
1) I know Him as my RELATION,
2) I know Him as my RECONCILER,
3) I know Him as my RESURRECTION.
In the First place then, when Job said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth” he meant, “I know Him as my eternal RELATION.” Poor Job was in a sad case indeed. I have already referred to the treatment he received from his own kith and kin and his friends. But I shall enlarge upon it a little more now. In the same chapter he pours out his complaint, ver. 13, “He has put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are very estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed and my familiar friends have forgotten me . . . My breath is strange to my wife, though I entreated for the children’s sake of mine own body; and so on.” Here he was alone in this world. None, but such have felt the pain of loneliness can know the agony that poor Job went through. He was alone in this world — and yet not alone. He was without friend and kinsman, and yet not without his God, not without his Relation, not without his Friend. Better still he was not without One who is Eternal. Solomon by the Holy Spirit said: “There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” The sweet Psalmist of Israel had the same truth: “When my mother and my father forsoke me, the Lord will take me up” (Psa. 27:10). Now this has been the blessed experience of the Lord’s people whenever they have found themselves in such a sad case. Look at the Apostle Paul. Here he was on trial for his life. Never in his life did he more long for the comfort of human fellowship, but it was denied him. Listen to the cry of His heart: “No one stood by me; all men forsook me.” What more pitiful plight can a man be in? He was alone — and yet not alone. The Apostle goes on to say: “But the Lord stood by me.” He, too, could say: “I know whom I have believed (II Tim 1:12).
Who was Job’s Relation? He was the Eternal Redeemer. He was Jesus Christ. He was forgotten, and deserted by his fellows, but not by God. He saw by faith the eternal Covenant of Grace, sealed by the blood of the Lamb before the foundations of the world were laid. By the terms of this Covenant God can never forget His people whom He has redeemed. They are precious to Him. The Lord’s people can always plead: “Remember me, O Lord, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation.” (Psalm 106:4). God never fails to answer such a petition. God forgets the sins of His people but never their persons. This He cannot do. He is the faithful Lord who never changes. What a blessed truth this is. Job looked to the blessed and ever glorious Redeemer as his elder Brother. This is what the Apostle Paul described him by the Divine Spirit in Hebrews 2. First he quotes Psalm 8 with which we began the service tonight. Of whom does the Psalmist speak? Oh what kindness of the Lord to look upon poor hell deserving sinners. What mercy to visit them in their lost and hopeless condition. “Thou hast made him (that is Jesus) a little lower than the angels.” The Apostle said: “For this cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.”
The word that is here translated ‘Redeemer’ is in the Hebrew ‘Goel,’ the kinsman, or to use a more modern word, ‘Next of kin,’ the nearest relation in blood and family. There is no one nearer in the family than the next of kin, and so Job saw that there was no one nearer to him than the Eternal Redeemer. Here then we have the nature and work of the Redeemer revealed, and we can see how clearly Job was looking to Calvary and nowhere else. By the term ‘Eternal’ he shows that the Redeemer to whom he was looking was the Eternal God. None but God is eternal. He alone has immortality. These were the words that the glorified Redeemer revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos: “I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore.” The Lord Jesus Christ is the Almighty God, the Ever Living One. Oh what a comfort and hope there is here for believers. He is not like their earthly friends and relations subject to change and death. He is their relation now as they pass through the vale of tears, and he will be the same Relation in Eternity. He died for their sins and rose again and now He lives for ever. Death has no more dominion over Him. He is their Eternal Relation.
Not only so. He is their Kinsman. He is their Brother. Goel speaks of His incarnation. The Eternal Son of God, who is God from everlasting to everlasting, taking our human nature upon Himself to become flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone. He came not in the form of angels, but in the nature of Adam’s fallen race, of the seed of Abraham, of the seed of Adam. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also took part of the same . . . wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a faithful high priest.” (Heb, 2:14-17). Coming in our nature He felt the full force of temptation, being tempted in all points as we are but without sin. Thus He alone was able in His death upon the cross to make a full and adequate atonement and propitiation for the sins of his people and brethren. As their elder Brother He took their place on the cross and thus has bought eternal salvation for them. Oh what a friend, what a brother, what a relation to have. His other friends and relations left Him. The Eternal Redeemer sticketh closer than a brother.
One more thing yet on this head. ‘Goel’ also means Advocate. Now you know what is the work of an advocate. He pleads the case of an accused before the judge. Now in our courts the accused can elect to conduct his own defense, and he might be better at it or worse. But none can conduct their own defense at the Bar of God. To be sure, my friends, remember that it is appointed to us all to die, and after this the Judgement. We must all stand before the judgement seat of Christ, and we cannot escape. As I have often reminded you we shall be called to give an account of our many sins, and not one of them will be overlooked. No, we cannot hope to conduct our own defense and succeed. Before the Throne we shall be silent, for are all guilty. Oh think of this, you who live as though there was no death, judgement and eternity. There is nothing for you but an eternal hell. You will die in your sins, and you will stand condemned before your God. As you have no advocate, you have no friend to plead your case and cause. But listen to whom Job had — the Eternal Redeemer, his friend, brother and Advocate. To Him he looked to plead His cause and win. This is the Truth. “If we sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.” This is what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing before the Throne of God. He pleads the cause of His people. He pleads it with His own blood. This is what he says: “Father forgive them, Father save them, Father keep them.”
Job’s friends accused him before God, but Christ his Goel pleaded for him. Even so Satan accuses the Lord’s people before the Judgement seat but Christ pleads their cause, and only such an one as He can plead their cause effectively. Let me ask you. Do you know the Eternal Redeemer as your Relation, as your Brother? Is He your Advocate with the Father? Who will plead your cause? Oh what a sad case it is to live and die Christless for it is to die friendless and hopeless.
Secondly, when Job said: “I know that my Redeemer liveth” he had the Divine Redeemer as his Eternal RECONCILER. By Him he “shall see God.” Job knew he was a sinner. Although he defended himself against the charges of his friends, and declared that he was innocent of those gross sins, he knew and confessed himself a sinner. Earlier he had said: “I have sinned . . .” Thus he looked to the Redeemer to reconcile and bring him to God. This was the great work of the Goel.
Now let me say this to you, my friends. It is sin and sin alone that separates between God and man; between God and us; between God and you. The Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor is His ear heavy that He cannot hear; but your sins have separated between you and your God, and your sins have made His ear heavy that He will not hear. Notice it is not ‘cannot’ but ‘will not.’ Oh what a miserable barrier sin is. It shuts sinners out for eternity from heaven and glory. It casts them into the lowest hell. You take your sins lightly as though it does not matter. You think that because you are here tonight all is well. You think that God is pleased with you and is listening to you. But I tell you the truth: No. Your prayers go no further than the ceiling. Your sins are a mighty barrier between yourself and God. Because of your sins you will never see God.
Now this is the work of the Goel, the Redeemer. This is to whom Job looked. It was part of the Goel’s work to pay the ransom price for his relation. Now we have an example of this in the Book of Ruth. Here Boaz was her Goel, and he redeemed her and she became his wife. This is what the Divine and ever blessed Redeemer has done for His brethren and people. He has done this by His Incarnation — by His coming into the world in his human nature — and by His death. The Bible tells us, that Christ has redeemed us by His perfect obedience. In His human nature he was born under the law, and He kept it perfectly, yea, even to the last jot and tittle. The Goel has also redeemed His own by His death. There he paid the redemption price. His people are not redeemed with silver and gold, no, not even by the blood of bulls and goats, but by the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb without blemish and without spot. He redeemed them with His blood for He could pay no greater price. He redeemed His people by His resurrection for by this they are fully justified, as the Apostle Paul declares in Rom. 4.25: “Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification.”
The word justification is a beautiful word, for it describes the standing of believers before their God. Sin is removed, and the sinner though vile because of his sins is accepted of God as though he had never sinned. When missionaries to West Irian wanted to translate the Bible into Pidgin English they did not know how to translate ‘Justified.’ Then they had an idea ‘Justified’ . . . ‘just-if-I’d-had-never-sinned.’ Not one of their many, many sins are ever again remembered. The Bible has many ways to describe it: cast into the depths of the sea; removed as far as the east is from the west, etc. You see, then, that when God forgets the sins of His people it is not that He winks at them and pretends that they are not there. He could never do that. He is too holy for that. But it is only that a full ransom price has been paid.
The Redeemer of the Elect is their Reconciler. Job had the sure hope that He would see God. This is what the Lord Jesus does. Having paid the redemption price, He takes His people by the hand and brings them to God. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them . . .” They were imputed to Christ. He who knew no sin, became sin for them that they might become the righteousness of God through Him. He lives for ever, and so He is able to save to the uttermost. Sin is a great offence against God. God is justly angry with the sinner every day and all the day. For a sinner to look upon the face of God, would mean that he would instantly be slain. Oh how even some of the godly trembled when they had a vision as Gideon, Manoah, Isaiah, even the Apostle Peter. To all was the same answer given: “Peace be unto you.” Why? Because they were reconciled unto God by the blood of the Lamb; they were reconciled by the Goel. Now they and all of the Lord’s people when they die shall see the face of God and not die. Job said that “He will see God.” My friends, I assure you, that at this present moment, Job is in glory. He is looking on His ‘bonny face.’ He is not disappointed. He believed God, and was justified, reconciled. His sins were all forgotten.
This is what we all need. This is what you need. Are your sins forgiven and forgotten? Are you reconciled to God? To die unforgiven is to look upon Him as an angry God and as an angry judge. To die unjustified is to be thrown alive into the Lake of fire. This is your great need — to be reconciled to God and there is none other but the Eternal Redeemer who can reconcile you to God. This is why the Apostle pleads — yes, and I also — “As ambassadors for Christ, we beseech you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled unto God . . .” But it is now, and NOW only that this reconciliation must take place. This also is the glorious grace and kindness of our God, that none who call upon Him or who cry to Him will ever be disappointed. Millions of poor lost sinners have been reconciled to Him. The chief of sinners has been reconciled to Him. This ought to be a great encouragement to you to seek this reconciliation for yourself even tonight, now. But let me warn you, that if you delay seeking this reconciliation, your opportunity might be lost. Behold now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Job had Jesus as His eternal Reconciler. May you have Him also.
We now come, in the final place, to notice that when Job said “I know that my Redeemer liveth” he had Him as his Eternal RESURRECTION.
Job was in a pitiful case. From head to foot he was covered with sores and boils — a stinking mess. He was as it were, a living death. He was dead while he was alive. His very body was decaying before his very eyes. And this he also knew, that sooner or later he would die in any case, then his body would decay and return to the dust from which it came. But this was his sure and certain hope that the Eternal Redeemer would raise his body incorruptible: “Yet in my flesh shall I see God . . .”
Disease and sickness is the consequence of sin. Death is the consequence of sin. The decay and corruption of the body after death is the consequence of sin. If Adam had not sinned there would not have been any sickness, death or decay. Every time we are sick, it is a reminder that we are sinners, that we have sinned. Every corpse is a testimony that we are sinners. This is why infants die. There is no better proof of the doctrine of original sin than that infants die. Were they so ‘innocent’ as some would suggest, then they would not die. Truly they are free from actual sin, that is, they have not sinned voluntarily, but they have a sinful nature, and so lie already under the wrath and curse of God. But it shall not always be so, for the Redeemer, the Goel, came to abolish death and to bring in life and immortality.
When the Jewish people plotted against Him, they took the Lord of glory and with the Romans they crucified Him. They sealed the tomb, and placed a guard in front of it. Thus they thought to keep the Eternal and Living Redeemer in. But this they could not do. In spite of all, He broke his bonds, opened the tomb and came out alive. He now lives forever. He is the Living Redeemer, the Ever Living One, the One who is alive for evermore. The Blessed and ever glorious Redeemer is the Resurrection and the Life. Because He lives, His People, His Redeemed Ones shall also live. He became what they were, that they might become like Him.
The Lord Jesus Christ came to abolish Death. This was expressed in the beautiful words to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me, though he were dead yet shall he live and he that liveth and believeth on me shall never die.” There is no such thing as death for the believer. This is why the death of the first of the believers in the New Testament is described as falling asleep. The Lord’s people fall asleep in Jesus. Death has no more power over them. This is the fruit of the Redeemer’s glorious resurrection. From that very moment He abolished death.
Death is the result of sin. It entered the world through sin. Before Adam’s sin there was no death either in the animal creation or in Adam and Eve themselves. But this was changed the moment our first parents stretched forth their hands and plucked and ate the forbidden fruit. To this very hour the strength of death is sin. Now when the blessed and glorious Redeemer died and made full satisfaction for the sin of His People, that very moment sin lost its power, death lost its power. Death was abolished.
The Redeemer, the Goel, because He lives for ever, because He Himself arose from the dead, has brought in immortality and incorruption. Though it is the lot of the Lord’s people to go through the valley of the shadow of death, (that is, all except those who shall be alive when He shall return) yet they shall not remain in the grave. The dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible. Those who shall be alive at His coming shall be changed. He became what we were that we might become like Him. The Lord’s people on that glorious day shall receive a new body. These vile bodies, these bodies of our humiliation shall be changed so that they shall become like unto His own glorious body. In the glorious resurrection these poor bodies so distorted by sin, shall be raised from all their infirmity and marks. Now this is precisely what Job hoped. “And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God . . .” Job looked for the Ever-living Goel to redeem him by His almighty power from the power of the grave.
This is the hope of all the Lord’s People. This is the song that is in their mouths: “Oh death where is thy sting; Oh grave where is thy victory! The Lord’s People know that their resurrection will be the final proof that they have been justified and redeemed from their sins, and that they have a full and free acceptance with God. Here the very scars of sin are for evermore removed so that they can never be found again.
Here you have why the Lord’s People when it comes for them to die so often — I know that there are exceptions — die comfortably and happily. They know that they shall live in their beloved Redeemer, in their ever-living Goel.
Now let me bring this to a conclusion — and I must hasten on for the time is gone. Let me ask you this all important question: Have you the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Redeemer? You need Him as you hasten on to eternity. Now you cannot have Him by any works of righteousness that you have done, or might do. You cannot have Him by any merit of your own. It is by grace and grace alone; it is by faith. The Apostle Paul declared “I know whom I believed.” He put all his hope and confidence in the Divine Redeemer.
Now my friends, I will counsel you: Consider — meditate — LOOK to Jesus the Author and the Finisher of your faith as He is revealed in the Gospel.
When a man has a watch and understands the use of every wheel and pin, if it goes amiss he will soon find out the cause of it; but when someone has no skill in a watch, if it goes amiss he does not know what is the matter, and therefore cannot mend it. So indeed our hearts are as a watch, and there are many wheels and windings and turnings there, and we should labour to know our hearts well, that when they are out of tune we may know what is the matter. — Jeremiah Burroughs.