Purchase & Redemption — The Difference Between Bought and Redeemed — Part 3

… I remember a brother spoke up in a (reading) meeting not too far from here, and made the comment, “We’ve all been “purchased” by the blood, haven’t we?” He said that because he thought that everyone present was saved. but he didn’t know that someone had brought an unsaved person along to the meeting that day. If he had known that, he probably wouldn’t have said that. I leaned over to my wife and said, “Little does that man know how right his statement is.” Even that unbeliever in the room was “purchased” by the Lord Jesus! I mention these things, not to find fault with well-meaning Christians, but to show how we can so easily slip into misuse of Scriptural terms.

Now let’s turn to Ephesians 1, and verses 13-14, “In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Which (Who) is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.” The apostle Paul is speaking here about the two-fold work of the Spirit — the seal and the earnest. Both things are ours when the Spirit comes to dwell in us, which happens when we believe the gospel of our salvation. The seal  is to give us to know that we are His property; the earnest is to give us to know that we have property — the inheritance, and to help us to enjoy our portion in Christ.

He goes on to say, “Until the redemption of the purchased possession.” From this phrase, we see that purchase and redemption are not the same thing. Only here it is not referring to persons, but to created things. Note this, there is something here that has been purchased, but has not yet been redeemed! This clearly shows that the two things are not synonymous. Now you might ask, “What is the “purchased possession?” it is not, as so many think, the Church, though the Church surely has been purchased. (That is clearly seen in what Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28, “Shepherd the assembly of God, which He has purchased with the blood of His own (Son).” – J.N.Darby Trans.) Since this is something that has been purchased, but is waiting to be redeemed, it couldn’t be the Church, because we are already redeemed! (Rom. 3:24; Eph. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-19)

A careful reading of this verse in Ephesians 1:14 shows that the thing purchased here is the inheritance, which is every created thing. While all things have been purchased, all things have not been redeemed. The point of the verse is that there will be a time when the inheritance will be redeemed — at the coming of the Lord. In Scripture, the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (Rev. 21:9) which is the Church, is not put on the same ground as the inheritance. Similarly, we don’t speak of our wives as part and parcel with our possessions. A man doesn’t say, “I have a house, a car, a boat, a dog, and a wife!” The Church, the Lamb’s wife, is not the inheritance; she is a joint-heir with Christ over the inheritance (Rom. 8:17).