We are all by nature in the position of the man that was sold. So St. Paul said of himself in his natural condition, ‘I am carnal, sold under sin,’ Rom. vii. 14; and therefore he described the law of evil within his nature warring against the law of his mind, ‘and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members.’ There was therefore a captivity resulting from the sale. But it is not only the original ruin of our human nature of which the expression is used in Scripture, for it is applied to the personal act of the individual sinner. Is there not an allusion to this very law in those passages which speak of persons having sold themselves? Ahab ‘sold himself to do evil.’ 1 Kings, xxi. 20. In 2 Kings, xvii. 17, the same is said of the children of Israel: ‘They sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord.’ In Isaiah, L. 1, there is a distinct reference to the sale to a creditor,—‘Which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.’ And in Isa. lii. 3, a clear allusion to the redemption of the slave, ‘Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.’ The sinner, therefore, is like the man who sold himself. He has yielded himself to be the servant of sin. He obeys it, and he does its work. If he wishes to get free he cannot. He may long for liberty, but he cannot attain it. He may think with bitter regret of past folly that has led to his ruin. But regret cannot restore. Remorse cannot set him free. A slave he is, and a slave, unless saved by redemption, he must remain. How, then, can such an one be redeemed? That is the question. It must clearly be by a redemption price. There was no redemption under the law without a ransom. In the case of the man who had sold himself, the price was the value of his service until the year of jubilee. In our case it was infinitely higher, for the Lord Jesus gave Himself ‘a ransom for all.’ The sinner sold himself, and the Lord Jesus gave Himself as a ransom, and because He has done so, God said by the prophet, ‘Ye shall be redeemed without money.’ But my object is to consider, not the ransom, but the Redeemer, and to examine who, according to the law, was qualified to redeem. (1.) We cannot redeem ourselves.