Now, according to the text, the great motive power to all this is the fact that our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ ‘gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.’ Let us study then the redemption work, and the redemption power; and may God the Holy Ghost so bless it to our souls that we may be led in practical life to adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things! * * * * * I. The redemption work. To redeem in these words clearly means to deliver, as the result of the finished atonement. The foundation of the deliverance is the fact that our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ gave Himself for us. The actual deliverance is described in the words, ‘that he might redeem us from all iniquity.’ A question has arisen as to the meaning of this expression. Does it mean that He might redeem us from the curse and judgment of all iniquity and so set us legally free, as when He said, ‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us?’ or does it mean that by the power of the Holy Ghost He might deliver us from the bondage of all iniquity, and so make us actually a holy people unto Himself? There is much to be said for both interpretations. ‘Iniquity’ may stand here for the curse, or guilt, of iniquity, as ‘sin’ stands for the guilt of sin in 1 Pet. ii. 24: ‘Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.’ Or it may stand for sin itself, and its deadly power over the ruined soul. I am inclined on the whole to prefer this latter application, and to believe that the words describe the actual deliverance from the dominion of sin. The context clearly points in that direction, and so, as far as I can judge, do the words. The word here rendered iniquity strictly means ‘lawlessness.’ It is the same word as that in 1 John, iii. 4, where it is translated ‘transgression of the law,’ and appears generally to express the actual disobedience to the law, or will of God. If this be the case the idea evidently is that in our natural condition we are slaves and bondsmen to disobedience, or lawlessness. But that the great God and Saviour made an atonement for us in order that He might set us free from that dreadful yoke, and call us out to be a people set apart for His praise. This is in harmony with what we are taught in Rom. vi. 19, for there we are described as having in former times ‘yielded our members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity’ (the same word), and as now being set free by the grace of God. But there can be no such freedom without redemption from the curse of sin. You remember that when a man had sold himself to be a slave, the only way in which he could obtain his liberty was by his kinsman legally redeeming him from his master. So it seems to be here. Christ our kinsman has paid the ransom in order that we, being redeemed, may be