The word translated intercessor, occurs in Isaiah 53:6 and 12. `The Lord hath made to meet on Him the iniquity

of us all', and `made intercession for the transgressors'. Man's failure is further set forth in such passages as

Romans 8:3 together with the triumph of Christ, the true Redeemer:

`For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son IN THE LIKENESS

of sinful flesh (did)'.

The utter inability of man by nature to accomplish his own redemption is too fully set forth in Scripture, and is

too really fundamental to need further proof. The whole plan of redemption presupposes man's hopeless state, and

indicates most clearly the antitype of the man who failed to redeem his brother's forfeited inheritance.

The declared purpose of the redemption by the kinsman-redeemer in the law, and in the book of Ruth, is `to raise

up the name of the dead upon his inheritance'. The firstborn which the wife of the dead man bears as a result of the

kinsman taking her to wife `shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out of

Israel' (Deut. 25:6).

Types fail, and wherever resurrection is typified a certain amount of accommodation is necessitated. When the

death and resurrection of Christ was set forth by the killing of a bird and the setting free of a bird, two birds were

necessary, but not to set forth two Persons; so with this great type of the redemption set forth in Ruth and the law. It

was not possible for the dead man to be brought to life again in order that he may enjoy his inheritance. That is

redemption in reality, but in the type his name is perpetuated as a symbol of himself. The idea of new life as a result

of redemption is suggested in the prayer of Psalm 119:154 :

`Plead my cause, and deliver me (as a kinsman-redeemer): quicken me according to Thy word'.

Psalm 69, so full of Messianic prophecy, suggests a similar thought:

`Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it' (verse 18).

Hebrews, chapter 5 tells us that Christ prayed unto Him that was able to save Him out of death and that He was

heard. This could not possibly mean that the Saviour sought to escape death, but it means, as Psalm 16 so fully

declares, that His soul was not left in Sheol, in other words, redemption here indicates new life in resurrection.

Psalm 103:4 includes among the `benefits' meet for thanksgiving, `Who redeemeth thy life from destruction'.

Hosea however most powerfully sets forth this glorious goal of redemption:

`I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death' (Hosea 13:14).

We had occasion to quote Psalm 49 when explaining the nearer kinsman than Boaz. This Psalm also strongly

emphasizes that resurrection is the one grand effect of the Hebrew conception of redemption:

`None of them can by any means redeem his brother ... that he should still live for ever, and not see corruption'

(Psa. 49:7-9) .

The testimony of Job 19:25-27 is to the same effect:

`I know that my Redeemer (ever) lives,

And at the latter day on earth shall stand;

And after (worms) this body have consumed,

Yet in my flesh I shall Eloah see:

Whom I, e'en I, shall see upon my side,

Mine eyes shall see Him - stranger, now, no more:

(For this) my inmost soul with longing waits'

(New Metrical Version.- See Companion Bible).

Redemption enables us to look death in the face and call it by its ugly name. It enables us to speak of corruption

and the grave, and to recognise that death is an `enemy'. Philosophy and Religion glory over death. They speak of

death as a bright angel, as the great adventure, as transition, as the gate of life - anything but its true character. The