There is a Redeemer

Ruth 3:12 ~ " And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I."

It has been said that the story of Ruth and Boaz is one of the greatest love stories told. And what a grand reflection it is of the Great Redeemer, the LORD Jesus. When we consider where we come from, how foreign we are to the LORD in our sinful state, from the land that is at enmity with God, it is a wonder that He would consider us at all. Even David asked the question in Psalm 144:3, "O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?" 

In the saga of Boaz and Ruth, the necessity of redeeming the house of Elimelech fell upon the closest relative--the kinsman redeemer. This was set as a statute in the law of Moses as the way to perpetuate the name of the deceased. We find this in Deuteronomy 25:5-6, "If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel."

Boaz, a close relative of the deceased, had in his heart the desire to redeem the house and marry the woman, Ruth. However, a difficulty arose when there was a closer relative, one who had the first right of redemption for the house of Elimelech. This other kinsman refused to redeem saying, "I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it" (Ruth 4:6).

It may be hard to understand, but there is a closer kinship that you and I possess, but one that cannot redeem. That closer kinship is the world. Our sinful state makes us more akin to this world than we were to the LORD. Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in John 8:23 and said this, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world." He is not of this world at all. He has no sin, is perfect in all His ways, there is no impurity with the LORD. Even as Ruth, being a Moabite, had no direct kinship to Boaz, so we, being sinners born, had no direct kinship to Christ. 

But as the risk was too great for the nearer relation in order to redeem Ruth, so the cost is too high for the world to offer any possibility of redemption. Jesus asked in Matthew 16:26, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" The whole world in exchange for your soul is still too small a price, it does not cover the cost of what it takes to redeem even one sinner. 

But, dear friends, there IS a Redeemer! Jesus Christ, God's own Son, the blessed Lamb of God and the One who took upon Himself the requirement of redemption. He is our Kinsman Redeemer. He is the Boaz to our being Ruth. He is the strength and love of God for His bride, the church. And He has took upon Himself the cost of our salvation. When we were enemies of God Almighty, He became for us our Kinsman so that He could have the right to redeem us.  

Will you come? Will you come and lay at the feet of the One who will receive you and redeem you from all your sin? Will you come and see that the Lord Jesus Christ went to the uttermost limit of love by laying down His own life that He should bear away your transgressions and make you holy? Let us, though we are rebellious sinners and born of the enemies of God, come to our Kinsman Redeemer and receive His grace and mercy that we should be His very own. 

In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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