Bought with a Price

With what ardor does the apostle pursue sin to destroy it!

He is not so prudish as to let sin alone, but cries out, in plainest language, “Flee fornication.” The shame is not in the rebuke, but in the sin which calls for it.

He chases this foul wickedness with arguments. See verse 18.

He drags it into the light of the Spirit of God. “What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?” Verse 19.

He slays it at the cross. “You are bought with a price.”

Let us consider this last argument, that we may find therein death for our sins.

I. A BLESSED FACT. “You are bought with a price.”

“You are bought.” This is that idea of Redemption which modern heretics dare to style mercantile. The mercantile redemption is the Scriptural one; for the expression, “bought with a price,” is a double declaration of that idea.

Redemption is a greater source of obligation than creation or preservation. Hence it is a well-spring of holiness.

“With a price.” This indicates the greatness of the cost. The Father gave the Son. The Son gave himself; his happiness, his glory, his repose, his body, his soul, his life.

Measure the price by the bloody sweat, the desertion, the betrayal, the scourging, the cross, the heart-break.

Our body and spirit are both bought with the body and spirit of Jesus.

1. This is either a fact or not. “You are bought,” or you are unredeemed. Terrible alternative.

2. If a fact, it is the fact of your life. A wonder of wonders.

3. It will remain to you eternally the grandest of all facts. If true at all, it will never cease to be true, and it will never be outdone in importance by any other event.

4. It should therefore operate powerfully upon us both now and ever.

II. A PLAIN CONSEQUENCE. “You are not your own.”

NEGATIVE. It is clear that if bought, you are not your own.

1. This involves privilege.

   • You are not your own provider: sheep are fed by their shepherd.
   • You are not your own guide: ships are steered by their pilot.
   • You are not your own father: children loved by parents.

2. This also involves responsibility.

   • We are not our own to injure. Neither body nor soul.
   • Not our own to waste, in idleness, amusement, or speculation.
   • Not our own to exercise caprice, and follow our own prejudices, depraved affections, wayward wills, or irregular appetites.
   • Not our own to lend our service to another master.
   • Not our own to serve self. Self is a dethroned tyrant. Jesus is a blessed husband, and we are his.
   • POSITIVE. “Your body and your spirit, which are God’s.”
   • We are altogether God’s. Body and spirit include the whole man.
   • We are always God’s. The price once paid, we are forever his.
   • We rejoice that we know we are God’s, for thus
   • We have a beloved owner.
   • We pursue an honored service.
   • We fill a blessed position. We are in Christ’s keeping.

III. A PRACTICAL CONCLUSION. “Glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Glorify God in your body

By cleanliness, chastity, temperance, industry, cheerfulness, self-denial, patience, etc.

Glorify God—

In a suffering body by patience unto death.

In a working body by holy diligence.

In a worshiping body by bowing in prayer.

In a well-governed body by self-denial.

In an obedient body by doing the Lord’s will with delight.

Glorify God in your spirit

By holiness, faith, zeal, love, heavenliness, cheerfulness, fervor, humility, expectancy, etc.

Remember, O redeemed one, that—

1. You will be closely watched by Christ’s enemies.

2. You will be expected to be more gracious than others; and rightly so, since you claim to be Christ’s own.

3. If you are not holy, the sacred name of your Redeemer, your Proprietor, and your Indweller will be compromised.

4. But if you live a redeemed life, your God will be honored.

   • Let the world see what Redemption can do.
   • Let the world see what sort of men “God’s Own” are.

Pieces Of Money

But why should so vast a price be required? Is man worth the cost? A man may be bought in parts of the world for the value of an ox. It was not man simply, but man in a certain relation, that had to be redeemed. See one who has been all his days a drunken, idle, worthless fellow. All appropriate to him the epithet “worthless”—worth nothing. But that man commits a crime for which he is sentenced to be hanged, or to be imprisoned for life. Go and try to buy him now. Redeem him and make him your servant. Let the richest man in Cambridge offer every shilling he possesses for that worthless man, and his offer would be wholly vain. Why? Because now there is not only the man to be considered, but the law. It needs a very great price to redeem one man from the curse of the law of England; but Christ came to redeem all men from the curse of the Divine law.—William Robinson.

Does not justice demand the dedication of yourself to your Lord? God has not only procured a title for you, but a title to you: and unless you devote yourself to his service, you rob him of his right. What a man has bought, he deems his own; and especially when the purchase has been costly. And has not God bought you with a price of infinite value? And would you rob him of a servant from his family; of a vessel from his sanctuary? To take what belongs to a man is robbery, but to take what belongs to God is sacrilege.—William Jay.

The Lord Jesus is everything in redemption, for he is both the Buyer and the price.

A silly child when he plays at selling would like to take the price and keep the article too; but everybody knows that this cannot be. If you keep the goods you cannot have the price, and if you accept the price the goods are no longer yours. You may have either the one or the other, but not both. So you may be your own, if you wish; but then the redemption price is not yours. If you accept the ransom, then the thing redeemed is no longer yours, but belongs to him who bought it. If I am redeemed, I am Christ’s. If I am resolved to be my own, I must renounce my Redeemer, and die unransomed.