OUR KINSMAN-REDEEMER
Part 1
By Winston Pannell
Ruth
Read Isaiah 53
There are 39 books in the Old Testament, which picture in type, the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is vital that we see some aspect of Christ’s Person and his work, not only in creation and providence, but in redemption also throughout these books. To miss these revelations is to miss the central message of the Bible. The Old Testament, more than a history book, is a proclamation and a promise that one is coming to deal with the sin problem plaguing mankind. The New Testament is the declaration that He has come and taken care of that sin problem for his people.
Moses was
a type of Christ. As mediator of the Old Covenant he typified Christ who is
Mediator of the Everlasting Covenant of Grace. Aaron was a type of Christ. As
God’s appointed High Priest, he typified Christ who is our Great High Priest.
The Sacrificial lamb was a type of Christ. It typified Christ, a “Lamb
without spot or blemish.” The Altar was a type of Christ who is our Altar.
Christ offered his sinless humanity upon the Altar of his Deity to propitiate
for sin. The tabernacle, the priesthood, the feast days, the ceremonies, the
washings were all pictures and shadows of Christ, of whom it is said in John 20:30; “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the
presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
that believing you might have life in His name.” The Old Testament scripture is a testimony of
God’s plan and purpose to save his people in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is another type in the Old Testament we overlook to
our loss. Our Kinsman-Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, typified by Boaz in the
Book of Ruth will be the subject of our study today.
Here we have God’s record concerning our Kinsman-Redeemer.
Though one might be tempted to project Ruth as the central figure in this book,
I believe Christ, typified by Boaz, to be the central figure of this book. Ruth, and all those justified by Christ’s
righteousness imputed are the recipients of this Kinsman-Redeemer’s Person and
work in salvation. This book too, is “written that we might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing we might have life in
his name.”
This story in the Book of Ruth begins with the exodus of
Elimelech, his wife Naomi and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilon from
What is a Kinsman-Redeemer? The title is self-explanatory
and reveals who is this person. The first qualification is that of nearest
living, male, blood relative. Certain obligations were incumbent upon this
person as a member of the extended family. The term “Kinsman” is the
word “geol.” which literally means to “come to the help or rescue of one.” The
second requirement as Redeemer was the ability and willingness to “buy back,
to pay the ransom,” or redeem the person or the estate of one who lost that
estate by death, through poverty or by selling himself into slavery.
Throughout this study we
will see many parallels to Boaz and Christ. In our study I want us to look at
three. Our Kinsman-Redeemer is:
1 Lord of the harvest. He is sower, bestower, grower and gatherer.
2
Lord of the righteous. He
reveals the standard of judgment, renders satisfaction to justice and He
redeems the Sons of Jacob.
3 Lord of Lords. He is the Seed of woman, Son of man, Sovereign God.
Read Matthew 9:36-38. “But when he saw the multitudes,
he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered
abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the
harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few;
Pray ye
therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his
harvest.” Our mandate
is to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send laborers into the
harvest.
Several truths are set forth in the Book of Ruth to declare
Christ, Lord of the harvest. (1) He purposed to save, (2) He prepared the soil,
(3) He planted the seed, (4) He provided the Savior and (5) He perfected the
saints.
·
As Lord of the
harvest, God purposed to save. Read Ruth 1:1-18.
The scriptures declared
that salvation is of the Lord. Roman’s 9:16 say’s;
“ so then
it is not of Him that willith, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that sheweth mercy.”
Sinful mankind has no part in his redemption by God.
We see this truth
clearly displayed in the redemption of Ruth as we see God’s providence
working in her salvation. Ruth was an ungodly idolater. She was a woman of
unclean lips who lived among a people of unclean lips. (1:15) We know this to
be so because God only justifies the ungodly and He would justify her by the
shed blood of her Kinsman-Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, typified by her near
kinsman, Boaz. Ruth was not even aware that God had worked out her salvation.
She was not aware that God had purposed, planned and would provide a
Substitute, Surety and Representative for her who would come in time and
fulfill all the Law’s demands against her by his substitutionary death on the
cross for her. She knew nothing of a righteousness God would freely,
simultaneously and immediately impute to all the heirs of grace at the death of
Christ. She knew nothing of God’s forbearance with her in “bearing up her
sins” until the time Christ, in his death as her Substitute would “put
away” her sins by satisfaction. She was happy in her false religion and
would have gone merrily on her way to destruction had God not purposed to save
her and intervened in her salvation. God purposed the famine in
The
Preacher wrote this in Ecclesiastees 3:1; “To
everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens.” This was Ruth’s time according to God’s purpose.
Is not
this God’s design in every Elect sinner? Where are God’s Elect when He finds
them? Are they not in idolatry in
But just like Ruth, God could not leave his
Elect among the ignorant because He gave them to Christ in the Everlasting
Covenant of Grace, and he was appointed by God the Father to come in time to
satisfy all the conditions for their salvation. It was always God’s purpose, as
with Ruth, to save the Elect. Christ is Lord of the harvest because he purposed
to save. Romans 9:11 say’s this concerning God’s purpose; “(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of
works but of Him who calls), it was said unto her, (the mother of Esau and Jacob) the elder shall serve the
younger.” Ephesians 1:11; “in whom also we have been chosen to an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works all
things according to the counsel of His own will.”
As Lord of the harvest, God purposed to
save whom He will, when He will. Read also 2 Timothy 1:9, 1 John 3:8.
In Matthew 13, we have the parable of the seed and the
Sower. In this parable Jesus describes 4 different types of hearers.
V-19: He who hears but understands not.
V-20-21: He who receives the word, but will not endure
persecutions.
V-22: He who hears but the cares of the world choke out the word.
V-23: He who receives seed into good ground.
It is this
person, in whom God the Holy Spirit has prepared the heart to receive the
gospel in gladness that bears much fruit. All four heard the same gospel. All
four reacted to the gospel. The first three reaped the reward of their actions.
But one reaped the reward of Christ’s work for him. He was blessed with the
grace of God the Holy Spirit, of whom Christ spoke in John 16:13; “Howbeit,
when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For
He shall not speak of himself but shall speak of things to come.” This work
of the Holy Spirit done in the sinner is not the cause of his salvation but the
evidence that God has charged to him the work of Christ on the cross. In Ruth’s
case God atoned for (passed over) her sins by a blood sacrifice, which pictured
and typified the one sacrifice for sin that would come in time to redeem her.
She “died in the faith, having not yet received the promises, but having
seen them afar off. And she was persuaded of them and embraced them and
confessed that she was a stranger and pilgrim on the earth.” (Hebrews
11:13) God prepared her heart.
Look back at Matthew 13. In this parable
of the seed and the sower Jesus said in V-3; “Behold a sower went forth to
sow.” We know that sower to be Christ. The seed of his person and work was
sown in the field, the world.
Jesus told a parable in John 12:24 about
the importance of planting. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit.” He is here speaking of his
death and its relationship to the harvest. Without his death, there would be
nothing to plant. Without his death, there would be no gospel. Without his
death there would be no harvest. The seed of His death, burial and resurrection
to establish righteousness, based on satisfaction to Law and Justice, which the
Father freely imputed to all his sheep at the cross, which accomplished the
harvest, is the gospel we declare. As Lord of the harvest, God planted the
seed. Christ is that seed.
In his office as Prophet of God, Christ
came to plant the seed of grace in the world. He successfully accomplished this
work and gave this ministry of planting the seed to persons of his choosing.
Roman’s 10:15; “how can they preach except they be
sent.”
In I Corinthians 3:5 Paul the Apostle
addresses this subject. “Who then is
Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord
gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So
then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives
the increase.
A messenger of Christ was
sent to Ruth to declare unto her the gospel. Naomi, her mother-in-law, sowed
the seed of redemption in her heart. How do we know this? Read 1:15-17. What do
you suppose Naomi told her about God? She told her of a Just God and Savior;
one who had purposed to save a people out of Adam’s fallen race. A God who would send a Kinsman-Redeemer in time to satisfy all the
demands of Gods holy Law and justice against Ruth and all the heirs of grace. A Substitute and Surety who would redeem lost
sinners at the cross by his righteousness established and freely imputed.
And Ruth believed Naomi’s
gospel. V15-17. The seed was sown and took root in the
fertile heart of Ruth prepared by the Holy Spirit. How could Ruth believe on
him of whom she had not heard, and how could she hear without a preacher, a
sower of the seed? God sent Naomi to
plant the seed.
As Lord of the harvest, God planted the
seed.
In these verses we have the record of God’s
qualifications to be Kinsman-Redeemer.
V-1 The first
qualification was that of kinsman. Boaz
was a relative of Naomi’s husband Elimalech, probably a brother to Elimelect or
a nephew. He was also a wealthy man. He met the qualifications set forth by God
in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. He was qualified, able and willing.
By contrast, Christ is our Kinsman. He is the elder brother
of his family, the church. Hebrews 2:11say’s this of Christ; “For both he
that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren.” Although very God of very God, he is also
true sinless humanity, body and soul. Read Hebrews 2: 9-18. In this Person,
(this human being) “dwelleth all the fullness of the God-head bodily, and we
are complete in Him.”(Colossians 2:9) He is imminently qualified to be the
near kinsman to all the heirs of grace.
V-1 Boaz was a wealthy man. He had the
wherewithal to redeem his kindred. So, with Christ.
Hebrews 7:25: “Wherefore He is able also to save to the uttermost those who
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
1 Corinthians 6:20: “For you were
bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are God's.” Christ had the resources and obtained our salvation.
Hebrews 9:12 say’s; “not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own
blood He entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having obtained
eternal redemption for us.” Jesus paid it all, nothing now I owe. Sin had
left a crimson stain; he washed it white as snow. Hebrews 1:3 say’s; “When
He had by himself purged our sins, he sat down,” having satisfied Law and
justice against us. He is the Savior. "Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we
must be saved." Acts 4:12.
V-3 As Lord of the harvest, Boaz
owned “a part of the field.” His
part of the field was given to his family by God’s decree in the distribution
at the conquest of
By contrast, Christ owns a
field. According to Matthew 13: 38, Jesus defines the field as the world. As
Boaz owned a field, so the world, created and sustained by Christ, belongs to
Christ. As Lord of this field, Christ determines when to plant and he, or his
preachers plant the field, dig and dung it and harvests this field. As Mediator
of the Everlasting Covenant of Grace, God the Father gave this field to Christ
and made Him Lord of the harvest of this field.
V-4 Boaz was a citizen of
Christ was
born in
V-4 Boaz
was Lord of the reapers. He sent them into the field to reap the labors of his
work. These were at his disposal to do his bidding. They alone were to do the
reaping.
Christ
is Lord of the reapers also. Read Matthew 13: 24-30. Here we have the parable
of the wheat and tares.
Christ,
the sower, came into this world and sowed the “good seed,” his
substitutionary death on the cross to satisfy Law and Justice, V-24. But, “while
the Bridegroom tarried,
men slept”(V-25) and the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat.
Who is the enemy; those who preach salvation by works, those who preach an
infused, inherent righteousness, those who preach salvation at faith, those who
fail to declare justification at the cross as the finished work of Christ But
the Lord of the reapers (V39-42) will cause his sheep to repent of this
deception and separate themselves from those who insist on justification at
faith or by works.
But just
as surely as the ungodly shall be cast out, the righteous shall be saved
because, as Lord of the harvest, God has provided a Savior. (V-43)
This
Savior is none other than the God-Man, God the Son Incarnate. Very God of very God, true sinless humanity, body and soul.
Co-equal with the Father in every attribute of his character. The One set up
from everlasting to be the sin bearer for his people, to make satisfaction to
God’s holy law and justice and establish a righteousness of such value that God
was enabled to be both Just and justifier. A righteousness established and
imputed freely and immediately to all the heirs of grace at the cross, a
righteousness that established the Elect in a perfect, unchangeable standing of
justification before God. Such is the Lord of the harvest.
As Lord
of the harvest, God purposed to save, He prepared the soil, He planted the
seed, He provided the Savior and:
·
As
Lord of the harvest, God perfected the saints
There is no possibility even one for whom Christ died can
finally perish. Because he satisfied all the demands of God’s holy law and
justice against them, they stand unchargeable; they stand perfect before a Holy
God, who, as God, can accept nothing less than perfection. Ruth was no exception.
Paul wrote
in Hebrews 10:14; “For by one offering He has perfected
forever those who are sanctified.” In Roman’s 8:30 he wrote; “Moreover
whom He did predestinate, them He also called; whom He called, them He also
justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.” Our final
glorification is as certain as if it were already done. This is the “full
reward”(Christ’s
finished work) spoken of in V-12.
V-2, 10 Ruth found grace only in the sight of Boaz. She,
and all the Elect have “found grace in the eyes of
the Lord,” for “the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by
Jesus Christ.”(John 1:17)
Look at V-12. Here is the key to Ruth’s and our perfection
before God.
“The Lord recompense
thy work.” Of what work is Boaz speaking? The word “recompense”
means to be at peace. God is at peace with your work. What work? V-12b;
“under whose wings thou art come to trust.” God was at peace with Ruth
based on the work of her Substitute and Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom she
trusted for all her salvation. To the question asked by his
followers in John 6:28, when they said to Him, “What
shall we do that we might work the works of God;” Jesus answered, “This
is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent.” Ruth
believed God, and it was counted to her for righteousness. V-11 say’s; “you
left your father and mother and the land of your nativity.” She, and all the Elect; “turn to God from
idols to serve the true and living God.” The
object of her faith was Christ.
Her “full reward” (V-11) is all grace here and all glory hereafter: All the benefits and blessings of her God who purposed to save, prepared the soil, planted the seed, provided the Savior and perfected the saints.
Our Kinsman-Redeemer truly is Lord of the harvest.
In our next study, we’ll see our Kinsman-Redeemer as “Lord
of the Righteous.”