Title: Christ the Surety
Text: Hebrews 7: 22
Date: July 18, 2015
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Over the past two months, I have spent hours speaking with lenders, doing research, making preparations for the church to obtain a loan. I have listened to various lenders give their definition and requirements of a guarantor. All I could think about is the great difference between us being a guarantor and our Savior being the surety of God’s elect. For months, one text has come to mind.
Hebrews 7:22: By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
Today, our focus will be: Christ our Surety—“Jesus made a surety.” The Lord Jesus Christ was made a Surety for God’s elect.
Our Lord has enabled some here to volunteer as guarantors for this church as we apply for a loan. Some would do so but simply are not able. That is understandable. The Lord only requires his people to do what we can. When God enables us to do what we can, we give God all the glory. Perhaps, others are thinking of being a guarantor. So I want everyone to understand what it means to be a guarantor. Even more, I want us to see the great difference between us being guarantors and Christ being our Surety.
Let me define guarantor and surety as the lenders defined it to me. A guarantor is a person who promises under a legal contract, to pay off a loan to the lender, only after the original borrower defaults and is proven incapable of paying the debt. A surety is similar, except a surety co-signs the loan itself and immediately becomes jointly responsible, so that the co-signer can be looked to if the borrower is late even on a payment.
But neither of these is how Christ is Surety of his people.
THE ETERNAL SURETY
First, Christ is the eternal Surety. Obviously, the need for a surety is due to a debt that is owed. In Adam, all sinned! All fell into debt. By nature, we owe God perfect obedience to his law from a perfectly holy nature perfectly obedient to God. We owe eternal death to justice due to our sin. But no sinner can pay the debt we owe to God! It is absolutely impossible for you and me to please God and save ourselves.
Yet, before the foundation of the world, before we fell in Adam, God chose his Son to be Surety, trusting all God’s elect to him.
Psalm 89:19: Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people….21: With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.
We tend to think of suretyship as a burden or a great risk. Indeed, scripture warns us of being surety in haste or for one who is untrustworthy. But suretyship is lawful before God else we could never be saved. And what an honor God bestowed upon his Son! God the Father first, trusted Christ! He trusted the Son with his glory and trusted him with his people!
So in eternity, the Son of God voluntarily entered into everlasting covenant with the Father. He promised to faithfully perform all that God the Father required for the salvation of his people.
Isaiah 50: 5: The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.
Remember, how Judah became Surety for Benjamin. That is the honor of suretyship to which Christ bound himself for God and his people.
Genesis 43:8: And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. 9: I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever:
Brethren, before as yet we became sinners, all God’s elect had a Savior in Christ our Surety. This is why God did not destroy the world when Adam sinned in the garden. This how every old testament believer was saved in Christ before as yet Christ laid down his life—Christ was their eternal Surety. This is why God continues to be merciful to us even now.
Job 33:24: Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.
Now, when we become a guarantor there is a possibility that we could die. If we die, we will be of no help to the lender or the creditor. But Christ is our Eternal Surety; he is the eternal GodMan; the Prince of Life.
Hebrews 7: 15: And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,…
Every old testament priest was a kind of surety for the children of Israel. But they were made a priest after the law of a carnal commandment—primogeniture. Their father died, the priesthood passed to them. They died, the priesthood passed to their son. Not so with Christ our Surety and High Priest!
Hebrews 7: 16: Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. 17: For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Christ is without beginning of days or ending of days. Christ our Surety everlives so the covenant he fulfilled for his people is from everlasting to everlasting.
Hebrews 7: 23: And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: 24: But this man because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. 25: Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
SURETY FOR BOTH PARTIES
Secondly, when we become a guarantor we will be guarantor for only one party, the creditor. But Christ our Surety represents both parties, God and his people. Christ is Surety for God toward his people and for his people toward God.
Christ is God making all God’s covenant promises just toward his people. Christ said,
Psalm 40: 7: Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, 8: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
Christ is Man in whom our side of the covenant is fulfilled toward God.
Hebrews 7: 18: For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. 19: For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.
Therefore, God is just in Christ because Christ fulfilled the law declaring God just and all God’s elect are righteous before the law in Christ because when Christ obeyed the law we were in him and we obeyed. You see God left nothing to his people. Therefore, in this Surety,
2 Corinthian 1:20 :…all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by [toward] us.
THE ABSOLUTE SURETY
Thirdly, when we become a guarantor we do so for those in good standing, those trustworthy, who will pay their debt. But Christ became our Surety knowing full well that we would not be able to pay what we owe.
Romans 5: 6:…Christ died for the ungodly
He did so in time, yet before the foundation of the world, when Christ struck hands to become Surety of God’s elect, right then in God’s purpose, he died for the ungodly. Therefore, Christ is,
Re 13:8…the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Remember, with an earthly guarantor—the lender can look to the guarantor only after the creditor defaults. But God never looked to us because he knew we would default—it was God’s purpose to glorify his Son. So when Christ became our Surety, right then he became legally responsible for all the debt his people owed. God never looked to his people for the payment, only to Christ.
Remember when Paul wrote to Philemon? Philemon’s servant, Onesimus, has run away but God led him to Paul and God saved him. Paul wrote to Philemon,
Philemon 1: 18: If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account; 19: I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it
That is what Christ said before the foundation of the world but it was not “if he hath wronged thee” but “when”. So all the sins of all God’s people were put on Christ’s account from before the foundation of the world. Christ said, “I have lifted my own hand, I will repay it.” God never looked to his elect for satisfaction. In Christ our Surety we were freed all sin, all curse, all penalty, and all obligation. God looked to his Son for satisfaction of our debts.
This is why Ephesians says he blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he chose us in him—we were accepted by God in our Beloved Surety! Since Christ our Surety could not fail, Romans 8 declares those he elected in Christ from eternity—were right then called, justified, and glorified. That is why Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Some here do not have assurance that Christ will keep you or provide for you as he promised. Think on this, if Christ became our Surety knowing we would be ungodly, incapable, sinners—if he took all our debt before we had debt in time—is there any possibility that now that he has paid our debt, that he will let us perish or fail to provide for us? Especially if it is his church declaring his gospel! No way!
THE SURETY WHO IS THE PAYMENT
Fourthly, as a guarantor even our payment is different than Christ’s. If we do have to pay as a guarantor, we will pay with money or property or some other collateral but not with blood. But Christ became our Surety knowing that he, himself, IS THE PAYMENT. He gave himself,
Galatians 1: 4: Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: 5: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Titus 2:14; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Christ paid his own body, his own soul, his own precious blood—even unto death. He agreed to be made of a woman, made under the law, made sin, made a curse for us! And he had to die! He agreed to do it when he became our Surety!
Brethren, I pray we can enter into the value of the payment Christ made to redeem us from the curse of the law! He sweat drops of blood just facing it. Yet according to the promise of suretyship which he agreed to accomplish, when the hour came, he said,
Isaiah 50: 6: I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
His visage marred more than any man. He was despised and rejected of men. Christ was deserted by his closest friends. He ore in his body the shame of our sin which he despised. Christ was forsaken by the Father he loved. He suffered eternal death from the presence of his glory, even having his body buried in the grave! He paid all the debt his people owed, by giving himself.
THE SURETY WHO PAID IN FULL
Lastly, with an earthly surety, the lender can look to both the creditor and the surety for payment. But the justice of God looked only to Christ our Surety. Since Christ paid the debt in full, now justice looks to Christ and bears witness that we are as Christ is. Christ is now made higher than the heavens. What does that mean for us who believe on him?
Romans 6: 6: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7: For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8: Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him; 9: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10: For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Brethren, can Christ be made sin again? No. Can he be made a curse of the law again? No. Can he die again? No. Can the law even say anything to Christ again! No. All these things are true of us who are in Christ.
Brethren, Christ making our payment by giving himself, is our one constraint to rest in him and to do all that he enables us to do in this earth to spread this gospel so others can hear what he gave! Christ is yet fulfilling his Surety promise to bring all his redeemed to God. So he assures us
2 Corinthians 9:8: God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:
Since he gave himself, shall we be lovers of our own selves? Shall we live for our own selves?
Romans 12: 1: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Amen!