There is no name for MESSIAH more significant, comprehensive or endearing, than the name REDEEMER. The name of Saviour expresses what he does for sinners. He saves them from guilt and wrath, from sin, from the present evil world, from the powers of darkness, and from all their enemies. He saves them with an everlasting salvation. But the word "Redeemer" intimates likewise the manner in which he saves them. For it is not merely by the word of his power, as he saved his disciples when in jeopardy upon the lake, by saying to the winds and the seas, "Peace, be still: and there was a great calm;" (Mark 4:39) but by price, by paying a ransom for them, and pouring out the blood of his heart, as an atonement for their sins. The Hebrew word for Redeemer, Goel, primarily signifies, a near kinsman, or the next of kin. He with whom the right of redemption lay, and who by virtue of his nearness of relation, was the legal avenger of blood. Thus MESSIAH took upon him our nature, and by assuming our flesh and blood, became nearly related to us, that he might redeem our forfeited inheritance, restore us to liberty, and avenge our cause against Satan, the enemy and murderer of our souls. But thus he made himself also responsible for us, to pay our debts, and to answer the demands of the justice and law of God on our behalf. He fulfilled his engagement. He suffered, and he died on this account. But our Redeemer, "who was once dead is now alive, and liveth forevermore, and has the keys of death and hades." (Rev. 1:18) This is he of whom Job saith, "I know that he liveth" (was then living,) though he was not to "stand, upon the earth, until the latter day." He is the living One, having life in himself, "the same yesterday, today, and forever." (Heb. 13:8) Such was his own language to the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58) Therefore the Redeemer is mighty, and his redemption is sure. He is able to save to the uttermost. His power is unlimited, and his official authority, as Mediator, is founded in a covenant, ratified by his own blood, and by the oath of the unchangeable God. (Ps. 110:4).