William Cowper and Redemption

Many sitting in biblical churches today of whatever kind—Baptist, Bible, Charismatic, Presbyterian and so on—are filled with “New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs Christians.” What I mean by this phrase, which I heard from a pastor friend of mine, is that most believers primarily read and study their New Testaments (Matthew through Revelation), and only occasionally make an excursion into the Old Testament to read a psalm or a proverb!

But such folks—indeed, most of us—have little if any understanding how both Testaments fit together to form a complete story with characters, a setting, a conflict, twists and turns in the plot, a denouement, and a final resolution like all good stories have (this is even the structure of your favorite TV sitcom, believe it or not!).

Furthermore, few, if any, of us have much theological understanding of how God’s intentions for Adam and creation connect to Abraham and Israel and how this connects to Jesus and Church. In other words, we don’t have much insight into the total plan and purposes of God in history. Sadly, we are familiar with just the New Testament part of the story and its out-of-context theology, which is inevitably subject to some severe misunderstandings. Bottom line: we are operating as Christians with an amputated Bible and as a result have a disfigured view of the Christian faith.

In this series of discussions, we want to correct that. We are hoping you make the discovery of the entire biblical story, or “metanarrative,” as it is called. We are hoping that out of this you develop a comprehensive, holistic biblical worldview. So as we continue on with our survey of the biblical drama, we will discuss the bulk of the biblical story, which is that of redemption—its Old Testament promise and its New Testament fulfillment and consummation—and we will read some good selections of poetry from William Cowper to help us understand it.

REDEMPTION
Even in the midst of His judgments on the world at the time of the fall, God announced in Genesis 3:15—the famed protevangelium—that the offspring of a woman would crush the head of the serpent, symbolizing the destruction of evil and announcing the hope of salvation. Even as human wickedness spreads and escalates in fratricide, polygamy, apostasy, and rebellion, the “Scarlet Thread of Redemption” can be traced in Genesis 4-11 from Adam to Abel to Seth to Noah to Shem to Terah to Abraham.

God called Abram, or Abraham, in Genesis 12 as His answer to the devastations wrought in the earth by sin, death, and evil. The Creator-turned-Redeemer demonstrates immediately that He intends to replace cursing with blessing, death with life, darkness with light, and despair with hope. He promised Abraham that through him and his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed, or perhaps better, re-blessed.

That one singular offspring of the woman and seed of Abraham, after a long series of Old Testament covenants, prophecies, and promises, was Jesus Christ, “who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became human.” This One was “the Son of David and the Son of Abraham” as the gospel of Matthew identifies Him, the “Son of God” as the gospel of Mark proclaims, the “Son of Adam” as the gospel of Luke asserts, and the very Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us, as the majestic prologue to John’s gospel announces.

JESUS, REDEMPTION, AND THE KINGDOM
Jesus embodies and fulfills in Himself Israel’s history in obedience and faithfulness, and indeed, in Him the true story of the world is encapsulated. He proclaimed that in Him, the kingdom (empire) of God had come in an exercise of the divine sovereignty against all the evil in the world. As Jesus asserted in Matthew 12:28, “The kingdom of God has come upon you”; in Mark 1:15, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand”; finally in Luke 17:21, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.”

We must understand, however, that the redeeming rule of God in Jesus did not arrive in an extravaganza of signs and wonders. Instead, it came as a mystery in secret and through service, and by suffering and sacrifice. It was but a mere mustard seed or a pinch of leaven. Yet at the same time, the kingdom is a hidden treasure and pearl of great price, worth the sacrifice of everything we have to possess it

In the four gospels we see the kingdom of God in humble yet profound action. Where there was disease, Christ healed it; where there were storms, Christ calmed them; where there was hunger, Christ satisfied it; where there were demons, Christ cast them out; where there was falsehood, Christ taught the truth; where there was sin, Christ forgave it; where there was death, Christ conquered it.

The superlative expression of the kingdom of God was in the cross of Christ. Though it appeared to be anything but a royal victory in its injustice and grisliness, there, by a broken body and shed blood, His sacrifice propitiated God by His self-offering, He broke the back of evil, and He conquered death by death and resurrection. In short, He crushed the head of the serpent and set the cosmos free. He unleashed a new exodus and established a new creation. Christus Victor!

When this cosmic and personal grace is appropriated by faith, it entitles the believer to the forgiveness of sin, renewed fellowship with God, and the gift of eternal life. In the opening stanza of perhaps Cowper’s most famous hymn,

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.

Of course, the redemption story has begun, but is not yet complete. Though the kingdom of God has already arrived, it has not yet been consummated. Indeed, Christ has died and Christ is risen. But it is also true that Christ is coming again. As the New Testament theologian George E. Ladd has explained,

Our central thesis is that the Kingdom of God is the redemptive reign of God dynamically active to establish His rule among humanity, and that this Kingdom which will appear as an apocalyptic act at the end of the age, has already come into human history in the person and mission of Jesus to overcome evil, to deliver people from its power, and to bring them into the blessings of God’s reign. The Kingdom of God involves two great moments: fulfillment within history [already], and consummation at the end of history [not yet].

Through his life, death, burial, and resurrection, Christ has exercised the sovereign rule and authority of God against all the evil in the world. He has defeated the powers, forgiven sin, and conquered death, and extends victory, forgiveness, and new life to all who believe in Him. The kingdom is already now!

Yet we realize that God’s redemptive work in and through Christ is not completely finished. We look forward to the return of Christ when He will consummate His redemptive work in judgment and resurrection. He will in due course renew the whole cosmos, the entire universe, making all things new. The kingdom of God is also not yet. It is also future!

Meanwhile, however, we have good news again. All things are in process of being renewed. Redemption means a return to normalcy. Life is right-side up again! We know who God is. We know where we are: God’s very good creation! We know who we are: God’s image and likeness. We know our essential human purposes in spiritual, social and cultural terms. We know what went wrong and why the brokenness: our sin. We know what the solution is: Jesus Christ and the gospel of the kingdom of God. And we know that this redemption comes in two stages: already but not yet.

COWPER AND REDEMPTION
William Cowper was clued in well to all this. He knew that this present-yet-future-kingdom New Testament framework meant that we could enjoy and exemplify a taste of our blissful future even now. As he writes, “He is the happy man, whose life ev’n now/Shows somewhat of that happier life to come” (“The Task,” Book VI, The Winter Walk at Noon, Lines 905-06). Indeed, that happier life to come is something for which Christians and the whole creation groan and yearn, and it will not arrive until it arrives with the Son of Man coming on the clouds with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).

So, as we stand on tip-toe in this time in between the times, gazing intently into the future, we look forward to Christ’s return and the final announcement when He happily declares, “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5).

Such was the cosmic sweep of Christian redemption for William Cowper. He looked forward to the day when the divine curse would be lifted from the earth. He longed for that hour when the whole creation would be renewed and God in Christ would rightfully conquer and reclaim His world. “Sweet,” as he says, “is the harp of prophecy.”

Though he felt inadequate to put this final biblical scene in human verse, nonetheless, Cowper concluded his poem “The Task” in its sixth book with an eschatological flourish worthy of the greatest poets in the English language who stand foursquare in the Christian tradition. Here are a few of its best excerpts:

The groans of Nature in this nether world,
Which Heaven has heard for ages, have an end.
Foretold by prophets, and by poets sung,
Whose fire was kindled at the prophets’ lamp,
The time of rest, the promised Sabbath, comes. (Lines 729-33)

For He, whose car the winds are, and the clouds
The dust that waits upon his sultry march,
When sin hath moved him, and his wrath is hot,
Shall visit earth in mercy; shall descend
Propitious in his chariot paved with love;
And what his storms have blasted and defaced
For man’s revolt, shall with a smile repair. (Lines 740-46)

O scenes surpassing fable, and yet true,
Scenes of accomplish’d bliss! which who can see,
Though but in distant prospect, and not feel
His soul refresh’d with foretaste of the joy?
Rivers of gladness water all the earth,
And clothe all climes with beauty; the reproach
Of barrenness is past. (Lines 759-65)

Error has no place;
That creeping pestilence is driven away;
The breath of heaven has chased it. In the heart
No passion touches a discordant string,
But all is harmony and love. Disease
Is not: the pure and uncontaminate blood
Holds it due course, nor fears the frost of age.
One song employs all nations; and all cry,
“Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us!” (Lines 783-92)

Thus heavenward all things tend. For all were once
Perfect, and all must be at length restored. (Lines 818-19)

Come then, and, added to thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! It was thine
By ancient covenant, ere Nature’s birth;
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since,
And overpaid its value with thy blood. (Lines 855-60)

Come then, and, added to thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest,
Due to thy last and most effectual work,
Thy word fulfill’d, the conquest of a world! (Lines 902-05)

With this part of the story in place and as we wrap it all up next time with some practical reflections, along with more poetry from Cowper, I guarantee you it will incline you to become a holistic biblical believer, more than just a New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs Christian!

Dr. David Naugle is professor of philosophy at Dallas Baptist University, the author of numerous books, and a regular contributor to Worldview Church.