The Ransom for All

A Study Paper on Christian Doctrine

The human race has been in bondage to sin and death since the Fall. No man has been able to escape. "We have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one...for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Rom.3:9‑23) Our first parents were created perfect and capable of everlasting life so long as they remained in harmony with Divine law (Gen.1:27‑29; 2:15‑17), but in consequence of their lapse into sin the processes of death commenced to work in them. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground...for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Gen.3:19; 2:17). All human beings subsequently born were born in a dying condition of dying parents. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned...therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation...for as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners." (Rom.5:12‑19). No man was or is able to redeem any of his fellows from this unhappy condition. "None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him: that he should still live for ever, and not see corruption." (Psa.49:7,9). But God promised our first parents, at the very time of their fall, that a way of deliverance would be found eventually. Speaking to the instigator of man’s sin, He said, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head..." (Gen.3:15). This theme, that the seed of the woman would become the means of recovering man from the power of sin and evil, runs right through the Scriptures. Abraham, several thousands of years later, was told "I will make of thee a great nation...and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen.12:2‑3) and later "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." (Gen.22:18). The Apostle Paul explained the meaning of this when he said "Christ hath redeemed us...that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles (nations)…through faith...Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made…not…to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." (Gal.3:13‑16).

It will be noted that in the text just quoted there are two things necessary before the blessing can be conferred. One is faith and the other is redemption—and redemption comes first. A Redeemer is necessary to recover mankind from condemnation to death on account of sin. So Elihu the friend of Job says, speaking of man’s plight. "His soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger (ambassador) with him,….to shew unto man his uprightness: then he (God) is gracious unto him, and saith, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.’ His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s; he shall return to the days of his youth." (Job 33:22‑25). That is a Millennial promise; it is paralleled by the declaration of Peter on the day of Pentecost "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ...whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things." (Acts 3:19‑21). That time was spoken of by Isaiah when he cried "And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isa.35:10). That this is to include the abolition of death and mankind’s entry into everlasting life is indicated by the emphatic declaration "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction." (Hos.13:14).

Our Lord Jesus Christ gave the ransom price which achieves this grand purpose. "The man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Tim.2:5‑6) Jesus Himself said "The Son of Man came…to give his life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45). This word "ransom" means "a corresponding price" or more properly "a price to set against" and used in this connection it alludes to the process known in New Testament times as "manumission," by means of which Greek and Roman slaves could obtain their freedom. Someone had to pay into one of the pagan temple treasuries the price of the slave’s release. A friend of the slave, willing to make the financial sacrifice, could do this. Then the slave went to the temple and the price was paid over to his former master and the former slave became technically the property of the god. By virtue of that fact he became actually free, for whilst he continued the slave of the god no one could touch him. Adam had forfeited his life because of sin and had become the slave of sin. The price paid for his release was the perfect life which our Lord Jesus gave on the Cross, thereby providing the price which at one and the same time released man from the Adamic condemnation and at the same time made him the property of God. So Paul says, "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived (lived), that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living." (Rom.14:9). "He that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men." (1 Cor.7:22‑23). "Ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s." (1 Cor.6:19‑20).

This fact of our having been "bought" by means of a "ransom‑price" is therefore a very real thing, and we Christians are in consequence the servants, bond‑slaves, of Christ; a servitude which is, paradoxically enough, perfect liberty. The price paid was the human life of Jesus, often referred to in the New Testament as the "blood" of Christ. The Jews had always been taught that the life is in the blood (Lev.17:14) and it was a perfectly natural thing therefore to be told that they had been "redeemed...with the precious blood of Christ." (1 Pet.1:18‑19). Drawing an analogy with the Tabernacle ceremonies of older times, the writer to the Hebrews says "Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption (deliverance) for us." (Heb.9:12). "Thou wast slain" rings the heavenly chorus in the "Throne Scene" of the Book of Revelation "and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." (Rev.5:9). John himself in his prologue to the same book declares of Christ that He "washed us from our sins in his own blood." (Rev.1:5). Paul adds his testimony when, writing to the Ephesians, he says of Christ "In whom we have redemption (deliverance) through his blood" (Eph.1:7), and to the Colossians that he "made peace through the blood of his cross" (Col.1:20) and would in consequence be the means of reconciling all things to God; finally to the Romans that "being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." (Rom.5:9).

Justification by faith in Christ is granted by God on the basis of the ransom given by Christ and the faith of the believer in that ransom. But this is a different subject and will not be enlarged upon here. Suffice to notice that this justification constitutes a "redemption" or "deliverance" from the bondage of sin in this present time and results in actual deliverance from death when the due time has come for that deliverance. Hence the ransom given by Jesus is often referred to as the means of our redemption. (The words rendered "redemption" in the New Testament have the meaning of being set free, and are usually better translated by our English word "deliverance.") So Job was able to say with confidence "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth" (Job 19:25), and the angel to Joseph "Thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." (Matt.1:21). The Apostles, preaching after Pentecost, made it plain that "there is none other name under heaven given...whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4:12). Paul, writing to the Galatian Christians, emphasised that "when the fulness of the times was come, God sent forth his Son...to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." (Gal.4:4‑5). The fact that Christ gave his own human life to effect this redemption is stressed in the preceding chapter: "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse (cutting‑off) of the law, being made a curse (being cut off) for us." (Gal.3:13). He came deliberately for that purpose, as He himself testified "the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost." (Matt.18:11). "I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." (John 12:47). "The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them." (Luke 9:56). To that is added the emphatic words of His greatest Apostle, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim.1:15) and his reminder to Titus "our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity." (Titus 2:13‑14).

So far we have spoken only of the death of Jesus on the Cross as providing the ransom, but nothing of the outcome. In his instructions to the Christians at home, Paul says "if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Rom.5:10). Something more than the death of the Saviour is involved; there is also His resurrection. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom.10:9). Had Jesus been nothing more than a man of Adam’s race, even though a perfect man, he must have remained in the grave, his life given for ever on behalf of mankind. But His was a life that came from above; before the world was created, He lived (John 6:38,51; 8:58; Prov.8:22) and, on the third day after the human body had been taken down from the Cross and laid in the garden grave, he rose again in the power of an endless life and took again the glory that he had with the Father before the world was, the glory that he had laid aside for the suffering of death. By His Father’s "mighty power" says Paul "which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand." (Eph.1:19‑20). The humanity of Jesus remains for ever given as the purchase price for the redeemed, Jesus Himself is forever in possession of His spiritual glory far above all things in heaven and earth.

Wherein lay the necessity of the death of Jesus? Could not His example, His teaching and His influence do for man what was necessary? He gave the answer to that question Himself. "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." (John 12:24). In God’s wisdom He saw that only by taking the sinner’s place even unto death would Christ be able to win men from the other side of death. "I am the good shepherd" said Jesus "and I lay down my life for the sheep...I lay down my life, that I might take it again...I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." (John 10:14‑18) Perhaps Peter explains that cryptic utterance when he says "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened (made alive) by the spirit." (1 Pet.3:18) That at any rate introduces us to one of the deepest themes in the Bible, the redemptive power of suffering. We may not know just how it is that suffering borne on behalf of others creates a power that saves, but the Bible is clear that it is so. The 53rd Chapter of Isaiah is well known for its description of the sufferings of Christ Jesus; "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief...he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows...he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities…he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter...he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken...he hath poured out his soul unto death:...and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isa.53:3‑12) Explaining this very passage to His disciples after His resurrection, Jesus told them "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day" (Luke 24:46), and again "O...slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory." (Luke 24:25,26) Later on Peter recalled those words when he spoke of the Spirit in the prophets testifying beforehand "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." (1 Pet.1:11) The writer to the Hebrews had a clear vision of this matter; he says "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels (i.e. made man) for the suffering of death...that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man...forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil...for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." (Heb.2:9‑18) "In the days of his flesh...though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." (Heb.5:7‑9) Peter again re‑joins with confirming testimony "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example...who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree (the Cross)...by whose stripes ye were healed." (1 Pet.2:21‑24) Paul, preaching to the Thessalonians, "reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead." (Acts 17:2‑3).

It is in consequence of this understanding, that the sufferings and death of Jesus constitute the power behind mankind’s eventual reconciliation to God, that the Apostle John declares "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2) and Paul, writing to the Romans "God hath set forth (Jesus) to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past." (Rom.3:25). This word "propitiation" has certain pagan associations which give it the meaning of sacrifice as upon a pagan altar, but the original word used means a covering, and is referred to the covering over of sins so that they no longer appear in the sight of God. There is no thought here of a kind of blood sacrifice demanded to appease an angry God; that idea is quite inconsistent with the Scriptural presentation of the Father, the God of love, working in complete amity and harmony with the Son. The idea is rather that expressed in Psa.32:1 and quoted by Paul in Rom.4:7: "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" and Psa.85:2 "Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin." God, speaking through the prophet Isaiah, says "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and...thy sins." (Isa.44:22).

Jesus Christ came from above and assumed human form to give Himself a Ransom for All, because only through the avenue of suffering and death could the Divine purpose be effected. Jesus is Lord of all and in His resurrection life He had both authority and power, born of His experiences on earth, to lead whosoever will of all mankind back to reconciliation to God.

AOH