Key Verse: “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
- Mark 10:45 KJV
The most significant word that describes the death of Christ for sinful man is redemption. It means, “buying again,” or “buying back.” In the Bible it is used especially of purchasing a slave with a view of setting him free. It signifies a release procured by the payment of a ransom price.
The Roman slave could purchase his own freedom if he could come up with enough money. The owner could also sell his slave to someone else who would pay the price and set him free.
The word “ransom” signifies the price paid for a slave who is then set free by the one who bought him.
As noted in our Key Verse above, Jesus said, “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45).
The apostle Peter wrote, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). Hebrews 9:12 tells us it is, “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 for us.”
The redemption price is the blood of Jesus which makes it possible for a righteous God to justify a believing sinner on the basis of satisfied justice.
It is significant in the Bible that we belong to God, but we fell into bondage through willful rebellion; and as a result of sin we must be purchased out of that bondage. Our bondage is the penalty and power of sin. We were alienated from God and in bondage to sin; therefore God in His grace redeemed us from that bondage. We have been “...justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).
Jesus Christ redeemed us by the sacrifice of Himself at Calvary on our behalf. The death of Christ breaks the power of sin and cancels our debt because He paid it in full. He sets us free by the payment of the ransom price. Christ bought us in the slave market of sin by His own blood (Gal. 3:13; 4:5). We are His own unique possession and we will never be put up for sale in any slave market again.
The Bible does not say to whom the ransom was paid. The important thing to note is the extreme price that was paid to set the sinner free. We were delivered through the death of Christ on the cross (Heb. 9:12).
God demands that this vicarious offering be made, therefore the ransom is obviously paid to God, not Satan.
When Jesus shouted, “It is finished,” He declared that our redemption was paid in full.
God accomplished through the death of Christ precisely what our salvation required.
We deserved to die for sin (Rom. 6:23); Christ died for us (5:6, 8). We were under the just wrath of God by reason of our transgressions, however Christ bore that wrath in our place.
The apostle Paul stresses the truth that we were alienated from God, but Christ reconciled us to God.
Redemption places the emphasis on the truth that we were sold under sin, and Christ Jesus bought our freedom by paying sin’s price in full.
A significant definition of this word is the reality that the believer is set free from sin and is free to live a life pleasing to God in the power of the Holy Spirit. This becomes the highest motivation for Christian living. “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's” (1 Cor. 6:20).
Our redemption will come to its consummation at the Second Coming of Christ (1 Cor. 15:49). At that moment our redemption will be completed (Luke. 21:28; 2 Thess. 2:8). We enjoy the “newness of life” now, and we will experience the deliverance of the believer from the presence and power of sin, and this body from the bondage to corruption at the Coming of Jesus (Rom. 8:23; 1 Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:14; 4:30).
Abraham’s son Isaac asked, 'Where is the Lamb?' (Gen. 22:7) and John the Baptist answered it by pointing to Jesus and declaring, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29, 36). Today, in heaven, the redeemed of the Lamb and the angels sing, 'Worthy is the Lamb' (Rev. 5:11-14).
Have you placed your trust in Jesus Christ as your redeemer who ransomed you?
