01 - A Ransom For Many By Pastor Jeff Wickwire Notes

And then of course, others believe the Cross Jesus died on is only a myth made up by religious zealots steeped in a bloody sacrificial system that is essentially nonsense.

As Paul wrote, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18).

So to explain why Jesus went to the Cross, I want to focus on one word in our text, the word "RANSOM."

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

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We've all heard of someone being kidnapped against their will, and how those who love the kidnapped person wait with bated breath for the kidnapper to tell them what the RANSOM will be.

What will it cost to set them free and bring them back home?

The attitude of those who love the kidnapped person is,

"Whatever it takes, I will come up with it. No price is too much to get my loved one back."

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This is the meaning of the word RANSOM in this verse.

In the Greek language it was also the word used for the money necessary for freeing slaves.

So the word RANSOM signifies three things:

You have first a captive, prisoner, or slave

Then there is a ransom amount required to set them free, and finally,

There must be a third party willing to pay the ransom.

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Thus, when Jesus used this word He was clearly insinuating that:

1. The world is made up of captive prisoners and slaves.

2. Their freedom would require a RANSOM paid to secure their freedom.

3. His life was the only RANSOM that would do! He said, "I came....to give MY LIFE a ransom for many."

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So let's look at each of these points:

The world is filled with prisoners and slaves

Jesus was not referring to people incarcerated in a steel and stone prison...

Nor was He referring to the percentage of people in our world that are still to this day suffering in forced servitude against their will.

Jesus was speaking of prisoners of a different kind.

Jesus taught that all of mankind is enslaved to sin.

John 8:34 "Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin."

And since anyone who commits sin is the slave of sin, that places the whole world in the "slavery" bracket because all of us have sinned!

According to Jesus, all of humanity is enslaved to sin!

The testimony of the Bible about mankind is not flattering....It describes our slavery to sin this way:

Ro. 3:11-18 "There is not one who understands. There is not one who tries to find God.

12 Everyone has turned away from God. They have all done wrong. Not one of them does what is good. No, not even one!

13 Their mouth is like an open grave. They tell lies with their tongues. Whatever they say is like the poison of snakes.

14 Their mouths speak bad things against God. They say bad things about other people.

15 They are quick to hurt and kill people.

16 Wherever they go, they destroy and make people suffer.

17 They know nothing about peace.

18 They do not honor God with love and fear.”

So according to the Bible, we human beings are not naturally good, we are naturally bad.

We are not godly, we are by nature ungodly.

And this is because we are all born with a sinful nature.

Paul explains, "This is what happened: Sin came into the world by one man, Adam. Sin brought death with it. Death spread to all men because all have sinned" (Ro. 5:12).

Sin came into our world through Adam....when Adam fell, we all fell with him, and our very natures were changed....

After Adam, it became totally natural for us to rebel against God, to curse Him, dishonor Him, resent Him.....to run and hide from Him, to seek to live our lives independently of Him...

Our sinful inner nature is perfectly described in Romans 7:

"We know that the Law (God's standard for right living) is right and good, but I am a person who does what is wrong and bad. I am not my own boss. Sin is my boss. 15 I do not understand myself. I want to do what is right but I do not do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate" (Ro. 7:14-15).

That describes our sin nature, and why we are actually prisoners and slaves to sin...

PETER says of the whole human race, "...they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you" (2 Pet. 2:19).

So...like the prisoner or slave, every human being on earth is a slave to sin.

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Second, Jesus said that...

II. A RANSOM must be paid to set them free

Some PAYMENT must be made to set humanity free!

Now FIRST, who was the ransom to be paid to?

And Who required the ransom?

Not the devil, for how could a rebellious devil who played a major role in man's fall in the first place require a RANSOM?

He was as guilty as Adam!

No...the RANSOM was required by God Himself, for He was the One offended and estranged because of man's sin!

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I like to watch real-life crime shows like Forensic Files and Dateline ID where major crimes are committed and the perpetrators are finally brought to justice.

One thing I've noticed in virtually every show is that the surviving victims of the crime demand that JUSTICE be served.

The police officers on the case also want JUSTICE to be served.

There is this thing inside all of us humans that comes straight from the God Who created us that says,

"This crime must be answered, it MUST be solved, because there MUST BE JUSTICE for this wronged person!"

We get that from the God Who made us in His image!

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So....when we sin, God is the number one wronged person...

Because God is a holy God, He is utterly and completely revolted by SIN.

SIN is an act of major rebellion; it is in heaven's eyes a capital crime....It is an infamous felony that requires JUSTICE.

And if WE, being sinners, must have justice for wrongs committed, then God being perfect requires justice all the more!

Here's the reality: EVERY SINGLE SIN committed on this planet demands justice from God.

He cannot allow ONE SINGLE SIN to go by without justice being meted out for it.

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Okay....that said, What RANSOM, then, could possibly be paid at the judgment bar of Almighty God to deliver us out of slavery to sin, and to satisfy God's need for justice?

Not silver or gold....not the dollar, peso, or yen.....not diamonds, rubies, or emeralds....none of these would do!

There was only one currency in the entire universe that could RANSOM us from slavery and condemnation, and satisfy God's need for justice....PETER gives the answer:

"18 God paid a ransom to save you from the impossible road to heaven which your fathers tried to take, and the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver as you very well know. 19 But he paid for you with the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but only recently was he brought into public view, in these last days, as a blessing to you."

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You say, "But Jeff, this whole thing's not fair! Why did it require an innocent life for a guilty one? Jesus was innocent!"

I'm glad you asked!

Peter answers that question in the same verse...

"But he paid for you with the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.

Jesus' blood was sinless and spotless because HE was sinless and spotless!

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin" (Heb. 4:15).

Jesus did not inherit Adams's nature because He did not have an earthly father.....He was conceived of the Holy Ghost.

And He never once committed a sinful act, but lived a perfect and sinless life.

The Bible says, "God made Him who KNEW NO SIN to be sin for us..."

Jesus went willingly to the Cross to be our Sacrifice Lamb and pay the RANSOM!

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Now, hold that thought and let me get down to what all this means for every person on earth...

EVERY SIN EVER COMMITTED will experience God's justice in one of two ways:

One, the sinner will meet God on Judgment Day and receive punishment for their sins...

Listen to the Bible here: Jude writes that Jesus will return,

"...to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him" (1:15).

"For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).

There is a Judgment Day coming because SIN must receive God's justice!

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But the second way SIN receives God's justice is on the Cross of Christ.

On the Cross, God's justice was satisfied by the death of Christ, who died in my place!

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On that day when Jesus died, the eternal courtroom of Almighty God was in session.

God sat as the Judge, and the entire human race, past, present and future, were gathered before Him.

Our sins were undeniable, our case was desperate, the stakes couldn't have been higher....not life in prison, but eternity in the prison of hell hung in the balance.

As Jesus hung on the Cross, the Bible says the sky grew black as midnight at high noon.

There was a great stillness on the crowd just before He breathed His last.

A supernatural gloom hung over everything.

What was happening at this dark hour?

Jesus, as it were, walked into that heavenly courtroom, stood between the judge and the guilty human race, and said,

“I will serve their sentence.”

On the Cross, He took the sins of the world--our sins, your sins, upon Himself.

And God poured out his wrath upon Christ until that wrath was absorbed and exhausted, until every bit of justice was satisfied.

Isaiah the Prophet wrote, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (53:6).

The literal Hebrew is, "The Lord has caused to land on Him the iniquity of us all."

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The Bible says that on that day, "...by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone" (Heb. 2:9).

Jesus was the sacrifice ransom necessary to RANSOM our souls from slavery:

"For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ" (2 Cor. 5:21).

The incredibly good news is that, when Jesus was on the Cross, "....God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out" (2 Cor 5:19).

So in summary: 1.) All of humanity are prisoners and slaves of sin.

2.) A RANSOM was required to deliver us and satisfy God's need for justice.

3.) Jesus' blood was the only currency in the universe to pay the debt we could not pay!