The Ransom Theory

Introduction

Illustration

Motivation

Explanation

Mark 10:45 CSB

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

Summary of Points

Ransomed From Sin

Illustration: Gang initiation that requires murder

Why would gangs require that of their new members? If you asked them they might give you some answer about proving that they are hard enough. Proving that they will do whatever it takes in order to achieve the gang’s end. The real reason though is a bit different. The real reason is fear and control. Once you’ve committed such a serious crime on behalf of the gang you’re going to need to be loyal to the gang, because if you turn on them they’ll turn on you and you’ll be doing life in prison. In a way by committing such a crime you’ve become a slave to that gang.

It’s sort of similar when it comes to being a slave to sin. Sin being breaking God’s laws, whether that be by doing things which you shouldn’t do or by failing to do things that you should do. The main difference is that we are born slaves of sin. Thanks to the fall of mankind in the garden of Eden we are all born with a sin nature that makes us bent towards doing wrong. Sort of like an arrow that’s bent is going to fly way off target. So then we are born with a nature that causes us to sin and then when we do sin we become slaves to sin.

A bad action becomes a habit, a habit becomes an addiction and before you know it we are stuck and cannot escape the sin swamp we’ve got ourselves stuck in. We read in John 8:34

John 8:34 CSB

Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.

So what are we slaves of sin supposed to do? If we are trapped in doing wrong who will rescue us? There’s only one person that can do it. One person worthy of paying the full price to buy our freedom from slavery. That person is Jesus.

The Hebrew Scriptures prepare us for this with the Old Covenant, where people would sacrifice animals as a way to atone for their sins, treating the animals as a sort of payment to God. Our God Yahweh taught the Israelites to do this as a foreshadowing of what He Himself would one day do on the cross, as the author of Hebrews explains in Hebrews 9:11-14

Hebrews 9:11–14 CSB

But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), he entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow, sprinkling those who are defiled, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works so that we can serve the living God?

I want to jump back and zoom in on the word “redemption” in that passage. What does it mean to “redeem” something? We don’t use that word a lot these days, and when we do it’s usually redeeming coupons. That’s not what the Bible means. No in the Bible the word redemption refers to paying a ransom price to free someone from an oppressive situation, and especially of paying the price to buy a slave and give them their freedom. So then by dying on that cross Jesus was shedding His blood in order to pay to free us from our slavery to sin. So then if you are in Jesus you are no longer a slave to the sins that you have comitted. HE has sent you free from sin and has given you the Holy Spirit so that you can instead be a slave to righteousness. As Paul says in Romans 6:17-18

Romans 6:17–18 CSB

But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

So if Jesus paid the price for us on the cross to free us and one of the things He freed us from was sin itself, what does that mean for us today? That means if we are disciples of Jesus than we should expect our lives and behavior to change. As always don’t mistake the order here. We don’t do good things in order to be saved. We are saved and then we are newly able to do good things. Because we have been saved we do good works. Remember that Jesus said we will know a tree by its fruit. So then we should take time in our lives to inspect the fruit so to speak. What is my life producing? Righteous works or Sin? If Jesus has ransomed you from sin than it should be righteous works that come as a result.

Ransomed From the Law

Illustration: Would you say we live in a free country?

The law exists for a reason. Because without laws the world just sort of revolves around might makes right by default. We have laws because we have a realistic view of mankind. We know that unchecked many people will take advantage of others and do wrong things. But of course that means there has to be consequences to enforce the law. One of those consequences involves a total loss of freedom. Being placed in prison for breaking the law.

In a sense you could describe prisoners as enslaved to the law. Especially back in the day and in other places in the world where they would be forced to do labor during their time in prison. I know that none of us has ever been enslaved to the law in that way.

Yet God has a law, doesn’t He? He has a broader moral law that He expects all people to follow, but to His own people the Israelites God gave a special law. It gave them a standard to live up to. It gave them the righteous commands that God expected of them. How did they do at keeping those laws that God gave them?

Not well. That means that they are now at the mercy of that law and subject to the consequences described in it. You see when God gave the Israelites the law it came with something called “curses,” which were basically like the legal punishments under today’s laws but even more serious. The Israelites agreed to those terms. So all of them who broke the law were cursed by the law. That’s what Paul’s talking about in Galatians chapter 3:

Galatians 3:10–14 CSB

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Now in the same way that you wouldn’t call the law unjust for punishing a criminal, you can’t say that God’s law is unfair for putting them under a curse. That’s what they agreed to when God gave them the law. That’s the punishment that they are due for being trangressors of the law. But this law and its curse are both a form of slavery hanging over the people of Israel.

Jesus didn’t leave things that way. When He came and bought us a new covenant in His blood He didn’t give us a system of law. He freed us from the law. He redeemed us, there’s that word again, from the curse by being cursed on our behalf. This doesn’t mean that we can and should do everything we want and nothing is sinful anymore. It means that Jesus has through the Cross made it not about following a law but about following Him. Instead of the old way of heart versus law He set the law in our hearts. He gave us the Holy Spirit so that we would be able to live according to the Spirit and not according to the natural way we were born.

Do we believe that this morning? Do we believe that we are able to overcome the sin in our lives and live a life of freedom in Christ without the law? Or do we feel like we need to develop our own law. Do we need to set up a bunch of rules and authorities to regulate the body as if we were never freed from the law by the death of Christ?

Ransomed for Adoption

Illustration

Motivation

Explanation

Galatians 3:27–4:7 CSB

For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise. Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. Instead, he is under guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world. When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.

Application

Conclusion

Recap

Application

Sending