Ransomed by His Blood Pt 1 (Mark 10:45)

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. - Mark 10:45

Over the two-thousand years of Church history we have seen the development of many so-called atonement theories.

Some of these include Penal Substitutionary Atonement, Vicarious Satisfaction, Christus Victor, and Recapitulation among many others.

The atonement is perhaps the deepest and most ineffable of all theological topics. Its basic meaning can easily be understood by simply breaking apart the English word: at-one-ment. It is the inquiry into how God and man are reconciled to one another.

Obviously the Cross is central to atonement, but the question remains: how does the Crucifixion of Christ reconcile us to God?

Most people are satisfied to affirm something along the lines of: we owed an infinite debt that we couldn't pay, Christ paid that debt on our behalf, and we are therefore forgiven and reconciled to God.

I will not argue against this formula but I will admit it leaves me wanting. There is nothing wrong with it; it just seems too neat and tidy; too rational and transactional; too one-dimensional. It doesn't capture the fullness of what happened on the Cross.

And that's okay.

Because there is no one explanation or "theory" of the Cross that could comprehensively explain it.

Thus, when Jesus talks about giving His life as "a ransom," we should understand this language in somewhat analogical terms and not as a comprehensive description of the meaning of the Cross. In other words, our human concept of "ransom" is not big enough to contain the totality of what Jesus did on the Cross - but still it can be helpful.

I say this as a sort of disclaimer for what I will say later. Any metaphor or analogy must necessarily break down when pushed too far. No analogy is exactly like the real thing, or else it wouldn't be an analogy... it would just be a description of the reality itself.

It is sufficient to consider that Jesus gave His life (like a ransom) for our salvation. But let's say (with the understanding we can't take it too far) that we would like to see how far we can take this analogy. How much revelation can we squeeze out of it before it turns bad?

This will be the topic of next week's post. But I will leave you with this question to consider:

If Jesus was the ransom payment for the sake of our salvation, to whom was this ransom paid?

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in him we might become the righteousness of God

2 Cor 5:21