The Ransom

The Lord Jesus gave His life as a ransom. The Bible says this in three places. If we take a closer look at these Bible verses, we notice a remarkable, instructive, and important difference.

Three Bible verses in the New Testament show that Jesus Christ gave His life as a ransom [1]:

• “… just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28).
• “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45).
• “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all” (1 Tim 2:5-6).

The two Bible verses from the Gospels speak of Jesus Christ giving His life as a ransom for many, while the passage from the first letter to Timothy makes it clear that He gave His life for all. How is this difference to be understood?

An illustration

Imagine a landowner who leases his land to many small farmers. Due to mismanagement and stubbornness, all the small farmers fall into a deep debt crisis from which they can no longer get out. It is impossible for them to pay the agreed rent. The landowner has the right and the moral duty to have the smallholders thrown into prison. All preparations are already being made to carry out the punishment.
But the landowner’s son sets up a fund worth millions for the indebted farmers so that they have a chance of escaping the just punishment. With this “ransom” from the son, all the debts of all the small farmers can be repaid. The landowner is happy to agree to this action, which shows his kindness, and lets all the farmers know that they can be released from their debts if they recognise their failure and accept the offer.
The money from the fund to pay off the debt will be paid out to those who come forward within the specified period. In effect, therefore, the ransom only benefits those who want it. The others, who reject the gracious offer, have to answer for their guilt and are sentenced to a final judgment.
It is certainly not difficult to use this parable to understand something of what the Lord Jesus did on the cross in a much deeper sense. And yet it will be good to delve a little deeper into the subject of the “ransom”.

The ransom for all

People have dishonored God through their sin from the very beginning. For their evil behavior, they are threatened with God’s righteous judgment, which they themselves cannot avert. But the Son of God became man and died on the cross for sin. In doing so, He demonstrated God’s love and justice and glorified Him. God can now offer His salvation and grace to all sinners on the basis of Christ’s atoning work (cf. Titus 2:11). Jesus gave His life as a ransom for all; He died for all (1 Tim 2:4; 2 Cor 5:15; Heb 2:9 note). Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2).

The ransom for many

When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He not “only” honoured God in the face of sin, but He also took upon Himself the sins of all those who would repent. On the cross, He became the substitute for believers. There He bore our sins (Isa 53:12; 1 Pet 2:24). He was sacrificed once, says Hebrews 9:28, to bear the sins of many. When we confess our sins to God, all our sins are forgiven and we become free from God’s punishment.

Two aspects of the work of Christ

We see: Christ died on the one hand with regard to all people and on the other hand as a substitute for the many who believe. In 1 Timothy 2:6, the preposition “for” (Greek hyper) is used accordingly with the meaning “for the benefit of someone”. However, in the “ransom for many”, the preposition “for” (Greek anti) is used with the basic meaning “instead of”.
In Romans 5:18, 19, both aspects of Christ’s work are shown one right after the other (emphasis added): “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Through Christ’s righteous act on the cross, all people can be justified, but only the many will be placed in the position of the righteous. These are those who belong to the Lord Jesus.

1 Timothy 2 motivates us to bring the gospel to all people, because God wants everyone to be saved. Christ made atonement for sins on the cross and cleared the way to God. Everyone can come (Rev 22:17). Matthew 20:28 and Mark 10:45 impressively show that Jesus Christ paid the price for us, the believers, on the cross on our behalf and that we will therefore never be judged again. This gives us security and peace.

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Footnote:

[1] Only in these three passages is the Greek word lytron or antilytron used for “ransom”, which refers to a payment used to redeem prisoners. In Matthew 16:26 and Mark 8:37, where we also find the word “ransom” in some translations, a different word is used in the original text.