Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Christ voluntarily gave himself on the cross at Calvary, laying down his own life and shedding his own blood in shame and suffering to taste death for every person. He alone could be the ransom for sinners, for his sinless life and divine worth alone could pay the debt and satisfy the claims of God's perfect law, where no angel and no sinful human could atone. That ransom was given for all, for the whole human family of every nation and color, sufficient to save the whole world and sufficient even if only one were saved. By it he purchases pardon, peace, adoption as God's children, freedom from Satan and sin, and restoration to holiness and eternal life. Though sufficient for all, it benefits only those who receive him by living faith as substitute and surety and become new and loyal subjects of his kingdom.
Costly Price Paid
Christ voluntarily gave himself, laying down his own life and shedding his own blood on the cross at Calvary, tasting death for every person in shame, suffering and humiliation. His sacrifice is the basis of redemption and of acceptance as God's children, purchasing power to become members of the royal family by his merits. The animal sacrifices and priesthood did not save by themselves but kept before people the separation sin caused and the need for a mediator, pointing forward to him, and his offering fulfilled and surpassed that symbolic system at a cost even angels could not fully comprehend. His approaching death was the voluntary crowning sacrifice for the sins of the world as the antitypical Passover Lamb, and his triumphal entry into Jerusalem drew public attention to that sacrifice while its royal honors faintly prefigured his future coming as King. He knew beforehand, as he witnessed human suffering, that he must pay with greater pain mingled with mockery and deepest humiliation, so that every rescue meant paying for that life on the cross, as raising Lazarus meant paying for that life, and he wept at Lazarus's grave at the thought that he could not save everyone Satan had laid low in death.
He is the sinner's only ransom. Only his life could pay the debt because of his sinless character, divine worth and exalted authority. An angel's life could not pay it, being of less value than the law and under the law, and no sinful human could atone for another since all share Adam's sin. His spotless blamelessness made him an acceptable offering of greater worth than humanity, sufficient to rescue the fallen and restore them, and his death in their place was accepted by the Father as part of the plan of salvation. He stood between divine wrath and sinners, suffered and died, and rose again to make redemption possible.
The ransom satisfied the claims of God's perfect, unchanging law and justice. Because the Father's law is as unchanging as himself there was only one way of escape for transgressors after guilt and death came upon the whole race, and he freely offered himself to take human guilt and punishment and redeem people from death by dying in their place. His sacrifice does not abolish the law: he vindicated it by living in human nature in perfect obedience and offers himself, his glory and his character to those who return to God and keep his law. His divine perfection and exalted position made his death of sufficient value to meet the claims of the perfect law and restore humanity.
To pay it he became the nearest of kin under the law he himself gave, by which the forfeited inheritance was to be ransomed by the nearest of kin. Laying aside honor, crown and royal position, as Commander of the heavenly host leaving the royal courts and stepping down from his exalted place, he clothed divinity with humanity and truly took flesh and blood without taint of sin, not with a mere semblance of a body but participating in the life of humanity, coming to dwell among us and descending from highest glory to lowest humiliation. Though he could not die as God he could die as man, and by dying in humanity and by death he overcame death, bringing him who had the power of death to death and opening the gates of the tomb for all who receive him as personal Saviour. By taking human life, enduring hardship and suffering and bearing the guilt of the world's sins unto death, he prepared the way for redemption, having overcome Satan's leading temptations on humanity's behalf.
By rising from the dead he proved the ransom fully paid, showed divine power, defeated Satan's claim over humanity and enables people to overcome Satan in his name. Coming forth from the dead in victory over death demonstrated his power to defeat death. This fixes the certainty that Satan must die and his kingdom will end.
Ransom For All
The ransom was given for all, for the whole world and the whole human race and family, for every soul and every son and daughter of Adam. It is strong to save the whole world, and it is sufficient even if only one person were saved. Through it every person may take hold of the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, who presents those merits before the Father for all peoples. He bought every person at great cost, giving a time of probation and another opportunity to keep God's commandments and live.
It embraces every nationality and color, white and black alike, with no distinction and no exclusion from gospel blessings because of skin color. No person may therefore claim another person's body or soul as property, for human beings belong to God their Maker. Slavery usurps God's authority by denying the freedom He gives. Those who have received many blessings are called to care for people who have been less favored.
It includes the most sinful and needy, the unreasonable and wicked, those in error about the Sabbath, and the helpless person trapped by drunkenness. His mission was to save sinners of every kind, tongue and nation and bring them into union with Himself. He gave particular attention and sympathy to those most sinful and in greatest need of reform and saving grace. No sinner is to be treated as beyond hope or not worth helping, but is to be rescued with all strength.
Heaven's plan of salvation is broad enough to embrace the whole world. God longs to give life to prostrate humanity and will disappoint no soul sincere in longing for something higher and nobler than the world can offer. He constantly provides opportunities, means, ways, warnings and providences to reach people and bring them to learn the truth. He sends His angels to those who, though surrounded by the most discouraging circumstances, pray in faith for a power higher than themselves to take possession of them and bring deliverance and peace. In various ways He reveals Himself even to sincere seekers who have no knowledge of the written law or of Christ, establishing their confidence in the ransomer so that they set their hope in God, remember His works and keep His commandments.
It refutes the idea that character and fate are fixed by an unchangeable decree excluding anyone. God wills all to be saved and to know the truth. He freely gives the Spirit so each person can take hold of salvation and accept the means of salvation. People miss salvation and are lost only by willfully refusing the gift of life.
Eternal Covenant of Redemption
Before the world began Christ pledged to give his life as a ransom if humanity turned from loyalty to God. After Adam and Eve brought guilt and death upon the whole race he pitied fallen humanity, and because the Father's law is as unchanging as himself he saw only one way of escape for transgressors. He freely offered himself to the Father as a sacrifice to take human guilt and punishment and to redeem people from death by dying in their place and so pay the ransom. The Father consented to give his beloved Son to save the fallen race, and for his Son's sake held back the execution of death, committed the fallen race to Christ, and promised through Christ's merits and intercession to receive into favor again and restore to holiness all who accept the offered atonement and obey his law. He humbled himself to serve fallen people who cannot overcome the enemy by themselves, and offers himself, his glory and his character to those who return to God and keep his law, vindicating the law by living in human nature in perfect obedience rather than abolishing it.
The Father and the Son were united in mind and purpose in giving the ransom for the human race, with God in Christ reconciling the world to himself and Christ in God carrying out the agreement made. The birth of a Saviour is the precious message of this ransom, to be carried to the world with thanks for God's great glory. Moses spoke directly to Christ when interceding for Israel after the sin of the golden calf and offering to be blotted out of the book for his people, and the depth of love unveiled in Moses reflected the love and compassion of Christ pledged as propitiation and ransom for the sins of the world, which God knew and honored.
He knew beforehand as he witnessed human suffering that he must pay the ransom on the cross of Calvary, tasting death for every person, by bearing greater pain mingled with mockery and the greatest humiliation. Every rescue he made meant deepest humiliation for himself, as raising Lazarus meant paying for that life on the cross. The ransom is given for many, even all who would avail themselves of coming back to loyalty to God through God giving his only begotten Son as a sacrifice for sin and transgression, yet he wept at the grave of Lazarus at the thought that he could not save everyone whom Satan's power had laid low in death. After the redeemed are taken to heaven, when earthly conflicts are ended, God the Father will be glorified in crowning Jesus for giving his life as a ransom for the world.
Blessings The Ransom Secures
The ransom provides complete atonement, opening the way for penitent and believing people to live and be received by God through his merits. Through the merits of his blood and his obedience to God's law transgressors may find pardon, peace, forgiveness and rescue from destruction. His sacrifice is the foundation of Christian hope, which no one can replace with personal merits, but must depend upon the crucified and risen Saviour to receive God's favor. Believers are to value what he suffered and trust him as their complete Saviour, knowing that the Father loves them as he loves his Son. The cross reveals both God's mercy and justice, giving reason for gratitude and praise, and showing the worth of people and the importance of working for their salvation.
Through faith in Christ as substitute and surety sinners may be adopted as God's children and become his elect, receiving power to become children of his royal family and gaining access to God. Human merit, works, or joyful feelings cannot make anyone acceptable to God or prove election; acceptance comes through his imparted grace received by faith, and the elect are chosen through him, while those who perish do so by refusing this adoption. The animal sacrifices and priesthood did not save anyone by themselves; they pointed forward to Christ and kept before people the separation sin caused and the need for a mediator. His offering fulfilled and surpassed the symbolic system at a cost so great that even angels could not fully comprehend it. The risen Christ still bears the marks of his suffering in hands and feet and side as he stands in the midst of the throne, and through his merits the infinite Father, dwelling in light unapproachable, receives penitent, believing souls to himself.
It frees humanity from captivity to Satan through Adam's sin and from slavery to sin, for he alone could liberate the captives, standing under the guilt of the whole world in a death that was a gift bringing salvation at great cost to himself. After sin entered through Satan's apostasy and the human family brought death on themselves by yielding to temptation, Christ came to free every sinner from death, purchasing life and immortality, laying open the living way, and making every provision for another probation and trial. All who return to loyalty may secure eternal life and through obedience to God's commandments find pardon and live in perfect harmony with God. His gift gives probationary time in which a perfect character may be formed through obedience to God's commandments and, through the Holy Spirit, converts may be changed and gain eternal riches by laying up treasure in heaven, becoming free servants of Jesus Christ and receiving pardon, purity, and heaven.
Through his blood and obedience to God's law people may have God's favor, be restored to holiness and harmony with God, be brought back to the garden to eat from the tree of life, and receive pardon, purity, heaven and eternal life. Like a monarch dying for rebellious subjects, the Son of God made an infinite sacrifice so they could escape sin, corruption, misery and fallen condition and be restored. Those who treat this offered sacrifice with indifference or mockery turn away from that gift and face punishment. By his death and atonement he provided an infinite fund of moral power and perfect obedience, which as substitute, surety and personal intercessor he uses for everyone who feels unable to save himself. He looks on such a one with pity and compassion, raising up every trembling suppliant, imputing his own righteousness to him, neglecting no one.
Having taken human life, endured hardship and suffering, borne the guilt of the world's sins and finally died, he prepared the way for redemption, overcame Satan's leading temptations on humanity's behalf, and offers help for people to follow his example and overcome. He does not regard sinners with indifference but is ready to help all who feel their need and come to him penitent and believing, as they cooperate with his work in the heart and work out in their own lives the salvation he is working in them toward eternal life. The conflict ending in his death appeared to Satan to be victory, but it demonstrated God's justice to the heavenly universe. In the light of the cross the cloud of vengeance that threatened only misery and despair becomes a declaration of life to sinners, revealing mercy, tenderness and forgiveness blended with equity and justice.
How Ransom Is Received
Though sufficient for the salvation of all people, the ransom benefits only those who become new creatures in Christ and remain loyal subjects of God's everlasting kingdom. Christ's suffering does not shield an unrepentant, disloyal sinner from punishment.
It is received through faith in Christ as substitute and surety, by which sinners may be adopted as God's children and become His elect. Acceptance comes through His imparted grace received by faith, while human merit, works, or joyful feelings cannot make anyone acceptable to God or prove election. Those who perish do so by refusing this adoption through Christ. Trusting Jesus to save means responding by seeking purity like His.
Believing in Him as a personal Saviour who can and will ransom from sin is living faith in Him, not mere sentiment. That faith brings into sacred relationship with Him and understanding of Him. The ransom cannot be given by one person for another. Each person must individually accept its benefits, provided at great cost, and take personal responsibility for preparing for eternal life. Those who refuse those benefits justly face retribution.
The gift does not prevent people from choosing to follow Satan. Those who do will face the record of their lives in the judgment, see that their choices bore evil fruit, and have no reward for following Christ. Like a monarch dying for rebellious subjects, the Son of God made an infinite sacrifice so they could escape sin, corruption, and misery, and through His condescension all may receive pardon, purity, and heaven as the gift of eternal life. Those who treat this offered sacrifice with indifference or mockery turn away from that gift toward punishment. He who is the brightness of His Father's glory gave Himself as a sinless offering to give evidence of His love for fallen man, living for human sake a life of self-denial and poverty without luxuries, adornments, houses or lands, wounded for transgressions, bruised for iniquities, bearing the chastisement of peace and healing by His stripes, becoming poor that through His poverty men might be made rich and have opportunity to return to God. This inestimable gift is watched to see who will appreciate it; by choice all take sides either honoring or insulting Him, and those who refuse to receive and obey the truth show contempt for the sacrifice made for them and must answer for their choice.
As Prince of Life with the whole universe and fallen man under His control, He paid the ransom money for the whole world so all may be saved through Him by obeying, believing, receiving, and living. He would gather a church embracing the whole human family if all would leave rebellion and apostasy and place themselves under His banner. He is Mediator as well as Redeemer, and He will present all those who believe on Him to God as loyal subjects of His kingdom. He will defend His chosen followers against Satan's power, subdue all their enemies, and make them conquerors and more than conquerors. By that death and atonement He provided an infinite fund of moral power and perfect obedience, and as substitute and surety He uses that power for everyone who realizes he cannot save himself, looking on him with pity and compassion, raising up every trembling suppliant, imputing His own righteousness to him, and neglecting no one as personal Intercessor. Having made this infinite sacrifice, which proves He wants men and women to be saved because human beings certainly cannot save themselves, He does not regard sinners with indifference but is ready to help all who feel their need and come to Him penitent and believing, as they cooperate with His work in the heart and work out in their own lives the salvation He is working in them toward eternal life.
Sole Mediator and Sacrifices
Joined to the truth that there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the giving of himself as a ransom for all means that no human agency in the church or in the family is to stand between a person and God. Every member of the church is to receive an education that leads each one to study the Scriptures for themselves. To look to human agencies to mediate dishonors God.
His giving of his own life as the ransom for the soul, which no other human can pay, is personal love for each person that calls for a decision for time and eternity, not indifference or enmity toward God. It leaves no excuse to let any human agent cheat a person out of the soul or to let companions bound by Satan turn the heart away. It presses the question of what response and what gift of self will be given to Jesus in return.
In its wider context the self-giving as a ransom for all identifies him as the one mediator between God and humanity. As man he is humanity's substitute and surety, lives to intercede for people, prepares a place for those who love him, and will return in power and glory to receive his children. God has appointed a day to judge the world in righteousness through the man he ordained, and all Christ's work is directed toward humanity's salvation.
His self-giving sacrifice is the atonement through which transgressors of God's law may find peace and pardon, and he is the mediator in the heavenly sanctuary. All the sacrifices, priesthood and offerings of the Old Testament centered in him and pointed forward to him. They kept before people the separation sin caused and the need for a mediator, but they did not save anyone by themselves, for they were only figures of his sacrifice. His sinless character and divine worth made his life the only offering sufficient to atone for human sin and satisfy the claims of God's law, since no sinful human could serve as an adequate substitute. Through this voluntary death as the perfect and infinitely valuable offering, fallen sinners secured salvation, gained access to God, could be rescued from the fallen condition and from Satan's control and be restored. His offering fulfilled and surpassed the symbolic Jewish system at a cost so great that even angels could not fully comprehend it, and Satan sought to obscure the prophecies of the promised Redeemer so people would reject Jesus as their Savior.
His approaching death on the cross was the voluntary crowning sacrifice for the sins of the world, offered as the antitypical Passover Lamb for guilty humanity. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem drew public attention to that sacrifice. Its royal honors faintly prefigured his future coming as King.
Living and Sharing Ransom
The ransom means complete consecration in return, holding back no part of self, time, property, talents, abilities, means, service or homage of heart. The deepest devotion, skillful service of hands, and talents of ability and means are all too small and too poor an offering for the One who gave Himself, the King of glory, purchasing redemption by His life and blood to free from death and make alive. That self-giving was for our sake and calls for service to His kingdom rather than putting temporal interests first.
Because He paid the ransom money in full for the individual soul, He alone can estimate its value, and the worth of every soul is measured by what He gave for it. Every power of soul, body and mind therefore belongs wholly and without reserve to the Lord, and what is owed Him is wholesome, healthy service, not a sickly offering. The money handled is the Lord's, and love is shown by not diverting it to personal pleasure and enjoyment but by using it to bring souls to Him and increase the number of laborers together with God.
Those ransomed are no longer to live selfishly for themselves but to live for Him who died for their salvation. Through a life of obedience they may come to God and attain everlasting life, and having begun the good work as Author of faith He will finish it, bringing them from spiritual childhood to full stature as men and women of moral worth who yoke up with Christ, cooperate with Him, do their part, and are honored as overcomers. Turning instead to pride, selfishness, display and Satan's rule loses the blessings available both now and in the life to come.
His death proves the great value God places on each human soul and His desire that all should see what souls are worth. That worth grounds tender sympathy and love for every neighbor, since human worth does not depend on property or rank, and it embraces every nationality and color with no exclusion from gospel blessings because of skin color, calling those with many blessings to care for the less favored. It gives reason for earnest missionary labor to tell needy, perishing people of a love and peace that pass understanding, and no sinner, however helpless, even one trapped by drunkenness, is to be treated as beyond hope or not worth helping.
His followers are therefore to show love for the people for whom He died, including the unreasonable and wicked and those in error, uplifting Christ before them to convince and not condemn. They are to deal with them with Christlike simplicity, patience, forbearance, long-suffering and doctrine, never stooping to satanic weapons, prejudice, thunderbolts or harsh personal feeling. Because He paid this ransom while the time that decides every destiny draws near and Satan strives to corrupt the race, those He died for should honor the sacrifice by temperance, refusing intoxicating drink and standing as faithful sentinels against moral woe. Those redeemed are made free servants of Jesus Christ, to be gathered and presented to Him as sheaves, and believers are obligated to seek the salvation of as many as they can.
Everything that God could do has been done so that blood-bought souls need not live and die in sins, and He will work through human agencies. Every Christian must therefore be aroused and consecrated to cooperate in decided, thorough, persevering, well-organized evangelizing effort, training converts to return as teachers to their own people. God has put every conceivable plan into operation to save the perishing, sending out evangelists and missionaries and using religious periodicals and the press to reach souls in darkness. The work of every faithful laborer lies close to His heart, He uses faithful people as His instruments, and He Himself is their strength in rescuing sinners with all their strength as He did.
Christ voluntarily gave himself on the cross at Calvary, laying down his own life and shedding his own blood in shame and suffering to taste death for every person. He alone could be the ransom for sinners, for his sinless life and divine worth alone could pay the debt and satisfy the claims of God's perfect law, where no angel and no sinful human could atone. That ransom was given for all, for the whole human family of every nation and color, sufficient to save the whole world and sufficient even if only one were saved. By it he purchases pardon, peace, adoption as God's children, freedom from Satan and sin, and restoration to holiness and eternal life. Though sufficient for all, it benefits only those who receive him by living faith as substitute and surety and become new and loyal subjects of his kingdom.
Costly Price Paid
Christ voluntarily gave himself, laying down his own life and shedding his own blood on the cross at Calvary, tasting death for every person in shame, suffering and humiliation. His sacrifice is the basis of redemption and of acceptance as God's children, purchasing power to become members of the royal family by his merits. The animal sacrifices and priesthood did not save by themselves but kept before people the separation sin caused and the need for a mediator, pointing forward to him, and his offering fulfilled and surpassed that symbolic system at a cost even angels could not fully comprehend. His approaching death was the voluntary crowning sacrifice for the sins of the world as the antitypical Passover Lamb, and his triumphal entry into Jerusalem drew public attention to that sacrifice while its royal honors faintly prefigured his future coming as King. He knew beforehand, as he witnessed human suffering, that he must pay with greater pain mingled with mockery and deepest humiliation, so that every rescue meant paying for that life on the cross, as raising Lazarus meant paying for that life, and he wept at Lazarus's grave at the thought that he could not save everyone Satan had laid low in death.
He is the sinner's only ransom. Only his life could pay the debt because of his sinless character, divine worth and exalted authority. An angel's life could not pay it, being of less value than the law and under the law, and no sinful human could atone for another since all share Adam's sin. His spotless blamelessness made him an acceptable offering of greater worth than humanity, sufficient to rescue the fallen and restore them, and his death in their place was accepted by the Father as part of the plan of salvation. He stood between divine wrath and sinners, suffered and died, and rose again to make redemption possible.
The ransom satisfied the claims of God's perfect, unchanging law and justice. Because the Father's law is as unchanging as himself there was only one way of escape for transgressors after guilt and death came upon the whole race, and he freely offered himself to take human guilt and punishment and redeem people from death by dying in their place. His sacrifice does not abolish the law: he vindicated it by living in human nature in perfect obedience and offers himself, his glory and his character to those who return to God and keep his law. His divine perfection and exalted position made his death of sufficient value to meet the claims of the perfect law and restore humanity.
To pay it he became the nearest of kin under the law he himself gave, by which the forfeited inheritance was to be ransomed by the nearest of kin. Laying aside honor, crown and royal position, as Commander of the heavenly host leaving the royal courts and stepping down from his exalted place, he clothed divinity with humanity and truly took flesh and blood without taint of sin, not with a mere semblance of a body but participating in the life of humanity, coming to dwell among us and descending from highest glory to lowest humiliation. Though he could not die as God he could die as man, and by dying in humanity and by death he overcame death, bringing him who had the power of death to death and opening the gates of the tomb for all who receive him as personal Saviour. By taking human life, enduring hardship and suffering and bearing the guilt of the world's sins unto death, he prepared the way for redemption, having overcome Satan's leading temptations on humanity's behalf.
By rising from the dead he proved the ransom fully paid, showed divine power, defeated Satan's claim over humanity and enables people to overcome Satan in his name. Coming forth from the dead in victory over death demonstrated his power to defeat death. This fixes the certainty that Satan must die and his kingdom will end.
Ransom For All
The ransom was given for all, for the whole world and the whole human race and family, for every soul and every son and daughter of Adam. It is strong to save the whole world, and it is sufficient even if only one person were saved. Through it every person may take hold of the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour, who presents those merits before the Father for all peoples. He bought every person at great cost, giving a time of probation and another opportunity to keep God's commandments and live.
It embraces every nationality and color, white and black alike, with no distinction and no exclusion from gospel blessings because of skin color. No person may therefore claim another person's body or soul as property, for human beings belong to God their Maker. Slavery usurps God's authority by denying the freedom He gives. Those who have received many blessings are called to care for people who have been less favored.
It includes the most sinful and needy, the unreasonable and wicked, those in error about the Sabbath, and the helpless person trapped by drunkenness. His mission was to save sinners of every kind, tongue and nation and bring them into union with Himself. He gave particular attention and sympathy to those most sinful and in greatest need of reform and saving grace. No sinner is to be treated as beyond hope or not worth helping, but is to be rescued with all strength.
Heaven's plan of salvation is broad enough to embrace the whole world. God longs to give life to prostrate humanity and will disappoint no soul sincere in longing for something higher and nobler than the world can offer. He constantly provides opportunities, means, ways, warnings and providences to reach people and bring them to learn the truth. He sends His angels to those who, though surrounded by the most discouraging circumstances, pray in faith for a power higher than themselves to take possession of them and bring deliverance and peace. In various ways He reveals Himself even to sincere seekers who have no knowledge of the written law or of Christ, establishing their confidence in the ransomer so that they set their hope in God, remember His works and keep His commandments.
It refutes the idea that character and fate are fixed by an unchangeable decree excluding anyone. God wills all to be saved and to know the truth. He freely gives the Spirit so each person can take hold of salvation and accept the means of salvation. People miss salvation and are lost only by willfully refusing the gift of life.
Eternal Covenant of Redemption
Before the world began Christ pledged to give his life as a ransom if humanity turned from loyalty to God. After Adam and Eve brought guilt and death upon the whole race he pitied fallen humanity, and because the Father's law is as unchanging as himself he saw only one way of escape for transgressors. He freely offered himself to the Father as a sacrifice to take human guilt and punishment and to redeem people from death by dying in their place and so pay the ransom. The Father consented to give his beloved Son to save the fallen race, and for his Son's sake held back the execution of death, committed the fallen race to Christ, and promised through Christ's merits and intercession to receive into favor again and restore to holiness all who accept the offered atonement and obey his law. He humbled himself to serve fallen people who cannot overcome the enemy by themselves, and offers himself, his glory and his character to those who return to God and keep his law, vindicating the law by living in human nature in perfect obedience rather than abolishing it.
The Father and the Son were united in mind and purpose in giving the ransom for the human race, with God in Christ reconciling the world to himself and Christ in God carrying out the agreement made. The birth of a Saviour is the precious message of this ransom, to be carried to the world with thanks for God's great glory. Moses spoke directly to Christ when interceding for Israel after the sin of the golden calf and offering to be blotted out of the book for his people, and the depth of love unveiled in Moses reflected the love and compassion of Christ pledged as propitiation and ransom for the sins of the world, which God knew and honored.
He knew beforehand as he witnessed human suffering that he must pay the ransom on the cross of Calvary, tasting death for every person, by bearing greater pain mingled with mockery and the greatest humiliation. Every rescue he made meant deepest humiliation for himself, as raising Lazarus meant paying for that life on the cross. The ransom is given for many, even all who would avail themselves of coming back to loyalty to God through God giving his only begotten Son as a sacrifice for sin and transgression, yet he wept at the grave of Lazarus at the thought that he could not save everyone whom Satan's power had laid low in death. After the redeemed are taken to heaven, when earthly conflicts are ended, God the Father will be glorified in crowning Jesus for giving his life as a ransom for the world.
Blessings The Ransom Secures
The ransom provides complete atonement, opening the way for penitent and believing people to live and be received by God through his merits. Through the merits of his blood and his obedience to God's law transgressors may find pardon, peace, forgiveness and rescue from destruction. His sacrifice is the foundation of Christian hope, which no one can replace with personal merits, but must depend upon the crucified and risen Saviour to receive God's favor. Believers are to value what he suffered and trust him as their complete Saviour, knowing that the Father loves them as he loves his Son. The cross reveals both God's mercy and justice, giving reason for gratitude and praise, and showing the worth of people and the importance of working for their salvation.
Through faith in Christ as substitute and surety sinners may be adopted as God's children and become his elect, receiving power to become children of his royal family and gaining access to God. Human merit, works, or joyful feelings cannot make anyone acceptable to God or prove election; acceptance comes through his imparted grace received by faith, and the elect are chosen through him, while those who perish do so by refusing this adoption. The animal sacrifices and priesthood did not save anyone by themselves; they pointed forward to Christ and kept before people the separation sin caused and the need for a mediator. His offering fulfilled and surpassed the symbolic system at a cost so great that even angels could not fully comprehend it. The risen Christ still bears the marks of his suffering in hands and feet and side as he stands in the midst of the throne, and through his merits the infinite Father, dwelling in light unapproachable, receives penitent, believing souls to himself.
It frees humanity from captivity to Satan through Adam's sin and from slavery to sin, for he alone could liberate the captives, standing under the guilt of the whole world in a death that was a gift bringing salvation at great cost to himself. After sin entered through Satan's apostasy and the human family brought death on themselves by yielding to temptation, Christ came to free every sinner from death, purchasing life and immortality, laying open the living way, and making every provision for another probation and trial. All who return to loyalty may secure eternal life and through obedience to God's commandments find pardon and live in perfect harmony with God. His gift gives probationary time in which a perfect character may be formed through obedience to God's commandments and, through the Holy Spirit, converts may be changed and gain eternal riches by laying up treasure in heaven, becoming free servants of Jesus Christ and receiving pardon, purity, and heaven.
Through his blood and obedience to God's law people may have God's favor, be restored to holiness and harmony with God, be brought back to the garden to eat from the tree of life, and receive pardon, purity, heaven and eternal life. Like a monarch dying for rebellious subjects, the Son of God made an infinite sacrifice so they could escape sin, corruption, misery and fallen condition and be restored. Those who treat this offered sacrifice with indifference or mockery turn away from that gift and face punishment. By his death and atonement he provided an infinite fund of moral power and perfect obedience, which as substitute, surety and personal intercessor he uses for everyone who feels unable to save himself. He looks on such a one with pity and compassion, raising up every trembling suppliant, imputing his own righteousness to him, neglecting no one.
Having taken human life, endured hardship and suffering, borne the guilt of the world's sins and finally died, he prepared the way for redemption, overcame Satan's leading temptations on humanity's behalf, and offers help for people to follow his example and overcome. He does not regard sinners with indifference but is ready to help all who feel their need and come to him penitent and believing, as they cooperate with his work in the heart and work out in their own lives the salvation he is working in them toward eternal life. The conflict ending in his death appeared to Satan to be victory, but it demonstrated God's justice to the heavenly universe. In the light of the cross the cloud of vengeance that threatened only misery and despair becomes a declaration of life to sinners, revealing mercy, tenderness and forgiveness blended with equity and justice.
How Ransom Is Received
Though sufficient for the salvation of all people, the ransom benefits only those who become new creatures in Christ and remain loyal subjects of God's everlasting kingdom. Christ's suffering does not shield an unrepentant, disloyal sinner from punishment.
It is received through faith in Christ as substitute and surety, by which sinners may be adopted as God's children and become His elect. Acceptance comes through His imparted grace received by faith, while human merit, works, or joyful feelings cannot make anyone acceptable to God or prove election. Those who perish do so by refusing this adoption through Christ. Trusting Jesus to save means responding by seeking purity like His.
Believing in Him as a personal Saviour who can and will ransom from sin is living faith in Him, not mere sentiment. That faith brings into sacred relationship with Him and understanding of Him. The ransom cannot be given by one person for another. Each person must individually accept its benefits, provided at great cost, and take personal responsibility for preparing for eternal life. Those who refuse those benefits justly face retribution.
The gift does not prevent people from choosing to follow Satan. Those who do will face the record of their lives in the judgment, see that their choices bore evil fruit, and have no reward for following Christ. Like a monarch dying for rebellious subjects, the Son of God made an infinite sacrifice so they could escape sin, corruption, and misery, and through His condescension all may receive pardon, purity, and heaven as the gift of eternal life. Those who treat this offered sacrifice with indifference or mockery turn away from that gift toward punishment. He who is the brightness of His Father's glory gave Himself as a sinless offering to give evidence of His love for fallen man, living for human sake a life of self-denial and poverty without luxuries, adornments, houses or lands, wounded for transgressions, bruised for iniquities, bearing the chastisement of peace and healing by His stripes, becoming poor that through His poverty men might be made rich and have opportunity to return to God. This inestimable gift is watched to see who will appreciate it; by choice all take sides either honoring or insulting Him, and those who refuse to receive and obey the truth show contempt for the sacrifice made for them and must answer for their choice.
As Prince of Life with the whole universe and fallen man under His control, He paid the ransom money for the whole world so all may be saved through Him by obeying, believing, receiving, and living. He would gather a church embracing the whole human family if all would leave rebellion and apostasy and place themselves under His banner. He is Mediator as well as Redeemer, and He will present all those who believe on Him to God as loyal subjects of His kingdom. He will defend His chosen followers against Satan's power, subdue all their enemies, and make them conquerors and more than conquerors. By that death and atonement He provided an infinite fund of moral power and perfect obedience, and as substitute and surety He uses that power for everyone who realizes he cannot save himself, looking on him with pity and compassion, raising up every trembling suppliant, imputing His own righteousness to him, and neglecting no one as personal Intercessor. Having made this infinite sacrifice, which proves He wants men and women to be saved because human beings certainly cannot save themselves, He does not regard sinners with indifference but is ready to help all who feel their need and come to Him penitent and believing, as they cooperate with His work in the heart and work out in their own lives the salvation He is working in them toward eternal life.
Sole Mediator and Sacrifices
Joined to the truth that there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the giving of himself as a ransom for all means that no human agency in the church or in the family is to stand between a person and God. Every member of the church is to receive an education that leads each one to study the Scriptures for themselves. To look to human agencies to mediate dishonors God.
His giving of his own life as the ransom for the soul, which no other human can pay, is personal love for each person that calls for a decision for time and eternity, not indifference or enmity toward God. It leaves no excuse to let any human agent cheat a person out of the soul or to let companions bound by Satan turn the heart away. It presses the question of what response and what gift of self will be given to Jesus in return.
In its wider context the self-giving as a ransom for all identifies him as the one mediator between God and humanity. As man he is humanity's substitute and surety, lives to intercede for people, prepares a place for those who love him, and will return in power and glory to receive his children. God has appointed a day to judge the world in righteousness through the man he ordained, and all Christ's work is directed toward humanity's salvation.
His self-giving sacrifice is the atonement through which transgressors of God's law may find peace and pardon, and he is the mediator in the heavenly sanctuary. All the sacrifices, priesthood and offerings of the Old Testament centered in him and pointed forward to him. They kept before people the separation sin caused and the need for a mediator, but they did not save anyone by themselves, for they were only figures of his sacrifice. His sinless character and divine worth made his life the only offering sufficient to atone for human sin and satisfy the claims of God's law, since no sinful human could serve as an adequate substitute. Through this voluntary death as the perfect and infinitely valuable offering, fallen sinners secured salvation, gained access to God, could be rescued from the fallen condition and from Satan's control and be restored. His offering fulfilled and surpassed the symbolic Jewish system at a cost so great that even angels could not fully comprehend it, and Satan sought to obscure the prophecies of the promised Redeemer so people would reject Jesus as their Savior.
His approaching death on the cross was the voluntary crowning sacrifice for the sins of the world, offered as the antitypical Passover Lamb for guilty humanity. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem drew public attention to that sacrifice. Its royal honors faintly prefigured his future coming as King.
Living and Sharing Ransom
The ransom means complete consecration in return, holding back no part of self, time, property, talents, abilities, means, service or homage of heart. The deepest devotion, skillful service of hands, and talents of ability and means are all too small and too poor an offering for the One who gave Himself, the King of glory, purchasing redemption by His life and blood to free from death and make alive. That self-giving was for our sake and calls for service to His kingdom rather than putting temporal interests first.
Because He paid the ransom money in full for the individual soul, He alone can estimate its value, and the worth of every soul is measured by what He gave for it. Every power of soul, body and mind therefore belongs wholly and without reserve to the Lord, and what is owed Him is wholesome, healthy service, not a sickly offering. The money handled is the Lord's, and love is shown by not diverting it to personal pleasure and enjoyment but by using it to bring souls to Him and increase the number of laborers together with God.
Those ransomed are no longer to live selfishly for themselves but to live for Him who died for their salvation. Through a life of obedience they may come to God and attain everlasting life, and having begun the good work as Author of faith He will finish it, bringing them from spiritual childhood to full stature as men and women of moral worth who yoke up with Christ, cooperate with Him, do their part, and are honored as overcomers. Turning instead to pride, selfishness, display and Satan's rule loses the blessings available both now and in the life to come.
His death proves the great value God places on each human soul and His desire that all should see what souls are worth. That worth grounds tender sympathy and love for every neighbor, since human worth does not depend on property or rank, and it embraces every nationality and color with no exclusion from gospel blessings because of skin color, calling those with many blessings to care for the less favored. It gives reason for earnest missionary labor to tell needy, perishing people of a love and peace that pass understanding, and no sinner, however helpless, even one trapped by drunkenness, is to be treated as beyond hope or not worth helping.
His followers are therefore to show love for the people for whom He died, including the unreasonable and wicked and those in error, uplifting Christ before them to convince and not condemn. They are to deal with them with Christlike simplicity, patience, forbearance, long-suffering and doctrine, never stooping to satanic weapons, prejudice, thunderbolts or harsh personal feeling. Because He paid this ransom while the time that decides every destiny draws near and Satan strives to corrupt the race, those He died for should honor the sacrifice by temperance, refusing intoxicating drink and standing as faithful sentinels against moral woe. Those redeemed are made free servants of Jesus Christ, to be gathered and presented to Him as sheaves, and believers are obligated to seek the salvation of as many as they can.
Everything that God could do has been done so that blood-bought souls need not live and die in sins, and He will work through human agencies. Every Christian must therefore be aroused and consecrated to cooperate in decided, thorough, persevering, well-organized evangelizing effort, training converts to return as teachers to their own people. God has put every conceivable plan into operation to save the perishing, sending out evangelists and missionaries and using religious periodicals and the press to reach souls in darkness. The work of every faithful laborer lies close to His heart, He uses faithful people as His instruments, and He Himself is their strength in rescuing sinners with all their strength as He did.