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Mark 10:45
“The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Sinners owe God a debt of obedience and a debt of penalties for disobedience that we cannot pay ourselves, as seen in texts such as Matthew 18:21–35. Our Creator would be well within His rights to lock all of us in debtor’s prison—to consign us to eternal suffering in hell—and to refuse to accept the payment of another person in our place. Thankfully, in His undeserved grace and mercy, God has chosen to accept the payment from another to satisfy our debt. The Lord Jesus Christ, being both God and man, is able to pay the infinite debt that we owe and cancel it, and He has done this for all who believe in Him alone for salvation (Col. 2:13–14).
Jesus’ payment of the debt that we owe God for our sin is also called a “ransom” in the Scriptures (Mark 10:45). A ransom is a price that is paid to secure the release of a captive, either someone who has been kidnapped or someone who is in the bondage of slavery. The ransom that Jesus pays releases us from enslavement to sin and death (Rom. 6). Throughout history, Christians have agreed on this basic point. Yet the question then arises: To whom does Jesus actually pay this ransom? Christian thinkers have debated this question, with some even suggesting that Christ pays the ransom to Satan. We can understand why some people might take this view, since one pays a ransom to a slave master to free a slave, and Scripture says that Satan is “the god of this world” and that fallen people are slaves of the devil, who employs the fear of death in order to keep people in bondage (2 Cor. 4:4; Heb. 2:14–15).
Nevertheless, the idea that Jesus pays Satan a ransom does not comport with the full biblical teaching on God as the One who is sovereign over all things and perfectly righteous. Certainly, it is true that we are in bondage to Satan apart from the grace of God, but he is our master only because the sovereign Lord of all has granted him that status. Ultimately, God owns all people, and He has handed people over to Satan on account of their disobedience to His law. Thus, God Himself must be paid the ransom to secure our release. Because Jesus died to satisfy the debt that we owe God, the Lord liberates us from the control of Satan when Jesus pays our debt. Having received the perfect obedience and death of Christ as payment for our transgressions, God releases us from slavery to sin and Satan and makes us His servants, thereby giving us true freedom (Rom. 6:22; Col. 2:13–14).
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
As we study Scripture, it is vital that we never interpret a given text in a way that violates other teachings of Scripture. That is why the Reformers held to the principle that Scripture interprets Scripture. When we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, we can see the error of the notion that Jesus pays a ransom to Satan. If we let Scripture interpret Scripture, we will be able to see other errors in our thinking as well.
For further study
- Job 1:6–12; 2:1–6
- Psalm 47:2
- Matthew 20:28
- 1 John 3:8
The bible in a year
- Daniel 5–6
- 1 John 4