Rendered Inoperative

Jesus made several statements in His time on earth as to His reason for being there. "I have come that ..." kind of statements. Famously, for instance, He said, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10). Purpose statements. "Why are you here, Jesus?" "Here's why I came."

Here's one:

"The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." (Matt 20:28)

One of Jesus's purpose statements for His being on this earth was that -- to give His life as a ransom for many. "Ransom?"

Paul wrote:

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. (1 Tim 2:5-6)

There's that word again. "Ransom?" The Greek is λύτρον -- lutron. It is the redemption price, what is given in exchange for another as the price of his redemption. Ransom. Just like we understand the word to mean. A ransom is a payment made to free someone -- slaves, captives, kidnap victims, whatever. Jesus said that one of the primary reasons He even came to this planet was to "give His life as a ransom for many."

Well, now, this is problematic. We know that Jesus did not die to pay for sin. That would be wrong. He died to "bring about positive change to humanity" (Moral Influence Theory) or to defeat the power of Satan without paying a price (Christus Victor Theory) or to undo what Adam did (Recapitulation Theory) or to show us how much God hates sin (Governmental Theory), but not to pay for sin. Never happened. Couldn't have. That would be sick and wrong. It makes God out to be a hater, a monster. Maybe, if you want to think that way, but if Christ did not pay the price for sin, then it makes Him out to be a failure, a loser who came for that purpose and didn't achieve it. It makes God out to be wishy-washy, hating sin but not requiring any "balancing of the books", any payment, any ... ransom. If Christ did not pay the ransom for sin, His mission failed and we are without hope.

It's like the whole "You can come to Christ and be saved and never change a thing" argument I've heard so many times. It is underpinned by the "we are saved by grace apart from works" thing but it runs on the "Human Free Will" train. God doesn't actually cause us to do anything. It's a nice theory, I suppose, if you don't think it through. But it doesn't line up with Scripture. Paul wrote,

The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11-14)

There's that "ransom" thing again. In this case it is "redeem" which, if you're paying attention, is exactly the same Greek word -- lutron. He gave Himself to pay the price to free us. But notice the point. He gave Himself for us to redeem us "to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works." "Oh, no," a certain segment of Christianity demands, "not good works. No good works. Good works have nothing to do with it." Well, okay, but, once again, you've managed to make God out to be a failure. He intended to make a people "who are zealous for good works" but, oh, look, He failed. They're not. They're ... whatever they want to be. Saved? Yeah, sure, but they may or may not be zealous for good works. That's entirely up to them. And God failed ... again.

They often seem like little things. "Ransom" is clear in Scripture and even a specific purpose of Christ, but we know better and "ransom" isn't a good word here. It's just a poor choice of words. Except that's the word that Jesus used and Paul used and that's the word that makes sense if God is to be just and justifier (Rom 3:26). "Works" are clearly not a means of salvation, but we err when we say that works have no bearing on God's plan and purpose for His people. A small word, right? But He saved us "for good works" (Eph 2:10). If a person can come to Christ and fail to grow zealous for good works, it is clear that God failed and we're without hope. We should be careful to rightly handle the word of truth (2 Tim 2:15) lest we damage more than our understanding of His Word.