We Are Ransomed! The Meaning of His Resurrection
You might say Captain Phillips, as the first officer of his ship, the head of the class of his men, gave himself to ransom his crew at the price of his own life. In a miracle in and of itself, Captain Phillips was later rescued and lives to tell the tale. But history will record that Captain Phillips was a hero because he gave his life a ransom to save 19 men!
“Easter Sunday,” is “Resurrection Sunday.” We call it that because it was on this day almost 2000 years ago, that God’s one and only Son, His Son in human flesh, the Christ who surrendered His life on a cruel cross as a ransom for many, was raised from the dead. Unlike Captain Phillips’ courageous act, who surrendered his life in the throws of a surprise attack at sea, the surrender of Jesus Christ to the cross, where He died for our sins, was part of God’s eternal purpose for His Son and for those He ransomed! And, unlike Captain Phillips, who did not die, Christ died. But death could not hold Jesus Christ, so He needed no ransom for Himself, since He triumphed over all His enemies, over Satan, over sin, over death and even hell itself. But it was all part of God’s eternal plan, set in place before time.
750 years before Christ was born, the prophet Hosea agonized over the desperate moral decline of God’s people, Israel. He felt that downward slide on a very personal level, for his wife left him after bearing him two children to live in adultery and then prostitution. Though separated, Hosea never divorced his wife. After several lonely years, God spoke to the prophet and commanded him to rescue his wife from her bondage, and to reclaim her as his wife and bride. To do that, Hosea paid a large ransom price in silver and grain and purchased his wife back from a man to whom she had been sold as a slave and as a prostitute. Having paid the ransom, the woman returned home to her husband, where she was ceremonially cleansed, forgiven of her sins, and reconciled to her husband once more. This same prophet Hosea saw a day when God similarly would come to the aid of His sinful people with a ransom. God said to Hosea,
I will ransom [my people] from the power of the grave ; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction? Hosea 13:14a
These are the words the apostle Paul thought of as he reflected on the meaning of Christ’s death on the cross for our sins, and the miracle of His resurrection from the dead.
O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord! 1 Corinthians 15:55-56 NLT
Jesus, the Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, understood that He was the fulfillment of God’s purpose to ransom sinners and reconcile us to God. Just before Palm Sunday, when He would ride as the King of Peace into Jerusalem, He said to His disciples,
The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28
Usually a ransom is a price paid to free an individual from a
captor. But in this case, sin is personified as our captor. We have a bent in us inherited from Adam that inclines us to sin, and sin binds us. So the ransom Jesus paid was not actually a payment to anyone, but rather it was what it cost God to free us from our bondage to sin.
One morning I was listening to Dr. Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC. The church has no building of its own, and rents five different locations throughout Manhattan, to reach its congregation of well over 5,000 actively attending members. He was asked about the meaning of the events of Holy week. I liked his answer.
Keller said, that it is about forgiveness. That when a debt is forgiven, the debt still has to be paid by someone. Jesus paid that debt on the cross!
The resurrection is like the receipt you get from the bank when a debt is paid off. Think about it. On Good Friday, on the cross, Jesus forgave our debts by paying the price for our sins. And on Resurrection Sunday, Jesus gave us the proof that the debt had been fully paid. Paul the apostle put it this way,
For the wages [the paid wages] of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
How can I, how can we receive the freedom from sins’ power
over us, the life for which Christ paid the ultimate ransom price? How can I know the forgiveness of our sins, and be reconciled to the One who has done everything out of His love for us? It is done by receiving it as God’s gift. You take it for yourself, embrace it, cherish it by faith.
The question is simply, have you received that gift? If you have not, will you receive it today? Good Friday celebrates the Son of Man who came to give His life a ransom for all. On Easter Morning, the ransomed of God celebrate the resurrection of our hero, our captain, our Savior, our Lord. Will you be one of the ransomed of God by welcoming Christ into your life and heart?