No Deal with the Devil: Christ's Ransom and the Justice of God

[DialecticSkeptic]

[NOTE: I wrote the following article nearly ten years ago and during my Reformed Baptist phase (c. 2016). I quickly reviewed it while formatting it for posting here and it seems basically okay. I think my writing has improved since then, but I don't have the time or energy to draft a revised edition. My beliefs pertaining to this subject have not changed substantively since that time, so it can remain as-is.]

He gave his life as a ransom

Scripture clearly describes the atoning work of Jesus in terms of a ransom, either directly as in Mark 10:45 ("[Jesus came] to give his life as a ransom for many") or indirectly as in Romans 8:2 ("For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death"). A series of sermons could be done on this subject, but I think we can all agree that this language is surely used in scripture.

The meaning of ransom in scripture

To ransom something is to pay a price in order to redeem or secure the freedom thereof. It is the price paid to redeem someone from bondage or captivity. [1] There are three essential elements that are involved in this image:

1. "the bondage or special circumstance from which the person, object, or animal needs to be freed;
   
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2. "the payment of a redemption price;
   
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3. "an intermediary acting to secure the redemption." [2]

So, the purpose of characterizing his atoning work in terms of a ransom is to emphasize both how much it cost God to redeem us [3] and how incapable we are of redeeming ourselves from bondage. [4] The main idea seems to be what the ransom paid for and not who it was paid to.

Evaluating the ransom-to-Satan idea

There was an idea which dates back to Origen that the ransom was paid to Satan, but that idea is simply not biblical and was repudiated centuries ago. Here are some reasons:

First, the Bible never mentions to whom the ransom was paid. But if Christ paid the ransom to anyone it would have been his Father in heaven, for it is God's justice that demanded a ransom. It was God who said that the wages of sin is death, that the soul who sins shall die, that those who practice sin deserve to die, that the end of sin is death, that sin fully grown produces death. [5] It was not Satan who demanded a ransom, but the holiness and justice of God. It was not Satan but God whose holiness was offended by sin and who required a penalty to be paid for sin. [6]

Second, it should be offensive to the Christian soul to hear anyone suggest that Satan could ever place God in a position of having to negotiate for our release from bondage. Satan is not God's equal in power or rule, implying a kind of cosmic dualism. He is a fallen angelic being created by God and therefore subject to God's sovereign rule. Moreover, he was thrown out of heaven, cast down to the earth as a defeated enemy. He is in no position to make demands of heaven.

Third, God never surrendered or gave up ownership of mankind. "All souls are mine," God says. [7] Satan is an illegitimate slave master, for human beings are illegal runaways. It would be unjust for God to redeem us from Satan for a price because such a transaction would tacitly legitimize Satan's ownership, when God has been the rightful owner all along—not only of mankind but even of Satan himself.

Finally, Scripture says it was to God that Jesus paid the price, for it was his holy justice that demanded a ransom. [8]

The true nature of our bondage.

We are in bondage to sin and death—sin as a result of the old nature in Adam, and death as the consequence of sin. We are only secondarily in bondage to Satan and only as a result of our sin; in other words, Satan became our slave master only because sin had become our master beforehand. [9] Satan would have no rule over us otherwise. Consider the words of Jesus when he told his disciples that the ruler of this world was coming: "He has no claim on me" (John 14:30). Because Jesus was without sin, the evil one had no hold or power. Our bondage is primarily to sin and death; let us not give the devil more power and rule than scripture gives him.

So, the old nature is in bondage to sin, the debt for which is death under divine wrath. If Satan did not put us in bondage, then who did? God did—on account of our sin, to uphold his justice and to redeem us by grace, all for the sake of his glory. It was the holiness and justice of God [10] that demanded the death penalty for sin.

• God told Adam, "You must not eat from [that tree], for when you eat from it you will surely die" (Gen. 2:17).
  
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• "The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities, and he will be held by the cords of his own sin. He will die because there was no discipline; because of the greatness of his folly he will reel" (Prov. 5:22-23).
  
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• Scripture says that "the one who sins will die" (Ezek. 18:4).
  
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• We know that "sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12).
  
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• "The payoff of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23; cf. v. 21).
  
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• Paul declared that we were dead in our transgression and sins (Col. 2:13; Eph. 2:1, 5).
  
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• Jesus said that "unless you believe I am he"—the promised Messiah—"you will die in your sins" (John 8:24).
  
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• In Romans 11:32 he tells us that "God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all."
  
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• Death is the destructive consequence of a broken covenant that can only be reversed by God's life-giving power (Ezek. 37; cf. 2 Tim. 1:10).

In order for us to be freed from this bondage to sin and death, the ransom had to be paid. The life, death, and resurrection of Christ paid that price for all who believe in his name, because by his life and death he won victory over sin and by his resurrection he conquered death. And even though we don't see all things under his control yet (Hebrews 2:8), the time is coming when he will finally conquer every one of his enemies—and "the last enemy to be eliminated is death" (1 Corinthians 15:25-26; cf. Revelation 20:14, "then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire").

Victory over sin and death—and Satan

The wages of sin is death (in Adam), whereas the gift of righteousness is life (in Christ). Out of our bondage by sin to death we were redeemed by grace to life. It was life we had forfeited, and it was life that Christ brought to light through the gospel, for he is life. [11] The antithesis described in redemptive history is death and life, from that fateful moment in the garden to today. "At the heart of the ransom image is the idea of paying a price to regain something that will otherwise be forfeited. Redemption thus carries double connotations: It implies deliverance and restitution in addition to a cost that must be paid." [12] Jesus said that those who hear his message and believe the one who sent him, the Father, "has crossed over from death to life" (John 5:24).

Furthermore, in redeeming us from sin and death by giving his life as a ransom, Jesus Christ automatically redeemed us from Satan—without anything being paid to him. Recall the powerful words of Colossians 2:13-15: "You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross" (NLT).

• Hebrews 2:14-15, "Therefore … he likewise shared in their humanity, so that through death he could destroy the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil), and set free those who were held in slavery all their lives by their fear of death." [13]
  
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• 2 Timothy 1:10, "Our Savior Christ Jesus … has broken the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
  
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• John 5:24, "The one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life."
  
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• Colossians 1:13-14, "[The Father] delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Christ's death ransomed sinners from the death penalty imposed by God's perfect holiness and justice. He conquered death and spoiled the grave. The dominion of death rests on two bases: sin, which incurs condemnation, and the law, which pronounces condemnation. The passive and active obedience of Christ thereby broke the power of death and robbed it of its sting, through putting away sin by his sacrifice and conquering death by his resurrection.

• Hebrews 9:26, "But now he has appeared once for all at the consummation of the ages to put away sin by his sacrifice."
  
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• Romans 6:6, "Our old [nature] was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin."
  
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• Isaiah 25:8, "[The LORD] will swallow up death permanently."
  
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• 1 Corinthians 15:54-55, "Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen, ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O grave, is your sting?"
  
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• 2 Timothy 1:10, "Our Savior Christ Jesus … has broken the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel!"

 

[DialecticSkeptic]

Footnotes:

[1] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Zondervan, 1994), p. 580; Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, eds. Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, Tremper Longman III (InterVarsity Press, 1998), s.v. "Ransom."

[2] Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, s.v. "Redeem, redemption."

[3] 1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23; 1 Peter 1:18-19.

[4] Romans 7:14-25; cf. 6:6; Psalm 49:7-8.

[5] Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 1:32; 6:21, 23; James 1:14-15.

[6] David exhibited the right spirit when he said to God, "Against you—you above all—I have sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. So you are just when you confront me; you are right when you condemn me" (Ps. 51:4).

[7] Ezekiel 18:4; Zechariah 12:1; Job 12:10; cf. 34:14-15.

[8] Ephesians 5:2; 1 John 2:2; 4:10; Romans 3:25-26; Isaiah 53:4, 6, 10; 1 Peter 2:22-24; Hebrews 2:10.

[9] "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (Eph. 2:1-3). "We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one" (1 John 5:19).

[10] "Certainly you are not a God who approves of evil; evil people cannot dwell with you" (Ps. 5:4-5). "You are too just to tolerate evil; you are unable to condone wrongdoing" (Hab. 1:13).

[11] "For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself" (John 5:26). "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves" (6:53).

[12] Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, s.v. "Redeem, redemption."

[13] See also 1 Corinthians 15:56. Were it not for sin, death would have no sting—and for the saints it doesn't (cf. John 11:25-26). It is the consciousness of sins unconfessed and unforgiven that makes men afraid to die.