Jesus Paid the Price?

You’d think that as often as songs mention how Jesus "paid the price" for our sins, that such terminology would be found in the Bible at least once.

Instead, the only price discussed in Scripture in reference to the precious blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is our redemption … a "purchase" price. We were "purchased for God with [Jesus’] blood" (Rev. 5:9, NASB); The church of God was "purchased with his own blood" (Acts 20:28, NASB). We were "redeemed" with "precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless" (1 Pet. 1:18-19, NASB).

Usually, when we sing about how Jesus "paid the price," we mean that God was going to punish us with death and hell, but Jesus died in our place, paying a price to God in order to divert God’s wrath.

Scripture never uses such terminology.

We were purchased "for God" (Rev. 5:9). We were not purchased from God, nor from God’s wrath. We were "redeemed" (1 Pet. 1:18) and "ransomed" (Matt. 20:28).

I discuss my conclusions about this on my Christian history site at Substitutionary Atonement, but whether you agree with my conclusions or not, you have to acknowledge that what I’ve written above is true. It’s a simple fact that our very common use of "paid the price" or "paid the penalty" is never duplicated in Scripture.

About Paul Pavao

I am married, the father of six, and currently the grandfather of five. I teach, and I am always trying to learn to disciple others better than I have before. I believe God has gifted me to restore proper theological foundations to the Christian faith. In order to ensure that I do not become a heretic, I read the early church fathers from the second and third centuries. They were around when all the churches founded by the apostles were in unity. My philosophy for Bible reading is to understand each verse for exactly what it says in its local context. Only after accepting the verse for what it says do I compare it with other verses to develop my theology. If other verses seem to contradict a verse I just read, I will wait to say anything about those verses until I have an explanation that allows me to accept all the verses for what they say. This takes time, sometimes years, but eventually I have always been able to find something that does not require explaining verses away. The early church fathers have helped a lot with this. I argue and discuss these foundational doctrines with others to make sure my teaching really lines up with Scripture. I am encouraged by the fact that the several missionaries and pastors that I know well and admire as holy men love the things I teach. I hope you will be encouraged too. I am indeed tearing up old foundations created by tradition in order to re-establish the foundations found in Scripture and lived on by the churches during their 300 years of unity.

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