Warning: my links to Greek definitions are at StudyBible.info, which can be slow to load. I don’t know why, but the site is so useful I bear with it.

Link to Part 1. I have a link there to all the other parts.

I frequently cringe when I hear “Jesus paid the price.” I “frequently” cringe because singers and preachers frequently say Jesus paid the price. They almost never, however, mention what he paid for. 

If they did, they would probably get it wrong because most of us have never studied the subject in the Bible. Just as they repeat “Jesus paid the price” like a mantra, so they have been given a preset understanding of what Jesus paid the price for before they ever open a Bible or a Bible school textbook.

Let’s begin this post by pointing out that the average church-attender has no idea what “redemption” actually means because pastors never talk about it. In my World English Bible, Ephesians 1:7 reads:

… in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses …

Here is what Ephesians 1:7 really says:

… in whom we have the release by ransom through his blood, the [Jubilee] release of trespasses … (Apostolic Bible Polyglot)

The Greek word translated “redemption” in several places in our Bibles actually means release by ransom. So one thing Jesus paid the price for was our ransom. The Greek word for “forgiveness” throughout Paul’s letters actually means “release.” Thus, Ephesians 1:7 actually tells us Jesus paid a ransom to release us from trespasses.

A ransom from trespasses?? Does that make any sense? And who would receive a ransom paid to release us from trespasses.

Let’s track this idea in the Scriptures:

You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

So we were “all” living in the lust of our flesh and dead in our transgressions and sins, doing what “the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience” wanted us to do. This strongly implies that we really were slaves and captives to “trespasses.” (Transgressions and trespasses are the same word in Greek.)

Romans says it more clearly:

… our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:6-7)

But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness. (Romans 6:17-18)

In Romans, Paul says we were in bondage to “sin” rather than specifically using “trespasses,” but we all agree Paul is referring to the same thing. Ephesians 2, he combines them, saying that we were dead in “trespasses and sins.”

Note: The Gospels also show that the words “sins,” “trespasses,” and “debts” refer to the same thing. For example, when Jesus gives the Lord’s Prayer in Luke, he tells us to ask for release of “sins” (Luke 11:4), but Matthew reports that he told us to ask for the release of “debts” (Matt. 6:12), then warns that if we do not release the “trespasses” of men, our trespasses will not be released, either.

We were in bondage to and were dead in our trespasses and sins, but Jesus paid a ransom to release us from that bondage. So … the awkward question that arises is “to whom did Jesus pay a ransom.”

To Whom Did Jesus Pay a Ransom?

Let’s take the awkwardness out of the question. Jesus paid the ransom to “the rulers of this age,” but keep in mind that the ransom was himself. We were in bondage to the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). It is the god of this world, the devil, who uses his demons to enforce our slavery to sin and trespasses. Jesus gave himself by dying and entering directly into their hands in return for the release of mankind.

Let’s look at this surprising passage, also written to the Corinthians:

But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Cor. 2:7-8)

Why was God’s wisdom spoken in a mystery, in hidden wisdom? Because if the devil and his cronies had figured it out, they would never have crucified “THE LORD OF GLORY.”

They had no idea what they were getting into, even though Jesus dropped hints. After the Jewish leaders accused him of casting out the devil by the power of the devil, Jesus responded:

If Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he can’t stand, but has an end. But no one can enter into the house of the strong man to plunder unless he first binds the strong man; then he will plunder his house. (Mark 3:26-27)

If the “spiritual forces of wickedness” (Eph. 6:12) had been paying attention that day, rather than insulting Jesus, they might have figured out the warning. “Once I get into your domain, demon princes, I am going to bind up death and the devil and plunder your house. I am taking everything (and everyone) you have. They are all going to be mine.”

Jesus paid the ransom of himself. He entered Hades, and he preached to the dead there (1 Pet. 4:6). The Bible uses powerful military words to describe his resurrection:

Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. (Col. 2:15)

The Greek of this verse is extremely pictorial. Jesus “stripped” off the principalities and powers the way a person would strip off clothes that a skunk had sprayed. He stripped them off, threw them away, and had nothing more to do with them. “Wholly divested” is among the definitions given of apekdoumai.

The image of “triumphing over” the principalities and powers is ever stronger. He did what Roman generals did. He paraded them in triumph, making a spectacle of their captivity to him. Not only were they not able to keep their ransom, the incarnated Son of God, but they became his captives, completely bound and helpless before him.

Paul uses less militant words in describing the scene in Ephesians.

When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to people. Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.” (Eph. 4:8-10)

Here Paul simply tells us that Jesus went into the earth, then ascended “leading captivity captive” and giving gifts to us. Those who had held both us and him captive were now his captives. Jesus went on to ascend above the heavens, becoming “the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1:23) for the church.

I love the way Paul describes “far above all the heavens” earlier in Ephesians:

I … don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him … what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,  far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:16-23)

I like to tell people that Paul was beginning to list off names that Jesus was above, but he just ran out of words. “Jesus’ name is above rulers, above authorities, above powers, above dominions, uh … ran out of words … He was above everything, everyone, every name. If you can think of it, he was above it, not only in this age but even in the next one Jesus is just ABOVE!”

I want to argue that the PPP version, the Paul Pavao Paraphrase would be an exciting read, LOL!

Jesus Paid the Price for … US!

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear, knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ. (1 Pet. 1:17-19)

To redeem is to buy, even in English. If you redeem something it is now yours. In Greek, that purchase is specified to be by ransom, but either way a purchase has happened. If you redeem an item from the store, that item is now yours, however you redeemed it.

Clearly, the Bible teaches the same thing. Jesus bought us with his blood and suffering. He paid the price … for us. He owns us.

I want to emphasize just one thing, among many, that this does for us.

What Our New Master Does for Us

Again, this is just one thing among many.

In the modern age, you often hear that because of Jesus’ death you can relax. Your sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus. As you can see in the 2 passages in the previous section, being purchased by Jesus should cause you to relax, but to relax into your new lifestyle. Jesus did say he is bring rest and giving us a yoke perfectly fitted for us (Matt. 11:30), but a yoke is for working. Relax into that perfectly fitted, comfortable yoke, but don’t think the yoke does not involve effort.

Here’s your new lifestyle:

So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure. (Php. 2:12-13)

Here is the one thing God has done for you that I am going to focus on. There are many more things God has done for you. You, of course, could write your own article, if you are a Christian, on all the things God has done for you.

I want to focus on Romans 7. When you were a slave to sin, trespasses, and spiritual rulers of the darkness of this world, you not only had to fight the urges of your flesh, but you had to fight “sin in the flesh” (Rom. 7:8-11, 14-17, 20, 23-24). Paul talks about “sin” almost as though it were an entity. Verse 17 says, “So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.”

Weird, huh?

No matter the explanation for this, Jesus has solved it:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Rom. 8:2-4)

Actually, what I love most about this passage, though I highlighted something different for the purposes of this article, is “For what the law couldn’t do … God did.” Romans 7 is all about what the “holy, righteous, and good” law could not do. What it couldn’t do, however, God did.

God did what the law could not do by “sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin.” “For sin” is generally understood by scholars to mean “an offering for sin.” I can’t comment for or against that, but it seems to me to be a consensus among scholars.

Anyway, Jesus becoming flesh and offering himself for us “condemned sin in the flesh.” In other words, that “sin which dwells in me” that Paul talked about in Romans 7 is condemned, and thus removed in Romans 8. In its place is the Spirit of God, and if we walk according to God’s Spirit, we won’t do what the flesh wants, we will do what our Master wants (cf. also Galatians 5:16).

This is a critical thing. The NIV and other translations like to translate the Greek sarx an “sinful nature” rather than “flesh.” That translation is impossible in Romans 8:3. If you used it, Romans 8:3 would say, “… sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful sinful nature and as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the sinful nature.” It’s just an impossible translation.

No, sarx means flesh, and the flesh is our body. We used to be plagued by sin in the flesh, but now we are only plagued by the flesh. It is different. If you are really a Christian, you have experienced this. Rather than the spiritual forces of wickedness feeding your flesh towards sin (sin in the flesh), the Holy Spirit is feeding your spirit towards overcoming the natural desires of the body.

Walking in the Spirit so as to overcome the flesh is central to the New Testament and especially to Romans and Galatians. We miss a nuance of this:

Your flesh fights for survival. It needs to eat, drink, be safe from the weather, and it needs to procreate–to have sex–in order to perpetuate the species.

There are things that need to happen for the survival of the body, and there are things that need to happen for our spiritual survival. Our Master, Jesus, calls us to subdue the needs of fleshly survival and care about the needs of spiritual survival. This is why he says:

Therefore don’t be anxious, saying, ‘What will we eat?’, ‘What will we drink?’ or, ‘With what will we be clothed?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.

Think of the competing needs of our body and our spirit when you read this passage:

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Gospel will save it. (Mark 8:35)

Or when you read this passage:

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. (Rom. 8:12-13)

The flesh used to have a sting that gave it uncontrollable power over you. That is being in bondage to sin (Rom. 6:6), but we are no longer in bondage. The body of sin has been done away with (again, Rom. 6:6). Put better a few verses later:

For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace [God’s favor]. (Rom. 6:14)

Yes, we still fight the flesh, but it no longer has the sting of “sin” that has been in the flesh. In Christ, that sting has been removed, and the desires of the flesh return to their natural intensity that, as almost all Christians know, is still somewhat intense.

But we are no longer just ourselves. We have been created anew in Christ Jesus to do good works (Eph. 2:10). Grace has come to teach us to live righteously, godly, and sensibly in this present age (Tit. 2:11-12). We do not merely follow in Jesus’ footsteps, though we do that (Heb. 12:1-2), we walk by his life in us (Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:1-4).

This is redemption, Jesus ransoming us from the authority and power of the devil and demons, coming under the authority of the One whose name is above every rule, authority, power, and dominion, and thus receiving the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and set him above the rulers of this age. That very power is at work in us!! (Eph. 1:19-23).

Knowing what redemption is, I say to you:

ARISE, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising.
–Isaiah 60:1-3 (NKJV)