The Ransom

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

THE RANSOM

Prov 21:18

18 The wicked become a ransom for the righteous, and the unfaithful for the upright.

NIV

This is sort of a strange saying. How are the wicked a ransom for the righteous, especially the unfaithful for the upright. Does God punish certain people in order that we might be saved? It would seem our scholars of old are only focused on God cutting off the wicked in so they will not destroy the righteous. Is that the way God protects us, destroying wicked men so they do not hurt us? Maybe, but that really is not what is going on in this proverb. That simply is not the case at all, but what does this mean? We could understand that when Christ took all our sin upon him, in that sense he became, wicked. Then he was a wicked ransom for us. But he was not unfaithful ever. However in the Hebrew, the word translated unfaithful means to be a transgressor, or to offend. This too would define someone who was a sinner. If Christ took all our sin upon him, he became sin.

2 Cor 5:21-6:1

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

NIV

If Jesus became sin, he was in fact, under the definition of sin, wicked and was indeed the ransom for us.

Mark 10:45

45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." 

NIV

The whole idea of being made sin, includes all the wickedness, all the transgressions, or unfaithfulness of mankind, and being the ransom for all who would accept it. We have been ransomed from death itself.

Hos 13:14

14 "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?

NIV

There is nothing we can do to escape death. There is no manner of lifestyle we can perform in order to escape the grave. We have no power within our own self to attain eternal life. We, all mankind, are condemned because of sin to death. However, God ransomed us through Christ. All we have to do is accept what Jesus did on our behalf. This is a free gift of God, he and he alone could satisfy his own need for justice. There is no “right enough living” that would free us from the grave, but Christ was our ransom.