NTS Ransomed with the blood of Christ

“You were ransomed... not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter ch1 vv18-19).

The teaching of the New Testament centres upon what Jesus achieved when he died upon the Cross.
Since this was a unique event, it can’t be explained without metaphor. So we find it described, for example, in terms of “ransom” or “redemption”.

In the Old Testament, redemption is an act, and especially a payment, which removes an obligation or a burden.
Thus all first-born sons are redeemed, for a price, from the general obligation that the first-born males should be offered to the Lord in sacrifice. The same rule applies to animals which are not appropriate sacrifices (Numbers ch18 v15).

The possibility of redemption is an important feature of the debt laws.
If a man has lost his family lands because of his debts, he has the right to buy them back when he has raised the money, without waiting for the lands to returned in the Jubilee year.
If he has been sold into slavery because of his debts, he has the right to buy back his freedom when he has raised the money, without waiting for his mandatory release in the seventh year.
But if he cannot raise the money himself, it may be provided by a “next of kin”, a sufficiently wealthy member of his extended family.
This kinsman [GOEL] will then be able to redeem the land and bring it back to the family, or to redeem the slave and give him back his freedom (Leviticus ch25).

“Redemption” is also what the Lord God of Israel does for his people.
“I will redeem you [from the Egyptians] with an outstretched arm” (Exodus ch6 v6).
“The Lord redeemed you from the house of bondage” (Deuteronomy ch7 v8).
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you [from Babylon]” (Isaiah ch43 v1).
This resembles redemption from slavery, because it has released them from the power of a third party, but the only “price” paid is the exercise of God’s power.
The concept is extended in the Psalms, where we read that God will “redeem my soul from the grave” (Psalm 49 v15), and he will “redeem Israel from all his iniquities” (Psalm 130 v8).
Therefore the name “Redeemer” is added to the titles of God, especially in the later chapters of Isaiah;
“Thou, O Lord, art our Father, our redeemer from of old is thy name” (Isaiah ch63 v16).

One of the best-known examples of this usage is the statement in Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives”.
But this doesn’t quite follow the pattern, because Job is looking for a GOEL to protect him from the wrath of God himself, so that peace between them can be restored (Job ch19 vv25-27).
This would entail dealing with sin, as the real obstacle in the relation between God and man.
So the concept of “Redeemer” as “someone who tackles the problem of sin” lies dormant, at least, within the hope which Job is expressing.

“Redemption”, as a description of what God is doing in Christ, draws upon the concept found in the Old Testament.
That is, a price is paid and a burden or an obligation is removed.

In the first place, the condition of sin can be called a kind of slavery, which allows analogy with the legal rights of redemption found in Leviticus.
So we find in John’s Gospel; “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John ch8 v34).
And in Romans; “Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” (Romans ch6 v16).
Paul goes on to identify it, more explicitly, as a form of debt slavery.
Taking on the character of a man living under the law, he complains “I am carnal, sold under sin” (Romans ch7 v14).

The law declared by Moses holds us in that condition, because it has the effect of imposing judgement on those who fail to obey its commands. This judgement is what Paul calls “the curse of the law”.
So the Son was sent also “to redeem those who were under the law” (Galatians ch4 v5).
Another version of the same thought is found in Colossians. We are told that God has “cancelled the bond which stood against us, with its legal demands” (Colossians ch2 v14).
This image appears to combine two different kinds of obligation, namely the bond of debt and the bond of contract.
Either way, God set aside the bond by “nailing it to the Cross”. That is, the bond was notionally carried in the person of Christ and then “killed off” when he was crucified.

So the death of Christ can be seen as an act of “payment”.
As when Jesus says in the Gospels that the Son of Man came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark ch10 v45).
Thus the New Testament, as in the opening quotation, associates redemption with “the blood of Christ”, which is shorthand for “the fact that Jesus died”.
This event takes the place of the redemption fee paid by the “nearest kinsman”.
When the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures are praising the Lamb, “for thou wast slain and by thy blood didst ransom men for God” (Revelation ch5 v9), the literal meaning of the word translated “ransom” is “bought”.
Paul makes the point more explicitly; “You are not your own; you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians ch6 vvv19-20).

Other references continue the Old Testament theme that God “redeems his people from their enemies”.
Thus the song of Zechariah begins “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people” (Luke ch1 v68).
And at the end of the same Gospel, the two disciples walking to Emmaus were still saying about him “We had hoped that that he was the one to redeem Israel” (ch24 v21).
Of course he is now redeeming them from a different kind of power.
This is no longer about experiencing oppression at the hands of human adversaries.
Christ has come to deal with the ultimate enemy, the whole complex of sin-and-death.

So Christ is “Redeemer”, finally, in the sense of Job.
He is dealing with the sin which obstructs the relation between God and man.
We are “justified”- that is, we are placed in a right relationship with God- “through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Romans ch3 v24).
We may look forward also to a more complete redemption, “the redemption of our bodies” from the present state of the world (Romans ch8 v23).

The New Testament theme of redemption is expressing two chief points.
Firstly, that God’s people have escaped a condition of hardship which was the equivalent of slavery or the burden of debt.
Secondly, that the death of Christ on the Cross was the means that made this possible.
It was the metaphorical “price”.

There is no practical difference between “ransom” and “redemption”.
When Jesus calls himself a “ransom”, the word in the text is LUTRON, which is used in the Septuagint for many of the Old Testament statements on redemption.
The more usual New Testament word (APOLUTROSIS) means much the same thing, but emphasises how the redeemed are brought “away from” (APO) their previous condition.

Historically, this doctrine has given rise to the question; “Who exactly received the price that was paid?”
Two solutions have made themselves famous.

Origen suggested that the ransom was required by Satan, holding the human race in his power.
Academic theology has gone off this theory, though it still finds a popular echo in the plot of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” (C.S. Lewis);
“You know [said the Witch] that every traitor belongs to me as my lawful prey and that for every treachery I have a right to a kill”.

Whereas Anselm, in “Cur Deus Homo” denies that Satan can have any claims on us, beyond those acquired by a thief.
The “ransom” is due to pay the debt of allegiance which we owe to God himself.

And who is Satan, anyway? Satan appears in the Bible as the accuser, drawing attention to human sin. I have suggested elsewhere that he represents God’s awareness of our sin. Either way, he belongs to a different metaphor, a “criminal proceedings” metaphor. Satan’s power as an accuser rests entirely on the existence of unforgiven sin, and is “thrown down” once forgiveness has been received (Zechariah ch3 vv1-5, Revelation ch12 v10).

Perhaps the most sensible solution to the first question, in the meantime, is that the question does not need an answer, because the redemption metaphor does not depend on any supposed right to receive payment.
The New Testament pays no attention to that side of the picture (which is why the question remained open).
The death of Christ more closely resembles “the redemption of God’s people”, the act of God which releases them from the burden of an alien power. In this case, the power of sin.

New Testament teaching presents the death of Christ as a price that is paid, in the sense that he suffered the loss, rather than as a price received by any other party.

N.T.S. stands for New Testament Salvation.
This thread is one of a series, and I wanted to mark the fact without making the title too cumbersome.
The series is a sequel to, and the consummation of, the older series on Old Testament remedies for sin.
In that series, sin is defined as a relationship problem; the human will is out of alignment with the will of God.

So the death of Christ can be seen as an act of “payment”.

Staying true to our beliefs and value system is important. But we also need to test those beliefs to make sure they are not harming our progress and/or the progress of others. So how would you answer Rabbi Tovia Singer question, If Jesus had paid that debt, why aren't we in Garden of Eden now? Why have people been born into this world after Jesus death in 33AD?

I just clicked on your link to the OT index thread on sin remedies. Glancing through the first page, you say that humans' "dispensation towards independent action" is the original sin, or maybe you are saying it is the result of the original sin.

But how can thst really be? We were created in God's image. Part of that is our independence, our free will. If we weren't free to make our own decisions, then we wouldn't be an imager of God.

On this thread- thank you for it. Wonderfully laid out.

But ugh, it brings me back to this blood sacrifice thing. I may never understand it, though I want to!

I don't understand how killing something, and offering the blood to God, remedies wrongdoing. I've heard the response "the life is in the blood" response so many times that I wish I had a dollar for every time.

How does that explain it? If I commit adultery, how does blood remedy that sin? I didn't kill anyone- so what blood am I replacing? Just an example.

I recently did a little study in Leviticus. I learned that the sacrifices and offerings weren't meant to remedy sin. They were meant to make a person fit to occupy sacred space (the tabernacle and then the temple). If a person touched a dead body, for example, they were unclean and not fit to be in sacred space, and the blood of the animal made them fit for being there (sacred space). Sins, as we think of them, had their own remedy. If you stole something, for example, you paid it back plus some. If you hurt a slave, you set them free. If you killed someone, you then forfeited your own life. Etc.

Those reparations make sense to me.

But the blood; I don't see how sprinkling blood on the altar and other things in the holy place makes a person fit to be there, or no longer defiled, etc.

Your explanation of the theory that the ransom is paid to Satan- that makes sense to me! If we choose sin, we've chosen Satan in that moment and therefore he has a claim on us. But then the blood thing again: how does blood enable our purchase? What does Satan get, from that blood, that makes up for our removal from his realm?

Thanks for your thoughts! This subject is a frustrating mystery to me.

a reply to: glend

If Jesus had paid that debt, why aren't we in Garden of Eden now?

For a number of reasons. First, God is patient hoping that as many people as possible will come to know Him before He returns. Secondly, all must be fulfilled that was written about Him in scripture.

2 Peter 3:8-9

8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Luke 24:44

44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

Why have people been born into this world after Jesus death in 33AD?

Same as above. There will also come a time on earth referred to as the Millennial period or Millennial Kingdom where things will be at peace and much different than they are now, but people will continue to populate during this 1,000 year period before we enter into the new heaven and earth that you're thinking of.

Scriptures regarding the Millennial period are scattered throughout the entire Bible, so it's best to do your own separate research on that. Not enough room here to share.

God Bless.

a reply to: KansasGirl

I don't understand how killing something, and offering the blood to God, remedies wrongdoing. I've heard the response "the life is in the blood" response so many times that I wish I had a dollar for every time.

Maybe this will help??

Hebrews 9:16-22

16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.

19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.

21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

I don't understand how killing something, and offering the blood to God, remedies wrongdoing. I've heard the response "the life is in the blood" response so many times that I wish I had a dollar for every time.

Because Blood is energy. Something needs it. The question needs to be who is God really. The thing we already know about him is he lusts for blood, blood is his food. The universe is predatory it feeds.

a reply to: Deetermined

I do appreciate your reply, but I've read those verses before. They don't explain why or how blood is a remedy.

Can you explain it in your words?

originally posted by: AthlonSavage

I don't understand how killing something, and offering the blood to God, remedies wrongdoing. I've heard the response "the life is in the blood" response so many times that I wish I had a dollar for every time.

Because Blood is energy. Something needs it. The question needs to be who is God really. The thing we already know about him is he lusts for blood, blood is his food. The universe is predatory it feeds.

Ok so, in the Levitical sacrificial system, blood was a remedy for being defiled or unfit, unsafe, to be in sacred space. So you're saying that giving energy to God (by offering blood) make a person safe to be in sacred space? Your explanation says that God needed us to replenish energy to Him in order to be in His presence.

That doesn't make sense. Can you explain it further?

a reply to: KansasGirl

In order for a testament/covenant/inheritance to take place, something or someone has to die. On earth, we die when our blood is drained from us. This is why people say that life is in the blood. Jesus is our inheritance. He died so that we wouldn't have to experience an eternal death. Notice that before we're able to claim our full inheritance (where God becomes all in all - 1 Corinthians 15), that death and hell will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

If I find an explanation that states it better, I'll post it.

a reply to: KansasGirl

The universe is populated by organic beings and inorganic. The live in side by side because the universe is layered like an onion. The inorganics feed from us as we feed from the natures resources.
They mainly eat emotions.
In more vibrant manifestations into our reality where we are able to see and interact with them physically
they require blood to hold their form. They cant stay in physical form in our world long. They need blood to manifest here physically.

a reply to: KansasGirl

Based on further investigation, it appears that all blood sacrifices in the Old Testament were done as a "foreshadowing" of Jesus, who was to come. In fact, "foreshadowing" is a common theme throughout the entire Old Testament and makes for an interesting Bible study of it's own in tying the Old Testament and New Testament together.

a reply to: Deetermined

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."

What if it means something else. That Jesus spent his life teaching his disciples how to earn the pearl of great price.

A: Atonement gives salvation without self sacrifice.
B: Demands self sacrifice (selling of all we have to buy the pearl of great price).

I think B.

a reply to: KansasGirl

The wages of sin is death. Sin is stepping out of alignment with God's will.

Death did not exist in the original Garden as all was in alignment with God's will. Adam and Eve willfully stepped out of alignment with God's will and through that first sin, breaking their alignment with God, sin (and with it death) entered the Garden.

You could say that the serpent (temptation) was right (from a certain point of view ...). Adam and Eve did not surely die suddenly as they probably expected, but they did gain mortality which meant they were from then on dying. And the Garden was forever lost because sin had entered it. The world was fallen.

The idea of blood to redeem sin I think is both a foreshadowing of God's plan to redeem us through Christ and a recognition that the wages of sin is death. If you won't immediately die, then something must in sacrifice to mark the seriousness of stepping outside or against God's will. Once Christ had come, the sacrifice of animals for their blood was no longer which sort of goes with the first part of it being a foreshadowing, and of course, what other blood and sacrifice could ever be greater than His own?

a reply to: ketsuko

Thank you for the reply!

I am familiar with your concepts there. I understand that death entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God.

To Deetermined, I also know that the OT sacrifices were a type or shadow of Jesus's sacrifice.

But what does the blood remedy? How does blood, whether from an animal in the OT or from Jesus's blood later- how does it fix anything?

I understand Christ is the sacrifice of all sacrifices, and puts to an end our need to offer sacrifices for atonement.

Even more than that, the thing a lot of people miss is that Christ defeated death. He died and then rose again: THAT is what gives us eternal life.

No one addresses the blood issue- why blood?

Please read my first response in this thread if you haven't (this is addressed to everyone responding, not you specifically, Kets). The Levitical sacrificial system was for the purpose of MAKING ONE FIT TO OCCUPY SACRED SPACE. How does blood-placing blood on the altar and other temple objects- make a person fit to be in that space?

What is the blood doing, that placing it on objects makes one safe to be in that space?

Blood must do something, since it's used in the OT and the NT, with Jesus's death.

It can't just be a replacement for life ("the life is in the blood" explanation), since the sacrifices in the OT were mainly made for a person being defiled by every day human activities: coming into contact with seminal fluid, coming into contact with blood (in fact, women had to make an offering every month after their periods, to be fit for sacred space again), touching a dead body, eating something unclean.....etc. how does blood fix those things?

a reply to: glend

What if it means something else. That Jesus spent his life teaching his disciples how to earn the pearl of great price.

One thing the Bible makes clear is that we're not capable of "earning" our way to heaven.

www.gotquestions.org...

a reply to: KansasGirl

It's through His blood that we're redeemed. All of the sacrificial animals are to be spotless and pure. Christ was spotless and pure -- sinless. His was perfectly innocent blood. His first advent and death is the first fruits and echo or foreshadowing of what will come for us in our time. We will rise again as He did. Our bodies will be made new as His was.

But we need to be redeemed because none of us is spotless or pure. All of us are fallen. All of us have sinned.

That's the link -- the blood. His blood, the blood of the OT spotless animals, all without blemish and perfect for their kind.

Not only that, but the use of blood, a representation of life, shows the deep sacredness of life for God. Sin should be regarded as something so grave that only the loss of life can atone or cleanse one of it.

a reply to: KansasGirl

In the original op it was disclaimed that things were to be taken in a metaphorical conceptualization for the purpose of discussion.

You want to know how blood remedies then allow me to shed some philosophical light on the idea without indulging too much in quotes.

Ok so you mentioned that since of adultery and how blood pays for or equivilates the deed.

The idea is in repentance and submission to doing right

So for instance most of us wouldn't kill for no reason a large animal or another person. The drawing of say the blood of an animal in a sacrifice way back then was a big deal, because animals equate food and back then a meal wasted was survival neglected

So it's not so much blood as the sacrifice, as something precious to you, something that once given cannot be got back.

Another poster was right about the energy thing but then got sidetracked by his vampiric universe theory.

Ever heard the expression "I Put my Blood and Sweat into this"?

That's what it means by redemption through blood. It means it must be redeemed through serious and maximum effort.

The book of James describes it aptly as "Faith without WORKS is DEAD".

Also bloodletting was a major practice worldwide through all cultures throughout history.

I hope that helps.. but to also clarify off topic you replied to a few posts with the "I've heard that said before"

Perhaps you need some introspective self reflection to in order to understand the many answers already given to you prior to your current predicament.

As one of some bit of experience in spiritual wisdom in understanding truths revealed in books, I can tell you that reading something and having the Wisdom to understand it are two different things.


Knowing the meaning of words is not enough, to understand ancient teachings, you must have the insight to understand the deeper layers behind what otherwise would just be a single of words. To "see the whole picture" if you will.

I hope that helps.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: KansasGirl

All of the sacrificial animals are to be spotless and pure.

It was written "Do not call anything that I have created Impure"

Not to argue the point with you, but all things created under the Great are Pure in Nature