Ransoming us from bondage to sin wasn’t a simple transaction. It wasn’t like writing a check to pay the debts on a piece of property. It was our souls that were held in bondage. The powers of darkness weren’t going to release us willingly, so Jesus had to defeat the power of sin. Next, all the debts we had accumulated had to be forgiven. And sin had been eating away at our souls like a cancer, so our sin-diseased nature needed healing. Jesus accomplished all of it.
Jesus has Ransomed Us from Bondage to Sin
… just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Matthew 20:28 NIV
Jesus fulfilled the role of our Kinsman Redeemer. He has redeemed humanity from slavery to sin, death, and Satan by giving his life as “a ransom for many”. And just as the Israelites were kept safe behind the symbol of a cross painted in lamb’s blood on their doors, Christians are now safe from spiritual death, shielded by Jesus on the cross.
This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth. For, there is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity – the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.
1 Timothy 2:3-6 NLT
1 Peter 1:17-19 NIV
Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
Titus 2:13-14 NIV
… while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Revelation 5:9 NIV
And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
Jesus has Defeated the Powers of Darkness Holding Us in Bondage
Hebrews 2:14-15 NIV
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
When David fought Goliath, he was acting in Israel’s place and as its representative to destroy Israel’s enemy for them. In the same way, Jesus was acting in our place and as our champion. He has defeated the powers of darkness and destroyed Satan’s work.
1 John 3:8 NIV
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Galatians 1:3-5 NIV
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Paul says that God has “disarmed the powers [spiritual rulers] and authorities”. Jesus on the cross shows us the full measure of sin – nailing your creator to a cross to die in agony and humiliation is the absolute worst thing humanity could ever do. God has now judged sin and Satan is condemned. His sentence will be carried out when Jesus returns. Every person can clearly see the difference between God’s love and Satan’s hate.
Colossians 2:13-15 NIV
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Jesus has Secured Our Forgiveness for Sin
Colossians 1:13-14 NIV
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
An important aspect of redemption is that a debt has been paid so it is now forgiven. Applied to us, it’s our sins that have been forgiven. And it’s important to remember that when God forgives, it is complete to the point of forgetting. To God, our sins vanish like the scapegoat into the wilderness on Yom Kippur.
2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT
For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
1 Peter 3:18 NIV
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.
Acts 13:38-39 NLT
Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is made right in God’s sight – something the law of Moses could never do.
Ephesians 1:7-8 NLT
He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
Jesus is called the “propitiation for our sins.” Propitiate means to avert a consequence, and Jesus has opened the path for us to avert spiritual death, the eternal consequence of sin.
Romans 6:23 NLT
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 2:1-2 ESV
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 4:10 ESV
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Jesus has Healed our Sin-Diseased Nature
John 3:14-16 NIV
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus refers to being “lifted up” three times in John’s gospel. He was looking back to the story from Numbers when Moses, following God’s instructions, made a bronze snake and held it up for the people to see. Whoever believed and trusted was healed from deadly snake bites.
Jesus was “lifted up” in three different senses. He was lifted up on the cross, lifted up at his resurrection, and lifted up into glory at his ascension. Moses’ snake offered physical healing to everyone who believed; Jesus offers spiritual healing to everyone who trusts in him.
The Bible often pictures sin as a fatal spiritual disease, which requires healing.
Isaiah 53:5 NIV
But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
1 Peter 2:24 NIV
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
It’s significant that in the story of the paralytic in Matthew 9:1-8, Jesus makes “you are healed” synonymous with “your sins are forgiven.” Jesus has both the authority and the power to forgive our sins.
Matthew 9:5-6 NIV
“Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.”