Dr. Daniel J. Ebert IV

Adam Johnson asks, “What did the ever-wise God achieve in and through the death and
resurrection of Christ?” He responds, “The answers are as rich, varied, and endless as the
character of God himself, and will spend an eternity exploring and delighting in them.”
(Johnson, Atonement: A Guide for the Perplexed, 4-7). Here is one of those wonders.

We begin with atonement as ransom — a price to rescue one’s life (Ps 49:7–8). In the Old
Testament, sacrifice, ransom, and redemption are used quite interchangeably, each pointing to
the same costly transaction: a life given to restore life. In the New Testament, Christ’s sacrifice
is the ransom price for sin. It redeems us (Rom 3:24–25)!

This ransom rescues believers in at least four ways:

1. We are rescued from sin’s defilement (expiation: holiness restored)
2. We are rescued from God’s wrath against sin (propitiation: God’s justice satisfied)
3. We are rescued from evil and death (God’s power manifested, Ps 49:15; Job 33:24, 28)
4. We will one day be rescued from our bodily condition with the glorious restoration of all
   creation (God’s glory shared, Rom 8:21–25)

Together, these four deliverances address the full range of our condition: moral, judicial, cosmic,
and bodily. What a complete salvation!

Jonathan Edwards said, “Each attribute of God is glorified in the work of redemption” (The
Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 20, p. 199). In the atonement as ransom, we see God’s
holiness, justice, power, and glory — each one displayed at the cross. Our first response should
be to bow in worship! The God who had every right to demand payment chose instead to pay it
himself.

Our second response should be to live in sacrificial service. We do not serve to repay a debt;
we serve because the debt has been fully paid. This is our ransoming Lord’s example: “For
even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for
many” (Mark 10:45).