The Ransom
I don’t know what you think about when you think about God, but many people think that God is a distant kind of a God, who made the world and now just kicks back and does nothing. Some may think of God like a King or President who expects people to serve him and makes decisions to suit himself. But Jesus, who came as God in flesh, shows us how different a King God is, compared to Kings on earth. In one part of the Bible Jesus himself washes his disciples feet! [John 13:1-17] Can you imagine Queen Elizabeth II stooping down to wash your feet??? I can’t… she probably doesn’t even wash her own feet!!
“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.” [Mark 10:45] Jesus [the Son of Man] came to serve us. And he came to give his life up as a ransom. A ransom is a cost paid to buy something back. Imagine that someone has been taken hostage and the kidnappers demand a price to buy the person back. The price paid is what we call a ransom. It may be money with kidnappers but with God it is life itself. We saw in the first section [the mission] that we all are lost and need to be rescued. Jesus is the one who came to rescue us and He did it by dying for us. Now he couldn’t just pay money to God, or get whipped or beaten but he had to give up his life as that is the punishment for sin [Romans 6:23] [remember sin is our whole attitude of rebellion against God].
So God has rescued us from the punishment we deserve by coming down Himself in the form of His Son: Jesus. Jesus laid down his life so that we could live. He paid the cost [the ransom] so that we can be forgiven and friends with God. [Colossians 1:13-14]
