The Atonement Part 5: The Gospels and Acts

Ransom for many Matt 10:28/Mark 10:41-45 

• Ransom: Lutron in Greek. Means the price of release or manumission (release from slavery). In its primary usage, the lutron/kōpher referred to neither a sacrifice for sin nor a punishment for transgression, but a price of release or a price of return. 

o Kopher (Hebrew of Greek Lutron) is used this way: God’s redemption of Israel from exile: “I give Egypt as your ransom (kōpher), Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you” (Isa 43:3) 

• Is Jesus a substitute here?... ransom “FOR” many o Ransom for PSA has the notion of substitution, pointing to the Greek preposition anti (“for”), which carries the meaning of “exchange”—“this for that” (Latin, quid pro quo). That is precisely the meaning of anti in those texts where Paul instructs the church to renounce the world’s practice of retributive justice: “Do not repay anyone evil [in exchange] for (anti) evil” (Rom 12:17; cf. 1 Thess 5:15). Is Jesus the “ransom,” therefore, a substitute?

• If we wonder what “price” God has “paid” to ransom Israel from captivity in Babylon, the prophet tells us—none: “For thus says the LORD: You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money” (Isa 52:3). God need not “pay” any “price” to anyone to redeem his people; for the “ransomed of the Lord” are liberated by God, not by an exchange between God and some other power.

Gospels and Acts Summary: 

• Jesus uses the “Son of man” title to talk about his kingship but also about the defeat of the powers as in Daniel 7 and the defeat of the beasts.  

• Jesus’ ministry about healing. God loved the world and sent Jesus to heal it.  Jesus is depicted more as a doctor than a lawyer. In our first episode we talked about the fact that you can’t punish a disease out of someone, and Jesus came to heal our sin and not punish it out of us.  

• Ransom is connected to a new exodus. It means to free slaves. It was costly to God as it meant that Jesus’ life was given up for us. But this wasn’t a payment. As in the Exodus God’s ransom was by his mighty hand and he didn’t pay off himself or the powers… it was a rescue mission.  

• The New Covenant spoken of at the last supper was inaugurated on the cross. The New Covenant in Jeremiah relates to the end of Exile. This is the way out of our exile from Eden, the reversal of Babel, and Israel’s exile.

“The cup” is connected to God handing Israel over to the nations. God allowed Jesus to be handed over to Rome and the temple leaders to fulfill his mission. This is not active wrath but letting the people have their way as we saw in our wrath of God episode. The Barabbas story is connected here.  

• “My God why have you forsaken me?” Was a cry, in Jesus’ humanity, of what he was experiencing but he is quoting Psalm 22 where God didn’t forsake the psalmist and God didn’t forsake Jesus. There is not split in the Godhead. 

• We see in the gospels that the Cross was man’s doing, God knew it would happen, but it was the wrath of the people. But we see the character of God in this that Jesus state “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”

• There is nowhere in the Gospels and Acts that in anyway talk about God punishing Jesus in our place

• Acts ties forgiveness of sins to the resurrection and baptism (allegiance) and not Jesus' death. 

• There are no atonement theories or mention of hell in the Gospel proclamations in Acts.