What is the classic, dramatic, or ransom theory of the atonement?

In this, however, His dealing is with our enemy. In the previous case of repurchase He dealt with God, answering His righteous demands for us: here, He answers the enemy for us. For while it is true that we had, through disobedience, incurred the debt of death, the forfeiture of life and all things, so as to need a ransom, it is also true that we had suffered wrong at the hand of the Serpent, out of the results of which, in bondage or captivity to the powers of darkness and corruption, our Redeemer or Kinsman delivers us.

This person, the Kinsman, was, as we most surely know, a type or a shadow of the Christ of God. In riches of grace, the Lord has undertaken these two services for us; ransoming us from the rightful, righteous claims of God by the sacrifice of Himself, and thus redeeming us and our inheritance; and likewise avenging us on the head of our enemy, delivering us from him who has the power of death.

[* Christ does not appear as a Conqueror in what He does with God for us, as our ransom, or re-purchaser by the value of His blood. In all that action He suffers instead of conquers; but He is Conqueror as against the enemy, redeeming us from him or avenging us on him.]

[*Christ does not appear as a conqueror in what He does with God for us, as our ransom, or repurchaser by the value of His blood. In all that action He suffers instead of conquers. But He is conqueror as against the enemy, redeeming us from him, or avenging us on him.]

But what were we, it might well be asked, to need such a ransom? We were poor slaves of Satan, afflicted with hard bondage, even as the Israelites were bowed down under the cruel yoke of Pharaoh. And not only were we under the enemy's power, but we were there because of our sins; and thus, at the same time, under the just judgment of God. Until therefore the question of our sins, as also that of the sins of Israel, was settled, God was not free in righteousness to act for our deliverance. Thus, when He went through the land of Egypt in judgment, His own people were as guilty as their oppressors, and nothing but the blood of the passover lamb ransomed them from the destroyer's stroke. "When I see the blood," Jehovah said, "I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." (Exodus 12:13.) For that blood, shadowing forth that of Christ, answered all His holy claims, and, covering up their guilt from His sight, as well as substituting for their guilt its own preciousness before His eye, effectually screened them from His wrath as the holy Judge. So with ourselves. We were guilty sinners, and had all come short of the glory of God; and as such were exposed to the condemnation and doom of sin. But God was gracious, and interposed, saying, as it were, "Deliver them from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom." (See Job 33:24.) And that ransom was the precious blood of Christ. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is an immense thing for the soul to perceive the simple truth, that God gave His only begotten Son; that it was He — He who knew what we were, and what the full extent of His claims upon us — who also provided our passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), and who declares that His blood is an all-sufficient ransom for all who receive His testimony to its value. (1 Tim. 2:6.) For if He is satisfied who can be dissatisfied? It is He, and He alone, who can estimate its adequacy as our ransom; and hence the word to Israel was, "When I" (I, the Judge) "when I see the blood, I will pass over you."

But what were we, it might well be asked, to need such a ransom? We were poor slaves of Satan, afflicted with hard bondage, even as the Israelites were bowed down under the cruel yoke of Pharaoh. And not only were we under the enemy's power, but we were there because of our sins; and thus, at the same time, under the just judgment of God. Until therefore the question of our sins, as also that of the sins of Israel, was settled, God was not free in righteousness to act for our deliverance. Thus, when He went through the land of Egypt in judgment, His own people were as guilty as their oppressors, and nothing but the blood of the passover lamb ransomed them from the destroyer's stroke. "When I see the blood," Jehovah said, "I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." (Exodus 12:13.) For that blood, shadowing forth that of Christ, answered all His holy claims, and, covering up their guilt from His sight, as well as substituting for their guilt its own preciousness before His eye, effectually screened them from His wrath as the holy Judge. So with ourselves. We were guilty sinners, and had all come short of the glory of God; and as such were exposed to the condemnation and doom of sin. But God was gracious, and interposed, saying, as it were, "Deliver them from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom." (See Job 33:24.) And that ransom was the precious blood of Christ. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is an immense thing for the soul to perceive the simple truth, that God gave His only begotten Son; that it was He - He who knew what we were, and what the full extent of His claims upon us - who also provided our passover Lamb (1 Cor. 5:7), and who declares that His blood is an all-sufficient ransom for all who receive His testimony to its value. (1 Tim. 2:6.) For if He is satisfied who can be dissatisfied? It is He, and He alone, who can estimate its adequacy as our ransom; and hence the word to Israel was, "When I" (I, the Judge) "when I see the blood, I will pass over you."

We will now consider more particularly the method by which our redemption was effected. It consisted properly of two parts, the price paid, and the deliverance effected; the claims of God met, and our deliverance from the hand and power of Satan; and we shall find these two things historically illustrated in the redemption of Israel.

(1) The price paid, or the ransom money. Speaking to the disciples, our blessed Lord said, "The Son of Man came not to be ministered to, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Matt. 20:28). In another scripture we read that Christ "gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Tim. 2:6). That is, He gave Himself in death — corresponding so far with the other scripture quoted, "gave His life." The significance of these statements will be explained by a passage from the Old Testament "The life of the flesh is in THE BLOOD: and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls: for it is THE BLOOD THAT MAKES AN ATONEMENT FOR THE SOUL" (Lev. 17:11). Hence, "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Heb. 11:22). It was therefore the blood of Christ (for the life is in the blood) that constituted our ransom money: this was the price paid for our redemption. Hence Paul says, "In whom we have redemption through His blood" (Eph. 1:7); and Peter, in the scripture we have before cited, that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. It is no wonder that he terms it "precious," since it availed to meet all the claims of a holy God upon us, so that on that foundation he could proclaim salvation to all. For, in truth, it not only satisfied God's claims, but so infinite was its value that the Lord Jesus, by the shedding of His own blood, glorified God in all that He was, — in every attribute of His character, — and thus He can righteously justify every one that believes in Jesus. Yea, more, He glorifies Himself, in bringing every believer to Himself, in making him His child, and if a child, then an heir, an heir of God, and a joint-heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17).

Adown the ages men had anxiously looked for a redeemer and found none. No one could redeem his brother or pay the ransom for him. Moses attempted it, but was refused, for he also needed as other men a redeemer for himself. It was not so much a question of the right to redeem; I suppose any one had that, it was the ability that was wanting. Christ had both the right and the power to take up man’s ruined fortunes. He gave Himself a ransom for all. Who can fathom the depths of that judgment? Who can portray the darkness of that hour? Had this Man been no more than the seed of the woman He had never emerged out of that tempest, black with wrath, and curse, and indignation. The victim is consumed upon the altar, flesh is brought to an end in the execution of the judgment which lay upon it, the blood is poured out, the fierce blast of divine judgment has spent itself upon his devoted head, and there is a great calm. He is taken down from the tree and buried. But death cannot hold Him. It could, and did hold every other man that ever went down into it. From that prison house no one had ever returned to blow the trumpet of victory and salvation in the ears of men. But this Man enters the stronghold of darkness, and the clouds of night disappear, the foundations tremble, the pillars are dissolved, and death and the one who had the power of it are both annulled. He rose again the third day, and in His blessed Person man has gone to take up an entirely new place before the face of God in heaven. And in Him in resurrection we see a Man after a new order, in whom there is no taint of the old and fleshly order.

I am sure you will anticipate the application of this part of the story. If you were to be saved a great price had to be paid for your ransom: not gold or silver could do it; the wealth of all the world could not have delivered you. Your sins had made you a lawful captive — for your sins you deserved the just judgment of God — and only by the judgment being satisfied and Satan's power broken could you be saved.

If the sacrifice of Christ is of infinite value to God in securing all His will, it is of infinite value to men, for the work accomplished on the cross, in the sovereign goodness of God, is available to all men. A ransom is paid to set at liberty those in captivity; and the Lord Jesus has paid the price to liberate all who believe in Him from the captivity of Satan, the power of sin, and the fear of death.

Towards the close of His public ministry, with the cross so near, the Lord Jesus called His disciples around Him, when they were displeased at the sons of Zebedee seeking a special place in His kingdom, and told them, "For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). After the Lord Jesus had given His life, the Spirit of God announced, through the Apostle Paul, that the ransom was available for all.