-1 Timothy 2 v 5-6
I suppose anyone who has known Christ for any length of time knows that He was a ransom for us. So much do I know this that this is the second blog with the word "ransom" in the title. And yet something is stirring within me that I can't quite put me finger on...
I mean what is a ransom? I know Hollywood has dressed it up to be a set of demands needed by a group of bad guys in order to release hostages or to stop some sort of catastrophe from happening to a city/country... But just as Hollywood has deformed the true meaning of many things in life, the definition of ransom is one of these things it has deformed.
In a sense, they've stayed true to its meaning. A "ransom" by definition is a means of deliverance or rescue from punishment... And while Hollywood has dressed it up to a point where it comes no where near to what is expected of a real life ransom, the basis is still there...
So that begs the question; why do I still feel as if something is still bothering me? And I think its not what a ransom is, but rather the actual ransom paid for freedom...
I read a story in a book the other day that made me well up with anger. A man in his sixties, who was in financial difficulties, as well as physical sickness, shared with his pastor what had happened in his life. He had started having sex in his early teens to the point where he lost count of the number of women he slept with. Much of his time was filled by drinking excessively, so much that he struggles to remember large gaps of his life. He remembers being married several times to a number of young women who he abused physically, emotionally and sexually. He raised daughters, and at a young age, began to engage with them in a sexual way, and would constantly beat his sons to "toughen them up..."
Anyone who isn't appalled by the way this man acted, even from my brief description, has something wrong in their heads. As I read this story, I felt in my heart a rage to the point where I was nearly ready to throw the book out of my window. If I had been in the place of his pastor, there is no way I could sit there and not saying anything against him...
And then I realised something...despite everything that I wanted to believe...Christ paid the price for that man...and He paid the ransom not just for him, but for everyone...
Think about that...I mean really think...every single little sin that you've ever committed, Christ died for, to pay the ransom for you...It was because of our sins that He suffered...
"But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed..."
-Isaiah 53 v 5
Some of you reading this are going to be saying "I know all of this." And you probably do, but have you ever really stopped and thought about it? I don't mean a quick glance at it, I mean to really look down inside yourself and think hard about the suffering Christ endured to pay the price for your sin.
At Easter, I got to see for the first time a human's reconstruction of that suffering. Up until that evening at Ovoca, I had never seen "The Passion Of The Christ." What I saw brought me to pieces. It may only be a human's representation of the last days of our Lord, but if that's what a human representation looks like, to think of what the actual event looked like brakes my heart.
From the moment Christ began to suffer, all within me cried for it to stop. I couldn't bear the thought that He was doing this for me, for the whole world. Tears quickly came to my eyes as I realised that this actually happened. To think that I was the one who caused His pain and death, and not just me, but every single one who has ever lived...its unbearable...
Christ died for that man I talked about earlier on, as remarkable as that sounds. And I often look to God and ask Him why he did it. The answer I get is extraordinary...
""Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing...""
-Luke 23 v 34
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus..."
-Romans 8 v 1
"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..."
-John 3 v 16
Jesus died, and paid the price for our sin because He loves us. That's another thing that I marvel at all the time, the surpassing love God has for us, so much, that He humbled Himself, and became human, experiencing all that we go through and so much more, and in the end, redeems us through the Cross. Furthermore, Jesus through the Cross, has wiped the slate clean of anything that we have done to those who follow Him.
To think about all of this makes me awe in wonder of our king. Though we were held ransom to sin and death, Jesus died to pay the price, so that we can walk in freedom.
The question is, which way will you choose to walk? Will you stray from the glorious path God has set out for you, the one that He died for, and wander back to sin? Or, will you run the hard race, climb the rugged path, be willing and become broken, bruised and pierced, and claim the true freedom that only comes through Jesus? Will you...
Let Him be the Nexus of your life?...
"...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 v 45
P.S. Those of you viewing this on Facebook, welcome, I didn't really get a chance to say anything last time. I'll be putting my blogs up on Facebook as well as Blogger, just so people get a better chance to view and see them.
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