The crisis of which Jesus preached was the crisis of an impending judgment of the world. At which point God is going to pour out his wrath against the unredeemed And the ungodly, the impenitent, and that the only hope of escape from the wrath of God. Was how? to be covered by the atonement of Christ. At the center of the good news of the gospel is what Christ accomplished on the cross.
To get this wrong, to distort it, is to destroy the gospel message. Christianity with no cross is no Christianity at all. Welcome to the Wednesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm your host, Nathan W. Bingham.
R. C. Sproul, the founder of Ligonier Ministries, spent his entire ministry helping people understand the cross of Christ. And in this week's series, he dedicated six messages looking at the cross from different angles to help you in your devotion and love for the Lord as you see the beautiful scope of God's grace and to help you defend the biblical testimony of Christ's work on the cross against those who deny or downplay this monumental, essential, and central truth of Christianity.
So, don't forget that you can own this series: Dr. Sprohl's book, The Truth of the Cross, and his book, Holy Week. You give a donation in support of Renewing Your Mind at renewingyourmind.org. But be quick as this offer ends tomorrow.
Well, Jesus told his disciples that he came to give his life as a ransom for many. What was this ransom? and to whom was it paid? Here's Dr. Sprawl.
I'm sure that there were times in Jesus' life. Particularly Toward the close of his earthly ministry. When touching his human nature, he just had to be super frustrated. When he made his last trip from Galilee, Down to Jerusalem. He had an extended tour, as it were, of speaking along the way.
He constantly focused attention on his coming hour and prepared his disciples for the fact that he was going to Jerusalem. die. And somehow it just didn't get across to them. They fought him every step of the way. And we read in Mark's Gospel, in the tenth chapter, after Jesus tells them again, he says in verse thirty two, they were on their way up to Jerusalem with Jesus leading the way.
And the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. And again, this is again, he does it. He takes the twelve aside. and told them what was going to happen to him. We are going up to Jerusalem, he said.
And the Son of Man will be betrayed. to the chief priests and teachers of the law. they will condemn him to death. and will hand him over to the Gentiles, who will mock him, and spit on him, flog him. and kill him.
Now five minutes later The disciples start arguing over who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God. Can I sit at your right hand?
Well, can I sit at your left hand? Here is Christ preparing to enter into his grand passion. and his closest friends are already arguing about the inheritance. And it was in this context that Jesus says something that is very significant for our understanding. The Atonement.
He said, You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them. and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you. must be your servant.
And whoever wants to be first. must be slave of all. 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.
Now here, when Jesus In his frustration, he is trying to communicate to his disciples what his own ministry is all about. When Jesus must state succinctly And poignantly And graphically, So that once and for all, these dull-witted disciples of his will understand what he's about to do, he says it how. I came not to be served. but to serve and to give my life. As Okay.
Ransom for many. The word that is translated ransom here In Mark's Gospel, it is rarely translated by this term, but the concept of the ransom is the root concept in the New Testament behind the broad term that we call. Redemption. In biblical categories, a Redeemer Is one who provides a ransom. The word is Lutron.
That is translated here, ransom. And some of you who know your Greek, do you know any Greek? When you learn Greek in college or in seminary, they start off with the first book, you know, book one, volume one. And usually, in the very first vocabulary list, the first verb that you learn in Greek, in most Greek textbooks, is the verb. Luro, which means to lose.
The basic verb form is to loose. to set free. To unbind. And the concept of the ransom here is built upon this route. of loosing something, setting something free.
that is held in captivity.
Now in the ancient world The idea of the ransom function very similar. To what the idea of the ransom is in our own language. Whenever we think of ransom, we think of Kidnapping, huh? where somebody steals a person. And then demands payment.
for the free release of the hostage. or of the person who is kidnapped. They expect a monetary payment. That's the way it functioned in antiquity. Also, it functioned for a price that was paid to release a slave.
From bondage. A slave could be ransomed, or hostages held. in military. Conflicts. Could be purchased and set free by a ransom.
Now, the question is: who sets the price tag for the ransom? It is not established by some board of trade that comes in and figures out the going market rate. The price tag for the ransom is set initially by the slaveholder. The hostage holder or the one who is controlling the kidnapped child. He determines the ransom price, and then it's up to the person who is trying to free.
The hostage, the slave, or the kidnapped person to answer the question whether he attaches enough value. to pay the ransom to set the person Free. And that's important because in church history, There have been all kinds of theories. about the atonement. Part of the reason for that is that if you study the cross and study the atonement in biblical terms, you will see that the atonement.
in terms of biblical language and biblical imagery. is a multifaceted Event. There are all different kinds of activities. taking place converging in this one pregnant moment of redemptive history. And so one of the images that is used in the New Testament to describe this multifaceted event is this image of ransom.
A ransom that is paid to redeem. A captive. That is what redemption is all about. being set free. Israel is redeemed.
God is the redeemer when he delivers his people from bondage in Egypt. The Exodus. is a story about redemption. One of the theories that has competed For acceptance throughout church history, the so-called ransom theory of the atonement. is that in the transaction of the cross, Jesus pays a ransom.
to Satan. Because Satan has fallen man bound. He has him under bondage. He has us in chains, as it were, and he is like the kidnapper. Who snatches us away from our Father's house?
And Christ comes and pays the ransom. to set us free. In passing, let me add that another element that is clearly present in the Bible about. the atonement is what has been called the Christus Victor. Element.
which calls attention to the aspect of Christ's work by which He achieves a cosmic victory over powers and principalities. that he comes to destroy the work of the devil. That he comes to conquer Satan and his power. Over us. If you see me casting out demons by the finger of God, then you know what?
The kingdom of God has come upon you.
So, I don't want to minimize in any way the fact that the New Testament does have a very strong victory motif. wherein Christ conquers The demonic forces the forces of Satan that threaten us. And we see that antithesis and that titanic struggle that goes on from the very beginning moments of Jesus' ministry, where the Spirit leads him into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan. And even when he withstands that temptation, we read almost as a postscript at the end that Satan departed from him for a season. That he went into retreat, but that retreat of Satan was not a permanent retreat.
It was what we would call strategic withdrawal so that he could find a better place to launch another assault against Christ. But the conflict goes through the ministry of Jesus. And the Bible says that in his death, Christ conquers. Satan So what I'm saying is this, that yes, there is clearly that element. of the struggle between Christ and principalities and powers of satanic style.
But that does not mean. That the ransom of which Christ speaks Is paid to Satan. Think of it for a moment. If Christ paid a ransom to Satan to deliver you from Satan's clutches, who would the victor be? Yes, what every kidnapper wants.
is not permanent possession of the child. He wants what the child can get from him through extortion. and through the exploitation of establishing a premium ransom. And if he can get the distraught parents to pay the ransom, He wince. If the ransom is paid to Satan.
Satan laughs. All the way. To the bank. And there is no Christus, Victor. It must be Satanus, Victor.
But when the Bible speaks of ransom. The ransom is paid here. Not to a criminal. But to the one who is owed the price. For redemption.
The one who is the offended party. The injured party. in the whole process of sin. And who is that? It's the father.
Jesus as a servant offers himself In payment To the father. For us.
So again, we see in this concept of redemption and concept of ransom, just out of casual interest, and whenever I prepare lectures on any of these subjects, I don't just read what classical Orthodox theologians say on these points. I always like to see what the most radical, hierarchical professors are saying about it. And I was surprised to see that this person who carries no brief for biblical orthodoxy made the statement: we cannot get away from the fact that in the biblical concept of ransom, We are dealing with two indisputable elements. One Substitution. Two Satisfaction.
And I thought, my goodness The very two items that liberal theology considers anathema To biblical Christianity, substitution and satisfaction is here set forth in such strong language, like it's indisputable. You can't get away from the fact.
Now, he may go on to say, but so much for the biblical interpretation of the event. But the fact is that the New Testament writers understood Jesus' ministry on the cross in terms of a ransom which demands an understanding of substitution and satisfaction. A price is paid. Buy someone. Other than for whom?
The price is being paid, okay?
so that some demand is being satisfied. By a substitute. It's no wonder to me that Karl Bart. Waxed eloquent. and at times became vehement over this point, indulging again in some hyperboles by saying that the single most important Greek word In all of the New Testament is a tiny little word.
Who pair? which is translated by Three English words. which are in the half Oh. I lay down my life. For my sheep.
in behalf of my sheep. I give my life. in behalf of the many. This is The recurring resounding refrain of Jesus' own Self-understanding.
Now that's crucial. It's one thing for a painter to paint a painting, and then we go up to him and scratch our heads and say, what that guy mean by that? And I say, well, I don't know. What do you think? And you say, well, I think he means this.
And we sit down and speculate as to what the significance of the man's art represents. And then I give my opinion and you give your opinion. And we all sit around speculating on it. The best way to settle the controversy is to do what? Ask the artist, What did you mean by this?
And some of them, you know, existentialists say, hey, I paint it, you interpret it. I meant whatever you want me to mean, that kind of thing. Fortunately, Jesus wasn't an existentialist. And when Jesus. Explains his agenda when he is talking in the first person and communicating to his hearers what he is about at the center of his teaching is this.
I'm doing this, not for myself. But for you. to redeem, to ransom. to save. When we talk technically about the atonement, there are two words.
propitiation and expiation. Those are strange words indeed.
Well, let's look at them. Expiation. one prefix, x, and propitiation. The word expiation obviously means something out of. or from, right?
We know what the prefix x means.
Now the word expiation Means to remove something, to take something away. And in biblical terms, it has to do with taking away guilt. Removing guilt. by way of paying a ransom. or offering an atonement.
And to pay the penalty.
something.
So the act of expiation removes the problem. By paying for it, either by paying a penalty, paying a ransom. making a sacrifice in order to satisfy some demand. Propitiation has to do With the object of the expiation. A way to remember it is the prefix.
X usually means away from or out of. Pro usually means Four.
Now propitiation has to do with that which brings about a change In God's attitude. Where we are restored. Into fellowship and to the favor with God. There is the sense in which we can talk here of God's being Appeased. You know how the word appeasement Functions in military and political conflicts.
You know, the so-called politics of appeasement, that if you have a rambunctious world conqueror on the loose rattling the sword, rather than risk the wrath of his blitzkrieg, you try to assuage his wrath and appease him by giving him something that'll satisfy him so that he won't come into your country and mow you down. That's a kind of ungodly manifestation of appeasement. But if I am angry or if I am violated And you satisfy My anger appease me. Then you are restored. to favor.
and the problem is removed.
Now, sometimes the same Greek word is translated both by expiation or propitiation. Do you see the slight difference here in the terms? The expiation is the act that is done that results in the change of God's disposition toward us. Expiation is what Christ does on the cross. The result of Christ's work of expiation is that God is propitiated.
And the bottom line result is that we are then Reconciled. This would be the distinction between the ransom that is paid. and the attitude of the one who receives the ransom. Is that clear? there is involved in expiation and propitiation.
An act of placation. There's a phrase in one of the older Reformed confessions in the Latin when it speaks of the atonement. I think the Latin phrase goes. Ira placate Deo. That is, that the work of Christ was done to placate The wrath of God.
to placate The wrath of God.
Now this. idea of placating the wrath of God. has done little to placate the wrath of modern theologians. Modern theologians have become very wrathful about the idea of placating the wrath of God. I grant that we need to be very careful on how we understand the wrath of God and all of that.
But let me remind you that the concept of placating the wrath of God Has to do here not with a peripheral tangential point. of theology But with the essence. of salvation. What does the term salvation mean? It can give you an exaggerated headache if you try to explain it quickly because the word salvation is used in about 70 different ways in the Bible.
If somebody is rescued. from certain defeat in battle, They experienced salvation. If somebody survives a life-threatening illness, that person experiences salvation. If somebody's plants are brought back from withering to robust health, they are saved. We talk that way in our own language.
We save money. A boxer is saved by the bell. When we say that he's saved by the bell, we don't mean by that that he's been transported into the eternal kingdom of God. We mean that he's been saved from losing the fight.
So that any experience of deliverance From a clear and present danger, from some kind of calamity, is defined biblically in terms of salvation. When we talk about salvation biblically, we have to say, from what, ultimately, are we saved? What is it that we are saved from? If we look. In Paul's letter to the Thessalonians, in the very first chapter Of First Thessalonians.
It's around the tenth verse. It says in there that Christ has saved us from what? From the wrath which is to come. And again, you cannot understand the teaching and the preaching of Jesus of Nazareth apart from that, because he constantly warned people about the fact that someday the whole world was coming into judgment. And what is done in corners and in secret will be made manifest.
He says, every idle word will come into the judgment. His was a crisis theology. The Greek word crisis means judgment. And the crisis of which Jesus preached was the crisis of an impending judgment of the world. At which point, God is going to pour out his wrath against the unredeemed.
And the ungodly, the impenitent, and that the only hope of escape from the wrath of God. Was how? to be covered by the atonement of Christ. And so the supreme. achievement of the cross for me that Christ has made.
Christ has placated The wrath of God. Which would burn against me were I not covered by the sacrifice of Christ.
So if somebody gives you static about placation. or satisfying the wrath of God. Run for your life. Because now you're talking about The gospel. We're talking about salvation.
In its essence. that as one who is covered by the atonement, I have been redeemed From the clear and present danger and the supreme danger to which any person is exposed, it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of a holy God who is wrathful. But there is no wrath. For the house. Who sends?
have been paid. No wrath left. at all. That is what salvation is. is Olina.
There is no wrath left for those whose sins have been paid.
Now that's good news. This is Renewing Your Mind, and that was R. C. Sproul from his series, The Cross of Christ. If you'd like to revisit this, and I encourage you to do so and go deeper in your study by using the study guide, you can request this week's special resource offer when you donate today at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes.
When you do, the series and study guide will be unlocked for you in the free Ligonier app. and will send you two books, The Truths of the Cross and Holy Week, Reflections on the Week That Changed the World. This is all to thank you and further equip you to proclaim and defend the Biblical Gospel.
So call us at 800-435-4343 or give your donation at renewingyourmind.org before midnight tomorrow.
Well, be sure to join us tomorrow as RC Sproul explains what it means that Christ became a curse for us. That'll be Thursday, HIA on Renewing Your Mind.
