Q&R: If grace is free, why a ‘price’? Brad Jersak

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“The Anastasis” fresco is found in the thousand-year-old stone-carved “Dark Church” in Cappadocia.

Question:

If grace and forgiveness is a free gift from God, why does the Bible use payment language, such as ‘ransom,’ ‘redemption,’ ‘bought’ and ‘purchased’ to describe the Cross?

Response:

I hear your concerns and I share them for these reasons:
Jesus’ ransom was not a payment to the Father.
And God has always been able to freely forgive humanity, from the beginning.
This is the whole theme of the Book of Hosea.
God can pardon sin even prior to repentance without doing violence to divine justice.
God’s mercy (revealed in Christ) fulfills God’s justice because for God, justice is not retributive, it is restorative.
So in general, I would agree with the premises behind your question.
However, I also want to be fair to the Scriptures that led us to think in terms of a ‘cost.’

I. “Ransom” and “Redemption” Language

First, because the Bible uses the terms ‘ransom‘ and ‘redemption‘ to describe our salvation, we tend to think about the ‘payment’ involved in freeing a hostage or slave. Unfortunately, we began to think about the ‘payment’ made through Christ’s death as if it were to God. But that would make God the hostage-taker or slave-owner.

Our response is that these texts are used as metaphors, specifically to describe Israel’s Exodus out of Egypt. The metaphors are used because they are about freeing those in bondage, and NOT that God or Moses paid Pharaoh anything. By making it a purchase, we overextended and misdirected the metaphor. In fact, in both the Exodus story and in Jesus’ model, God doesn’t pay anything to Pharaoh or Satan. God ‘plunders’ Egypt just as Jesus ‘plunders’ the ‘strongman’s goods’ (Matthew 12:29). Namely us!

That said, if we insist that the ransom was paid to someone… not God and not the devil, who then? The early Christians settled on ‘paid to death’ (with his life). But then again, it was only a temporary arrangement. St. Basil represents scores of theologians, preachers, and hymnographers from his era:

“Christ gave himself as a ransom to death, in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Descending through the Cross into hades that he might fill all things with himself, he loosed the pangs of death He arose on the third day, having made for all flesh a path to the resurrection from the dead.” In fact, many such texts add that through his death, Jesus both conquered and slayed death” (personified as Hades).

II. “Bought” or “Purchased” Language

Second, we would note that a term like ‘purchase‘ is generally transactional, whereas Christ’s redemptive work is relational, restorative, and a work of self-giving love. Yet the New Testament does use what seems to be “bought” or “purchased” language occasionally. What how so? Two verses come to mind, but in both cases, “bought” or “purchased” appears to miss the essence :

A. Acts 20:28 says, “Therefore take heed to yourselves and all the flock,
among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers,
to shepherd the church of God which he purchased [peripoieó] with his own blood.”

While many translations do render the word peripoieó as ‘purchased‘ or ‘bought,’ the emphasis of that term is not on paying or buying, but rather, on acquiring or obtaining [as in the NKJV] ; “to make one’s own; reserve for oneself, with deep personal interest (caring).”And God certainly has done that. How? “With his own blood.” Some copyists and translators stumble over the idea that Paul describes the death of Jesus as “God’s own blood,” so they add a phrase such as “of his Son.” That makes theological sense, but a beginner’s principle of manuscript editing is that you have to ask, “Would a copyist be more likely to add the phrase “of his Son” later [to clarify] or delete it [by accident]?
Either way, it is Yahweh who says in Zechariah 12, “You will look on me, the One you have pierced,” cited again in Revelation 1 as from “the Lord God” (through Jesus!).
So the idea is that Jesus’ death was the means by which God obtained us for his own.
We once belonged to a tyrant; now we belong to and with God.
B. Revelation 5:9 also says, “And they sang a new song, saying:
‘You are worthy to take the scrolls and to open its seals, because you were slain,
and with your blood, you purchased [agorázō] for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.”
Once again, many translations use the word “purchased” or “bought” for the Greek verb agorázō. That’s not surprising because the root comes from the noun agorá, “the ancient marketplace, town center.” So it seems reasonable to speak in terms of making a purchase in the marketplace. But again, the stress is less on the payment, according to J. Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, and more on the transfer of ownership, from seller to buyer, “where something becomes another’s belonging (possession). In salvation-contexts, agorázō is not redeeming (“buying back”), but rather focuses on how the believer now belongs to the Lord as His unique possession.”

III. “Cost” and “Value” Language

Finally, even though (I) Christ’s ransom/redemption was not a payment to God (who was not the slaveholder) or to the devil (because Jesus bound the strongman and plundered his goods), and even though (II) the words translated ‘bought‘ or ‘purchased‘ are not so much a transaction as they are a transfer of belonging, (III) that’s not to say Christ’s saving work wasn’t costly. The apex of the Incarnation—our Exodus!—’cost’ Jesus his very life.

Both 1 Corinthians 6:20 and 7:23 use the agorázō verb again, but here, the emphasis is on what it cost Jesus:

1 Corinthians 6:20: “You were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.”

1 Corinthians 7:23: “You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men.”

The Greek word for “price” here is timé. That word can be translated as either honor or price depending on the context. In Paul’s use here, timé is rendered “price” but is especially focused on the value of what is purchased in the eyes of the beholder, the cost which he’s willing to assess it at.
This is certainly one way to read the Parables of the Treasure and the Pearl in Matthew 13:

44 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls,46 who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

While many commentators see this as Jesus’ valuation of the kingdom of God and what we should be willing to give up to find it, it also works well to think about Jesus giving up everything to find the treasure or pearl hidden in the field… you!
So again, it’s not that Jesus had to pay God or the devil, but rather, Jesus assesses the value of our lives and reckons the cost of our salvation (his life) is worth it. And Paul wants us to remember that… the value that Jesus’ life has given our lives suggests that we should value our lives in a way worthy of his life.
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