R.C. Sproul

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 slave holder, 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.

Now, 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.

They're 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.