Being ransomed means that a ransom price has... - All The Good Seed Daily Devotionals for 2024

...knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.
1 Peter 1:18–19

Being ransomed means that a ransom price has been paid. In kidnappings, sums of money are often demanded in return for the release of hostages. Such ransoms have been paid many times in history:

20 talents of silver were demanded by pirates in ancient times for the Roman general, Julius Caesar;
6,000 buckets of silver were demanded in 1194 for the English king, Richard the Lionheart; and
25 tons of gold and silver was demanded by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1533, for the release of an Inca chief.
Spectacular ransom demands in German history were the DM 7 million for Theo Albrecht (1971), the DM 21 million for Richard Oetker (1976) and the DM 30 million for Jan Philipp Reemtsma (1996).

But inconceivably great is the price that has been paid so that all who are sinners according to God’s standard can be saved. It was not perishable things like silver or gold – the price was “the precious blood of Christ”. Jesus Christ Himself became mediator between God and man, and gave “Himself a ransom for all”. All can now be saved – because the ransom is sufficient for all! But Jesus knew that not all people would be redeemed, or ransomed, so He said that He would give His life a ransom for “many” (1 Timothy 2:5–6; Mark 10:45).

Jesus Christ also paid the ransom for you. It is up to you whether you accept this payment price and let it count for you. Only then can you say: “redeemed ... with the precious blood of Christ”.

Today’s reading: Deuteronomy 9:1-17 · Matthew 23:23-39