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  • Ransom
    Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
    • Thus Christ “gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.” (1Ti 2:5, 6)

  • Ransom
    Insight on the Scriptures, Volume 2
    • Though available to all, Christ’s ransom sacrifice is not accepted by all, and “the wrath of God remains” upon those not accepting it, as it also comes upon those who first accept and then turn away from that provision. (Joh 3:36; Heb 10:26-29; contrast Ro 5:9, 10.) They gain no deliverance from the enslavement to Kings Sin and Death. (Ro 5:21) Under the Law the deliberate murderer could not be ransomed. Adam, by his willful course, brought death on all mankind, hence was a murderer. (Ro 5:12) Thus, the sacrificed life of Jesus is not acceptable to God as a ransom for the sinner Adam.

      But God is pleased to approve the application of the ransom to redeem those of Adam’s offspring who avail themselves of such a release. As Paul states, “as through the disobedience of the one man many were constituted sinners, likewise also through the obedience of the one person many will be constituted righteous.” (Ro 5:18, 19) At the time of Adam’s sin and his being sentenced to death, his offspring or race were all unborn in his loins and so all died with him. (Compare Heb 7:4-10.) Jesus as a perfect man, “the last Adam” (1Co 15:45), was the only human capable of providing the redemption price for Adam’s unborn offspring. He willingly offered himself to die innocently as a perfect human sacrifice, in harmony with Jehovah’s will. (Heb 10:5) Jesus will make use of the authority granted by Jehovah on the basis of his ransom to give life to all those who accept this provision.​—1Co 15:45; compare Ro 5:15-17.

      Thus, Jesus was indeed “a corresponding ransom,” not for the redemption of the one sinner, Adam, but for the redemption of all mankind descended from Adam. He repurchased them so that they could become his family, doing this by presenting the full value of his ransom sacrifice to the God of absolute justice in heaven. (Heb 9:24)

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