His Blood Ransoms Us
There’s a gripping movie that came out in the 90s called Ransom. The son of a very rich man was kidnapped. And then criminals holding this boy demanded a ransom. They said: “if you pay, we release him”. In a twist, the father ends up offering the ransom money as a bounty, for anybody who will take out the kidnappers.
“If you pay, we release him”. Do you see how this works in our spiritual lives? Each one of us is a precious child of God – the one who abounds in riches and glory. And the enemy comes and kidnaps us, God’s children. He tricked Adam and Eve into sin and so all people find themselves in the enemy’s clutches - ‘kidnapped’ by him, so to speak. We live as slaves to sin, caught up in evil ways and dark habits, in our own prisons, locked away from God.
Ultimate Sacrificial Love
But then Good Friday happened! And Jesus said release the captives! I will pay the ransom with my blood!
Imagine the glee, when the devil heard this! Imagine him saying “God’s son, dead on a cross? Great! I’ll trade them for that, because with him dead, they’re gonna fall apart anyway!”
He didn’t know what we know now – that the cross isn’t the end of the Easter story… but we’ll get to that on Sunday.
Today, let’s consider what Jesus did for us. He said shed my blood, but let them go free. Take me, and release them.
My friend Rich wrote a song called You Walked a Mile in My Shoes, and one of the lines says “you took my place so I could go free”. Jesus himself knew that this was his calling, he said “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”” (Matthew 20:28 NIV11)
Freedom through Acceptance
And so as he hung on that cross and bled, the doors flew open for all prisoners of sin. All we have to do to walk out of our prisons is accept his ransom payment.
Have you? Have you left your prison of sin and shame and walked into the freedom and light of Christ? Or are you still too comfortable in your sin?
Have you heard of Stockholm Syndrome? It’s when somebody who is kidnapped ends up falling in love with their kidnapper. I think we all suffer from this in our spiritual lives – we’re taken captive by the enemy and then we start to quite enjoy our lives of sin: it’s ok here. I can live here. It’s depraved and wrong, but it’s comfortable. And all the while the door is open for us to leave!
Ransomed by Blood
He paid the price friends! We don’t have to live in those ways anymore! We can repent, leave them behind and walk in freedom, because the blood of Christ has ransomed us.
This Holy Week, as you look at Christ on the cross, as you watch the blood he shed trickle down his back and face, remember that he did it to ransom you. To free you.
All it took was one drop of his blood to pay the price and he shed it all!!
Come out of your prison. Leave behind your life of selfishness. The blood has made a way. The blood ransomed you.
