A ransom to satisfy the demands of love and justice

We may be familiar with what has been fittingly described as the greatest expression of love ever shown to sinful mankind, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for us. Both Jehovah and Jesus, who suffered together to prove conclusively their undying devotion and commitment, displayed this incredible love for us, that henceforth we can trust them explicitly. Along with such vital assurance for us though, they also showed an absolute commitment to a voluntarily adopted code of justice, that even Jesus had difficulty coming to terms with, when his hour came to fulfil it. Yes, their love for ‘doing the right thing’ is intimately connected with the love they have for us. It is heartening to realize that this extraordinary love is not just an emotion that may fade or change with time, but a deliberate, wilful, display of their very character – God is love, and so is his Son!

But could there be an even greater expression of love involving us than the one just described? Amazingly, yes! It happened when Jehovah used the Son of his love to bring you into existence, marvellously made in his image, and yet an invention so distinctive, as to require an eternity of reflection and experience to fully discover your unique character, and that of all others made equally special. To give you life as a self-conscious, intriguingly complex person is an act of pure, uncalled-for love, uninformed even by any commitment to do what is right, in short, there is no reason why you should come into being, except for God’s creative love as expressed through Jesus! Without being alive in the first place, the Father’s love and even the ransom would be of no use to you.

So you came into existence, and upon reaching consciousness, it probably didn’t take long for you to suspect that something was amiss with this world and your life in it. Something had gone wrong, but you are not quite sure just what or why. You try to escape from trouble around you, but soon become aware of disturbing flaws within yourself from which you can’t walk away. You trust in your own innocence but it soon lets you down. Are you to take the blame for being what you are when you don’t want to be that way? Hearing the truth that you were born in sin only increases the sense of betrayal and alienation you feel. Why should you suffer the consequences for someone else’s sin, and this not just now and then, but daily, minute by minute? This is profoundly unjust!

Such injustice casts grave doubt on God’s righteousness. Shifting the blame to Adam and Eve, or Satan, while seemingly done to defend him, does in fact add cowardice and irresponsibility to the charges against Jehovah’s character. How could he despise Adam for passing the buck and then do it himself, without incurring the additional charge of hypocrisy? Should God be above the law he gave to his creatures?

Job reprimanded those who felt they had to defend God with fallacious arguments, and Jehovah confirmed the truthfulness of Job’s charge against them: “Will you be treating him with partiality, or for the true God will you contend at law? He will positively reprove you if in secrecy you try to show partiality!” Jehovah was clearly not impressed with people who sycophantically were speaking unrighteousness for God himself, so much so that he got Job to intercede for them, that he might not commit disgraceful folly with them! Job had spoken the truth when he said: ‘Jehovah himself has given, Jehovah himself has taken away, let his name continue to be blessed!’ We had better not join those pious God-botherers and incur his displeasure. Jesus once said: “Stop judging from the outward appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

Jehovah courageously takes full responsibility for everything that happens on his earth. Being almighty, nothing happens without his express permission; the buck stops with him entirely. He himself inspired the principle: “If one knows how to do what is right and yet does not do it, it is a sin for him.” And yet he chose not to create us in perfect innocence like our first parents. How can we trust a God like that? How can he be righteous?

Righteousness is not an abstract and uniform standard, but the result of fair dealing and trust between the parties in a relationship. Thus righteousness is intrinsically individualistic, in an intimate interaction of faith and will between two parties that cannot be objectively judged by outsiders, unless there is a point of reference that all can relate to.

So apart from righteousness based on mutual trust, that is, by faith, it could alternatively be based on Law. Jehovah gave such a Law to the Israelites where justice basically means ‘An eye for an eye,’ and the moral obligation is summed up by “Thou shalt not sin!” But the Law is holy and righteous and just only, if the people placed under it acquired their sinful condition through their own wilful and deliberate action. If not, the One who judges people by Law is thereby transgressing it himself and deserving of its full condemnation, the penalty of death.

Jehovah illustrated this judicial decision in Exodus 21 verses 28 to 31. “If a bull was formerly in the habit of goring and warning was served on its owner but he would not keep it under guard, and it did put a man or a woman to death, the bull is to be stoned and also its owner is to be put to death.” Jehovah clearly knew the murderous intent of Satan, and actually invented the genetic mechanism for passing on sin and death to everyone. He didn’t keep his vicious ‘bull’ under guard and thus became liable for the death of everyone, deserving to be put to death himself!

“If a ransom should be imposed upon him, then he must give the redemption price for his soul according to all that may be imposed upon him.” Notice that the ransom price was to be calculated not according to the value of the person, or persons, to be redeemed, but according to the value of the very soul of the negligent owner of the bull, according to all that may be imposed upon him. And so Jehovah, condemned to death though being immortal, forfeited his claim to sovereignty over the earth. Who could qualify as redemption price for Jehovah’s very own soul? A kind and well-meaning sinless angel?

This is a matter of justice. What would happen in a court of law where a man is condemned to death, and a benevolent stranger walked into the courtroom to offer his live in exchange for the condemned, would the judge accept it? Not likely, since it would not satisfy the claims of justice.

What though if the exact representation of the very being of Jehovah, the one through whom all things and creatures came into existence offered his soul in exchange for Jehovah’s as a corresponding ransom price paid to fulfil the demands of the Law, would that be acceptable? Yes, this would satisfy justice and restore credibility and dignity to both the Law and Jehovah, and in time reconcile all those who through their faith in this ‘ransom price to justice’ declare him to be righteous. Jehovah in turn declares us righteous through our faith in Jesus.

The ransom that Jehovah paid for his soul to redeem mankind from sin establishes, as is written: “That you might be proved righteous in your words and might win when you are being judged.” Yes, he is on trial, and his righteousness is in question primarily, and it is our faith in the ‘substitute for his very own soul’ whom he sacrificed to undo the injustice done to us, that serves as the means to declare him righteous!

This is the point of reference that everybody can relate to, so as to decide for themselves whether God is righteous in dealing with them, that through the historic event of Jesus’ sacrificial death, he has offered his sincere apology for the hurt done, and to provide restitution to undo all injustice suffered, during an eternity of glorious life, to be received by all those willing to believe!

The ransom therefore, while being an expression of love, is also a legal requirement of justice. If Jehovah didn’t provide this sacrifice of his Son, he would be profoundly unrighteous! The Law demands love. Only love satisfies the righteous requirement of the Law, even transcending it. He who doesn’t love is unrighteous.