What Does the Bible Say About God and Jesus? - How Much Was the Ransom?

ONE of the main reasons why Jesus came to earth also had a direct bearing on the Trinity.  The Bible states: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a corresponding ransom for all.

Jesus, no more and no less than a perfect human, became a ransom that compensated exactly for what Adam lost-the right to perfect human life on earth. So Jesus could rightly be called  "The last Adam" by the apostle Paul, who said in the same context: "Just as in Adam all are dying, so also in the Christ all will be made alive."  (1 Corinthians 15:22, 45) The perfect human life of Jesus and "the corresponding ransom" required by divine justice-no more, no less.  A basic principle even of human justice is that the price paid should fit the wrong committed.

If Jesus, however, were part of a Godhead, the ransom price would have been infinitely higher than what God's own Law required.  (Exodus 21:23-25; Leviticus 24:19-21) It was only a perfect human, Adam, who sinned in Eden, not God.  So the ransom, to be truly in line with God's Justice, had to be strictly equivalent-a perfect human, "the last Adam."   Thus, when God sent Jesus to earth as the ransom, he made Jesus to be what would satisfy justice, not an incarnation, not a god-man, but a perfect man, "lower than angels." (Hebrews 2:9; compare  Psalm 8:5, 6)  How could any part of an almighty Godhead-Father, Son, or holy spirit-ever be lower than angels?

Next time: What Does the Bible Say About God and Jesus? - How the "Only-Begotten Son"? 

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