The Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. - Mark 10:45
If you say this doesn’t make any earthly sense, you are right. We are stretching for words here. The mysterious ransom saying of Jesus cannot be forced into rational categories. What it tells us is this: God is personally involving himself in the rescue of his enslaved children, at the highest level of sacrifice the world has ever seen. It is not just he has come to set us free. It is more than that. He has in some hitherto unimaginable way actually substituted himself for us, as though our blighted little lives were actually worth this gift of infinite value, this outpouring of the divine life of God, this undergoing of ultimate humiliation, this entrance into hell - for us. Only by looking at the cross of Christ do we learn the magnitude of the forces that held us in bondage. We escaped; he was immolated. The size of the “ransom” is equivalent to the size of our enslavement. That is the payment of equivalent value. That is what we are worth to him.
And so, you see, the price for our complicity in his crucifixion has already been paid. The universal human condition is one of bondage under the reign of Death; but in his own death and resurrection the Lord has overturned that reign. He has established himself forever over the dark Powers. He can never be overthrown. “He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3).
“Aslan has landed.” Everything is different now. Our struggle continues, but as the English say, we are “in very good heart.” D-Day was not the end; in World War II the desperate Battle of the Bulge still remained to be fought, but when you know the enemy is on the run, you fight with a defiant confidence. Winston Churchill said to the British people in 1942, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Expanding his words, we may rightly say that the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ are truly the beginning of the End, when the kingdom of God will be all in all.
From Fleming Rutledge’s Means of Grace
Prayer
Almighty God, who sees that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
