In the 1st Century Greco-Roman world, there was a practice called sacral manumission, the ceremony by which a slave was set free.  In this ceremony, a slave owner took the slave being freed to the temple of his god and sold the slave to the god. Then the slave owner was reimbursed for the slave from the pagan temple treasury.

Rodney Decker describes the ceremony: “The ceremony takes place in the presence of witnesses, and the manumission record is often recorded in stone —typically on the temple wall or pillar. This transaction is somewhat of a legal fiction because it is not really temple money that is involved. Rather the slave himself (or his family or friends) have previously paid the specified amount into the temple treasury. Once the slave owner received the money, the slave became the property of the god. Ownership has been transferred. He does not become a slave of the temple, however, but a protégé of the god. In respect to his former owner, he is now a free man.” *

Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).  “When Jesus announced that He was giving His life as the ransom,” Decker explains, “people understood that He was paying the price which would set them free. The analogy with slavery was graphic. They saw themselves as the slaves and Jesus as the one who paid the price. The price to set us free from sin and death was not [a sum of money]; it was the very life of Jesus.” *

Our plight is that as sinners, we are slaves to sin (John 8:34) and condemned to death (Romans 6:23).  We need someone to pay the ransom price to set us free.

Because of His love for us and to save us, Jesus became our Ransom.  He paid the price for our redemption.  The price that He paid was His blood that was shed in His death.

The Apostle Peter reminded Christians of the price that was paid for them: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19 NIV).

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6 ESV).

His ransoming blood sets us free from the bondage of sin and death when we accept His offer on His terms.

God will forgive, set free from sin, and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7-9).

“Here is love, vast as the ocean
Loving kindness as the flood
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom
Shed for us His precious blood
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing his praise?
He can never be forgotten
Throughout Heaven’s eternal days”
-- William Rees, Here is Love, 1st verse

Won’t YOU accept the Ransom that has been paid so that you can be freed from sin?

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from “A Ransom for Many” by Rodney J. Decker in www.sharperiron.org.

David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

Archived issues of Living Water can be viewed and accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org