3:1), points his finger at us, accusing us before the judgement seat of God. By his death Christ took away the legitimate ground upon which Satan, also known as the accuser (Rev. After all, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Joh. Now, obviously Christ’s death upon the cross affects Satan and the dark forces. For the fact is that not a single Scripture passage implies that God paid Satan as much as a penny.īy bearing the punishment due to our guilt, as our sinless substitute, Christ removed Satan’s primary weapon against all those who trust in him. It is unfortunate that Lewis subscribed to this strange view of Christ’s redemptive work. He sacrifices himself to redeem the naughty and guilty lad Edmund from the witch’s claim on him. At the end of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe Aslan-representing Christ-pays the ransom price, that is, his life, to the White Witch-representing Satan. This view has in modern times been reinforced through C.S. In the early church some of the church fathers thought and taught that Jesus, through his atoning death, had paid the price to Satan, buying sinners from his legitimate claim on them. According to Romans 3:19 the whole world stands condemned before God the Judge. Why? Because it’s before him we stand guilty. Psalm 49:7–9 says, “Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit.” According to this passage (and other passages can and will be added) the triune God is the one who demands payment for our sinful souls. But along with many others I believe the Bible does provide us with a better answer to our question. To whom?Ī legitimate question arises at this point: to whom is Christ’s blood being paid, as a ransom or a price, for these polluted, guilty, and enslaved sinners? Who is receiving the ransom? One way to answer this question is by saying, “no one, since the biblical language of redemption and ransom is metaphorical.” That could be true. Behold the Redeemer as he is suffering to free us from the penalty and power of sin.

He’s doing so by the spilling of his “precious blood” (1 Pet. Right here, right now, from that Roman cross over there, the eternal Son of God is redeeming his sinful people from the guilt of their sins and the realm of sin (Rom. This is the most important day in all history. That is, 1990 years ago (I’m writing this in April of 2023).

Come with me to Golgotha hill, just outside of Jerusalem.

No god but god aslan