Soteriology
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
Referring to Christ, Ephesians 1:7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood.” In a similar way, 1 Peter 1:18–19 speaks to believers as God’s children to remind us “that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed … but with the precious blood of Christ.”
Salvation as redemption was promised by God through the prophet Isaiah, saying, “The Redeemer will come to Zion” (Isa. 59:20). Hebrews 9:12 expresses the fulfillment of that promise by saying of Christ, “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” When the Bible speaks to us of salvation in terms of a Redeemer who wrought our redemption by His sacrifice, it presupposes a spiritual plight of bondage or slavery from which condition emancipation must take place.
Sin’s bondage
This spiritual bondage is presented to us in the Bible as enslavement both to sin and to Satan. As to sin’s bondage, Jesus put it this way, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Romans 6 refers to slavery of sin in several ways. First, the newness of life that Christ brings has one effect: “that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (v. 6). Then we read that God’s saving grace has as one goal that “sin shall not have dominion over you” (v. 14).
Finally gratitude for salvation is expressed in these words, “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin” now having obeyed the gospel, we have “been set free from sin” (v. 17, 18). With a change in terminology 2 Peter 2:19 sets forth the same idea about bondage to sin when referring to false teachers who speak about liberty while being “slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.”
Not only is spiritual bondage spoken of as slavery to sin and corruption, it also is termed as captivity to Satan. According to 2 Timothy 2:26, persons standing in need of repentance need to “come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” In a similar way, 1 John 5:19 declares, “The whole world is under the control of the evil one.” One rationale for and result of Christ coming in the flesh is declared to be “that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage” (Heb. 2:14–15).
Payment of ransom
The analogy of salvation as redemption from bondage suggests the idea of a ransom being paid. Jesus spoke of His purpose in dying in terms of a ransom paid, saying, “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). As a result of the ransom, God’s word to His children is, “You are no longer a slave but a son” (Gal. 4:7).
At this point a word of caution is needed. The analogy of salvation as redemption cannot be pressed to identify to whom this divinely provided ransom was paid. The gospel simply leaves the truth of redemption with the idea that the necessary price was paid without pressing the analogy to the point of identifying a recipient for the payment.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jerry Batson is a retired Alabama Baptist pastor who also has served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and professor of several schools of religion during his career.
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