Bought with a Price-Our Part in Jesus’ Divine Transaction with God

[newton3005]

What part do we play in Jesus’ crucifixion? 1 Corinthians 6:20 infers that in the eyes of God and Jesus, we are a commodity, having been bought with a price. Commentators say the price is the blood of Jesus. Furthermore, it is implied that Jesus bought us with his blood. His blood was the ransom he paid for freeing us from, among other things, the world’s sins and the Law that kept the House of Jacob, descendants of Abraham, under control. It would have been the Law to anyone who claims Abraham’s inheritance, but for Jesus having bought us with his blood.

This angle of the Bible almost implies that Jesus one day approached God, asking Him to give His people to him in exchange for his blood, perhaps saying ‘I will pay you with my blood in exchange for setting these people straight.’ So what happens?

John 3:16 comes along and says that God gives the world his only son, that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. Seems that in exchange for Jesus’ offering pay God with his blood, God turns us over to Jesus, saying to him perhaps to ‘Go. The people are yours.’ And why would God approve of this transaction with Jesus? It’s because, as it says in John 3:16, He loves us. Apparently, He loves us enough not for us to fall victim to the sins of the world contaminating us to the point where we wouldn’t be fit for His Kingdom.

Granted, the plotline is a little confusing. Did Jesus approach God to send him among the people, that they may be saved, or did God say ‘Jesus, go to the people.’ Or did God say ‘Jesus, you may go to the people in exchange for a price you must pay for them. That price is your blood’? The confusion lies in whether Jesus approached God first, or was it the other way around?

Some say that the blood Jesus paid was the ransom price in exchange for gaining possession of us for him to reform. It almost seems like a bet has been made, with Jesus using his own blood for the bet with God. Can’t help but think of the musical “My Fair Lady,” in which professor Higgins makes a bet with a colonel that he can train Eliza Doolittle to speak properly. So, no matter how Jesus enters the scenario of saving us, could he have made a bet with God while God was in one of His exasperation moods with us similar to His lament in Isaiah 1, a bet that he, like Professor Higgins, could have made a bet that he could reform us Eliza Doolittles, so to speak, so we can enter God’s Kingdom?

What is a bet, but a transaction that involves uncertainty as to the outcome, for if the outcome is known, does a bet really exist? But in a bet, the uncertainty might be known to one side. Perhaps God, being all-knowing, knew what the outcome would be. Some may say that with each new generation of people, the bet is ongoing as to the outcome. Each new class of people coming into the world is inundated with the Word of God through Jesus. The Word of God continues to speak with each new generation, but does each new generation hear it?

 

[timf]

Jesus created the world John 1:3
Jesus knew from before the world was created that he would be required to pay for the sins of the world. 1 Peter 1:19-20

If you were going to create a world and give your creation free will, it would be reasonable to expect that they would use their free will to turn away from you. For this reason alone it would be expected that some method of recovery would need to be instituted so that something could be salvaged from your creation.

We can see in the payment of the innocent blood of Jesus that he purchased the right to reclaim the lost. However, the process of reclamation seems to require an internal configuration of "being of the truth" (John 18:37), This allows some to recognize what Jesus did and trust (have faith) in it.

 

[newton3005]

Jesus created the world John 1:3

Genesis 1:1-26 "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth"....and so on through Verse 26. Many commentators agree. They also agree that Jesus was with God when God created all things. So, John 1:3 refers to God.

 

[timf]

Joh_14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

 

[newton3005]

Joh_14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

John 14:6-7 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

 

[com7fy8]

What part do we play in Jesus’ crucifixion?

Jesus died for our sins; so our sins are guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus. Our sins helped to put Jesus on the cross. So, any person who has ever sinned is guilty of the murder of Jesus who is God's own Son.

God's part is He wants to forgive us and change us into the likeness of Jesus so we are pleasing to God the way Jesus in us is so pleasing and He in us shares with us how He is so we can be so pleasing to our Father.

It is written >

"And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma." (Ephesians 5:2)

So, if we have trusted in Jesus and are following His example of how He was loving, on the cross, now our part is that we are honoring Jesus by loving any and all people the way Jesus loved while crucified. And Jesus in us affects how we are so we can sweetly please our Heavenly Father the way Jesus on the cross was "a sweet-smelling aroma".

And this includes how we obey God's rule not to argue or complain >

"Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation," (in Philippians 2:13-16)

By not arguing or complaining we can become blameless and harmless and without fault . . . so we are sweetly pleasing to our Father. And so we can be honoring the crucifixion of Jesus, by following His example of how He was pleasing our Father and loving us while on the cross.