Did Jesus pay ransom to himself?
Wow!
Christ, Paul, Peter, John and the writer of Hebrews, call it a literal ransom and not just something like a ransom.
God owes satan nothing and satan is not going to change by being paid off and since God can just as safely and easily take anything away from satan it would be wrong to pay satan anything.
God is not a criminal kidnapper holding the children away from the kingdom. It would not be a ransom if you or someone “paid” God. God is not blood thirsty personally desiring Christ’s blood. The ransom scenario demands a kidnapper.
The ransom payment is made to change the kidnapper mind and allow the child to go free, but things like death, sin, hell, and evil do not change by giving anything to them.
You can look at Ro. 3:25 for what scripture says: 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished
God is offering the ransom (present Christ as the atonement sacrifice) and this will be accepted or rejected by the kidnapper depending on the faith or lack of faith of the kidnapper (“to be received by faith”). This is all contrasted with the way repented of and forgiven sins were handled prior to the cross (“in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished”).
Since the cross we can now be crucified (punished/disciplined) with Christ (by Christ’s crucifixion) while prior to the cross repented sinners could only be forgiven.
Thing about who was the kidnapper holding the prodigal son in the pigsty for as long as the prodigal son was there and also thing about did the same rebellious, lazy disrespectful son return or did a sincere, humble willing to work son return to the father?