What was Jesus a ramsom for?

[Not David]

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)

 

[ArmyMatt]

for us, to death.

 

[Tree of Life]

For many.

 

[Not David]

for us, to death.

But death isn't a person though.

 

[HTacianas]

"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)

We say that he is a "ransom" in payment for our captivity to sin.

In the old testament the people would offer animal sacrifices as atonement for sins committed in ignorance. That "atonement" was also "payment" or "ransom" for sin. It's also known as "propitiation".

You would probably have to read dictionary definitions of each of those words and then distill them through your mind to get the full idea.

 

[ArmyMatt]

But death isn't a person though.

no it isn't, but that doesn't mean the ransom wasn't for us to death

 

[Knee V]

But death isn't a person though.

Every way of talking about how His Death and Resurrection work use examples from human experience in order to express what occurred. However, what occurred is beyond human experience, and human language cannot explain how it is that it saves us.

The analogy of a ransom is very useful. Of course, Death is not a person, and we were not literally kidnapped, and Christ's blood is not a literal payment. However, it helps us wrap our minds around it a little.