What price can buy forgiveness?
Nothing we can pay, and nothing anyone else can pay on our own merits, ransoms a soul: no man can redeem his brother or give God a ransom for him. The price was paid once, by Another, the precious blood of Christ, and forgiveness is received as a gift through faith, never accumulated through payments, penalties, or purchased merits.
This question arose from studying What does it mean that Christ's righteousness is 'imputed' to us? and What does it mean to be justified? and Why did Jesus have to die?.
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What the Scripture says
No man can redeem his brother
Psalm 49 states the economics flatly: none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him, for the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough. Micah felt the same weight when he imagined escalating payments: thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, even his firstborn for his transgression. The case is beyond every creature's purse, and that is the point: what salvation costs, only God can pay.
none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough, That he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.
How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
God paid what no man could
Into that impossibility walks Isaiah's Servant: 'He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him.' John announces Him at the Jordan: behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The ransom for souls is not extracted from men; it was supplied by God, from God.
But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
The next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Not silver and gold, but blood
Peter prices it exactly: redeemed 'not with corruptible things, with silver or gold,' but 'with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ.' If silver and gold could not purchase deliverance, no treasury of accumulated wealth or merit can either; the currency of redemption is one kind, spent once, at Calvary.
knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ;
in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.
The certificate of debt is cancelled, not installments owed
Paul describes forgiveness as a legal cancellation God performed Himself: He wiped out 'the handwriting in ordinances which was against us,' took it out of the way, and nailed it to the cross. Who shall bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies. A debt God declares cancelled cannot still be collected, and a record God nailed to the cross cannot be reissued.
You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;
Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.
and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power;
Received by faith, never earned
Because the payment is complete outside of us, it can only be received, not contributed to: 'by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.' To him who works, the reward is counted as debt; to him who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Salvation excludes boasting precisely because it excludes payment.
for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.
Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
As you read, you may wonder…
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Verses to meditate on
none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him. For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough,
knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ;
wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;
for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.
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