This post is part of a series of posts summarising chapters of the Jehovah Witnesses' booklet, "What does the Bible really Teach?", and seeking to evaluate those chapters against Scripture somewhat briefly. Those posts were introduced at the Introduction, and a contents page will be added to that entry once this run of posts has finished.
Chapter 5: The ransom – God’s greatest gift
The greatest gifts are not always measured in terms of their monetary value, but in what value they give to you. The gift of Jesus as a ransom-sacrifice is God’s greatest gift to us.
What is the ransom? Adam was created with perfect life, in the image of God; when he sinned, he lost his perfect life, and we have inherited this. The rescue was a ransom – this entails paying a price to buy something back and paying the price that covers the cost of something. How could God cover the cost of the damage Adam did?
How Jehovah provided the ransom: “A perfect human life was lost” so it needed “another perfect human life” to be the ransom. God sent one of his spirit-creatures to earth, in fact his favourite one, to be a perfect human. This can be the ransom for many millions of us because Adam lost perfect life for all of us, so Jesus paid the price for Adam’s sin, and “thus brought hope to Adam’s offspring”. The cruel suffering was necessary to prove that a human being would remain faithful, even when suffering. Jesus was executed once for all, and was raised back to heaven as a spirit where he “presented to God the value of his perfect human life sacrificed as a ransom in exchange for Adam’s offspring” (51-52)
What can the ransom mean for you? 3 benefits. 1. The forgiveness of sins. “To gain that forgiveness, however, we must be truly repentant. We must also humbly appeal to Jehovah, asking his forgiveness on the basis of our faith in the ransom sacrifice of his son.” (53) 2. A clean conscience before God, as the outworking of that forgiveness, making prayer a possibility. 3. The hope of everlasting life on a paradise earth. See chapter 3. “All those future blessings… are made possible because Jesus died for us. To receive those blessings, we need to show that we appreciate the gift of the ransom.” (54)
How can you show your appreciation? Get to know more about God; exercise faith in Jesus’ ransom sacrifice (which entails works as well), and “attend the annual observance of the Lord’s evening meal” (55)
Evaluation
The big problem here is that the penalty for my sin has not been paid for. The argument is that Jesus paid for Adam’s sin, and so gave us hope. But that’s just Adam’s sin. My problem is not just that I inherited Adam’s sin, but that I have confirmed that with my own sin. I don’t just need to be freed from the problems caused by inheriting original sin; I have my own sin to deal with as well.
Further, it is not clear how dealing with Adam’s sin gives us any hope at all. If Adam’s sin really was dealt with two thousand years ago, everyone being born today would not inherit it, and so we would know forgiveness universally. It is clear, with the stress placed on repentance and gratitude, that this is not what is meant. So, instead, we say that Adam’s sin was not dealt with in such a way that his descendants can share in the solution. However if this is the case, what precisely is the hope that Jesus’ death gives us that we would not have otherwise?
This lack of certain benefit for us becomes clear in the section headed “What can the ransom mean for you?”. Forgiveness is a benefit. Scripture assures the person who puts their faith in Christ that forgiveness is theirs for certain (1 John 5:13). It may be criticising small details unnecessarily, but we appeal for forgiveness “on the basis of our faith” not on the basis of Jesus’ death. Biblically, faith is that appeal. Faith is pleading his death on our behalf.
This accords with the idea that the blessings of the renewed earth are only available to those who show their gratitude for Jesus’ death. The works that stem from faith, growing knowledge about God, and the annual meal are necessary for us to live in God’s renewed world.
Our response to Jesus’ death is gratitude rather than trust. This must be so, given that Jesus’ death (potentially) dealt with Adam’s sin but not with mine. Jesus’ death did not pay for my sin; it was a great sacrifice to deal with our ancestor’s sin, and God may forgive me and give me his blessings if I am suitably grateful for this. Putting it that way, undermines all assurance of forgiveness. Putting it that way also makes it impossible for God to forgive me with any justice.
By contrast, the biblical view is that Jesus became a curse “for us” (Galatians 3:13), and so redeemed us from the curse of the law. Jesus offered his own blood “to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28), as a result of which the new covenant blessing of forgiveness is our (Hebrews 10:17-18), and we can enter God’s presence with confidence (Hebrews 10:19-22). Yes, we respond to that with gratitude. But that gratitude is thankfulness that we are forgiven, not that God did something great for Adam that we hope might rub off on us.
Add new comment