Sunday we visited another church and I was very blessed by a quartet of young men who sang special music. I am guessing they were either late in high school or in college. They did a beautiful job with the rich harmonies while singing How Deep the Father’s Love for Us by Stuart Townend, a song I have always found meaningful. I especially appreciate the last verse:
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer.
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom.
Amen.
His wounds have paid my ransom.
I suppose one could say “Amen” to that if they were either A) Not a Christian or B) A Christian, but one who seeks to embrace a heretical understanding of our Salvation through Christ’s Resurrection.
The doctrine of “paying a ransom” originated in a false understanding that Christ’s death somehow “paid off” Satan to loosen the bonds of death which he had ensared mankind with. That doctrine is fundamentally false and contrary to the witness of the Church on the matter for the first 1,000 years of Christianity. Only in the later medieval period and into the Reformation did the notion of Christ’s death being a “bloody sacrifice” to appease an apparently tyrannical God the Father came back into vogue, and even then the “ransom to Satan” doctrine had (thankfully!) been left to the ages.
Now, Christ certainly paid for our sins, but clearly in the sense in which we tend to equate “paid” with “suffering”; our actual Salvation comes from Christ “trampeling down death by death” through his Glorious Resurrection.
As nice as the performance of that song may have been, it’s closing line (or, at least, the one you quoted) has heresy written all over it. Furthermore, even setting aside the “ransom to Satan” doctrine, it forwards an understanding of the Trinity as vengeful, blood thirsty, and hungry for medieval justice over the Loving Creator we have been taught through Holy Scripture to worship and glorify.
Gabriel,
One CAN say “Amen” to the notion that a ransom was paid for us if one simply reads the scriptures. You stated that the doctrine of paying a ransom “is fundamentally false and contrary to the witness of the Church on the matter for the first 1,000 years of Christianity”. How could what you say be true since the following verses clearly contradict your notion?
Isaiah 43:3-4 — “For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior; I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee since thou was precious in my sight. Thou has been honored and I have loved thee..”
Matthew 20:27-28 — “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your minister. Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (These verses are repeated in Mark 10}.
I Timothy 2:5-6 — “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus: who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
So you see, God (speaking through Isaiah), Jesus, and the Apostle Paul all had things to say regarding the idea of “ransom”.
If you look up the Hebrew and Greek words used in those verses, they clearly mean “ransom”. I would seriously rethink your position on this. In your zeal to call something heritical, it’s best that you don’t say something isn’t in the Bible when it clearly is there.
And you’re right, the ransom is not to Satan. The ransom is from God’s wrath, God’s judgment that we were redeemed from.
Thanks for sharing the story of your special music at church. My son-in-law has collected hymnals for many years and recently gave one of them to our music pastor who discovered this hymn and fell in love with it. We have sung it twice in church since then and how awesome it was to hear a sermon aboaut God’s grace and then to join with over 300 others singing those words. And the melody is so inspiring.