V. What Does the Word of God Itself Say About the Death of Christ? Here are three preliminary biblical facts:

ONE: Christ’s death was voluntary, therefore he has every right to totally control its results. In no sense whatever was God obligated to send Christ to die for sinners. 

…I lay down my life….no man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself…. (John 10:17, 18)

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…. (John 3:16)

Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God… (Acts 2:23)

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin… (Isa. 53:10)

God was in complete control at Calvary. This, as are all things done by God, was a most carefully planned and executed event. God was not compelled in any way to give his Son up to death, nor was Christ under any constraint to come and die. If it was completely a voluntary act on the part of God, should he not be permitted, and expected, to (1) dispense its benefits as he sovereignly chooses, and (2) assure the success of its planned results by the exercise of his power?

TWO: Christ’s death was also vicarious. The word vicarious means “acting on behalf of or as representing another,” or “something performed or suffered by one person with the results accruing to the benefit or advantage of another.” The key idea is representation in such a way that one party literally stands in the place of another and is actually treated as if he were the other person. The classic text is 2 Corinthians 5:21:

For he [the Father] hath made [treated him as if he were a sinner] him [the Son], who knew no sin to be sin [treated him as our substitute] for us [guilty sinners], that we might be made the righteousness of God [be treated as if we are as righteous as Christ] in him.

If Christ actually stood in my place and bore my sin, then I can never be punished for that sin. If Christ literally stands as a substitute in the place of any particular individual, then that individual must be brought to salvation and be eternally saved. Substitutionary, or vicarious, atonement must actually secure a real salvation for all for whom Christ died, or else it is not truly vicarious. If Christ acted as a real and true substitute for his people, then all of his people will be saved. If he actually collected the wages (death) which they earned by their sin, then all for whom he died will, yea must, collect the wages (righteousness) that he earned in his obedient life and death. 

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 6:23)

To say that Christ died a vicarious death in the place of all sinners but not all of those sinners will be saved is a contradiction in terms.

There are four Greek words used in the New Testament Scriptures that show the true vicarious nature of the sufferings of Christ. Each word contributes a distinct nuance of thought to the atoning work of Christ. When these four shades of meaning are put together, we see clearly that Christ’s atonement was totally effectual in the salvation of all for whom that atonement was made. The biblical meaning of these four words, ransom, substitute, reconciliation, and propitiation, must be bled of their true meaning before it is possible to believe in universal atonement. Let us examine these four words.

The first word is λυτροω (lutroo), and it means “to release on receipt of ransom.”^[1]It is akin to the Greek word λυτρον (lutron) which, as lutroo, means “the ransom for a life…the redemption price of a slave…the price of a captive.”^[2]These words describe the process of releasing a person who is all tied up in debt and needs cash to get free. The cash is the ransom price that sets him free. It redeems him from the bondage of debt. Once the cash is paid, the debtor is set free. The same idea is set forth in our spiritual redemption. We were in the marketplace of sin because we had “sold ourselves under sin.” Christ shed his blood as the ransom price to “set us free.” The key truth in the word redeem is that freedom must follow the price being paid, or there is no real ransom. When our Lord went into the marketplace of sin and paid the ransom price in his own blood to buy the freedom of sinners, he did not come out of the marketplace with his basket half empty. He did not leave behind any for whom he had paid the ransom price. Christ did not pay the price and purchase sinners, and then leave some of those sinners still in the marketplace of sin. “…the Son of man came…to give his life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). The “many” for whom our Lord gave his life as a ransom are the elect. All that he redeemed will be saved. “…ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver and gold…But with the precious blood of Christ.…” (1 Pet. 1:18, 19). The blood of Christ did not make us merely redeemable, but it actually redeemed us.

One of the fundamental ideas in the word redeem is that of setting someone, or something, “free by buying it back with a redemption price.” Think of a pawnshop where something is bought back that has been lost or pawned. In Scripture, sinners are bought out of the marketplace of sin by the redemption price of Christ’s blood.

There are four different Greek words that are often translated redeem or redemption in our English Bibles. When put together, these words give us a good picture of redemption. However, they are also sometimes translated with other English words.

1. The first word is found in Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” It is απολυτρωσις (apolutrosis) and means “deliverance.” The same Greek word, shown here in italics, is used in the following verses: “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace…” (Eph. 1:7). Hebrews 11:35 translates the same word differently: “Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance.…” These women could have been “redeemed,” or delivered, but they were not willing to pay the redemption price which was to deny their faith in Christ. They chose death over redemption.

The root from which this word comes is λυτρον (lutron) and is used as follows: “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). “But we trusted that it had been he who should have redeemed Israel.…” (Luke 24:21). “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold…But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18, 19). The idea is that we are delivered from the wrath of God because we have been loosed from our sins and the punishment those sins deserve. The blood of Christ is always the ransom price that is paid to deliver or redeem us. This is why the child of God can never “come into judgment” (see John 5:24).

2. The second Greek word is αγοραζω (agorazo), and it means to “go to market” or “buy.” Here are some texts that use this word. “Send them away, that they may go into the country round about, and into the villages, and buy themselves bread.…” (Mark 6:36). “For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.…” (1 Cor. 6:20). “And they sang a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Rev. 5:9).

The biblical writers deliberately placed particular emphasis on going to the market and buying something by applying a price. In reference to the gospel, it means that Christ went into the marketplace of sin, where we were slaves of sin, and he purchased our freedom with his own precious blood. 

Slaves made up over fifty percent of the population of Rome in Paul’s day. The largest markets by far were the slave markets. Men and women were stripped and examined the way horses and cows are examined at an auction and then sold and purchased by the highest bidder. Paul’s readers would have clearly understood his meaning and use of this word. They would have realized that our Lord did not leave the market with his basket half full. He did not leave behind, still in their shackles, some for whom he had paid the ransom price.

The word redemption is one of the words sometimes changed in certain modern translations or paraphrases of the Scriptures. Good News for Modern Man totally eliminates the words redeem and redemption from the New Testament. They also eliminate, as much as is possible, the word blood. They change redeem to “set free” and change blood to “his death.” When Peter says we were “redeemed…by his blood,” it comes out “set free…by his death” (cf. 1 Pet. 1:18, 19).

Now I’m sure some are thinking, “But John, isn’t that exactly what you have been telling us that the word means?” It is true that redeem means to set free and to shed blood is to take life. However, there is one important ingredient missing in the meaning of each word when redemption becomes only “set free” and blood becomes only “his death.” If I went down to the local jail and put sleeping powder into the jailer’s coffee, I could, after he fell asleep, steal his keys and set every prisoner free, but I surely have not redeemed them. This word means more than merely to set free. It is setting free by paying a necessary ransom price. The ransom price is the blood offered to God as proof that a life had been sacrificed on the altar. It is not just his death that is vital; it is the kind of death that he died. Christ died under the just wrath of God in the place of guilty sinners. It was a vicarious death offered to God as a necessary price to appease his just wrath. This is Paul’s argument in Galatians 3:13, 14. The atonement is first presented to God before it is presented to us.

Both liberals and proponents of free-will theology dislike this word because they misunderstand the essential character of God as being holy. The liberal actually changes the word, and the typical evangelical changes its meaning. The latter will speak of Christ redeeming sinners, when they really mean that Christ made it possible for sinners to redeem themselves by their faith. If their gospel offer is to be consistent with their doctrinal beliefs, they would say, “Christ has made your redemption a possibility but not a certainty. Only you can finish the job with your faith.”

3. The third Greek word is a very interesting word. It is περιουσιος (periousios), and it means “of one’s own possession, one’s own” and qualifies the noun λαος (laos), “people,” in Titus 2:14.^[3]The idea of owning something that one dearly loves is bound up in the meaning of the word. It sets apart the people of God in this sense: “Christ’s work of redemption has created for God a people that is a costly possession or special treasure.”^[4]The word is translated in our English Bibles by the word peculiar.

Words are losing their meaning in our society. I refuse to use the word gay to describe a homosexual. I have counseled many homosexuals in my ministry and have never yet met one that was gay or truly happy. There is no group of people who are more in need of love, affection, and attempts by Christians to give them the gospel than the homosexual community. They hate themselves, they hate God, and they hate everyone else. They desperately need the gospel of sovereign love and grace. They are anything but gay in the traditional sense of that word.

Today the word peculiar is often used in the sense of odd, but originally it meant something entirely different. When I am teaching about this word, I will often say to a lady, “Suppose your husband publicly said, ‘My wife is the most peculiar woman I have ever met.’ How would you feel?” The lady usually says, “I would bop him on the head.” I then add confusion by saying, “This word ‘peculiar’ originally meant cows.” Now the lady is ready to bop me on the head!

The word peculiar comes from the word pecus and means cattle.^[5] This word is found in deeds. A deed states that a house was bought for the “pecuniary value of $150,000.00.” The word pecuniary (pecus) means the real value as measured in dollars. Originally the pecuniary value of things was measured in terms of cows. The more cows, the more pecus value. If the husband who said his wife was the most peculiar woman in the world was using the word in the biblical sense, then he was saying, “My wife is the most precious possession that I have.”

Christians are indeed the most peculiar things in all of the universe. They have been purchased at the greatest price possible. God himself—in the person of his Son—is the purchase price with which he has bought Christians to be his own personal possession. With this definition in mind, we can better understand the meaning of Titus 2:14: “Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

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