A Ransom for Many (the short version)

This grand line comes from Mk 10:45 and is among the greatest statements in Mark’s Gospel. Unlike a similarly famous line—Mk 8:29, ‘you are the Christ’— that answers ‘Who is Jesus?,’ this statement declares ‘Why Jesus came.’ It speaks to the fact He would be a Messianic Saviour from sin. His life (in His death) would be given (offered up of His own accord) as a ransom for many.
Let’s unpack that.

A ransom was a payment made to set a slave free, or slave price. It is an exact equivalent. The idea of ransom is deeply rooted in the Exodus and sacrificial system of the Old Testament (c.f. uses in Proverbs, Psalms, etc). Sinners are enslaved to the penalty of sin set by the Father, which is death.  In order to be ransomed a payment must be made to the Father by the Son. The payment is His life offered up so that the dead sinner might live.

‘For’ speaks to who Jesus gave His life in a particular transactional sense (it also has general offertory undertones).

‘Many’ speaks of the quantity He gave His life for. It means high in number, numerous, great; yet not all or a totality. As Jesus has just been speaking in Mark of being the suffering servant, this ‘many’ is linked to Isaiah 53:12, ‘yet he bore the sin of many’ (further in context, a ransom to free a particular people). While neither passage says Jesus died for ‘Chris’ or ‘Amanda,’ Jesus clearly died for a particular people who would be brought to saving faith. Yet generally the death of the Christ and Son of God through the most cruel of circumstances and means makes His death of such infinite value that any sinner has encouragement to come in repentance and faith (Mk 1:15) and access His merits that lead to a ransom from sin.  

Mk 10:45 teaches that Christ died for a particular people, the elect (transactional sense), yet his death is of infinite value that the merits of His death may generally be offered to all (offertory sense).
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Why does this matter?

• Truth matters;
• We’re reminded that Jesus is a serving and humble Saviour;
• It grounds our faith in Christ in God’s plan to die to secure an actual salvation for an actual people (thus avoiding universalism or turning faith into a work). It keeps things biblical;
• It focuses the preaching of the Gospel to include repentance and faith in Christ’s merits and not on speculation, assent or an interest in Him;
• It encourages us to believe because His merits have infinite value, ‘the many;’ and
• Its grandeur leads us to praise Him.