We called him the Ransom Bunny. Every year, my grandparents hosted Easter, sending the grandkids on an extravagant hunt for plastic eggs filled with candy and coins, wedged into tree branches and stuffed beneath flowers around the yard. That year also featured the softest, cutest stuffed bunnies one could buy.
I couldn’t have been more than four or five years old, enough to make a tragedy out of the fact that I neglected to take my bunny home with me when we left. My clever uncle took it instead and offered it up as ransom, in exchange for my Easter candy. The joke was published in our family newsletter, forever printed in history.
I have no memory of what happened to that bunny … But I know another ransom story that also took place on Easter.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.”
– Titus 2:11-14
Galatians says God sent His Son “when the fullness of time had come … to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (4:4-5).
“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
– Romans 5:6
In Jesus’ own words,
“Even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
– Matthew 20:28, Mark 10:45
A price has been paid, an exchange made.
“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”
– 2 Corinthians 5:21
Christ purchased sinners, who had sold themselves as slaves to sin, back to God.
“ … you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
– 1 Peter 1:18-19
And so, eternity will sing of the Savior’s majesty!
“Worthy are You to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
– Revelation 5:9-10
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”
– 1 Timothy 2:5-6
God’s Provision: The Lamb of God Himself!
Abby
