Dictionaries are not a good place to consult in order to interpret Scripture. The idea of ransom/redemption in Scripture is that a cost is involved in God's activity in saving men. The idea of a bald ransom is never in mind. After all if God pays the ransom who is the ransom paid to? It is paid to Himself (God owes NOTHING to anyone or anything else).
We were ransomed by Christ being made a curse, in order to deliver us from under a curse (Gal 3.10-13). That is penal substitution and yet is described as redemption.
We are 'accounted as righteous freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through His blood' (Rom 3.24-25). What could be clearer? We are redeemed by God propitiating His justice through Christ dying for our sins, thus in our place.
See above. The idea of substitution with regard to our salvation is that of the cost of our sin being paid by another. And that is ransom/redemption.
They do in Scripture. Christ does not substitute for us full stop. He does not go to Hell so that we can go to Heaven. He substitutes for us by paying the cost of sin in our place, by offering Himself in substitutionary atonement.
Ransom is simply a term that relates to the notion of setting one free whom has been taken hostage.
When we first sinned against God we came under condemnation. We not only spiritually died but we also wrought in ourselves a guilty conscience which simply cannot be undone when the light of truth is revealed. This is why no sinner can stand before a holy God in all truth and not bow the knee and not be shamed. It is impossible to serve let alone be reconciled to God in this state. A crime once done cannot be undone.
That in essence is the problem with humanity. Not only are sinners separated from God due to their sin but they are guilty and condemned. Not only that but enslavement to sinning occurs also. Sin works more sin and bondage is the result as sin hardens the heart to conviction. God cannot and will not forgive anyone who is still in rebellion to Him, to do so would undermine justice for God's grace would become license. It is similar to how a wife could not possibly we reconciled to her husband whilst he is still engaged in an adulterous relationship.
The cross is the means to extract one from the adulterous relationship with sin and the New Covenant is the means to keep one from going back into an adulterous relationship.
The ransom Jesus paid is a figure of expression for Him simply "doing something" on our behalf. If the ransom was paid to anyone it was paid to us for we are the one's who benefit in all aspects. The sin offering was offered to God because that "offering" of Jesus is what God ordained would put into effect the New Covenant. This is what the Bible teaches in Hebrews. Jesus had to die in order to put the New Covenant into effect.
Go through all the Bible including Isaiah 53 and Romans chapter 3 and can you honestly say that you see Penal Substitution there? You cannot if you are completely honest and that is why such a notion is of only a recent invention.
Bearing our sins is not equal to being deemed guilty by God and punished in our place. Think about that for a minute. What kind of justice punishes an innocent so that the guilty can go free? Not to mention if a penalty for a crime is meted out then that crime is not forgiven, it is punished. Common sense destroys Penal Substitution very easily.
People believe in the Penal Model because they want to, that is all. Not a single Penal Substitution proponent will ever have a reasonable answer as to how they reconcile "forgiveness of sin" and "sin being paid for." One simply cannot have a "fine paid for" and at the same time a "fine forgiven." If one throws reason ouit the window and says they can then they will obviously believe all manner of illogical and unreasonable nonsense, thus there is no point trying to reason with that person.
Go and read the book of Ruth and you will see a redemption that is a picture of why Jesus died. Read it several times and dwell on it. Basically we forfeited out inheritance through sinning against God. Jesus as our KINSMAN did not forfeit the inheritance and we are redeemed back into favour with God THROUGH Jesus Christ.
THROUGH Jesus Christ means the SPIRIT OF HIS LIFE. It is an abiding state of faithfulness where we have pure hearts. An understanding of this is what Satan has destroyed in the minds of people. The Bible literally states that Jesus gave Himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and make us pure where we would be zealous for good works. That is not Penal Substitution. Penal Substitution is purely forensic in its application.
Many people prefer a positional or forensic salvation because it means they can sin and not surely die. It is the perfect deception. This is the kind of salvation taught by the Gnostics in ancient times. In the present day the doctrinal mechanism is slightly different but the underlying philosophy is the same.
Let's take a quick look at Romans 3:24-25...
Rom 3:21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
Jesus manifested the righteousness of the law to mankind by walking by a faith that works by love. Love fulfills the law and remember Jesus said he did not come to destroy the law but fulfil.
Rom 3:22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
The same righteousness is manifest in us through the faith of Jesus Christ when we believe. Compare this verse to this...
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The WALKING AFTER THE SPIRIT cannot be disconnected from NO CONDEMNATION. The righteousness of the law is to be fulfilled in us. This is how the "righteousness of God" (descriptive of a standard) come upon us. It is not positional but a manifest reality.
One has to twist the Bible and ignore Romans 8:2 and 8:4 in order to deny this. Real faith is inclusive of a faithful walk, it cannot be separated. Obedience and faith cannot be separated, if there is no obedience there is no faith. That is why James connects faith to deeds for deeds are the fruit of a genuine faith, a faith that works by love. It is impossible to love and work ill at the same time. It is impossible to love and murder, lie, cheat and steal. Willful sin is the opposite of love, they do not mix.
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; The context is the "people" of both the Jewish and Gentile nations.
Rom 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Justification is connected to "redemption IN Jesus Christ." This is why Paul later writes that we are saved from the law of sin and death by the Spirit of life IN Jesus Christ. That is why Paul later writes that there is no condemnation upon those who WALK after the Spirit. Being IN Christ is an ABIDING reality of walking with God. That is why any salvation message that argues in favour of being justified whilst still in rebellion is false.One cannot be in rebellion to God and be IN Christ at the same time.One cannot receive the implanted word and reject it at the same time. It is one or the other, not both.
Rom 3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; Propitiation means "Mercy Seat" or the means by which "sin is expiated." Compare this verse to this...Heb 10:1 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Heb 10:2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that
the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
Heb 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
Heb 10:4 For
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
Heb 10:5 Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
Heb 10:6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Heb 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
Heb 10:8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Heb 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
Heb 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Heb 10:11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices,
which can never take away sins:
The Old Testament sacrificial system could never take away sins. Why? Because the Old Covenant was premised on the Law or an outward rule set. There was no redemption from bondage and thus the conscience could never be clean. People would approach God via the sacrificial system for a temporary reprieve but it was something they had to do over and over again.
Now look at what it says in Hebrews...
Heb 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Heb 10:13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
Heb 10:14 For
by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
How are we perfected for ever by the one offering? THROUGH ENTERING INTO COVENANT WITH GOD.
Heb 10:15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
Heb 10:16
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
Heb 10:17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 10:18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 And having an high priest over the house of God;
Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Read the above several times. The death of Christ has NOTHING to do with Penal Substitution. The death of Christ has NOTHING to do with trusting in some legal provision which serves as a cloak for iniquity. The death of Christ has EVERYTHING to do with approaching God in repentance and faith with a TRUE HEART (ala 1Joh 1:7-10) and then being CLEANSED of our past sins once and for all having been redeemed from the bondage of sin via the law being written on our hearts.
This is why there is a warning about willful sin after this truly takes place.
Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Heb 10:28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Heb 10:29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Willful sin is to trample this offer and treat it as something cheap.
If I were to willfully choose to do evil I would be instantly condemned. Now that is not to say that mercy is not there to be found BUT to automatically think that mercy is to be found would be PRESUMPTUOUS and God will not be mocked. We are not to come to God when we feel like it after having our fill of sin, NO, we are to be contrite and broken hearted where we truly have forsaken our sin because we HATE it because we KNOW how evil it is. There is where godly sorrow working repentance comes in.
Now back to Romans...
Rom 3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
The righteousness of God was declared through Jesus Christ and the sin offering (which enacted the New Covenant) that God is is just in forgiving sin because the root of iniquity in the heart is dealt with through through the redemption via the blood.
Rom 3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
There is no boasting because it is not us to brought in the New Covenant, which is the means to redeem sinners.
Remember the boast was this...
Rom 2:17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and
makest thy boast of God,
Rom 2:18 And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent,
being instructed out of the law;
Rom 2:19 And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,
Rom 2:20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
Rom 2:21 Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
Rom 2:22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
Rom 2:23
Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?
That was the boast of the Jews. Paul is giving emphasis to the fact that there is no boast in the works of the law in the New Covenant. Paul is not saying DO NOTHING and NO WORK NEEDED. The work needed is the "work of faith" which is simply "obedience from the heart."
Rom 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
The faith that justifies is a faith that uphold the law. The ONLY kind of faith that upholds the law is a faith that works by love.
Rom 3:29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
Rom 3:30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
God reckons FAITH AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
om 4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness.
I really do not know how to explain any of this clearer.
Penal Substitution is simply not in the Bible, it is a fiction wrought in the imaginations of men and it completely undermines what the Bible actually teaches about the death of Christ.
I suppose if people want to cling to the Penal Model then go right ahead. The ancient Pharisees clung to their religion too and perished in their sins.