[196]Adam was sentenced to death, and when he actually went into death after 930 years, justice was satisfied. The law demanded the life of a perfect human being. It had received it when Adam died. Between the time of Adam's sentence and the time of his death he begat many children that were born into the earth. These being born imperfect had no right to life; hence the living of the children was only by permission of Jehovah, and every one who died, died because of imperfection resulting from the sin of father Adam.
[197]The Scriptures clearly show that God planned long in advance for the redemption and deliverance of the human race. Hence his wisdom led him to embrace in the effects of this death sentence all of the human family, all of the offspring of Adam, so that in due time he might redeem them all through the sacrifice of one. (Galatians 3:22) The sentence against Adam and the resulting effects upon all of his offspring must stand. An earthly court may reverse its judgment because imperfect, but God cannot reverse his, because it is perfect; and he cannot deny himself. He could make provision, however, for another man exactly equivalent to Adam to go into death voluntarily; and by thus dying his life could be given as a corresponding price for Adam and his offspring, that Adam and his offspring might be released from death and given a trial for life. The Scriptures definitely show that it was God's purpose and intention from the beginning to make just such a provision. He made a specific promise to this effect when he said: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction". (Hosea 13:14) This promise of Jehovah to ransom the human race must be carried out, because God is unchangeable. Having made the promise, he will perform it.—Malachi 3:6; James 1:17.
[198]It is very important, then, that we understand the meaning of ransom; hence we here define it. Ransom means something to loosen with; that is, a redemptive price. It is the means or price or value which can be used in loosening or releasing something that is in bondage or in restraint or imprisoned. Necessarily the ransom price must be exactly equivalent to, or corresponding with, that which justice requires of the thing or being that is in bondage or imprisonment. Hence we say that ransom means an exact corresponding price. A perfect man sinned and was sentenced to death; hence an exact corresponding price would be the death of another perfect man and the value of that life presented in place of the one who first sinned and was held in bondage.
[199]Sin-offering means the presentation and use of the ransom-price. On the atonement day performed by the Jews in type, the blood of the bullock represented the poured-out life; and therefore it stood for the ransom-price or value of the life. The carrying of the blood into the Most Holy and sprinkling it there pictured the sin-offering, that is, a presentation in the Most Holy (which represented heaven itself) of the value or merit of the perfect life. We will see, therefore, as we examine this question that the ransom-price was provided on earth by the death of Jesus; that preparation for the sin-offering was begun on earth, but must be finished in heaven, where the value of the ransom-price is presented.
[200]Other Scriptures show that it was intended by Jehovah that the great Redeemer should pour out his life in death and that this should constitute the ransom-price, which should be made an offering for sin. God foretold this—which is equivalent to a promise—through his prophet when he wrote concerning the great coming Redeemer the following:
[201]"Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."—Isaiah 53.
[202]Because of this death sentence standing against Adam, he was and is held in restraint or imprisonment of death. He and his offspring who have died are in the great prison-house of death, and the grave is thus spoken of by the Prophet—Isaiah 42:6,7; 49:9
QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED
[203]The dead could never again live, nor could those who are living ever hope to have eternal happiness unless the disability resting upon mankind because of sin be first removed; and the Scripture is quite clear, as above noticed, that this can be removed only by means of the great ransom sacrifice. Since ransom means an exact corresponding price, the ransomer must be exactly like the perfect Adam in Eden.
[204]A perfect man had sinned and lost everything; therefore none but a perfect man could provide a price sufficient to buy and release Adam and his race from this sentence of death and its effects. Divine justice demanded the life of a perfect human being and this was received when Adam went into death. It followed that divine justice would accept nothing more or less, as a price for releasing Adam and his offspring, than a perfect human life. In order to meet these divine requirements, the ransomer must be a perfect human being.