The cross has and offers:-
- Redeem you, to be ‘redeemed’ means to be purchased from one owner to another, or to be brought out of one situation and into another.
- Ransom (e.g. Mark 10:45, Hebrews 9:15) – a ‘ransom’ price is some payment that must be paid in order to redeem a person or an object.
- Forgive (e.g. Romans 4:7, Hebrews 8:12) – to ‘forgive’ is to have an action condemned and covered over, such that the person responsible no longer has to bear the consequences of that action.1 The goal of forgiveness is reconciliation.
- Reconcile (e.g. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Ephesians 2:16) – ‘Reconciliation’ is what occurs when two or more persons/groups who were previously separated or opposed to each other are brought back together.
- Sanctify (e.g. John 17:19, 1 Corinthians 6:11) – to be ‘sanctified’ means to be cleansed and set apart for a special purpose.
- Justify (e.g. Romans 3:30, Titus 3:7) – to be ‘justified’ is to be declared righteous.
- Atonement (e.g. Hebrews 2:17, 1 John 2:2) – ‘Atonement’ is a sacrifice that brings humanity and God back together. It comes from the Old Testament sacrificial system that foreshadowed the ultimate act of Jesus’ death that would bring humanity and God back to a state of ‘at-one-ment’ (i.e. to being united as one).
