Jesus is quoted as saying that “I have come to give mt life as a ransom for many.” Many Christians have often interpreted this literally, which leads them to conjecture about the devil having dominion over humanity and God needing to become human in order to arrange an exchange with the devil, or even God having to do an exchange with God's self, whereby God's anger toward sinners is appeased through Christ's sacrificial death. Neither of these scenarios make any sense at all and have come under critique as long as they've been around.
I propose an alternative. Jesus did not mean that his life is literally a ransom. No one is holding humanity captive and demanding that a certain price be paid (though one could make an argument that "civilization" binds all of us in ways that are inescapable). Rather, Jesus is using metaphorical language (hard to believe, I know) to explain that his purpose is to liberate creation. He isn't paying anyone anything, nor does this liberation focus primarily on this death. Jesus came to "give" his life, not as death, but as life, as in devotion to the cause of God. The purpose of the Incarnation is for Jesus to reveal the Father to the world, and since this is why he came, it makes sense that he devotes his life to this end. And it is this revelation about who God is that liberates us in a multiplicity of ways.
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