These two words are both a description of Jesus Christ. Yet they are embedded in the old covenant law, showing that the law's great purpose is to bring us to Christ (Galatians 3:24). Under the old law, the priests were God's appointed mediators. They alone had the right to approach God, with sacrifices, to intercede on behalf of sinful people. So, if you had no priest to mediate for you and no sacrifice to appease God's wrath against your sin, you could have no place among God's people.

But even with a priest and a sacrifice, there was no freedom from guilt or a clean conscience (Hebrews 10:2). The sacrifice merely shielded the sinner from God’s anger and there was no confidence of heaven. But Jesus Christ has changed all that. He is the perfect mediator; no other priest or saint is necessary to bring us to Father God. We go directly through Jesus who has presented Himself before the Father and is constantly interceding for us. The sacrifice He makes is not the blood of an animal but his own blood, which is accepted as a full and complete payment for all sin.

The concept of a ransom is payment to buy back a slave or to rescue a hostage. We were once slaves to sin, because sin brings its own bondage, tying us into the guilt of that sin and the addiction to sin more (John 8:34). Jesus paid with His own life so that we might be ransomed from the tyranny of sin (Matthew 20:28). Therefore His sacrifice was also a ransom payment; denying the devil the right to own us any more (2 Timothy 2:26). No longer can Satan blackmail us into continuing to sin for we are no longer trapped under his control – the ransom has been paid and we are free to serve the Lord and continue our journey towards our eternal inheritance.

We need nothing and nobody else to justly cover our sins and rescue us from the kingdom of darkness, except Jesus. Nobody else can make us right with God. We cannot do anything to earn His favour because He has taken the initiative to be the perfect sacrifice and the perfect mediator. He has paid the ransom and bought us back from the domination of Satan and sin. As we submit to Him, we are now free to live for Him and anticipate meeting Him. That is the essence of the gospel. Tell your friends (www.crosscheck.org.uk).