How do you understand this verse in the light of taking Jesus as ransom for us (Proverbs 21:18 )?

Question

If Jesus was taken to death as a ransom for us, how to understand this verse?

"The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the transgressor for the upright."

Proverbs 21:18 (King James Version)

Answer 1

I intend to study on this and will try to add to this post later. Thank you for finding an amazing and challenging verse.

Perhaps the translation may be different than it seems here in that particular version. I noticed "shall be" was in italics and to me that means those two words were not in the original at all and they had to place them there for it to seem to make sense.

I have found just in my lifetime words like "hot" or "cool" have come to mean different things. With a particular word like "gay" if someone looked back in time at something written now using the word "gay" would they know that just as recently as 30 yrs ago it meant simply HAPPY or CAREFREE? I only use that as an example to how one word could trip up a interpitor.

I am so glad you ask this question. It makes me feel good that someone is reading and searching out the real truth in Holy Scriptures.

Answer 2

Commentary by Matthew Henry

This intimates, 1. What should be done by the justice of men: The wicked, that are the troublers of a land, ought to be punished, for the preventing and turning away of those national judgments which otherwise will be inflicted and in which even the righteous are many times involved. Thus when Achan was stoned he was a ransom for the camp of righteous Israel; and the seven sons of Saul, when they were hanged, were a ransom for the kingdom of righteous David. 2. What is often done by the providence of God: The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked comes in his stead, and so seems as if he were a ransom for him, ch. 11:8. God will rather leave many wicked people to be cut off than abandon his own people. I will give men for thee, Isa. 43:3, 4.

Answer 3

Dear Forty,

this passage is not teaching that Jesus is wicked- since the wicked is a ransom for the righteous, although Corinthians did teach that he became unrighteousness for us that we might become the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

This passage is saying that the unrighteous will yield the fruits of their unrighteousness. That the righteous may often suffer because of the unrighteousness of the wicked (thus they will also be the transgressor) of those who are upright. But the upright know that God is just...

Hope that helps,

Nickster

Answer 4

Jesus was righteous and used his life as a ransom for the sins of the wicked.

Jesus was upright and was condemned as a transgressor between two other transgressors.

Answer 5

God loves the righteous and cares for them. David wrote: “A young man I used to be, I have also grown old, and yet I have not seen anyone righteous left entirely, nor his offspring looking for bread.” (Ps 37:25) Solomon said: “Jehovah will not cause the soul of the righteous one to go hungry, but the craving of the wicked ones he will push away.” (Pr 10:3) God is to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by Jesus Christ, and he will create “new heavens and a new earth” in which righteousness is to dwell. (Ac 17:31; 2Pe 3:13) Eventual possession of the earth is promised to the righteous; the wicked are to be cleared out of the earth as “a ransom” for the righteous, for as long as the wicked are in control, the righteous cannot have peace. And the possessions of the wicked will go to the righteous, as the proverb states: “The wealth of the sinner is something treasured up for the righteous one.”—Pr 13:22; 21:18.

The person who perseveres in righteousness is assured of God’s goodwill and the approval of righthearted men now and for all time to come, for “the remembrance of the righteous one is due for a blessing [and will be “to time indefinite”], but the very name of the wicked ones will rot.”—Pr 10:7; Ps 112:6.

Answer 6

From what I've been taught, there exists a trade-off when one becomes saved: Jesus took our sin that we're guilty of and we're given His righteousness when we believe in His death and resurrection...
I think it's an "expiation/propitiation" thing...

By the way, the New King James Version has "unfaithful" instead of "transgressor."

Answer 7

So you are arguing that Proverbs 21:18 applies to Jesus and Jesus was a sinner?

Answer 8

Try reading it in an updated translation of the bible, and you will find that it means that sometimes bad people have to be punished in order to preserve the people who only wish to do good. Our prisons make sure that the convicted murderers on not on the streets, or pediphiles away from our kids, etc. It's a proverb, not a prophesy.

Answer 9

That verse isn't referring to the crucifixion...it's talking about restoration of a believer after a time of persecution.

Answer 10

He paid for your sins with his life.