It  is  in  the  circle  of  such  ideas  that  the  words
about  giving  His  life  a  ransom  for  many  must


A  RANSOM  FOR  MANY  43

find  their  point  of  attachment,  and  it  is  not
only  far  the  simplest  and  most  obvious  inter-
pretation, but  far  the  most  profound  and  the
most  consonant  with  the  New  Testament  as  a
whole,  that  Jesus  in  this  passage  conceives  the
lives  of  the  many  as  being  somehow  under
forfeit,  and  teaches  that  the  very  object  with
which  He  came  into  the  world  was  t6  lay  down
His  own  life  as  a  ransom  price  that  those  to
whom  these  forfeited  lives  belonged  might
obtain  them  again.  This  was  the  supreme
service  the  Son  of  Man  was  to  render  to  man-
kind ;  it  demanded  the  supreme  sacrifice,  and
was  the  path  to  supreme  greatness.  Anything
short  of  this  is  in  the  circumstances  an  anti-
climax ;  it  falls  far  beneath  the  passion  with
which  our  Lord  condenses  into  a  single  phrase
the  last  meaning  of  His  life  and  death.
