Setting things right

If the ransom saying of Mark 10:45 is allowed full rein as a fluid, suggestive metaphor, rather than a rigidly schematic transaction, we are freed to see with the eyes of faith that somehow, on the cross, God himself is doing the paying. This is consistent with the point we are emphasizing throughout, that something is wrong and must be put right. The whole concept of redemption is another way of identifying God’s way of setting right what is wrong. This is the meaning of Paul’s word “rectification” — dikaiosyne in New Testament Greek.—Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 296 (emphasis original)