What is the ‘ransom’?

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Throughout the Bible we read of ‘the ransom’ (gr. lytron) that Jesus paid.
Exactly what does this term mean?

At Matthew 20:28, Jesus said:

‘This is how the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve and to give his living body as a ransom for many.’

Then at Romans 5:12-14, we read:

‘Sin entered the world through one man, and this sin resulted in death.
So by this [one] sin, death was passed on to all men and they have all sinned.
Therefore, even before the Law arrived, there was sin in the world…
However, sin isn’t counted [against us] when there’s no law to break.
But despite that;
Death still reigned from [the time of] Adam down to Moses, even over those that hadn’t sinned in the same wrong way that Adam had sinned…
But he was a prototype of the one that was to come.’

And we read at 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22:

‘Since death came through a man, resurrection from the dead also comes through a man.
And as all are dying because of Adam, all will be made alive in the Anointed One.’

Therefore from the above, we must conclude that Adam lost the hope of ‘life’ for himself and for all his descendants through his sin in Eden. However, Jesus came and paid the ‘ransom price’ to God to redeem us from the sin of Adam, so that we could have the hope of a resurrection and of receiving ‘age-long life’ once again, as Adam would have received had he remained faithful.