He died so that we may be free from the bondage (of death). It was a deliverance from death to life. Ergo, the Pascha (Passover), which the West calls by a pagan name Easter.
Christ gave His life to the devil in exchange (ransom), not because He owed the devil but because He willed it out of love for humanity. As St. John Chrysostom said more than 16 centuries ago "death expected Man, and received God." Having no power over God, death could not keep Him and was defeated, while mankind was given a chance to be redeemed through the grace of God by submitting to, following and imitating Christ.
Now, before you all jump on me, this is Orthodox doctrine, as old as the Eastern Church (just about 2 millennia) perhaps not stated eloqunetly, but in a nutshell.
This is Orthodox doctrine and the Catholics (and some Protestants) are moving in this direction. The atonement is no longer a price that is paid for our sins. Instead, it is nothing more than Christ showing us the way we should live. Man has been set free from death (because of Christ) and can now walk in a newness of life. After all, he has the will to do it.
I'm not sure what Orthodox scholars had to say on this 2,000 years ago, but it was certainly never the teaching of the early western fathers.
And this incorrect interpretation of Scripture was one of the prime motivations for the Reformation.
In the first part of your statement, you have the devil orchestrating the crucifixion and thus the resurrection, in total contrast to what Scripture tells us -- that God ordained the death and resurrection of Christ in order to redeem His sheep as the only propitiation equal to the offense. Your rendition sounds more like "Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf."
"Christ gave His life to the devil..."
To the devil??? So the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" was sacrificed to the devil??? Was the Pascal lamb sacrificed to the devil? No, it was not.
How much power do you imagine this old Beelzebub possesses? Not one speck more than God has given Him. And over God's children, He ultimately has none.
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him." -- Romans 6:8-9"Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Death has no dominion over us because we have faith in Christ and His resurrection. And what does that faith tell us?
It tells us that Christ on the cross did not merely give men a "chance to be redeemed," but He actually redeemed them by paying for their sins once for all time.
If Christ died for nothing more than an opportunity to be saved, a chance at salvation, then he actually died on the cross for no one. No one was saved on Calvary.
Indulgences and purgatory and the rampaging blood thirst of Rome are given by the RCC as the reasons for the "rebellious" Reformation.
Those were part of it, certainly. But at the very heart of the Reformation was the re-establishing of the Scriptural understanding of Justification -- a man is saved by Christ having taken on the punishment rightly due the sinner in order for that man to be acquitted of his sins and thus to stand blameless before God.
Calvin said "Justification by faith in Christ alone is the hinge of the Reformation," and so it was and is to this day.
"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" -- 1 Corinthians 1:30
It's all about Christ. It always was and always will be. He did it for us. With men it's impossible; not so with God because "it is God that justifieth" (Romans 8:33).
Justification is now to be fully discussed, and discussed under the conviction, that as it is the principal ground on which religion must be supported, so it requires greater care and attention. For unless you understand first of all what your position is before God, and what the judgment which he passes upon you, you have no foundation on which your salvation can be laid, or on which piety towards God can be reared... A man is said to be justified in the sight of God when in the judgment of God he is deemed righteous, and is accepted on account of his righteousness; for as iniquity is abominable to God, so neither can the sinner find grace in his sight, so far as he is and so long as he is regarded as a sinner. Hence, wherever sin is, there also are the wrath and vengeance of God. He, on the other hand, is justified who is regarded not as a sinner, but as righteous, and as such stands acquitted at the judgment-seat of God, where all sinners are condemned. As an innocent man, when charged before an impartial judge, who decides according to his innocence, is said to be justified by the judge, as a man is said to be justified by God when, removed from the catalogue of sinners, he has God as the witness and assertor of his righteousness. In the same manner, a man will be said to be justified by works, if in his life there can be found a purity and holiness which merits an attestation of righteousness at the throne of God, or if by the perfection of his works he can answer and satisfy the divine justice. On the contrary, a man will be justified by faith when, excluded from the righteousness of works, he by faith lays hold of the righteousness of Christ, and clothed in it appears in the sight of God not as a sinner, but as righteous. Thus we simply interpret justification, as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favor as if we were righteous; and we say that this justification consists in the forgiveness of sins and the imputation of the righteousness of Christ..."...The whole may be thus summed up: Christ given to us by the kindness of God is apprehended and possessed by faith, by means of which we obtain in particular a twofold benefit; first, being reconciled by the righteousness of Christ, God becomes, instead of a judge, an indulgent Father; and, secondly, being sanctified by his Spirit, we aspire to integrity and purity of life...
Calvin didn't invent the judicial order of God's creation. God did when He told Adam not to sin, and Adam transgressed and paid the penalty for that transgression.
Thank God, Christ came and took upon Himself the penalty for all those who are, by the unmerited grace of God alone, given to Him by God and thus, numbered among His sheep.
From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." -- Hebrews 10:12-14"But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
I'm not sure it's a pagan name. The languages in which it is used all can make a word play on Sun/Son and East/Rising of the Sun/Resurrection of the Son.