AP

Luke 23:23-25  But with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed.  So Pilate decided to grant their demand.  He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will.

It struck me as I read these very familiar verses, just how fortunate Barabbas was!  If the threatened-power-base, noses-out-of-joint Jewish leaders had not used their political leverage with the politically vulnerable Roman Governor to shout loud enough to force him to carry out their wicked plan, the convicted murderous terrorist would have remained helplessly and hopelessly in prison until he was mercilessly executed.

Then I thought, that was exactly my predicament before a Holy God 67 years ago when I came to the point of taking hold of Jesus as my Saviour.  I was set free from my condemned status because these historical events took place 2,000 years ago.  And what a blessing resulted for me that these things occurred!

It is hard to comprehend how my ‘liberal’ theological teachers in the early 1970s could read the account of Jesus’ trial and not believe in the doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement!  The Apostle Paul was a close colleague of those doing the shouting before Pilate (perhaps he was even among them?), but some time later, because he was confronted with the true meaning of it all when he met the Risen Lord Jesus Christ on the Road to Damascus, he was able to declare confidently: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1-4), and “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  It’s hard to imagine how the doctrine of Substitutionary Atonement could be stated more clearly

“‘Man of Sorrows’, what a name for the Son of God who came ruined sinners to reclaim – Hallelujah! what a Saviour!  Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned he stood; sealed my pardon with his blood; Hallelujah! what a Saviour!” (Philip Bliss). 

– Bruce Christian