To Encourage You

John 18:38-40 “After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ’I find no guilt in him. But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’ They cried out again, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a robber.”

Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

One of the many unjust aspects of the trial of Jesus is demonstrated by the account of Barabbas.  The Bible makes the point of saying that he was a robber.  He was guilty and deserved punishment by the civil authorities.  He had taken something that was not his and wronged another person in the act.  Even worse, He was also a murderer (Mark 15:7). 

Conversely, Pilate said of Jesus “I find no guilt in him.”  Yet, it is Barabbas that goes free and Jesus that is executed.  That makes absolutely no sense to anyone with a sense of decency and fairness.  Why acquit the guilty and condemn the innocent? What a total miscarriage of justice! 

However, when you think of it, this story could be written about any one of us who has put his or her faith in Christ.  Every one of us stands guilty before God.  We have all sinned and fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23).  We are all lawbreakers for we’ve broken the Law of God, not just once, but many, many times. We are guilty but we are free to go if we put our faith in Him because of what Jesus has done for us. He has fully paid the price to free us from the guilt and penalty of sin.  That is the amazing thing about the gospel. 

The Bible says that “For our sake he (God the Father) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  That’s a summation of the gospel – the iniquity of us all laid on Christ, the pure and sinless Lamb of God, and His righteousness imputed to us as a result.  That was John the Baptist’s introduction of Jesus: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).”  It’s that simple, and anyone who receives the gift of Jesus’ payment of the penalty for his or her sin can, like Barabbas, go free.  The price has been paid and the gift has been offered.  Will you receive it?  If you do, you can be assured of this great promise from God’s Word: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Think of it, born again, a new start, forgiven, clean – and all because Jesus was condemned so that you and I, like Barabbas, could walk free.