You’ve Been Offered Freedom

By Doug Cox

We find in Romans 5:8 a powerful revelation from the apostle Paul about how powerful God’s love towards us is. He says that “… God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Hidden in plain sight in the 23rd chapter of Luke’s gospel is a picture of what that love looks like. There we find the last few hours of Jesus life on earth.

After His arrest He was taken before Pilate accused of crimes. Pilate found no fault and sent Him to Herod. Herod was excited thinking Jesus would do some miracle, but not only did Jesus fail to perform a miracle but He also refused to answer his questions. Next, possibly in frustration, Herod and his soldiers mocked Jesus and treated Him with contempt and then sent Him back to Pilate.

No doubt, Jesus was a political hot potato. Pilate and Herod both knew hurting Him would cause problems for them so Pilate tried to resolve the problem by calling the Jewish chief leaders to tell them, “… you have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people … having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him. No, neither did Herod… indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him. I will therefore chastise Him and release Him” (Luke 23:14-16)

You probably know the rest of the story where there was a custom where the people were given the opportunity to choose between Jesus and a murderer named Barabbas. The chosen one would go free. They chose Barabbas and called for Jesus to be crucified.

It’s hard to fathom why the crowd chose to release Barabbas over Jesus. Were they not aware of all that Jesus had done? But the truth is even if they did know, crowds can be easily incited and provoked into doing unethical things. Individual identity and sound judgement can be overridden in these situations.

It was obvious the Pharisees wanted to rid their world of Jesus. So, it’s possible they planted some loudmouthed, intimidating men throughout the crowd. Worse than bullies on a playground they intimidated the people. Then like a match on dry grass, one person, then another, then groups began calling for the undeserved crucifixion of Jesus. The rest is history. Barabbas was released and Jesus was crucified. Great news for Barabbas, right?

What Barabbas did with his freedom we don’t know, but this story shows us what Jesus offers every sinner. They can be released from the penalty of their sin, and it was God who chose us not a crowd. Again, Romans 5:8 says that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Now some might say, I’m a good person, not wicked like Barabbas was. While that may be true Romans 3:23; 6:23 says “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” and “the wages of sin is death…” Thankfully that last verse ends with, “…but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I hope you are getting the point. Jesus died in Barabbas’ place and He died in ours as well. God’s plan was to “… make Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) If you will give your life to Jesus, you can be free from sin.