Once again I am reminded our Your everlasting love! Reading through Our Daily Bread this morning was a beautiful reminder. ThankYou for the reminder and most importantly for Your love!
Matthew 27:15-26 (<<click to read the passage)
I am Barabbas. I do not say that with any joy or pride whatsoever – in fact, I am utterly ashamed to acknowledge it. But…in reality, we all are Barabbas. We are guilty. We deserve death. We are the ones who sinned…and because we are guilty of sin we deserve death. But again, like Barabbas, we are pardoned because Jesus paid the price. He took our place. My study Bible* states, “Ironically, Barabbas (me…you…every single one of us) was (is!) guilty of the crime for which Jesus was crucified.” He stood in our stead.
And no matter how many times I read this passage I am always struck by verse 25:
And all the people yelled back, “We will take responsibility for his death—we and our children”
The Greek translates that last portion as:
“His blood be on us and on our children.”
Another ironic statement – yes, we must “take responsibility for his death” and through it may be difficult for us to grasp, the only reason that we can stand before the Father is Jesus’ blood does cover us!
18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 1 Peter 1:18-19
Another Our Daily Bread article drives this home. Here’s the quote:
We say that God has righteousness and that He makes people righteous, but this can be a tough concept to grasp.
The way the word righteousness is pictured in the Chinese language is helpful. It is a combination of two characters. The top word is lamb. The bottom word is me. The lamb covers or is above the person.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for standing in my stead. I am only worthy in Your righteousness.
*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation
Dec 9th, 2018, Sun, 6:20 am
