JESUS FREED US FROM SIN
Luke 23:18 “And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas:”
What happened to Barabbas is a picture of what happens when a person is born again. Barabbas was guilty; Jesus was innocent. Yet Jesus suffered the death that Barabbas should have experienced, and Barabbas went free.
Likewise, we were all guilty (Rom. 3:23) and condemned to death (Rom. 6:23), yet Jesus suffered our punishment so that we may go free (2 Cor. 5:21). Just as Barabbas didn’t ask for this substitution, so “God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
Barabbas was freed, but he had to choose whether or not to accept this new start and remain free, or go back to his old ways and come under the judgment of Rome again.
Likewise, we have all been freed through the substitutionary death of Jesus, but we have to choose whether to accept our freedom by putting faith in Jesus or to reject it, by denying Him.
Our death to sin and resurrection to life with Christ, is already a reality in our spirits but will only become a physical reality when we know and believe it.
In the same way that Jesus died unto sin once, and death no longer has dominion over Him, the person who recognizes their death with Christ unto sin, will not allow sin to rule over him anymore. Any Christian who is struggling with sin has not recognized that they are dead unto sin.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse” (Rom 1:19-20).
You can be a believer yet act as though there is no God.
*Whenever you fret over life circumstances, you immediately demonstrate unbelief.
*Whenever you move out of fear or anxiety, you believe a lie about God’s nature.
Each day your actions affirm or convict you of your belief system.
*It reveals who the central focus of your life really is – you or God.
*It reveals who you place your ultimate trust in – you or God.
It is one of the great paradoxes for believers. One day we can believe Him to move mountains. The next day we can question His very existence.
We’ve lost our passionate embrace of the magnificent. Our appreciation for noticing God and His provision had been strangled by what the world begs us to pay attention to.
But I’m not interested in what the world classifies as important.
I’m interested in where God wants to point my focus. I’m interested in humbling myself in childlike awe of all that He is.
How might we remember to embrace the magnificent on this ordinary day?
Dear Lord, I praise You today for Your magnificence in all things. Humble me as Your child and guide me as I follow hard after You instead of the world. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.