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Barabbas' Theory of the Atonement
Barabbas was condemned to die. No one has ever questioned the justice of
his sentence. He was a rebel against the law, a robber and a murderer. And
now the outraged law had laid strong hands on him, and he lay bound, under
the sentence of death. He was not under probation, but under doom. He was
not awaiting trial, but execution. Just before him, as his only prospect,
was the awful death of crucifixion. He knew what that meant; long hours of
unspeakable agony, the hands and feet torn by great spikes, the wrists and
shoulder dislocated by the dragging down of the body, each quivering nerve a
separate torture through tension, a burning, unquenchable thirst, and, all
around, a jeering, taunting mob. All the horizion on his life is narrowing
to that. The only question is, when?
Even this begins to be answered. The jailers prepare three crosses. Ah!
He well knows the three sockets cut in the hard rock out there in the Place
of the Skull. Is one of these crosses for him? The very thought gives him
a sense of suffocation, and of something clutching at his heart. Then he is
told: yes, he is to suffer in the morning. Two malefactors are to die with
him, but he, as the greater criminal, is to have the place of eminence, is
to have the middle cross.
Then the night falls. Bit it is a disturbed night. Even in the prison it
is perceived that something unusual is occurring. Confused noises, outcries,
the tramping of feet, penetrate the thick wall. Perhaps it is another
insurrection such as he, poor fool, raised against the majestic, inflexible
Law. But the night wears on, and at last it is daylight - the light of his
last day! And now he hears footsteps, the key grinds in the lock, his
prison door swings open, but, just as he is summoning all his brute's
fortitude for the ordeal which awaits him, he hears the joyful words: "Go
free, Go free! Barabbas; another takes your place; another is to die
between the two malefactors.
As Barabbas emerged into the free, glorious sunshine, the crowd was
already surging out toward the Place of the Skull. And then, if not before,
the desire must have arisen to know who had been condemned to die in his
place. One can easily imagine how Barabbas followed the throng, striving
eagerly to see the Man who was to die for him. Perhaps it was not until the
sound of the hammer driving the nails had ceased, and the cross - Barabbas'
cross - had been upreared, bearing its awful burden, that Barabbas saw the
Sufferer. We may well believe that, moved by a strange irresistible drawing
(John 12:32) Barabbas pressed his way through the howling mob until he stood
looking up into the face of Jesus.
Barabbas knew Him, of course. His substitute in agony there was the new
Teacher out of Galilee, the Man whose life had been absolutely without sin.
Adam sinned, and Abraham and Moses, and all the prophets, but not this Man.
And, besides, He healed even leprosy by a touch or a word. One day when the
crowd got hungry He manufactured enough food for five thousand men, not to
mention women and children, out of five loves and a few small fishes.
Because of these, and like things, Basrabbas perhaps really was convinced
that He was the Messiah, the Son of God. But he had not become His disciple
because he loved sin.
However that may have been, it is easy to see that Barabbas had no need to
be a theologian to form a good working theory of the atonement.
FIRST, he knew that he was a guilty wretch, under the righteous
condemnation of the law. (Luke 23:25) And in both respects Barabbas was a
reprehensive of all men. (Romans 3:10-20; Galations 3:10)
SECOND, Barabbas knew that the Sufferer before him had done no sin. (John
8:46; John 19:4; 1 Peter 2:22)
THIRD, he knew that Jesus was, for him, a true substitute. He was verily
(truly) and actually dying in his place and stead; an innocent and Holy
Being bearing the very penalty which the law had decreed to him, Barabbas.
Whoever, in the coming ages, might question whether Christ's death was
vicarious and substitutional, he could never question it. (2 Corinthians
5:21; Galations 3:13; 1 Peter 2:22-24; 3:18; Isaiah 53:5-6)
FORTH, he knew that He had done nothing what ever to merit the marvelous
interposition of that substitional death. What ever may have been back of
it, it reached him as act of pure grace. (Psalm 69:19-20; Ephesians
2:4-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 2:11; Romans 4:4-5)
FIFTH, he knew that Christ's death for him was perfectly efficaious.
There was, therefore, nothing for him to add to it. Just because Christ was
dying, he was living. The only question before Pilate was whether Christ
should die or Barabbas. When it was decided that Christ should die,
Barabbas was set free. His assurance was complete that instant his
Substitute said, "It is finished," and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30;
Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Romans 5:9; 1 John 1:7; Colossians 1:20;
Hebrews 10:10,14)
John McNeill, the great Scotch preacher, well says; "My brethren, let me
commend to you Barabbas' theory of the atonement. It is a good theory to
preach on, pray on, sing on, die on. Do you know any other theory that will
stand the tests?
C.I. Scofield for the Salvation Online Network
Do you know any other theory that will stand the tests?
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