The Offered Pardon
Mark 15:6–15
Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas. Mark 15:15

Suppose word had come to Barabbas that he was now free and that another prisoner, Jesus, would be dying. Suppose he replied this way: “What you are telling me cannot be true. It may apply to someone else, someone who has committed a lesser offense than I. But I am a great sinner and criminal. No, I cannot believe it. I must stay here.” And suppose he had resisted when the guards attempted to remove his chains and release him? We can hardly imagine such a response. Yet this is the response of some to whom the gospel of the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ is preached. They think that it is for another and so do not respond to that which to them is life.

Suppose again that Barabbas had acted in this way. Suppose he had said, “I refuse to accept such a pardon, because what I have done was entirely justified. I was right to rob and murder and commit insurrection. I will not go unless the representative of Rome comes to apologize for the way I have been treated and provides me with a bill of absolution.” In that case, Barabbas would have died, for it is a principle of law that a pardon is a gift and no man can ever be compelled to accept a gift. We might judge such a reaction foolish, as it is. But it is a possible one, and the consequences are certain.

Again, suppose Barabbas had responded to the announcement of his liberty that he would prefer to reform himself first of all: “By this means I will prove that I have earned my freedom and truly deserve it.” The magistrates would have answered that however good a man he might yet become (or not become), this nevertheless has no bearing on the crimes he has already committed and for which he was condemned to die. Future reformation cannot atone for past sin. Consequently, Barabbas’s only hope was in the pardon provided through the death of the innocent Christ.

Did Barabbas reply in any one of these ways? We know he did not. In fact, it is highly unlikely that any one of them even occurred to him, so anxious was he to leave the prison and return to a free life outside.

Why then should you do differently? A pardon is offered. Jesus has died. Will you not accept his death in place of your own and quickly go forth to serve him? If you have been languishing in the gloomy dungeon of your unbelief, you may do as so many others have done. Believe the gospel, and go forth to serve that One who out of the great measure of his love gave himself for your freedom.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.