Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.
Pilate set the innocent Jesus side by side with Barabbas, a notorious robber and murderer, under the Passover custom of freeing one condemned prisoner, hoping the contrast would move the crowd to choose Jesus. Stirred by priests and rulers, the fickle multitude instead cried with desperate zeal for Barabbas and demanded that Jesus be crucified. Barabbas in character stood for Satan while Christ stood for God, so the cry refused God and preferred Satan's rule and sin over righteousness. That rejection treated the sinless Son of God as guilty and scourged Him as the worst of criminals on His way down into humiliation as humanity's substitute. The same choice is still made whenever people profess Christ yet embrace the world and its ruler, and near the end it will be repeated on a nearly universal scale against Christ's followers.
The Trial Before Pilate
Pilate found no fault in Jesus and knew He was innocent, and he knew the rulers had brought Him to the judgment hall for envy, and he knew that even bound and under accusation Jesus had power not as a common man but as God, yet fear of a tumult kept him from doing what he knew was right and his soul was in terrible conflict over daring to give Him up to that maddened power. To save Jesus he fell back on the pagan and unjust custom of setting free at the great national Passover festival one prisoner condemned to death. He set the true and innocent Christ side by side with the notable Barabbas, flattering himself that the contrast between innocence and guilt would be so convincing that the crowd would choose Jesus of Nazareth and that the contrast would awaken their sense of justice.
The choice set over against each other the sinless Son of God, full of goodness and mercy and truth and gentleness, the innocent and holy Prince of heaven, the true and only begotten Son whom their elders had conversed with face to face in glory, the disciples' beloved Teacher whom they thought would take David's throne, and Barabbas as a notorious and hardened robber and thief and murderer. Barabbas stood in most striking contrast as one who pretended to be Christ and claimed religious power and a right to establish a different order of things and to set the world right, who under satanic delusion claimed that whatever he could obtain by theft and robbery and murder was his own, who had done great wickedness and who had done wonderful things through satanic agencies.
The multitude was fickle, for days before they had praised Christ's wonderful works and sung hosannas as He rode into Jerusalem, and now they quickly turned against Him. When Pilate asked whom to release they cried with zeal and desperation born of their choice, like the bellowing of wild beasts, for Barabbas and demanded the death and crucifixion of Jesus, thereby becoming participants in His death. In ignorance and in trust in human leaders they were stirred and persuaded with decided energy by the priests and rulers, who were driven by hatred and envy and prejudice and bigotry and religious bigotry.
The cry was made in the hour and power of darkness while Christ and Barabbas stood side by side and the whole heavenly universe looked on. The leader of that cry was Satan, once the covering cherub who led heaven's choir, with his angels in human form making up that lawless throng in Pilate's judgment hall whose hearts were filled with a violence only Satan can inspire. The hatred of Christ in the priests and rulers was put there by Satan, who had hated Him for His position in the courts of God and had hated Him more when he himself was dethroned and when He pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners, and from the manger to the cross Satan had followed Him striving constantly to gain the mastery over Him. At Pilate's hall his agents disguised in the robes of priests and rulers joined hands with the lowest and most degraded in an effort to take the life of the Son of God, and the cry against Christ reveals how deeply wicked beings He had created and loved could become in personating Satan in fighting against Him who left His heavenly home to come to this earth in their behalf.
The choice for Barabbas to spare the guilty murderer and sacrifice Christ was not isolated but another act in constant rejection of Him. It was as when Israel shouted over the golden calf, and as when Israel in Samuel's day rejected their invisible Leader and Counsellor for an earthly king. It followed refusal to heed the message of John the Baptist to prepare to receive the Son of God, for treating God's messenger and warnings with disdain hardened them against the clearer light Christ brought, warning against unbelief and false confidence that turn people away from God.
What the Choice Means
Barabbas personified Satan in character while Christ represented God, so that setting the two side by side set refusal of God against acceptance of Satan's rule. To cry for Barabbas instead of Jesus was to prefer a robber, thief and murderer to the sinless Son of God, full of goodness, mercy and truth, the innocent and holy Prince of heaven, and thus to prefer sin over righteousness and Satan as the god of this world. It showed what people do when not controlled by the Spirit of God, acting under a spirit stirred by Satan, driven by satanic influence, religious bigotry and prejudice, and standing under the powers of darkness. The same choice is repeated whenever people reject Christ, for each person's actions show whom they choose, and those who reject truth will again choose the deceiver over Christ near the end of earth's history on a nearly universal scale.
Henceforth Barabbas was the choice of the Jews as a nation, acting out his dictation as children acting as their father and doing his murderous works. They would be filled with madness at the very name of Christ, and the choice brought the people under the cruelty represented by Barabbas. That national choice connects with the later judgment of those who rejected and pierced Christ.
Rejecting Christ is rejecting the light of heaven and the only means of cleansing from sin. Those who so choose will answer at the final judgment as though they had cried for Jesus to be crucified, for by joining their voices to reject Him and demand His death they become participants in His death. By their actions they crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame, and this is enacted among those who have received great light but yield to temptation and oppose what God has appointed.
In the choice Jesus was treated as guilty and bore shame though Pilate had found Him without fault and no sin was proved against Him, becoming humanity's substitute and surety. The disciples' beloved Teacher, whom they thought would take His place on David's throne, was scourged as the worst of criminals while the murderous Barabbas was released, His own nation clamoring for His blood. This was part of His approaching the cross and descending into the depths of humiliation.
The choice reveals the moral taste of the world, in rejecting the divine Son of God, the personification of all human goodness, although no fault could be found in Him, and choosing instead a thief and a murderer. That choice still stands between the side of the world that rejected Christ and the side of Christ who kept His Father's commandments. All who refuse to be loyal to God and have no interest in knowing Him place themselves with that crowd.
The Choice Repeated Today
The rejection of Christ for a robber is the very experience God's people will have to pass through. In that experience they should rejoice that Christ sees all things with every circumstance of life open before Him and will sustain those who accept Him as personal Saviour. There they are to stand on the elevated platform of eternal truth, trust no man, cling to Jesus with faith and assurance, walk humbly before God, and become strong by ever repeating how sure and steadfast the truth as it is in Jesus is.
The sin of rejecting Christ and accepting Barabbas will be repeated in this age through religious bigotry and fanaticism. Though people insist they could never reject the Saviour, priests and rulers will bring about the same issue and history will be repeated. That choice is the sure result of gradual separation from God in character and steady development of sin as transgression of the law, continually strengthened by rejecting light and warnings and truth. Every sin leaves its trace and creates repetition of that action, and after the foundation of sin is laid the choice is made and destiny is certain for time and for eternity.
Near the end of earth's history those who reject truth will again choose the deceiver over Christ. The cry for Barabbas and for Christ's crucifixion will be repeated on a nearly universal scale. That scene represents the conduct of those who stand under the powers of darkness and the opposition Christ's followers will face in a coming crisis. It shows what people do when not controlled by the Spirit of God, under a spirit stirred by Satan.
The same choice is made in action by those who profess to receive Christ but by embracing the world and its ruler reject Him, including ministers whose actions embrace the world's ruler. Praising Christ while embracing the world's side repeats that rejection in action, and each person's actions show whom they choose. Those who have received great light but yield to temptation choose against Christ and oppose what God has appointed, and this is enacted among them as crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting Him to open shame. Those who apostatize by leaving the true and faithful people of God and fraternizing with those who represent Barabbas thereby voice the dragon and join satanic agencies that make war with the saints. As the Jewish nation overlooked the word of God and demanded a robber and had the Prince of life crucified, so in the last days professed Christians neglect precious eternal truth for things of little importance that engage attention and excite imagination, letting minds be engrossed with trifles instead of truth that would elevate and sanctify and refine and fit for immortality, so that under Satan's deceptive working they are weighed in the balances and found wanting.
Some who joined in the demand for Barabbas and in calling for Jesus' crucifixion later heard the apostles, showing that those who took part were still reached afterward.
Pilate set the innocent Jesus side by side with Barabbas, a notorious robber and murderer, under the Passover custom of freeing one condemned prisoner, hoping the contrast would move the crowd to choose Jesus. Stirred by priests and rulers, the fickle multitude instead cried with desperate zeal for Barabbas and demanded that Jesus be crucified. Barabbas in character stood for Satan while Christ stood for God, so the cry refused God and preferred Satan's rule and sin over righteousness. That rejection treated the sinless Son of God as guilty and scourged Him as the worst of criminals on His way down into humiliation as humanity's substitute. The same choice is still made whenever people profess Christ yet embrace the world and its ruler, and near the end it will be repeated on a nearly universal scale against Christ's followers.
The Trial Before Pilate
Pilate found no fault in Jesus and knew He was innocent, and he knew the rulers had brought Him to the judgment hall for envy, and he knew that even bound and under accusation Jesus had power not as a common man but as God, yet fear of a tumult kept him from doing what he knew was right and his soul was in terrible conflict over daring to give Him up to that maddened power. To save Jesus he fell back on the pagan and unjust custom of setting free at the great national Passover festival one prisoner condemned to death. He set the true and innocent Christ side by side with the notable Barabbas, flattering himself that the contrast between innocence and guilt would be so convincing that the crowd would choose Jesus of Nazareth and that the contrast would awaken their sense of justice.
The choice set over against each other the sinless Son of God, full of goodness and mercy and truth and gentleness, the innocent and holy Prince of heaven, the true and only begotten Son whom their elders had conversed with face to face in glory, the disciples' beloved Teacher whom they thought would take David's throne, and Barabbas as a notorious and hardened robber and thief and murderer. Barabbas stood in most striking contrast as one who pretended to be Christ and claimed religious power and a right to establish a different order of things and to set the world right, who under satanic delusion claimed that whatever he could obtain by theft and robbery and murder was his own, who had done great wickedness and who had done wonderful things through satanic agencies.
The multitude was fickle, for days before they had praised Christ's wonderful works and sung hosannas as He rode into Jerusalem, and now they quickly turned against Him. When Pilate asked whom to release they cried with zeal and desperation born of their choice, like the bellowing of wild beasts, for Barabbas and demanded the death and crucifixion of Jesus, thereby becoming participants in His death. In ignorance and in trust in human leaders they were stirred and persuaded with decided energy by the priests and rulers, who were driven by hatred and envy and prejudice and bigotry and religious bigotry.
The cry was made in the hour and power of darkness while Christ and Barabbas stood side by side and the whole heavenly universe looked on. The leader of that cry was Satan, once the covering cherub who led heaven's choir, with his angels in human form making up that lawless throng in Pilate's judgment hall whose hearts were filled with a violence only Satan can inspire. The hatred of Christ in the priests and rulers was put there by Satan, who had hated Him for His position in the courts of God and had hated Him more when he himself was dethroned and when He pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners, and from the manger to the cross Satan had followed Him striving constantly to gain the mastery over Him. At Pilate's hall his agents disguised in the robes of priests and rulers joined hands with the lowest and most degraded in an effort to take the life of the Son of God, and the cry against Christ reveals how deeply wicked beings He had created and loved could become in personating Satan in fighting against Him who left His heavenly home to come to this earth in their behalf.
The choice for Barabbas to spare the guilty murderer and sacrifice Christ was not isolated but another act in constant rejection of Him. It was as when Israel shouted over the golden calf, and as when Israel in Samuel's day rejected their invisible Leader and Counsellor for an earthly king. It followed refusal to heed the message of John the Baptist to prepare to receive the Son of God, for treating God's messenger and warnings with disdain hardened them against the clearer light Christ brought, warning against unbelief and false confidence that turn people away from God.
What the Choice Means
Barabbas personified Satan in character while Christ represented God, so that setting the two side by side set refusal of God against acceptance of Satan's rule. To cry for Barabbas instead of Jesus was to prefer a robber, thief and murderer to the sinless Son of God, full of goodness, mercy and truth, the innocent and holy Prince of heaven, and thus to prefer sin over righteousness and Satan as the god of this world. It showed what people do when not controlled by the Spirit of God, acting under a spirit stirred by Satan, driven by satanic influence, religious bigotry and prejudice, and standing under the powers of darkness. The same choice is repeated whenever people reject Christ, for each person's actions show whom they choose, and those who reject truth will again choose the deceiver over Christ near the end of earth's history on a nearly universal scale.
Henceforth Barabbas was the choice of the Jews as a nation, acting out his dictation as children acting as their father and doing his murderous works. They would be filled with madness at the very name of Christ, and the choice brought the people under the cruelty represented by Barabbas. That national choice connects with the later judgment of those who rejected and pierced Christ.
Rejecting Christ is rejecting the light of heaven and the only means of cleansing from sin. Those who so choose will answer at the final judgment as though they had cried for Jesus to be crucified, for by joining their voices to reject Him and demand His death they become participants in His death. By their actions they crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to open shame, and this is enacted among those who have received great light but yield to temptation and oppose what God has appointed.
In the choice Jesus was treated as guilty and bore shame though Pilate had found Him without fault and no sin was proved against Him, becoming humanity's substitute and surety. The disciples' beloved Teacher, whom they thought would take His place on David's throne, was scourged as the worst of criminals while the murderous Barabbas was released, His own nation clamoring for His blood. This was part of His approaching the cross and descending into the depths of humiliation.
The choice reveals the moral taste of the world, in rejecting the divine Son of God, the personification of all human goodness, although no fault could be found in Him, and choosing instead a thief and a murderer. That choice still stands between the side of the world that rejected Christ and the side of Christ who kept His Father's commandments. All who refuse to be loyal to God and have no interest in knowing Him place themselves with that crowd.
The Choice Repeated Today
The rejection of Christ for a robber is the very experience God's people will have to pass through. In that experience they should rejoice that Christ sees all things with every circumstance of life open before Him and will sustain those who accept Him as personal Saviour. There they are to stand on the elevated platform of eternal truth, trust no man, cling to Jesus with faith and assurance, walk humbly before God, and become strong by ever repeating how sure and steadfast the truth as it is in Jesus is.
The sin of rejecting Christ and accepting Barabbas will be repeated in this age through religious bigotry and fanaticism. Though people insist they could never reject the Saviour, priests and rulers will bring about the same issue and history will be repeated. That choice is the sure result of gradual separation from God in character and steady development of sin as transgression of the law, continually strengthened by rejecting light and warnings and truth. Every sin leaves its trace and creates repetition of that action, and after the foundation of sin is laid the choice is made and destiny is certain for time and for eternity.
Near the end of earth's history those who reject truth will again choose the deceiver over Christ. The cry for Barabbas and for Christ's crucifixion will be repeated on a nearly universal scale. That scene represents the conduct of those who stand under the powers of darkness and the opposition Christ's followers will face in a coming crisis. It shows what people do when not controlled by the Spirit of God, under a spirit stirred by Satan.
The same choice is made in action by those who profess to receive Christ but by embracing the world and its ruler reject Him, including ministers whose actions embrace the world's ruler. Praising Christ while embracing the world's side repeats that rejection in action, and each person's actions show whom they choose. Those who have received great light but yield to temptation choose against Christ and oppose what God has appointed, and this is enacted among them as crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting Him to open shame. Those who apostatize by leaving the true and faithful people of God and fraternizing with those who represent Barabbas thereby voice the dragon and join satanic agencies that make war with the saints. As the Jewish nation overlooked the word of God and demanded a robber and had the Prince of life crucified, so in the last days professed Christians neglect precious eternal truth for things of little importance that engage attention and excite imagination, letting minds be engrossed with trifles instead of truth that would elevate and sanctify and refine and fit for immortality, so that under Satan's deceptive working they are weighed in the balances and found wanting.
Some who joined in the demand for Barabbas and in calling for Jesus' crucifixion later heard the apostles, showing that those who took part were still reached afterward.