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I sometimes wonder if there were one man who could see what was happening 2000 years ago when some could see nothing but an execution of condemned men, and others could see only a senseless brutality and tragedy. I mean the death of Christ- the one and only truly human being who had ever lived: the light of the world, tortured to death- a lingering public execution on a Roman cross ending in him being laid in a borrowed grave.
But perhaps there was one man who was in a position to see beneath the horror of it all and glimpse what was going on.That man was Barabbas, the bandit who was released, and whose place Jesus took.Of course he might have taken his release from death row as good luck, or a further opportunity to go on murdering for his benighted cause, but he also may have said: 'Truly this man died in my place.That was supposed to be me there they crucified.He literally died instead of me'.
If he did see that, then he would have glimpsed a sight of the climax of all history.
We recognise that when a woman saves a child from being knocked down by a truck, even though she herself is killed: or when a father dies saving his children from a blazing bedroom;we even understand when people will die trying to rescue a dog from a frozen pond!To die saving someone is a living part of our human story.Yet to die to save the entire human race is simply mind-boggling.
That's what Christians mean when they say "Jesus Christ died for me, and for all of us, to save us from the human destroyer of us all - sin".
"For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" I Corinthians 15: 3-4
A Prayer Song:
"There's a way back to God from the dark paths of Sin There's a door that stands open and you may go in.At Calvary's Cross- that's where you begin
When you come as a sinner to Jesus"
Now read Romans Ch. 6.
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