March 29

Then released he Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.—

Matthew 27:26.

PILATE, having washed his hands to vindicate his innocence from Christ's blood, and the Jews having freely taken the entire guilt upon themselves and their posterity, then is Barabbas the murderer liberated, and the holy and blessed Jesus delivered unto death. On delivering up Jesus, he was first scourged—a punishment administered with great severity among the Romans. Behold the illustrious Jesus! Take a retrospect of the sorrows and sufferings of the first night—think of the agonies of Gethsemane—of his rude arrestment—of his mock trials—of the indignities offered to his sacred person! And now see him bound to the pillar, while the cruel lash lacerates his back, the blood profusely streaming to the ground. How exactly was the scripture fulfilled, "The ploughers ploughed on my back, they made long furrows there."—Psalms 129:3. "I gave my back to the smiters."—Isaiah 50:6. And again, "The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed."—Isaiah 53:5. In the liberation of Barabbas, we have strikingly exhibited to us the doctrine of substitution, wherein the true criminal, the real malefactor, is set free through the suretyship of the Son of God. Divine Justice cannot relax its demands—cannot yield up any of its claims: sin must be punished either in the actual delinquent or in the person of a substitute. Jesus was that blessed substitute. He receives our ignominy and our guilt upon himself—he takes the sinner's standing-place, and suffers, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. In the mirror of the Saviour's sufferings we behold the extreme evil of sin—the unparalleled love of Jesus—and the only way of a sinner's acceptance with God. Intense sorrow for sin, ardent affection for Christ, and believing confidence in the blood of the atonement, ought to be produced by a right consideration and improvement of this subject.