Devotion Corner
Mark 15:21 And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.
We were once like Pilate. We were willing to dispense with Jesus just to satisfy the will of others. We lived our days looking for a peaceful existence so that we could have our little bubble of life. We even allowed wickedness to surround us if it meant we could just get rid of Jesus. We did this by releasing murderous behaviours to run free in our lives in the place of Godly virtue; much like Pilate released Barabbas over the Lord Jesus. This he did to make the people content. Many times, we have done exactly the same thing. We indulged in foolish decisions just to please others, even though they demanded an end to the ways of God.
When we moved in such a manner as Pilate, we too delivered Jesus up to be crucified. Christ went to the cross as a lamb to the slaughter, quietly and without resistance. He went knowing that by the grace of God, the blood that flowed from His body would prick the hearts of those who had once dismissed His loving call. Such is the way of God, to take the treachery of sinful men and fashion it into the means of their deliverance. For we gave Him up to the cross, and yet it was by that same cross, that we would know Him as our Lord and Deliverer.
We shouldn’t forget what we once were, all of us Pilates before God. It was only by His wondrous grace that He opened our eyes to the glory of Christ Jesus. He who went quietly to the humiliation of the cross, so that we might be freed from the heavy burden of service to sin and death. We were ashamed of Him, so much so that we denied Him when the world challenged who our hearts master was. Yet He went to the cross, not ashamed of you, hoping with every breath that you might not be ashamed of Him too one day. Praise the Lord that day was realised in His grace and mercy. Now we are to declare ashamedly His love for us, and all who call on Him as Lord and Saviour. Then more lives might go from a Pilate of this world, to a child of God.
