"Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent--the LORD detests them both." - Proverbs 17:15
If you ever want a measure of how much God loves you, just remember Proverbs 17:15. In that verse, God tells us that he detests both the setting free of a guilty person as if he were not guilty and that God also detests the sentencing to death of an innocent man as if he were guilty!
In the suffering and cross of Jesus, we shared in both those detestable things as humanity asked for Barabbas, the insurrectionist, to go free and asked that Jesus, the innocent, be sentenced to death and crucified.
Furthermore, the name "Barabbas" means "child or son of God." And his offense of "insurrection" is a fancy way to say "sin or rising up against the ruler [God]". In other words, we, like Barabbas, are children of God who have risen up in sin against God, but we also, like Barabbas the guilty, were set free from the penalty and sentence of death, as Jesus, the innocent, took our place on the cross that we deserved.
We were on both sides of the equation of the two things that God detests.
And yet God, who doubly detests the sentencing that all humanity unjustly laid on his Son, freely sent and gave his Son to die for us so that we might live anew.
And God tells us this in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." So imagine how great is the love when one dies for someone they don't know or dies for someone who has done something they detest.
Friends, Memorial Day is months behind us, Patriots Day is just behind us, and Veterans Day is never too far ahead for us to stop and ponder. It's a time to remember and give thanks for countless people who died or were willing to die for their friends and for strangers and even for people who have done things that they and God detest. But let's not wait until the last minute to remember and give thanks for all who have died for us and/or served us so that we might go free. No, America, let's bless God now and every day, giving thanks for those who served and gave their lives, that, in the strength of Jesus Christ crucified and raised, we would gladly do the same.
Die to self; live in love.
Praise God!
Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson
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