Have You Voted Yet?
Good News2 – March 2024 – Grace & Truth Magazine
Have You Voted Yet?
Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” — Matthew 27:17 NKJV
A very unusual election took place nearly 2,000 years ago. The venue was the judgment hall of a proud but pathetic Roman governor called Pilate. Campaign speeches were totally lacking. The electorate was loudly protesting but unthinking. The basic issue was deliberately obscured. In fact, the two candidates facing the people were not being elected to a place of responsibility and power. Rather, they were being subjected to the will of the people for a grim selection of life and death. One would be released and given freedom. The other would be crucified.
Consider carefully the two candidates facing the people in those days:
- Barabbas: justly accused of sedition, robbery and murder – a man who followed self-will regardless of the cost to others.
- Jesus Christ: unjustly accused of blasphemy and spiritual perversion – a Man who executed God’s will regardless of the cost to Himself.
What was the people’s choice? Barabbas! That choice faithfully mirrored the attitude of mankind toward the love-gift of its Creator. It confirmed the joint testimony of Scripture and human experience, that man is alienated from God and in need of salvation. It dramatized man’s basic nature as Barabbian rather than Christian. In choosing Barabbas, they chose one just like themselves!
Amazingly, God took this wretched choice and used it as a platform to display His counsel of love from before the foundation of the world. Christ rejected became Christ crucified and then Christ risen and glorified. Salvation comes to those who receive Christ by faith and allow His divine love to replace their Barabbian hatred.
The election is still in process. Have you voted yet? We can tell you how.
By Grant Steidl