“The Great Exchange”
Luke 23:1-25
“And they all cried out at once, saying, “Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas.” [Luke 23:18]
This is the great exchange in grace, an innocent for the guilty. In doctrinal terms it is Justification by Faith. Paul explained it in Romans and Galatians. But in laymen’s terms it is simply a great exchange of an innocent for a guilty: Jesus is the Innocent; we are the guilty.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” [Rom 3:23] But now the righteousness of God apart from law is revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ [ref. Rom 3:21-22].
Our right standing before Holy God is only through the Righteous [Perfect] Man Jesus Christ. And our justification is illustrated in our passage this morning by the exchange of Jesus [an innocent] for Barabbas [the guilty].
Scripture records that Jesus was brought before Pilate for “perverting the nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar” [Lk 23:3]. It was a false accusation, and everyone knew it. But the Jews demanded that Jesus be crucified. “Why, what evil has He done?” Pilate asked, “But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified.” Luke records, “the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed.” [v.23] Pilate yielded under pressure, but even in this we see the prophecy of the Cross fulfilled, the vehicle by which the great exchange was exercised, an innocent assuming the sentence for the guilty.
It was an annual custom to release a prisoner on the Feast of Unleavened bread. Pilate wanted to release Jesus, but the crowd demanded Barabbas, the ultimate exchange of an Innocent for a guilty.
But it identifies the real exchange available to all sinners. No one is perfect, and yet perfection is the requisite for heaven. Therefore, that gap must be bridged by receiving Jesus Christ as Lord. You and I must have our sins exchanged for His righteousness. And that only comes by way of the Cross, through the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from all unrighteousness.
The vital exchange is our sin imputed to Him and His righteousness imputed to us. When that is accomplished [by faith], we become children of God, able to go directly to our heavenly Father, behind the veil, into the Holy of Holies.
And that is where the great blessing of this great exchange resides. It came, however, at great cost; it came through the sacrifice of our Perfect and Innocent Lord.
