On the cross, Jesus died for you and for me. Jesus died the death that we should have died, in order to give us life. Paul writes in the book of Romans that ‘the wages of sin is death’. In other words the natural consequence to sin is death.

How else could it work? God is the source of all life. Sin is the choice to walk away from Him, to place ourselves at the centre and become the god of our own life. As we do that we walk away from life. And as we move away from life, we encounter death.

Yet on the cross the penalty of death was paid for. Our sin was laid upon Jesus, the perfect sacrifice, who chose to die in our place.

A wonderful picture of this is found in the story of Barabbas in Matthew 27.

Barabbas was a bad man. He did bad things. By all accounts he deserved to be punished for his sins, and by the law, he deserved to die.

But in this moment, there was an exchange. The deserving was freed, and the underserving was punished.

The guilty Barabbas was released, and the innocent Jesus was crucified.

Who is Barabbas?

I am Barabbas. You are Barabbas. We deserved the wrath of God, the just, holy, loving punishment for sin; and yet in the beautiful exchange, Jesus took the punishment. He paid the cost. He gave his life as a ransom – to buy back humanity from the jaws of Hell and make a way for us to experience forgiveness and eternal life.

Jesus took our sin, we get his perfection. Jesus took our death, we get his life. Jesus took our disconnection, we get his relationship with the Father. Jesus took our failure, we get his righteousness.

What a glorious truth. Hallelujah!