Barabbas' Theory of the Atonement by C.I. Scofield

Barabbas was condemned to die. No one has ever questioned the

justice of his sentence. He was a rebel against the law, a robber and a

murderer. And now the outraged law had laid strong hands on him, and he

lay bound, under the sentence of death. He was not under probation, but

under doom. He was not awaiting trial, but execution. Just before him,

as his only prospect, was the awful death of crucifixion. He knew what

that meant; long hours of unspeakable agony, the hands and feet forn by

great spikes, the wrists and shoulder dislocated by the dragging down

of the body, each quivering nerve a separate torture through tension, a

burning, unquenchable thirst, and, all around, a jeering, taunting mob.

All the horizon on his life is narrowing to that. The only question

is, when?

Even this begins to be answered. The jailers prepare three crosses.

Ah! He well knows the three sockets cut in the hard rock out there in

the Place of the Skull. Is one of these crosses for him? The very

thought gives him a sense of suffocation, and of something clutching at

his heart. Then he is told: yes, he is to suffer in the morning. Two

malefactors are to die with him, but he, as the greater criminal, is to

have the place of eminence, is to have the middle cross.

Then the night falls. Bit it is a disturbed night. Even in the

prison it is perceived that something unusual is occurring. Confused

noises, outcries, the tramping of feet, penetrate the thick wall.

Perhaps it is another insurrection such as he, poor fool, raised

against the majestic, inflexible Law. But the night wears on, and at

last it is daylight - the light of his last day! And now he hears

footsteps, the key grinds in the lock, his prison door swings open,

but, just as he is summoning all his brute's fortitude for the ordeal

which awaits him, he hears the joyful words: "Go free, Go free!

Barabbas; another takes your place; another is to die between the two

malefactors.

As Barabbas emerged into the free, glorious sunshine, the crowd was

already surging out toward the Place of the Skull. And then, if not

before, the desire must have arisen to know who had been condemned to

die in his place. One can easily imagine how Barabbas followed the

throng, striving eagerly to see the Man who was to die for him. Perhaps

it was not until the sound of the hammer driving the nails had ceased,

and the cross - Barabbas' cross - had been up reared, bearing its awful

burden, that Barabbas saw the Sufferer. We may well believe that, moved

by a strange irresistible drawing (John 12:32) Barabbas pressed his way

through the howling mob until he stood looking up into the face of

Jesus.

Barabbas knew Him, of course. His substitute in agony there was the

new Teacher out of Galilee, the Man whose life had been absolutely

without sin. Adam sinned, and Abraham and Moses, and all the prophets,

but not this Man. And, besides, He healed even leprosy by a touch or a

word. One day when the crowd got hungry He manufactured enough food for

five thousand men, not to mention women and children, out of five loves

and a few small fishes. Because of these, and like things, Barabbas

perhaps really was convinced that He was the Messiah, the Son of God.

But he had not become His disciple because he loved sin.

However that may have been, it is easy to see that Barabbas had no

need to be a theologian to form a good working theory of the atonement.

FIRST, he knew that he was a guilty wretch, under the righteous

condemnation of the law. (Luke 23:25) And in both respects Barabbas was

a representive of all men. (Romans 3:10-20; Galatians 3:10)

SECOND, Barabbas knew that the Sufferer before him had done no sin.

(John 8:46; John 19:4; 1 Peter 2:22)

THIRD, he knew that Jesus was, for him, a true substitute. He was

verily (truly) and actually dying in his place and stead; an innocent

and Holy Being bearing the very penalty which the law had decreed to

him, Barabbas. Whoever, in the coming ages, might question whether

Christ's death was vicarious and substitutional, he could never

question it. (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 2:22-24;

3:18; Isaiah 53:5-6)

FORTH, he knew that He had done nothing what ever to merit the

marvelous interposition of that substitutional death. What ever may have

been back of it, it reached him as an act of pure grace. (Psalm

69:19-20; Ephesians 2:4-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 2:11; Romans 4:4-5)

FIFTH, he knew that Christ's death for him was perfectly efficacious.

There was, therefore, nothing for him to add to it. Just because Christ

was dying, he was living. The only question before Pilate was whether

Christ should die or Barabbas. When it was decided that Christ should

die, Barabbas was set free. His assurance was complete that instant his

Substitute said, "It is finished," and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30;

Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Romans 5:9; 1 John 1:7; Colossians

1:20; Hebrews 10:10,14)

John McNeill, the great Scotch preacher, well says; "My brethren,

let me commend to you Barabbas' theory of the atonement.. It is a good

theory to preach on, pray on, sing on, die on. Do you know any other

theory that will stand the tests?"

C.I. Scofield