Through The Bible in a Year - August 12, 2026

“‘But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?’ They cried out again, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a robber.” - John 18:39-40

The only person in the entire passage against whom guilt is explicitly stated is Barabbas. “Now Barabbas was a robber.” Matthew adds: a notorious insurrectionist. Mark adds: a murderer. His name was Bar-Abbas, meaning son of the father.

The only guilty one in the passage is the son of a father. And the only innocent one—the true Son of the Father—took his place.

Barabbas walked out of a prison a free man because an innocent man took the sentence that belonged to him. Barabbas did not earn his freedom. He did not deserve it. He was, by the only explicit statement of guilt in the passage, a robber and a murderer. And he went free because Jesus of Nazareth went to the cross in his place.

That is the gospel in a single transaction.

If you read this passage through the lens of its gospel purpose, you don’t arrive at relief with the belief that you’re not like the Jews or Pilate. Inevitably, the Biblical account intends for you to arrive at the recognition that you are like Barabbas – guilty but given freedom because Jesus takes your place.

The guilty party in the Gospel account is the child of a father, Barabbas. That is every one of us—children of the Heavenly Father, guilty before His holiness, yet set free from guilt because Jesus took our place.

When Jesus’ hands and feet were pierced—when His side was opened—those wounds were willingly received to pay the penalty for our sins. The nails that pinned Him to the Cross freed us from the guilt that sent Him there. He took our place so that we might have his position – freed from the guilt of sin and secure in the love of our Heavenly Father forever.

Even as believers, we struggle with the shame of sin and failure. We are weighed down with thoughts of a marriage that hasn’t been what we hoped, the children we haven’t led well, or the choices we keep making that we know are wrong.

Release from the shame and guilt of all such wrongs and many more comes not from denying their reality or seriousness, but from faith that Jesus’ suffered in our place to pay the penalty for sin we deserved. God put Him on our Cross so that we would have His place in God’s heart forever.

Respond: This familiar truth is the actually the greatest faith challenge for the human heart—not pointing at the cowardice of Pilate, not pointing at the sin of the Jewish leaders, not finding distance from the story by blaming others for the cruelties of the Cross, but saying: “I am Barabbas. I am the guilty one whose place Jesus took on the Cross.”

Don’t rush past it. Don’t make it an intellectual challenge. Let this truth simply land on your heart with the mercy and relief God intends.

Then, let the rest of the Gospel truth land too: Barabbas walked out free. The innocent One went to the cross, and the guilty one walked out into the morning air, a free man, because of a substitution he did not earn and could not deserve.

That guilty one enabled to walk free is you. That is the gospel. Believe it and breathe in the freedom from guilt and shame that is yours because Jesus took your place.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I am Barabbas. I am the guilty child of an earthly Father for whom the innocent Son of the Heavenly Father was crucified. Help me not react to the account of the crucifixion by simply blaming Pilate, or the crowds, or anyone else. Help me see myself in this story—and help me see Jesus taking my place. He accepted my place and my guilt so that I could walk free. Help me live in that reality with the power and joy of one set free from the guilt and shame of sin. In Jesus’ name, Amen.