and there are deep meanings in every event that has been precisely orchestrated throughout the millennia.
As the year dated 2024 reflects the 2 millennia since Messiahs birth. In Hebrew, the year is 5784 from creation in Genesis.
A typicaltimelineis shown from Creation through the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin in 5756 (1995).
The next Jewish New Year – Rosh Hashana, for the Hebrew Year 5785 begins at sundown on Wednesday, 2 October 2024.
Many people make resolutions and promises at New Year they all mean well but many times will never keep them. One thing we can take on our journey through 2024/5784, is that our Heavenly Father, Messiah Yeshua and His Spirit of Holiness never break their covenant promises.
Here are some of the things we have been promised and particularly those from the victory Messiah won at the cross.
Martin Luther called it the Great Exchange, noting the benefits and blessings Messiah won for us and gave to us and what we have received.
We have exchanged …
Our lostness for His salvation
Our sin for His forgiveness
Our uncleanness for His purity
Our filth for His holiness
Our wickedness for His goodness
Our foolishness for His wisdom
Our weakness for His strength
Our inadequacy for His ability
Our problems for His solutions
Our poverty for His abundance
Our defeat for His victory
Our mind for His mind
Our sickness for His healing
Our anxiety for His peace
Our captivity for His deliverance
Our brokenness for His wholeness
Our lies for His truth
Our way for His Way
Our old life for His new Life
Our fear for His faith
Our bondage for His freedom
Our emptiness for His fullness
Our despair for His hope
Our death for His life
Our curse for His blessing
Our misery for His joy
Our rejection for His acceptance
Our shame for His glory
Our sin for His holiness
Our wrongs for His rights
Our darkness for His eternal light
Our slavery for His sonship
Our condemnation for His justification
Our laws for His grace
Our anger for His mercy
Our pride for His humility
Our failures for His new beginnings
Our sadness for His joy
Our broken hearts for His comfort
Our disappointments for His love
Our mistakes for His forgiveness
Our cruelty for His compassion
Our jealousy for His equality
Our unrighteousness for His righteousness
Our rudeness for His tenderness
Our drunkenness for His sobriety
Our duplicity for His honesty
Our guile for His integrity
Our arrogance for His meekness.
Our covetousness for His justification
Our betrayal for His faithfulness
Our rebellion for His obedience
The list is without end there is so much
we have to be thankful and grateful for.
There are countless sermons on the
Great Exchange,
however there may be one aspect we have overlooked?
Just before our Lord and Savior took our place on the cursed tree, there was a significant event where a decision was made between two sons who did not have the same father,
yet both were called son of the father.
One was Jesus/Yeshua, the Son of His and our Heavenly Father
and the other
Barabbas,
Bar meaning; son of and
Abbas meaning: Father.
Barabbas: a thief, a murderer, a rebel. Son of father: in this case the father was the adversary; as Jesus said he was a murderer. John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
Messiah Jesus and Barabbas – The Great Exchange?
Mark 15:6-15
Only in Messiah’s perfect sacrifice was the Great Exchange accomplished, and our Heavenly Father wants us to see this great exchange as a beautiful picture of His grace and mercy in Christ.
What would we think, if a criminal, one guilty of murder and robbery was released from prison and in his place an innocent man was sentenced to die? Our answer might be that it is unfair, outrageous, ridiculous and just who would come up with a suggestion like that?
The truth is that this is our Heavenly Father’s plan, the good news, the gospel. It’s the story of the
great exchange
shown in
Jesus/Yeshua and Barabbas.
The guilty man went free and the innocent man was condemned.
Righteousness was exchanged for unrighteousness;
holiness was substituted for unholiness;
the sinless took the place of the sinner and
the King of kings was replaced for a murderer and a robber.
Mark 15:6- 15.
There are two important points in this message that we need to make note of.
Firstly, only the perfect sacrifice of Messiah Jesus/Yeshua can accomplish the great exchange where the sinner goes free and the Messiah is punished in his place.
Secondly in the great exchange, our Heavenly Father wants us to
see ourselves as Barabbas…
because the fact is that none of us have any hope, except for freedom in Messiah alone.
See ourselves as Barabbas?
A murderer, a criminal, a rebel!
Yes a sinner and all have sinned –
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
Sin is sin and if we have ever been stubborn or rebellious, then we have sinned; hating someone in our hearts is equal to murder in the Fathers eyes. And what about our thought life?
You have heard that it was said, ‘you shall not commit adultery’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body … Matthew 5: 27-28 is a part of Yeshua/Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and one in a series of examples He uses to emphasize the new dimension of spiritual awareness. The phrase “you have heard” does not refer to the scripture, it refers to oral teachings of the Pharisees who violated scripture with their own tradition.
It was the Passover/Pesach, and as was the custom at the Passover/Pesach, the governor would release a prisoner of the crowd’s choosing. In this case, the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas’ release and Yeshua/Jesus’ execution.
Barabbas was a notorious criminal.
Notorious means: widely known and regarded unfavorably.
He had been thrown into prison for his part in a rebellion in Jerusalem and for murder. He was guilty of these crimes, while Messiah Jesus was innocent of the crimes He had been accused of, namely blasphemy of God.
Pilate even told the crowd that he could find no wrong in Jesus/Yeshua and washed his hands to say that he did not agree with putting Jesus/Yeshua to death. However the crowd of about 300 who were stirred up by the chief priest and elders, demanded that Barabbas be released and Jesus/Yeshua be executed by crucifixion.
Only in Messiah/Christ’s perfect sacrifice was the
Great Exchange
accomplished.
God wants us to see this great exchange as a beautiful picture of His grace and mercy in Messiah. The story of Jesus/Yeshua and Barabbas is found in every gospel. It is so important for us to see that only in Messiah’s perfect sacrifice can the just be exchanged for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous, the sinless for the sinner, the King of kings for a criminal.
The great exchange of Jesus/Yeshua for Barabbas, which is an often neglected and forgotten part of the story, is proof of God’s great love for the unlovable. We need to realize that an enormous price was paid for this great exchange. That God, not sparing His own Son, would purpose Jesus/Yeshua’s death on the cross in order that people like you and me would be rescued from sin and returned to a right relationship with our Heavenly Father.
The following two verses of scripture explain it well:Isaiah 53:10a
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; Isaiah 53:10 (ESV) and
2 Corinthians 5:21.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Have we ever seen ourselves as Barabbas?
It is a position with absolutely no hope for freedom except in Messiah Jesus Christ /Yeshua HaMashiach
As we see ourselves as Barabbas, we see an individual so rebellious, so prone to do wrong, so undeserving of freedom and so deserving of punishment for the sin in our lives.
Our Heavenly Father by His grace, rescued us from sin and set us free in Messiah.
That is our Barabbas moment.
But have we really seen ourselves as Barabbas?
Yeshua/Jesus took our place as the criminal.
He received punishment for our crimes, past, present and future.
Crimes such as adultery, pride, gossip, as well as a critical, unforgiving and resentful spirit. Messiah Jesus/Yeshua, the righteous, was condemned; you and I, we, the unrighteous, went free.
Scripture states that none is righteous, no, not one.
Scripture also states that we all fall short of God’s glory. Then how can it be that God Himself in the flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ, would die for such sin laden people like us living in a world filled with evil and darkness?
The answer is in Romans 8
…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
In what was the most unjust great exchange in all of history, the justice of Our Heavenly Father was served. God exchanged perfect love, grace and mercy while we were still sinners…
How?
through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus/Yeshua’s death on the cross.
While we were prisoners to sin, we were set free from the penalty of sin and death, even though we didn’t deserve it. That is the grace of a Heavenly Father with unconditional love.
We are deserving of a certain death, yet He has prevented us from receiving it.
That is mercy… but how can that be?
Our freedom isn’t achieved by anything we do; it is only by a sinless, innocent Messiah dying in our place.
As we read about this great exchange, Our Heavenly Father’s perfect love, amazing grace and rich mercy in Messiah, exchanged for the deplorable, detestable and horrific sin of people like Barabbas and people like you and me.
How do we respond to this unfair, outrageous, ridiculous story of the unjust exchange of a guilty man for an innocent man? How should we respond?
The only response is to receive the message of the great exchange by believing it and trusting Jesus/Yeshua. He is the only One who would and has willingly exchanged…
His perfection for our shame,
His glory for our rebellion and
His sinlessness for our sinfulness.
He is the only way to freedom.
Freedom from sin.
Freedom from shame.
Freedom from worrying about whether or not others approve of us.
We need to be constantly reminded that Father God’s approval of us is all that matters; and it’s found only in Messiah, whose perfection was exchanged for our imperfection.
If we haven’t trusted Him, we’re still in prison with the door locked. Jesus/Yeshua is our only hope of freedom and He holds the key to our freedom.. When the guards came for Barabbas, did he say, No I will stay in prison? Of course not, why would anyone stay as a slave in bondage when they could be set free?
Right now, as you read this, you can receive our Father God’s gift of love, grace and mercy through simply trusting Jesus/Yeshua as you turn to Him and ask forgiveness for the sin in your life.
Messiah has overcome the world and promised to take the heavy burdens from us and give us rest. Trust Him have faith and take Him at His Word.
John 8:36. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
The Lord Jesus/Yeshua came to die for us so we could live abundantly spiritually and eternally. He came to set us free from sin, from God’s wrath and from ourselves. For those trusting Him, there’s an assurance that we are former criminals, but no longer imprisoned to sin, we have been set free in Messiah. Set free because of the great exchange.
We are to be reconciled to Him ….what does that mean?
God reconciled sinful man to Himself by making His sinless Son the sin bearer and dying in the sinner’s place. Jesus Christ/Yeshua HaMashiach paid the death penalty for the sinner so that God could set the sinner free and declare him righteous in His holy presence. He did more than just forgive us our sins; He imputed the perfect righteousness of His Son to us. A great exchange took place. Messiah/Christ got all our sin and guilt; we got His perfect righteousness standing before God. His righteousness was exchanged for our sin.
The apostle Paul wrote:
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18.
The word “reconcile” in the original Greek is
katallasso,
it is an old word for
exchanging coins.
It means “to change, exchange” especially money, then of individuals “to change from enmity to friendship, to reconcile.”
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” Romans 5:10.
God’s love provided the means and foundation for man’s reconciliation to God against whom he had sinned. God’s own sense of justice had to be satisfied’
By means of His own sacrifice of His Son He turns away His own wrath toward the believer. The Lord God needs no reconciliation; we are the ones who need to be reconciled to Him, because we are the sinning rebels. This has to be done on His terms and is made possible through the death of Messiah/Christ.
The great exchange took place. Messiah/Christ took all our sin and guilt; we received His perfect righteousness standing before God. His righteousness was exchanged for our sin.
2 Cor. 5:21
Because of God’s holiness and righteousness, sin must be punished., unfortunately as humans, we tend to take a lenient view of sin, but God can’t do that because; He has set His laws in place and revealed them to us. When they are broken, the transgressor/sinner must be punished. Christians know Messiah/Christ paid their debt on the cross, but He did even more than that for every believer.
In His humanity, Yeshua/Jesus is the “last Adam.” He was born under the law, kept it perfectly, and was qualified as the perfect Adam (man) to save God’s people Rom. 5:15-19. The apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear in Romans 5, that Jesus/Yeshua succeeded where Adam failed, and as death came to all through Adam, righteousness and life come to ALL those who are in Messiah Jesus by faith.
And it’s not just the forgiveness of sins that came through the cross.
Because Messiah Jesus lived a perfectly obedient life, God the Father imputes (that is, credits) Jesus’s perfect righteousness to His people by faith in Messiah alone. This the great exchange, where our sin is credited to Him and the earned righteousness of Messiah is credited to ALL who call upon the name of the Lord.
Where Adam brought death through his rebellion, Messiah earned eternal life for all believers.
In the great exchange Christ’s righteousness is credited to us, and our sin is credited to Christ.
It was God the Father who put all the sins of believers, past, present, and future, on Yeshua/Jesus, Who had no sin. The Son took those sins freely and died to redeem all who would believe; that is, all whom the Father had eternally given to Him as His “bride”.
The agony of the Father turning from His Son Who was made sin, then turned to joy as the Father raised Him from the grave and seated Him at His right hand. And the joy continues as the Spirit gives life through the Son as the Father determined before time began. His joy in bringing many sons to glory.
The redeeming plan of God which was set in place before the creation, is an act of love and grace that is beyond human imagining. When we allow these truths to settle in our hearts, we find the necessary gratitude for continuing to live a life pleasing to our heavenly Father God; with the help of His indwelling Spirit until the day our Savior returns. Then we will each hear, Well done, good and faithful servant.
There is no place for self-righteousness at the foot of the cross. There are no self-made Christians. All true Christians are Christ-made. We are made “the righteousness of God in Him.” Sinners must glory in Messiah/Christ alone because our trespasses were reckoned to Him and the absolute, spotless, perfect, righteousness of Messiah is reckoned to us.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” Ephesians 2:8-10.
Messiah made the perfect atonement for our sins.
He has provided a perfect righteousness, for our justification.
God was in Messiah obtaining our reconciliation to a holy God.
Barabbas is the one person in history who could say that Yeshau/Jesus literally carried his cross.
Messiah Jesus took his death, and Barabbas was given the freedom that Jesus/Yeshua deserved.
Messiah bore the guilt, shame, curse, disgrace and death that Barabbas deserved.
Barabbas received the release, the freedom, and the life that Messiah Jesus deserved.
So yes a murderer did have a part in the great exchange and so do each of us.
Shalom aleikhem
chaverim and mishpachah!
Peace to friends and family.
Shavua Tov, Have a blessed week.
Make certain Messiah Jesus/Yeshua is your Redeemer, Savior, Lord and soon returning King and that you have a personal relationship with Him.
It’s all about Life and Relationship, NOT Religion.
You are very precious in His sight.
Not sure ..you can be…
SIMPLY SAY THE FOLLOWING MEANING IT FROM YOUR HEART..don’t delay one more minute,
SAY IT RIGHT NOW…
Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.
I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name.
Nothing is coincidence in Gods plan 
It was the Passover/Pesach, and as was the custom at the Passover/Pesach, the governor would release a prisoner of the crowd’s choosing. In this case, the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas’ release and Yeshua/Jesus’ execution.
