"Salvation is of the LORD." -Jonah 2:9

"Pilate released...Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified" (Mark 15:15) . The guilty is set free and the innocent is put to death. The great sinner is delivered and the sinless one remains bound. Barabbas is spared, and Christ is crucified. This is the manner in which God justifies the ungodly. He does it because Christ has paid what they owe. He has suffered in their place, the just for the unjust. They deserve punishment, but a mighty substitute has suffered for them. They deserved eternal death, but a glorious surety has died for them. We are all by nature in the position of Barabbas. We are all guilty, wicked, and worthy of condemnation, but "when we were without hope" Christ the innocent died for the ungodly and now God for Christ's sake can be just, and yet "Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." May we never rest until we can say by faith, "Christ is mine, I deserve hell, but Christ has die...

  It Is Finished! by D.G. Miles McKee   Here is the greatest declaration ever heard in human history … “It is Finished.” -John 19:30 These are our Saviours dying words and what powerfully important words they are.   It is reported that when Queen Elizabeth I of England lay dying she said, “ My God, my God it is over.  I have come to the end ! In her wardrobe, she had 2,000 costly dresses and gowns yet she called out, “All my possessions for just one more day.”   Pathetic words of a dying Queen!  How wonderful then, by contrast, are the words of the dying Savior who declares from the cross—"IT IS FINISHED!”  Salvation has been completed, accomplished and perfected. Notice, there is not a hint of worry, anxiety or despair from the Master.  How unlike the words of the dying English Queen who says, “My God My God it is over, I have come to the end.”   See how Christ’s words “It is Finished”, are filled with glorious victory. They mean, ‘It i...