nation which pierced and slew Him, shall yet look to Him by faith and be restored to favour. (Zech. xii. 10.)
We should observe, lastly, in this passage, the remark- able circufmtancea connected with the release of Barabhas. We are told that Pilate '' released him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom the Jews had desired ; but deKvered Jesus to their will." Two persons were before him, and he must needs release one of the two. The one was a sinner against God and man, a malefactor stained with many crimes. The other was the holy, harmless, and undefiled Son of God, in whom there was no fault at all. And yet Pilate condemns the innocent prisoner and acquits the guilty ! He orders Barabbas to be set free, and delivers Jesus to be crucified.
The circumstance before us is very instructive. It shows the bitter malice of the Jews against our Lord. To use the words of St. Peter, "They denied the holy one and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted to them." (Acts iii. 14.) It shows the deep humiliation to which our Lord submitted, in order to procure our re- demption. He allowed Himself to be reckoned lighter in the balance than a murderer, and to be counted more guilty than the chief of sinners !
But there is a deeper meaning yet beneath the circum- stance before us, which we must not fail to observe. The whole transaction is a Kvely emblem of that wondrous exchange that takes place between Christ and the sinner, when a sinner is justified in the sight of God. Christ has been made " sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor. v. 21.) Christ the innocent has been reckoned guilty before