Mark 15:15 “So, Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.”
Crowd approval is so addicting. Don’t we all long for this? No matter how small or large the crowd is, there is something intoxicating about people being satisfied with you. But what does this reveal about you/me? Well, like Pilate, humanity at its very core has God complex. Pilate wanted the praise of men so much that he was willing to sacrifice the Son of Man to get it. It was his false “Good News”. Pilate is not alone.
So what dislodges us from such a self-centered existence? Well, friends, that would be the Gospel of Jesus. When the Holy Spirit regenerates someone, that person begins to be released and redeemed out of his/her self-centered world. The Gospel of Jesus shows us how wicked and sinful we really are. It shows us that God’s judgement over our life, what we have earned from God, is a Crucifixion and/or Hell. We see that Jesus mission was to come and save people who are just like Pilate. We finally see that Jesus lived for the Glory of his Father every moment of every day. Our eyes are opened to the truth that Jesus received the judgement that I earned for being a self-centered glory monger and I get the judgement that Jesus earned by his perfect obedience. And by that truth every before us we start living for the glory and praise of Jesus name instead of the glory and praise of our name!
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