3/26

Luke 23:25

²⁵He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will.

This verse certainly addresses the depravity of man. If you ever wondered how bad the fall of humankind was in the Garden of Eden, here you have an answer. We would choose an insurrectionist murderer over our Creator. The Jews wanted their sovereignty as a nation restored more than they wanted to see an innocent teacher and healer saved from a torturous death. In our fallen state, we would rather have freedom from taxation than freedom from sin that leads to death.

It's even worse than that. Pilate gave in to the will of the people, and their will was to crucify Jesus. Later, after Jesus' resurrection when Peter preached to the crowd at Pentecost, part of his message was that "you crucified and killed" Jesus (Acts 2:23). Those listeners had just arrived for the Feast of Pentecost, but they had the same depraved hearts that would have made the same choice as the crowd that had called for Jesus to be crucified. That is our condition as fallen humanity.

Thank God that this is what Jesus was actually dying to change. Only if we are redeemed so that the Spirit can be poured out on us could our wills ever be changed to prefer the eternal over the temporal. Only by the power of the Spirit can we choose to die to our old nature and live in Christ as His servants. We put on Jesus and make no provision for sinful desires by a power that is not natural to us humans (Romans 13:14).

Consider: Moment by moment we choose from which nature we will live. Never underestimate how depraved the old nature is in others and in you.