“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Jesus spoke those words over the Roman soldiers who were crucifying him. The ironic thing is that they knew exactly what they were doing.

The act of crucifixion had already been around for centuries when it was introduced into the Roman Empire in the 3rd century b.c. The Romans then perfected the art of crucifixion to increase the level and duration of suffering. One of their tactics included nailing their victims to a cross rather than binding them with rope.

The soldiers knew exactly what they were doing. But they were unaware of the consequences.

So it is with us.

If you examine your heart, you will find ways that you have “perfected” the art of sin. You know how to hide it, disguise it, and excuse it. You keep believing that it will satisfy, but it never does. It leaves you ever emptier—an emptiness that can only be filled with death.

The good news of today is that this emptiness has already been filled with the death of another. 

Jesus asked his Father to administer forgiveness while he himself was paying its price. Grace was “perfected” on that cross—even for people who have been caught up by sin’s deceitfulness.

What sin has been deceiving you, keeping you locked up in chains? Today, Jesus fulfills and speaks these words to you: “Father, forgive them.”