Frantisek Gajowniczek died aged 94 in 1995

He Took Our Punishment

Jesus, an innocent man, took the punishment Barabbas and we deserved.

At Auschwitz Maximilian Kolbe died in place of Frantisek Gajowniczek and by a selfless act of self-sacrifice saved his life.
He was 47 and single as a celibate Roman Catholic priest. Gajowniczek was 41 with a wife and family, and died at the age of 94 in 1995.

On the 14th of August every year after the war, he used to visit Auschwitz to lay flowers in memory of the man, who saved his life by taking his punishment and dying in his place.

But Maximilian Kolbe could not take the punishment for Gajowniczek's sins or the sins of the whole world, including those of the Nazis who killed him in such a cruel fashion.

Christ's Substitutionary Death On The Cross

•  Only a sinless man could die in place of sinners like us and pay the penalty our sins deserve in the eyes of a holy God, who hates sin but loves sinners.

•  Jesus did not die for any sin of his own - he was the spotless Lamb of God. He died for our sins so that we might know God's forgiveness and cleansing when we put our faith in God's promises.

In 2 CORINTHIANS 5:21  Paul writes: God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

A Prophetic Picture Of The Messiah's Suffering

Seven centuries earlier the prophet Isaiah wrote the following words about the Messiah to come:

It was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. 
We thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! 
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. 
He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away from God’s paths and gone our own way. 
Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.   ISAIAH 53:4-6