Could Pilate Have Let Jesus Go?

Tom: We are continuing with the gospel. We’re in the Gospel of John:19:4-5 [4] Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. [5] Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!
See All...: “Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, and Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!”

Dave: Wow! Tom, he’s not only said privately that Jesus is innocent. He’s said it to the crowd before, and now he comes forth and he says, “I bring him forth that you may know that I find no fault in him.” Now who does he bring forth? He brings forth a man who has just been scourged within an inch of His life, who is wearing a crown of thorns, bleeding, who is being mocked, and he says, “Well, this is an innocent man, but look what we’ve done to him.”

It’s just beyond comprehension, Tom. But it shows the corruption of government—I’m afraid…I guess all governments are corrupt to some extent, and who could have the power of a ruler and not let it corrupt them to some extent? Maybe some people a little less than others, but now he says—and Pilate doesn’t know what he’s saying—“Behold the man!”

Here He is, this is the—the Bible calls Him “the second man,” in 1 Corinthians 15. He’s the last Adam, the second man. There was never a man that walked this earth from Adam until Jesus who deserved to be called a man, because we had fallen…Adam fell into sin. He became a rebel against God, he became dead in trespasses and in sins, and you look at human beings—we’re not what God intended us to be. We’ve come short of His glory. We are such rebels, such sinners, such pitiful creatures, and suddenly, here comes the Second Man. As Adam was created fresh from the hand of God in the Garden, so the body—Scripture says, “A body hast thou prepared me”—is prepared for Jesus in the womb of a virgin. And here is the perfect man—man as God intended him to be—and they hate Him without a cause; they mock Him; they scourge Him; they reject Him, and they crucify Him. What an indictment!

People say, “Well, I want to be all I’m supposed to be!” You know, Tom, we used to get to some of these New Age conventions, and the human potential movement, and “Wow! We’ve got such potential inside of us!” And “Be all that you can be!” Well, I guess that’s the motto of the Marines, or whatever.

Tom: Or the Army.

Dave: Oh, the Army, I’m sorry. But anyway, well…

Tom: But, Dave, let me add just another comment on that. There’s a line that the kids like to use today: “You the man! Hey, you the man!” Now, two times, I think of that verse in the Bible. I think of it…well, we could see it right here, and it’s done in a mocking way, all right? But also, Nathan the prophet goes before David and says, “You are the man!” accusing him of sin. So, I wonder if anybody thinks about that when they hear that line.

Dave: Well, you could put those two together, Tom, but…oh! You mean when they say, “You the man!”

Tom: Yeah, you the man.

Dave: Well, Tom, man as God wants him to be is only going to be restored in Jesus, and one day—wonderful!—“When we see him, we will be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” We don’t even understand it. We don’t see Him now as He is, and He’s going to bring many sons into glory—sons and daughters—in His image. We’re going to be like Jesus!

So, He’s called not only the Second Man but the Last Adam. He’s the progenitor of a new race of people who will be exactly like Him: new creatures in Christ Jesus, new creations, “created in Christ Jesus unto good works,” Ephesians 2 says, “which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.” And we don’t quite live up to it yet, but one day, we will be what God wants us to be. Isn’t that going to be fantastic!

And then, we will really “behold the Man,” the man Christ Jesus. We’ll understand, we’ll see Him as He is, we’ll know, and we will be like Him? Wow! And it couldn’t happen except for what we’re reading about now, where He paid the penalty for our sins.

Tom: Divine justice, had to…the penalty had to be paid or all of it’s just kind of schmoozing along. It’s just God saying, “Okay, it’s okay for you, it’s okay for you.” You know, it’s…justice has to be…

Dave: Mm-hmm. And you read verse 6: “When the chief priests, therefore…” These are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the people. “…and the officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him! Crucify him!” Wow! Tom, it’s just…in the Cross, we see the worst in man. You could have also pointed, after Pilate says…shows Jesus to them and says, “Behold the man!” he could have also pointed to he crowd and said, “You’re demonstrating who you are.” Behold man as the fallen creature who has just fallen into sin and revels in it, and hates God, and demonstrates it when the Creator of the universe, the One who holds our breath in His hand, the One who has control over our destiny, here He comes—He does nothing but love them, heal them, feed them, even raise the dead, and they hate Him.” And I think Pilate could have looked at them, and said, “Behold the man. This is what man became, and here, in Jesus, is what God wants man to be, and look what you are doing to Him. You are hating Him, mocking, crucifying Him,” and he says…he’s going to attempt to wash his hands of this affair. It doesn’t say it in this gospel, but in another one it does. He took water and he washed his hands before them: “I’m innocent of the blood of this just man.”

Tom: “And Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.” Now, Dave, that doesn’t make sense. Here it is, even though, as you said, he demonstrated washing his hands of this whole thing—but he was the only one who had the power to crucify Him. They didn’t.

Dave: But he’s telling them to go ahead and do it. He’s putting the onus on them.

Tom: They have no authority.

Dave: Well, but he’s giving it to them now. Of course, they can’t do it. It will have to be his soldiers, Pilate’s soldiers—the Roman soldiers will do it. It’s just a manner of speaking. He’s trying to say, “Okay, it’s not my fault, guys. He’s innocent, He doesn’t deserve this. You go ahead and crucify Him.

Tom: So, whose fault is it, Dave? People have been asking that question. I mean, it’s all over the place.

Dave: Well, it’s quite obvious. “Jehovah laid on him the iniquity, the sins, of us all. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the judgment of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes, we are healed.” So, we all crucified Christ, of course. It’s our sin. Yes, by one man, sin entered into the world. Yeah, we can blame it on Eve, and then Adam went along with her. And we can blame them, and try to say, “Well, if I’d been in the garden, I wouldn’t have done that.” But we prove that we are exactly like them because we disobey God, we take our own way, and we reject Him. We’re all guilty.

Tom: Dave, when Jesus says from the Cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” was He forgiving man of sin, of all sin? What happened there? We only have about a minute left.

Dave: He was expressing His desire that the penalty He was paying—well, in fact, “Father, forgive them…” God has to lay on Him, then, our sins. Otherwise, we couldn’t be forgiven. But He’s expressing His desire. He’s dying for them—even those who are crucifying Him. And the Father is willing to forgive all, but you must accept the payment that Christ made, because this is required for sin. You either pay it yourself or you accept the payment that Christ made on your behalf.

Pilate says, “Take ye him and crucify him,” and verse 7, “The Jews answered, We have a law, and by our law, he ought to die because he made himself the son of God.” Well, Pilate has already told them earlier, “You take him and judge him by your law.” They said, “We can’t! It’s not lawful for us, because we punish by stoning,” and they had lost the right to execute judgment…execute their justice, that is, the death penalty. So this is why Jesus was crucified in fulfillment of the Scriptures—amazing! Foretold that He would be crucified centuries before crucifixion was known! And the Jews would have stoned Him. In fact, they tried but couldn’t. And now He will be crucified. This is the Roman means of execution, and that will then fulfill the Scripture.