Scripture Reading:
Luke 23:13-25
Key Verse:
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. (Luke 23:46)
What does this passage teach us?
We should observe, for one thing, in this passage—what striking testimony was borne to our Lord Jesus Christ’s perfect innocence by His judges.
We are told that Pilate said to the Jews, “Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.” The Roman and the Galilean governors were both of one mind. Both agreed in pronouncing our Lord not guilty of the things laid to His charge.
There was a peculiar fitness in this public declaration of Christ’s innocence. Our Lord, we must remember, was about to be offered up as a sacrifice for our sins. It was proper and right that those who examined Him should formally pronounce Him to be an innocent and blameless person. It was fit and right that the Lamb of God should be found by those who slew Him, to be “a Lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:19). The over-ruling hand of God so ordered the events of His trial, that even when His enemies were judges they could find no fault with Him, nor prove any charge against Him.
The circumstance before us, may seem of trifling importance to a careless Bible reader. It ought however to commend itself to the heart of every well-instructed Christian. We ought to be daily thankful that our great Substitute was in all respects perfect—and that our Surety was a complete and faultless Surety.
What man can count the number of his sins? We leave undone, things which we should do; and we do things which we ought not to do—every day we live. But this must be our comfort, that Christ the Righteous One has undertaken to stand in our place, to pay the debt we all owe, and to fulfill the law we have all broken. He did fulfill that law completely. He satisfied all its demands. He accomplished all its requirements. He was the second Adam, who had “clean hands and a pure heart” and could therefore enter with boldness into God’s holy hill (Ps. 24:4).
He is the righteousness of all sinners who believe in Him (Rom. 10:4). In Him, all believers are counted perfect fulfillers of the law. The eyes of a holy God behold them in Christ clothed with Christ’s perfect righteousness. For Christ’s sake, God can now say of the believer, “I find no fault at all in him.”
Let us learn for another thing, in this passage—how thoroughly the Jews took on themselves the whole responsibility of our Lord Jesus Christ’s death. We are told that when Pilate was “willing to release Jesus” the Jews kept shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” Again, we are told that “they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed.”
This fact in the history of our Lord’s passion deserves particular notice. It shows the strict accuracy of the words of the apostles in after times, when speaking of Christ’s death. They speak of it as the act of the Jewish nation and not of the Romans. “You killed the Prince of life,” says Peter to the Jews at Jerusalem (Acts 3:15). Peter also says, “Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree” (Acts 5:30). The Jews “have both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets,” says Paul to the Thessalonians. (1 Thess. 2:15)
They are a standing warning to the world, that it is a fearful thing to reject the Lord Christ, and that the nation which speaks stoutly against God, must not be surprised if God deals with it according to its words. Marvelous indeed is the thought that there is mercy in store for Israel, notwithstanding all its sins and unbelief! The nation which pierced and murdered Him shall yet look to Him by faith and be restored to favor (Zech. 12:10).
We should observe, lastly, in this passage—the remarkable circumstances connected with the release of Barabbas. We are told that Pilate “he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will.”
Two people were before Pilate, and he had to release one of the two. The one was a sinner against God and man, a criminal stained with many crimes. The other was the holy, harmless, and undefiled Son of God, in whom there was no fault at all. And yet Pilate condemns the innocent prisoner and acquits the guilty! He orders Barabbas to be set free and delivers Jesus to be crucified! The circumstance before us is very instructive.
It shows the bitter malice of the Jews against our Lord. To use the words of Peter, “Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead” (Acts 3:14-15).
It shows the deep humiliation to which our Lord submitted, in order to procure our redemption. He allowed Himself to be reckoned lighter in the balance than a murderer, and to be counted more guilty than the chief of sinners!
But there is a deeper meaning yet beneath the circumstance before us, which we must not fail to observe. The whole transaction is a lively emblem of that wondrous exchange that takes place between Christ and the sinner, when a sinner is justified in the sight of God. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ the innocent, has been reckoned guilty before God—that we the guilty, might be reckoned innocent, and be set free from condemnation.
If we are true Christians, let us daily lean our souls on the wondrous thought that Christ has really been our Substitute, and has been punished in our stead. Let us freely confess that, like Barabbas we deserve death, judgment, and Hell. But let us cling firmly to the glorious truth that a sinless Savior has suffered in our stead and that believing in Him, the guilty may go free.
Questions:
1. What are the themes of chapters 1-23?
2. What did both Herod and Pontius Pilate agree on?
3. How do we see the truth of the wondrous exchange illustrated in this event?
Family Application Questions:
1. What are the blessings of being justified by faith in Christ (being declared righteous before God)? How should this doctrine give us constant encouragement?
2. As we pray for the conversion of the nations to Christ, it is fitting that we also pray for the Jewish people and their turning to the Lord and receiving Christ the Messiah. Spend time in prayer for this as a family.
