Ecce Homo:
Behold the Man
By
Mike Robinson
Then
Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, “Behold the
Man!” Therefore, when the chief priests and officers
saw Him, they cried out, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Pilate
said to them, “You take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault
in Him” (John 19:4-6).
Pilate had
Christ scourged and then appealed to the pity of the Jewish leaders as Christ
was mocked again by soldiers. Pilate went out to the Jews with Jesus beaten and
dressed as a burlesqued king. Pilate announced yet again, that Christ is
innocent. He offered Christ to the people and proclaimed, "Behold, the
man!" This was met by the crowd’s shouts, "Crucify him, crucify
him." Pilate took Christ into the palace and asked, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer (John
19:9). Exasperated at His quietness, Pilate told Him that he had
total power over Him. The mysterious answer of Jesus as to the source of power
still further alarmed him, and he made new efforts to secure His discharge.
The Jewish Elder’s Threats Secure
Christ’s Death
You never hear Jesus say in
Pilate's judgment hall one word that would let you imagine that He was sorry
that He had undertaken so costly a sacrifice for us. When His hands are
pierced, when He is parched with fever, His tongue dried up like a shard of
pottery, when His whole body is dissolved into the dust of death, you never
hear a groan or a shriek that looks like Jesus is going back on His commitment
(Charles Spurgeon).
Pilate
was often capricious, unfair, and cruel, but the elders were mindful that he
was extremely careful to not alarm or displease the emperor. Thus the Jewish
leaders told Pilate, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's
friend: every one that makes himself a king speaks against Caesar" (John
19:12). The idea of being accused of supporting or showing weakness regarding
treason was too much for the dithering judge to bear. Jesus was brought out and
Pilate sat again and asked, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief
priests blasphemed and cried out, "We have no king but Caesar" (John
19:15). Lastly Pilate capitulated to their pressures and outcry as he decreed
Christ be crucified. Nonetheless, he retaliated by posting on the cross the
inscription "The king of the Jews" and then washed his hands. The
people then bellowed a curse-full malediction, "His blood be on us, and on
our children" (Matthew 27:24-25). Then Jesus was transported to be
crucified.
How
far were these proceedings in accordance with the Roman law under which they had
been taken and conducted? In the first place, Pilate, as procurator, was the
proper officer to try the charges brought against Jesus. History observes that
Pilate was no saint, he was absolutely ruthless. But here, probably due to his
wife’s terrible warning, he attempted to serve justice at different points.
However his preliminary blunder, which gave rise to all the following
injustice, was in not acquitting and releasing Jesus immediately, once he had
declared that he found no fault in Him. The imposing of an unjust sentence in
such hostile and bias conditions was jurisdictive murder.
For
their part, Jews will be drawn to the Talmud’s view that the most famous critic
of halakhah’s formality, and the
person who accused the rabbis of favoring legal technicalities over justice and
mercy, was the only person for whom those same formalities proved of no avail.
Presenting Jesus as the sole exemplar of halakhic
execution, the Talmud poetically argues that the mercy, grace, and compassion
that Jesus sought outside the law are found within the halakhah* itself (Chaim Saiman**).
The
Jewish elders did not try Him for treason, but they convicted Him of blasphemy.
They changed the indictment when they came to Pilate’s judgment seat. There
they turned it into treason because with Rome death is automatic for those
found guilty of treason.
Scholars
demonstrate, with different levels of indignation, outrage, and sadness, the
myriad ways in which the trial violated those procedures. The timing, the
location, the manner of interrogation of the witnesses and of Jesus himself, the
manner of the decision, the unanimity of the verdict—the list is long, and most
of the violations seem grave. In contemporary language, this was not a harmless
error but a colossal denial of due process.1
Christ and His Grace: A
Powerful Framework for the Christian Life
It’s something too good not to believe (Vince Gilligan: producer of Breaking Bad).
Christ was unlawfully and unjustly sentenced to death by crucifixion.
Nonetheless, His death is the means of salvation for believers. People need a
clear message concerning the distinctions and interrelations between the law
and gospel; duty and grace. Various churches unwittingly confuse the law and
the gospel. Some churches fall into legalism. Others may affirm the opposite by
stating that teaching moral duties is legalism.
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*Halakhah: Jewish law. The comprehensive
body of rules and customs that Jews are bound to follow, including biblical
commandments, rules instituted by the rabbis, and binding obligations.
**Professor
of law at Villanova Law School, the Gruss Professor of Talmudic Law at
University of Pennsylvania Law School.
The Holy God
Sin is a very serious matter, and
it is taken seriously by God, though men often make light of it. It is not only a transgression of the law of
God, but an attack on the great Lawgiver Himself, a revolt against God. It is an infringement on the inviolable
righteousness of God, which is the very foundation of His throne, and an
affront to the spotless holiness of God, which requires of us that we be holy
in all manner of living (Louis Berkhof).
The Bible does not reveal a manageable god—a god who is only there to meet the believer’s needs.
At times it seems that much of the Christian world appears to be embarrassed by
the true God, and they try to change Him into a more user-friendly deity. An
almighty sovereign God, full of awe and righteousness, is not what the world
wants. But He is the God all people need. The Bible reveals that “the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). The Bible teaches that
one is saved by grace alone, through faith alone because of Christ alone. Yes,
one is saved through faith alone, but not a faith that remains alone (Phil.
2:8-10). When Jesus saves someone, a real Christian loves Jesus and wants to
follow Him. The Christian follows the Lord and obeys His law. He doesn’t do
this to find a way to make it to heaven by his works, but because he loves
Jesus. We obey God out of gratitude
forasmuch as Christ died to save us. Obedience is a fruit of salvation, but our
works in no way get us to heaven.
That's who Jesus Christ is. He
became the final Priest and the final Sacrifice. Sinless, he did not offer
sacrifices for himself. Immortal, he never has to be replaced. Human, he could
bear human sins. Therefore he did not offer sacrifices for himself; he offered
himself as the final sacrifice. There will never be the need for another. There
is one mediator between us and God. One priest. We need no other. Oh, how happy
are those who draw near to God through Christ alone.2
Churches are to teach their members the commandments of God. They
are to instruct their members in the ways of the Lord and exhort them to teach
their family God’s moral code. Preachers are to make the clear distinction
between justification (Rom. 4) and sanctification (Heb. 10) as well as grace
and law. All Christians must understand that keeping God’s law doesn’t save
their soul, but grace through faith in Christ alone saves them. And the
Christian is to follow God’s law out of gratitude because Jesus died in their
place.
If you love Me, you will keep My commandments (Jesus: John
14:15).
I … believe that I am,
by Christ, freely and fully justified and acquitted from all my sins … yet,
methinks, I find my heart more willing and desirous to do what the Lord
commands … than ever it was before I did thus believe.3
The Christian is to be taught that
obedience should be motivated by gratitude and love. The believer is to follow
God’s law because he loves God and his fellow man. God is good and loving. This
truth infuses obedient love into the believer’s heart, by the power and person
of the Holy Spirit, through faith. If you love Jesus, you are called to follow
His moral law. If a church loves Jesus, it is going to instruct and admonish its
members to follow God’s law.
In the Book of Titus, Paul reminds
believers that we are already justified, so we must earnestly strive to do good
works.
But when the
kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according
to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should
become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful
saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have
believed in God should be careful to
maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men (Titus
3:4-8, italics mine).
Bavinck on The Crucified and Glorified Lord
Sin
is guilt, pollution, and misery: a breach of the covenant of works, a loss of
the image of God, and submission to the domination of corruption. Christ
redeemed us from all three: by His suffering, by His fulfillment of the law,
and by His conquest of death. Thus Christ’s benefits consist in the following:
1.
He restores our right relation to God and all creatures (the
forgiveness of sins, justification, the purification of our conscience,
acceptance as children, peace with God, Christian liberty, and so on);
2.
He renews us after God’s image (regeneration in the broad sense,
renewal, re-creation, sanctification);
3.
He preserves us for our heavenly inheritance and will someday free
us from all suffering and death and grant us eternal blessedness (preservation,
perseverance, glorification). …
It is Christ Himself, the
crucified and glorified Lord, who by His Word directs our faith to His
sacrifice, by His Spirit incorporates us into His fellowship, and by both Word
and Spirit prepares and preserves us for heavenly blessedness.4
For more see my book Killing Jesus Christ:
Contesting the Trendy Skeptics HERE on Amazon
Or in paperback HERE
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NOTES
1.
Weiler, J.H.H. First Things, The
Trial of Jesus, July 2010.
2.
Piper,
John. The Passion of Jesus Christ.
3.
Fisher, Edward. Notes by Thomas Boston: Marrow of Modern Divinity: Covenant of works
& Grace: The Ten Commandments.
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