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Guiltless guilty: Christ was unjustly condemned

Jesus Christ

47Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, “This Man was in fact innocent.”

– Luke 23:47
(NASB® © 2020)

Truly this man was righteous. Luke 23:47

The leaders in Israel put up fierce resistance to the Lord Jesus. They wanted to kill Him shortly after the beginning of His public ministry. However, as He gained more and more sympathy among the people, they took Him to court in order to surround their evil actions with a resemblance of justice.

Various accusations were made against the Lord in court:

– He wants to destroy the temple and build a new one (Mt 26:61; Mk 14:58).

– He is an evildoer (John 18:30).

– He is a deceiver of the nation (Lk 23:2).

– He refuses to give tax to Caesar (Lk 23:2).

– He claims to be the Messiah-King of the Jews (Lk 23:2; Mt 27:11; Mk 15:2; Jn 18:33 etc.).

– He turns the Jewish people away from the Romans (Lk 23:14).

– He stirs up the Jewish people with his teaching (Lk 23:5).

– He blasphemes because he makes himself the Son of God (Mt 26:63-65; Mk 14:61-64; Lk 22:70, 71; Jn 19:7).

The highest Jewish court ruled that He was guilty of death. Pilate, the Roman governor, finally sentenced Him to death and had the sentence carried out – because he had the power to do so. The decisive factor for the condemnation was not the hollow accusations, which could not be proven, but the Lord’s confession that He was the Christ – the Son of God and the King of Israel. The Son of God was a particular thorn in the side of the Jews, while the trial before Pilate, who was loyal to the emperor, was particularly concerned with Jesus’ claim to be King of the Jews (Luke 22:70, 71; John 19:12-16).

God ensured that repeated testimony was given to the innocence of the Lord Jesus during the trial and at his execution. But not only that: His sonship of God and his kingship were also testified to. These remarkable testimonies all came from people who (initially) belonged to the group of his enemies:

– Judas Iscariot: I have delivered up guiltless blood (Mt 27:4).

– Pilate’s wife: He is a righteous man (Mt 27:19).

– Pilate: I find no guilt (of death) in him, the righteous one (Mt 27:24; Lk 23:4, 14, 22; Jn 18:38; 19:4, 6).

– Herod: Nothing worthy of death has been done by him (Lk 23:15).

– A co-crucified man: He has done nothing unseemly (Lk 23:41). Remember me, Lord, when you come in your kingdom. – So Christ is the King (Lk 23:42).

– The centurion on the cross: This man was the Son of God and he was righteous (Mt 27:54; Mk 15:39; Lk 23:47).

– Soldiers keeping watch at the cross: This was the Son of God (Mt 27:54).

It is amazing: the one who had delivered Him into the hands of the enemy proclaimed His innocence! Those who sat in judgment over Him repeatedly affirmed that there was nothing to condemn about Him! He who had been condemned to death with the Lord Jesus spoke in great agony of the moral and official glory of Christ! And immediately after the Savior had delivered His spirit into the hands of the Father, it sounded from the foot of His cross: This man was righteous! This man was the Son of God!

Everyone must understand: In the middle of the three crosses hung the completely innocent man. He suffered there out of love for sinners. The Righteous One died for the unrighteous in order to lead us to God (1 Peter 3:18). Eternal, eternal thanks be to Him for this!

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