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LUKE XXni. 13—25.
13 And Pilate, when he had called together the Chief Priests and the nuers and the people,
14 Said unto uiem, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that per- ▼erteth the people : and, behol(( I, haying examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him:
15 Noj nor yet Herod : for I sent you to him ; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.
16 I will therefore chastiBe him, and release him.
17 (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.)
18 And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and re- lease unto us Barabbas :
19 (Who for a certain sedition made
in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.)
20 Pilate therefore, willing to re- lease Jesus, spake again to them.
21 But thev cried, saying. Crucify Am, crucify him.
22 And he said unto them the third time, "Why, what evil hatii he done ? I have found no cause of de&th in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go.
23 And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the Chief Priests prevailed.
24 And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required.
25 And 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^
We should observe, for one thing, in this passage, what striking testimony teas borne to our Lord Jems Chris fs 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." The Koman 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 pubHc declaration of Christ's innocence. Our Lord, we must remember, was about to be offered up as a sacrifice for our sins. It was meet and right that those who examined Him should formally pronounce Him a guiltless and blameless person. It was meet and right that the Lamb of God should be found by those who slew Him ^* a Lamb without blemish
456 EXFOsrroRT thoughts.
and without spot." (1 Pet. i. 19.) The oyer-ruling hand of God 80 ordered the events of His trial, that even when His enemies were judges, they could find no fault and prove nothing against Him.
The circumstance before us may seem of trifling mo- ment 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 child of man can count the number of his sins ? We leave undone things we should do and do things we ought not to do, every day we live. But this must be our comfort, that Christ the Righteous has undertaken to stand in our place, to pay the debt we all owe, and to fulfil the law we have all broken. He did fulfil that law com- pletely. 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 there- fore enter with boldness into GFod's holy hill. (Psalm xxiv. 4.) He is the righteousness of all sinners who be- lieve in Him. (Rom. x. 4.) In Him all believers are counted perfect fulfiillers 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 in him no fault at all."
Let us learn, for another thing, in this passage, how thoroughly the Jews took en themselves the whoh responsi- bility of our Lord Jesus Christ^s death. We are told that when Pilate was ^'willing to release Jesus," the Jews ** cried, saying, crucify him, crucify him ! " Again, we