J.C. Ryle's Devotional Thoughts on the Gospel of Luke Section 135 Crucify Him Luke Chapter 23 Verses 13-25 And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, said unto them, You have brought this man unto me as one that perverts the people. And, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof you accuse him. No, nor yet Herod. For I sent you to him, and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. I will therefore chastise him and release him, for of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.

' And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas who, for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison. Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spoke again to them. But they cried, saying, Crucify him! Crucify him! And he said unto them the third time, Why? what evil has he done? I have found no cause of death in him. I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. And they were instant, with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. 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.

you We should observe for one thing in this passage what striking testimony was born to our Lord Jesus Christ's perfect innocence by his judges. We are told that Pilate said to the Jews, You have brought this man unto me as one that subverts the people. And behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man concerning those things whereof you accuse him, no, nor yet Herod. 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 fit and right that those who examined Him should formally pronounce Him a guiltless and blameless person. It was fit and right that the Lamb of God should be found by those who slew Him a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1.19. The overruling hand of God so 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 moment 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 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. Psalm 24.4 He is the righteousness of all sinners who believe in Him. Romans 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 in him no fault at all.

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 cried saying, crucify him, crucify him. Again we're told that with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified and their shouts prevail.

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 aftertimes 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. You slew and hanged him on a tree. Acts 3.15. Acts 5.30. The Jews have both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, says Paul to the Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 2.15.

So long as the world stands, the fact before us is a memorial of man's natural hatred against God. When the Son of Man came down to earth and dwelt among his own chosen people, they despised him, rejected him, and slew him.

We should observe, lastly in this passage, the remarkable circumstances connected with the release of Barabbas. We are told that Pilate released Barabbas, the man in prison for insurrection and murder. But he delivered Jesus over to them to do as they wished. Two people were before him, and he must needs release one of the two. The one was a sinner against God and man, a malefactor 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, they denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted to them. Acts 3.14. 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.

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. Christ has been made sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 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 comfortable 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 so