Lawless to the Letter

No one likes to be accused of something that they didn’t do; but far worse than this is to be convicted of a crime that you didn’t commit. In the United States, we rely on what we consider to be a fair and reliable justice system. As a society, we live by the ideals that we are innocent until proven guilty, that we have a right to a fair and speedy trial before a jury of our peers, and that we cannot be forced to testify against ourselves. If you are arrested, your rights are read to you in that moment so that no one may violate your rights in the process that leads up to your trial. And, if anywhere along the way it can be determined that your rights to due process were violated, it will lead to your release even if you are guilty.

We like to believe that when our police make an arrest and the courts carry it through to conviction, than they always get the right man. But, that simply is not the case. The National Registry of Exonerations tracks official records of convicted felons that were exonerated of their crimes. Their registry only tracks cases since 1989 and As of February 2020, included more than 2,551 known exonerations. These innocent men and women spent a total of 22,540 years wrongfully imprisoned. Their numbers include 20 exonerations of people that were on death row!

Open your Bibles with me, if you will, to John 18. We’re back in John 18 this week, and as we pick up where we left off, I’ll remind you that the last time that we were together, we were talking about the cup that we must drink from if we are going to truly follow Christ, and we were looking at how Christ calls us to surrender. When we drink from the cup of Christ, we surrender rights and liberties for the sake of the Gospel. In Christ, we are called to share in His shame and humility, choosing to stand in the truth He has called us to instead of looking to defend ourselves. We are called to stand as salt in light in a world that is entirely corrupt and bent on destroying everything that is good.

And so, as we pick up where we left off last week, we continue to follow Jesus into his trial and towards His crucifixion. And as we continue reading from John 18, we’re going to be starting together this morning in verse 28. And I invite you, if you are physically able, to stand with me now in honor of the reading of God’s Word:

John 18:28–32 NASB95

Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover. Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” They answered and said to him, “If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to you.” So Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” The Jews said to him, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death,” to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.

Would you pray with me? Lord, Jesus, we thank You for this day, and for the opportunity to be gathered again to Worship You. Lord, we long to live lives of worship before You, that everything that we say and do will be for Your honor and glory, and we know that a worshipful life style starts here, in the study of Your Word. And, so, we ask You to come and teach us from it this morning. Help us to know You and to understand You better through the things that You show us. Teach us the way that we should go, so that we will not sin against You, and that You will be greatly glorified in and through us. In Jesus’ Name we pray, amen.

Thank you, you may be seated. We are born with a profound call towards justice from deep within us. We long for things to be fair. We long for wrongdoing to be punished, so long as it isn’t us. We want the good things that we do to be recognized and rewarded. It is such an integral part of who we are that it is baked into the fabric of man made religion and philosophy. The ideas of the Yin-Yang and Karma both are born out of men trying to deal with justice and the line between good and evil.

Our desire for justice is God-given. You and I were made in the image of God. God made us to reflect His image to the world around us. He built a picture of Himself into the fabric of who He created us to be. We long for justice because we serve a just God. We expect evil to suffer and for goodness to prevail because these things reflect the character of our Father in heaven. And yet, despite our desire for justice, the world around us continues to spiral into perverse injustice. We look at the exoneration registry we discussed just a few minutes ago, and realize that this doesn’t even include the victims of police scandals that intentionally framed and imprisoned innocent people. It doesn’t account for so many other cases that should have been reconsidered or overturned, but never were. It doesn’t account for those that should be in jail, but who always seem to beat the system because their high-dollar attorneys know how to work it. All of these things are true, and yet our criminal justice system stands as one of the most equitable in human history.

We watch the news, we shake our heads, and we wonder what is wrong with the world. We say that we don’t understand how things could be as bad as they are. But the reality is that the hearts of men have always been wicked. The hearts of men have always been set to seek for themselves what it is that they desire in the name of justice. We have the desire in ourselves for justice, but we, in ourselves, are not just. There is not one that is just in all of humanity, even as the Psalmist writes:

Psalm 14:2–3 NASB95

The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.

Why is the world wicked, when our hearts desire justice and righteousness? Is it not because our desire for these things is born of God, while our wickedness comes from our very nature of our character? And so, there is no hope. In mankind, there is no hope for justice. Among men, there is no hope of righteousness or peace. We are children of wrath, born in darkness for darkness’ sake, pursuing death with every breath, even as we cry out in a desperate desire for life. And yet, in the trial of Christ, even in our text this morning, we see a glimmer of hope that God brings us through the madness of our perversion.

The verses that we are considering this morning are quite astounding. The audacity of the things that happen leading up to Christ’s crucifixion would be laughable if the end result were not the most agonizing death in the history of the world. But the true irony of what we see in the events of this passage is also our big takeaway this morning, and it is this:

God uses the fullness of our depravity, to bring about the fullness of His justice in Christ’s innocent suffering for our guilt

The word depravity means moral corruptness or wickedness, and as human beings, we are wicked to the hilt. As we’ve talked about all morning, we have a longing for justice and righteousness because we were made in the image of our creator, and yet, what we seek out is unjust perversion. We are greedy and selfish, and exceedingly wicked. And I’m not harping on this to beat anyone down. I don’t say these things to hurt you, or to put anyone on the defensive. But for us to understand where we’re headed, we have to know where we’re at. For us to fully understand the cost of our forgiveness in Christ, we first have to see the weight of our sin; and for you and I, that place is depravity.

Left on our own, you and I choose evil. We choose wrong. It started in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve chose death over life, and has remained the first choice of every man, woman, and child that has lived since that day. On our own, we are totally wicked. We are the opposite of what God created us to be. But the great irony of it is that God used the epitome of wickedness to bring about His justice. He used our sinful nature against itself. Look at verse 28 with me.

John 18:28 NASB95

Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas into the Praetorium, and it was early; and they themselves did not enter into the Praetorium so that they would not be defiled, but might eat the Passover.

Friends, don’t miss the great irony of this moment. Here, the Jews led Jesus into the Praetorium, the assembly room that acted as the court room of sorts for the Roman leader to preside over. And there are a couple of things wrong with this picture. First, it was early, very likely before dawn. This was not a legal, legitimate trial, but something that the Jewish officials wanted to rush through. What we do that is evil, we do in the dark. We do it in darkness, we do it in secret, and that is precisely what the Jewish leaders are doing here.

Also, note, that the Praetorium was considered an unclean place. It was an unclean place where unclean things were done and handled, and the Jews were in the midst of the Passover. And what we need to note here is that the Jews wouldn’t even enter into the Praetorium to do the deed that they came to do. They wanted Jesus to be dealt with, but they wanted their hands to stay clean so that they could eat the Passover meal. Let that sink in for a moment. They didn’t want any part of the dirty business so that they could keep their hands clean for the passover meal. The passover was a celebration of death passing over Israel when God freed them from slavery in Egypt. It was a literal reminder that the only thing that separates the living from the dead is the blood of the Lamb.

Yet there acts against Jesus were acts of rebellion. Here they are, doing the dirtiest, most heinous crime they could ever commit, murdering the Son of God, and yet they were somehow “clean” because they didn’t enter the room. They were awaiting passover, but they were staying clean of the blood of the Lamb!

And this is a beautiful irony of the trial of Christ:

Our ultimate effort in rebellion is what God used to restore us from it

I wasn’t there on that day, you weren’t there that day. We were not there to lay hands on our Lord, to push Him into the court to be tried, and yet our hands have been stained with our own rebellion. We stand as guilty before God as His accusers. We have committed our own sins in the dark, hoping to hide from the light of day our own acts of hatred towards God. It was shear hatred that led to this trial before Pilate, and had I been there that day, I fear my cries would have been the loudest, the most ardent. And yet, God used this ultimate act of hatred, the illegal trial and murder of His Son, to cleanse us of our sins. Even as Isaiah 53:4-5 prophesied:

Isaiah 53:4–5 NASB95

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.

Jesus Christ, the only innocent man, the only man to have never sinned, thrown into the filthy court to be dealt with by those who hide their sins and call themselves clean. Truly, we serve a merciful God. We sought darkness and death and found justice and life. Only by the grace of God can their be justice for our sins and life for us as well. Our hour of darkest hatred was His hour of greatest mercies! Look at verses 29-30:

John 18:29–30 NASB95

Therefore Pilate went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?” They answered and said to him, “If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to you.”

Are you seeing this, beloved? Pilate asks them what the charges are? Why have you arrested this man? Why have you brought Him here and flung Him into my courtroom? What are you accusing Him of doing? It is a fair question isn’t it? It would seem to me that this is the question that a judge should ask. The question would not seem so jarring if it had a different answer:

“If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to you.” That’s it. The judge and jury ask for the charges, and the only answer is to say “He is evil.” They cannot give Pilate any charges because there weren’t any. What charge could they bring against the Most Holy Son of God! And so they did what we who are wicked are so good at-they avoided the question. Rather than answering the question, they say “you know He must be evil if we’re bringing Him to you.” It is the evil accusing the innocent! It is the evil calling themselves good and calling what is good evil!

We’re good at that, aren’t we! We are good at calling good evil and evil good. I challenge my kids with this all of the time. We will watch a movie, and afterwards one of them will say. “Man, that was good!” And in that moment, I alway like to ask them, was it good? It was entertaining, but was it good?” It is kind of a funny example, but it is most certainly not a subject that we should take lightly. We look at the world around us, and we act surprised that our world calls what is good evil. Marriage and family and morals. Our faith in Christ, the right of an unborn child to live all are evil and despised. Isaiah warned us against such things.

Isaiah 5:20 NASB95

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

Why should we be surprised that these things are called evil, when the Son of God stood innocent, accused by wicked men. This is at the heart of our very nature. This is who we are. We may long for justice, but with every single act of our hands, we move further and further into darkness. But this is the next great irony of the trial of Christ, that

By the Good we called evil, God made evil ones good

Jesus is the only Good man to ever live. His ways are pure, and there is no darkness in Him, no hint of wrongdoing. And yet, in these verses, we call Him evil, We who are truly evil stood as accusers of our Good God. But through our evil accusations, God made a way for us to be made clean. In the Lord of Jesus Christ, by the blood of the Lamb, you and I who are evil can be made good.

In Christ, we find our position in the garden restored, on that day when God said that His creation of man was very good. 2 Corinthians 5:21 declares that

2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB95

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

By man’s design Christ was called evil to accomplish our schemes, but by the Hand of God, he bore the punishment for our evil so that we could be made good. So that you and I, if we have called upon the Name of the Lord, if we have put our faith in Christ, we can be found without spot or wrinkle or blemish. We are good, not because we are good ourselves, but because His goodness is credited to us by faith in Jesus Christ.

Do we not hear the cry of Joseph in the work of Jesus. Joseph, having been sold into slavery, having suffered every imaginable wrong at the hands of his brothers, now sat at the right hand of the king, the seat of power, Now he sat in position to save his family from suffering and death, and what did he proclaim?

Genesis 50:20 NASB95

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

Is the cry of Joseph, not also the cry of our Savior? That we meant evil for Him, while God meant good for us! Our greatest act of sinful rebellion God uses to do His saving work. Our evil lie of accusation against our good Savior is the means by which His goodness can come to us. Do you not see the irony in this, my friends! We stood accusing, when we should be accused. Our evil lies meant to frame Him, yet His good work was self-sacrifice. You could not write a better script! Were the circumstances different, I’m sure that we might even find comedy in it and yet, what we find is salvation. Look at the last two verses:

John 18:31–32 NASB95

So Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.” The Jews said to him, “We are not permitted to put anyone to death,” to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.

Pilate doesn’t want anything to do with this situation. He says “take Jesus and deal with Him yourselves.” And as the Jews answer Pilate here, if you aren’t careful, you’ll miss the last of our great irony’s this morning. The Jews said to him, “we are not permitted to put anyone to death,” and then it says that this was said to fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying what kind of death He was about to die.

See, back in John 12:32, Jesus said

John 12:32 NASB95

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”

Jesus, here, is talking about being crucified. He is talking about a death by crucifixion. He is talking about a death at the hands of the Romans. Why? Because “we are not permitted to put anyone to death.” The Jews had no way to put Jesus to death. Don’t you find that odd? Didn’t Jesus, Himself, step into stop the Jews from stoning a woman to death? Don’t the Jews, at another time, begin to pick up stones as though they were going to try and stone Jesus? Isn’t stoning a death penalty laid out as permissible under the Law? Was stoning not what Akin received for his sins before the camp of Joshua? What do they mean they have no way to put anyone to death!

It was a half-truth. You see, what they meant to say is that they had no way to put an innocent man to death. They had no way to put a man who had no fair trial to death. They had no way to kill an innocent man that they were desperate to get rid of and still feel as though they were “clean.” These men were lawless to the letter of the Law. So long as they did not cross the letter of the Law, or at least their own interpretations of it, they felt as though they were innocent of wrongdoing. The persistence of the Jews before Pilate is their plea for their innocence towards the Law! These guys were lawyers if I have ever seen them!

By handing Jesus over for crucifixion, they are indicting themselves in their plot. They are openly declaring Christ’s innocence in admitting that they don’t have legal grounds to take His life. And the great irony in their actions here is that

Through the death we plotted, God brought dead men life

What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. How can this evil man be clean? How can this dead man live? How can this rebel be restored to the Father? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Jesus, sweet Jesus is my only plea, for it is by His blood I have been made free. I called what was good evil, and I sought death with every breath that I was given. My depravity was complete. I stood without any hope, the murderer deserving death. But in the fullness of my depravity, God brought the fullness of His justice through Christ’s innocent suffering for my guilt. My only hope of salvation is found in the sweetest of ironies. And this morning, my hope can be yours as well because in His death, dead men can live.

Friend, I don’t know what the condition of your heart was when you got here this morning, but I know that you bear the image of your Creator. I know that buried deep inside of you, there is a desire for justice and righteousness that you can never meet on your own because it pulls against your very nature. But this morning, you can find your healing in Christ. He can give you a new nature. He can exchange your death for life. He already died the death you’ve been seeking so that if you believe, you won’t have to. Aren’t you tired of your chains, this morning? Aren’t you ready to learn what it means to find exoneration? Jesus already took the fall for you. This morning, won’t you come and start to live for Him? I’m going to pray for us, and then we’re going to sing a song together. And if today you hear Him calling, don’t you harden your heart. Let today be the day He comes in.

Let’s pray together: Heavenly Father, I confess to you that I am like those Pharisees. I have rebelled against You. I have looked, not for how I might please you, but to what I could get away with. By my actions, by my words and deeds, I have proven that I am just as guilty as those that pushed Christ into that courtroom. My depravity, my wickedness, is full. But praise be to God, that in Your great mercy, You used what men meant for evil to bring about my good. I praise You for Your grace, O Jesus, in dying on the cross that I deserved. And I ask you now to cleanse me in Your blood. Wash me white as snow. Make the heart of this evil man good, that I might have a share in your life and righteousness. I don’t want things to be as they have been before, but my only way forward is You. I need You to lead me, and I surrender to You in Jesus’ Name, Amen.