THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS CHRIST by Russell S

It was a dismal day indeed when they crucified the Son of God. And that night of His arrest, and judgment, He was not even given a fair trial. And what treachery! Under cover of darkness, Judas Iscariot betrayed our Lord into the hands of wicked men for "thirty pieces of silver" (Matt.26:14-16). Our Lord said to those priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, "...this is your hour, and the power of darkness" (Luke 22:53), yet He held that entire mob under His complete control.

Those Jewish priests, who were ordained to "offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins", should have been "compassionate" (Heb.5:1-4). Instead they had become proud and arrogant, strutting about with their "phylacteries" and "salutations" and "chief seats in the synagogues," and for a "pretense" they made "long prayers" (Matt.23:1-12; Mark 12:38-40). In their hatred of the Lord Jesus they showed themselves to be not one wit better than their fathers (Matt.23:31-35!). And all their boasting about the law brought them not one inch closer to God.

To crucify an innocent man, a righteous man, a holy man shows how wicked men can be when ambitions, and traditions, and politics, are placed above the Word of God. Judas "repented" that he had "betrayed the innocent blood," but it was a selfish repentance (Matt.27:4). And in their hypocrisy the chief priests and elders took the blood money from Judas and declared that it was "not lawful to put them into the treasury, because it was the price of blood" (Verse 6). But they could not wash the guilt from their hands, no, not from one of their fingers.

And Pontius Pilate, try as he might that night, could not "release" this Prisoner even though "he knew that for envy they had delivered Him" (Matt.27:18).

"And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged Him, to be crucified" (Mark 15:15).

Nor was the Governor innocent in his deliberations that night as he passed sentence upon Jesus Christ and his whole band of Roman soldiers "mocked" the Lord. They "spit upon Him", and "platted a crown of thorns" upon His head, and "bowed the knee" before Him. They "smote Him on the head" with the "reed" they had first put in "His right hand", and they "mocked Him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!" So both Jews and Gentiles are guilty of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. They made Him carry that heavy wooden cross until He could no longer bear up under its weight. They drove spikes into His hands and feet and they "crucified" Him in a place called "Calvary" (Matt.27:27,31,33; Mark 15:16-20). The chief priests "mocked" Him also (27:41-43). Our Lord's words in John 15:25 could not have been more true; "They hated Me without a cause."

"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matt.27:46).

Yes, there was "darkness over all the land" when God the Father turned His back upon God the Son because He could not look upon sin (Hab.1:13). It was your sins, and my sins, that also nailed His hands and His feet to that cruel cross. And because sin must be judged, God's wrath was poured out upon Jesus Christ when He suffered and bled and died on the cross for our sins.

"Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, have obtained eternal redemption for us" (Heb.9:12).

Here, we see another type from the Old Testament, "the scapegoat," it is fulfilled as our blessed Saviour bore our sins on Calvary's cross when He was forsaken of God on our behalf (Lev.16:10,21,22) to take away our sins. This is how God can now save you from your sins, by faith alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He will save you from the wrath to come if you will just believe in Jesus. As the Apostle Paul explains in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians:

"For [God] hath made Him to be sin for us, [Christ] who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (IICor.5:21).