Wednesday, November 17, 2010

John 19:7

When Pilate told the Jews that he found no fault in Jesus, they responded,

We have a law,
and according to our law He ought to die,
because He made Himself the Son of God.


They believed in a law of works. They believed that the Torah taught them to follow the rules. One of the rules was that blasphemers must be put to death. They believed that Jesus was not the Son of God, and thus, according to their law, He ought to die.

Twisted as this is, though, there is truth in their statement. In the story of Jesus' suffering and death, it seems that unbelievers said an awful lot of true things. Problem was, they invested those true statements with screwball errant meanings.

The truth of the matter is that the Torah and the whole Old Testament did indeed require the Son of God to die. The Law could not be fulfilled by sinful man. But the Lord took on flesh so that He might die the sinners death. And all the Law (that is, the Old Testament) pointed to that death that would come in the fullness of time. As Jesus taught the Emmaus disciples, the entire Old Testament was about Him and the redemption He wrought.

Though He had done nothing deserving of death,
according to our law, He ought to die.
And He did.
Willingly.

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