7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.

This only increased Pilate's perplexity. His wife's message had perturbed him. The prisoner's extraordinary bearing had impressed him, and now the claim of divine sonship reported to him was calculated to stagger him. He rose from his seat and went straight to Christ in the judgment hall behind him, and said unto him, "Whence art thou?" Jesus made no answer.

Already condemned, and deeply suffering in body and mind, it was natural he should think all further communication useless. But Pilate was too much in earnest, though it might be the earnestness of superstition, to be put off.

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11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

He meant to say that Pilate's power, though real and personal for the time being, was not his own, though he might think it was, but was divinely conferred, and could only be exercised conformably with Heaven's object in the gift: that, as the executive of Roman authority divinely permitted over Yahweh's land and people for the time being, he might not be personally responsible for its exercise: that the real sin lay with those who were using that authority for the private ends of malice and wickedness.

Whether Pilate understood or not, Christ's answer pleased him, and he returned to the Jewish assembly outside with an increased determination to release him. But it was all in vain. The more he argued in favour of release, the more tumultuous the Jews became in their opposition.

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12 And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.

What, O Israel? "Whosoever?" Your own promised Messiah also? Ye say that this Jesus of Nazareth is not he; but do ye not believe that he will in due time appear? And do ye say that when he comes, he must be rejected for "making himself a king?".

To what a depth of faithlessness and darkness must Israel have sunk to employ an argument that shut the door thus against the promises of God; or into what mental perversity they must have come to use an argument against Christ which, if correct, would exclude the Messiahship for ever.

It was so that "darkness had blinded their eyes." Pilate was dark-minded, but not in the same way. He felt a regard for Christ that would have been gratified at his release: but he felt a much greater regard for his own skin. Consequently, when he heard an insinuation of treason that might be turned against himself, he felt he must not trifle with the case.

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18 Where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

54.—What has been accomplished in Christ?

ANSWER: Sin had been condemned in his death on the cross, and the righteousness of God has been declared and exhibited to all the world in the shedding of his blood.

55.—How could sin be condemned in Christ who was sinless? and how could the righteousness of God be declared in the blood-shedding of a righteous man?

ANSWER: Because being born of Adam's condemned race, and partaking of their condemned nature, Christ was made subject, equally with them to the consequences of Adam's transgression. Therefore his public execution was a public exhibition of what was due to a man from God.

It pleased God to require this before inviting men to reconciliation through the man in whom this vindication should take place.

The Christadelphian Instructor.

19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Till the Lord Jesus, however, sits on his throne as "King of the Jews" (John 18:33-39; 19:12-19), the providential direction of human affairs is committed to the Elohim; who are termed the angels of the little ones who believe in Jesus" (Matt. 18:3-6,10), because they minister to their profit, in causing all things among the nations to work together for their ultimate good.

When that remarkable change in the constitution of things is brought to pass, when Jesus having received the sovereignty, the angels shall do homage to him, there will be a great national jubilee throughout the earth.

Elpis Israel 2.3.

30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the spirit.

"All things were now accomplished," so that the Mosaic handwriting was blotted out, being nailed with Him to the cross, and taken out of the way as a rule of life.

The Lord Jesus "rested from His labours" on the seventh day in the silent tomb, and "His disciples rested according to the commandment" (Luke 23:56). He abode in His place, and did not go out of it until the sabbath was at an end" (Mark 16:1). But, on the eighth day, styled also the first day, God gave Him liberty (Matt. 28:2).

Elpis Israel1.2.

31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the sabbath day, (for that sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken [that death might ensue in a day or two], and that they might be taken away.

Under ordinary circumstances they would have been left to languish to death where they were; but next day was the high sabbath of the passover, the feast, and the Jews were very punctilious about proper ceremonial observance, which the exposure of criminals in execution would have contravened...

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The passover sabbath day was a 'high day'

There was no enactment in the Mosaic statute that a "seventh day" should follow the passover day; this would have been equivalent to fixing the day of the passover to Friday. It would fall on this day in some years, as in 1890. Nevertheless it was ordained that the night of the 14th was to be succeeded by a day of holy convocation, on which no servile work was to be done (Lev. 23: 6, 7).

This was equivalent to a Sabbath, as it is said in the case of the feast of tabernacles in the same chapter, where the words "on first day an holy convocation" and "on the eighth an holy convocation" (verses 35, 36) are afterwards described as Sabbaths (ver. 39) as it is said,

"on the first day shall be a Sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a Sabbath."

If the Sabbath referred to were the ordinary Sabbath, there would have been no necessity for its special enactment in these terms. The seventh-day Sabbath of the paschal week would, due to that circumstance, be an "High Day" as John calls it, for says he, "that Sabbath Day was an high day" (John 19:31).

Looking at the context it will be seen that the Sabbath in question was the day following "the preparation," which was the day on which Christ was crucified (between nine o'clock and three), as it is said,

"and that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on" (Luke 23:51).

The "preparation" that is says Mark, "the day before the Sabbath" (Mar. 15:42.) It was in the even of this preparation day that Joseph begged the body of Jesus (Mar. 15:42, 43). It was in the same evening the women returned from the sepulchre and prepared spices (Luke 23:56). Following this they rested on the Sabbath (ver. 56).

The Sabbath ended, they came to the sepulchre with their spices by the time it began to dawn towards the first day of the week (Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1, 2). All this put together leads to one conclusion only, viz.: that in this year the 14th happened on the Thursday, on which night Jesus partook of the passover with his disciples (Luke 23:7, 8), and his crucifixion on the traditional "Good Friday;" following this, he rested in the grave on the Sabbath (as Dr. Thomas says) rising again early on the morning of the "first day;" alias the "morrow after the Sabbath," and the "third day" from his crucifixion.

Bro. F. R. Shuttleworth

The Christadelphian, June 1888

34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

Thus was the certainty of death guaranteed to all who should come after, and thus also was it shewn that mental suffering had more to do with causing death than physical agony: for, according to surgical testimony, the efflux of "blood and water" could only occur where the heart had been ruptured.

Thus, finally, was the precious blood of Christ shed for us as the antitypical lamb without spot. Blood would ooze from the hands and feet, and from the pain punctures of the thorny crown; but copious and complete would be the discharge caused by the Roman spear; and thus would the one great offering for sin be consummated.

"Without the shedding of blood is no remission:"

such is the law of God which no man can change.

"The life is in the blood" (Lev. xvii. II);

and it is the life that sin brings into condemnation -- not as an entity but as the possession of the flesh. It was, therefore, fitting that "the blood of the new covenant" should be poured out in a manner, leaving no sense of incompleteness. This was secured by the providential regulation of the natural circumstances connected with the Lord's crucifixion.

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The Blood of Christ in Death

In death by crucifixion, there was only a limited effusion of blood. Though hands and feet were pierced, the nails filled the wounds, and prevented a large outflow of blood. Hence, criminals dying thus, under the Roman law, sometimes lived for days. In the case of Christ, he was dead at the end of six hours.

This shortness of time precludes the idea that his death was from loss of blood. The breaking of his heart, by grief, is believed by some to have been the proximate cause, which appears to be sanctioned by the effusion of blood and water, on his side being pierced after death: the separation of water from the blood being a condition said to be known only in cases of death from the rupture of the heart.

The necessity for the shedding of blood was sufficiently met by the trickling from his head, hands and feet while still alive. The whole of his blood was not poured out. The Roman spear did not open his side till he was dead; and in death there is no circulation of the blood; consequently, the blood and water flowing from his side would only be the fluid contained in the part penetrated, and not that of the whole body.

Therefore, Christ was buried, and came out of Joseph's tomb, with the principal portion of his blood still in his body. When he stood before Mary on the morning of his resurrection, he was unglorified, as shown in the words addressed to her:

"Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father."

As an unglorified man, blood was a necessity of the life restored to him. This was in him, and quickened by the resurrection-power that liberated him from the tomb. But, of course, these details are spiritually unimportant.

The shedding of blood is the symbol of death. By the death of Christ, the Father is pleased to forgive us unto life eternal; and hence, by a figure, we are washed in his blood.

The Christadelphian, July 1874

He fell into a deep sleep; and, while thus unconscious and insensible, His side was opened by a spear, and forthwith rushed blood and water (John 19:33-34). Being awoke out of His sleep, He was built up a spiritual body, flesh and bones; and, by His ascension, presented to the Father as the federal representative of His ecclesia.

... Thus, the ecclesia is figuratively taken out of the side of her Lord; for every member of it believes in the remission of sins through His shed blood; and they all believe in the real resurrection of His flesh and bones, for their justification unto life by a similar revival from the dead. "Your bodies are the members," or flesh and bones, "of Christ and he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Cor. 6:15-17). "I have espoused you to one husband," says Paul, "that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2).

Elpis Israel 1.2.

38 And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.

Joseph went away at once to Golgotha, to receive the body. There was need for haste, as the evening was come, and the bodies had to be removed in compliance with the urgent scrupulosities of the Jews. Joseph had a newly-made grave of his own close to the city, and not far from the cross; and he had just purchased a quantity of new linen. His plan was to wrap the body in the linen and put it in his grave till a permanent arrangement could be made.

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39 And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.

Nicodemus brought with him about a hundred-weight of the spices in which it was customary for the Jews to enswathe their beloved dead before committing them to the tomb. Nicodemus must have made this preparation during the day, in the full knowledge of Christ's condemnation, and in anticipation of his death.

Possibly he and Joseph agreed together that they should ask Pilate for custody of the body when death should be certified. Probably they were among the crowds that came out to witness the crucifixion and saw the end. At all events, here they were together at the cross, with the full authority of the governor to take possession of the body, and armed with the needful appliances for affectionate interment.

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