Who Crucified Jesus?
Scripture Reading — Acts 4:23-31
“Herod and Pontius Pilate … together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel … did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”
—Acts 4:27-28
Who is responsible for the death of Jesus?
The Jewish leaders in Jerusalem brought Jesus to Pilate, calling for his crucifixion. In a way, some of them called for judgment on themselves, saying to Pilate, “His blood is on us and on our children!” (Matthew 27:25). But Christ’s death is on more than them.
Isaiah prophesied, “Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer” (Isaiah 53:10). And Paul said that God the Father “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” (Romans 8:32). What some people had meant for evil, God used for good so that people of all nations, including us, might be saved.
God’s plan was for Christ to enter into suffering in order to bring victory over it. The lashes on Jesus’ back, the crown of thorns on his head, the spit in his face, the nails in his hands and feet, the spear in his side, the abandonment of his disciples—all these were the result of our sin. Yet they were designed by God to destroy sin’s power. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son …” (John 3:16), and “by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).
Jesus came to die—for us. He revealed that no sin or evil is too great for God to turn into life and joy. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Father, thank you for sending your Son to pay the price of sin for us, so that we can have new life with you forever. Amen.
About the author — John Kuperus
Since he was young, John Kuperus has had a passion that everyone would know Jesus. Spreading the good news that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15) is very important to him. To be better equipped for missions, John attended Reformed Bible College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He applied these skills with marketplace evangelism in a business he started in Sussex, New Jersey. This calling continued to follow him, so John attended seminary and became a minister in the Christian Reformed Church, serving a church in Ontario for eight years. Currently he serves as a missionary for Youth with a Mission (YWAM). He witnesses Jesus changing lives as people walk out of the darkness into the light. John is married to Helen, and they have seven children.
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