HKB
in him." As if he had said, If you are determined to crucify Him, do it; but remember it is not my doing, "for I find no fault in him."
"The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God." The Jews now changed their ground of accusation, and simply named the sin of blasphemy, as the cause for which their Law required our Lord's death.
"When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid": the heathen governor had clearly seen that Jesus was no common man: if He were put to death for declaring Himself to be the Son of God, He would probably suffer for saying what was true; and though Pilate, as a heathen, had no knowledge of the nature and power of the Lord God Almighty, he was afraid to crucify One, whom he believed to be the Son of God. Hesitating and perplexed, Pilate "went again into the Judgment Hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. Then saith Pilate, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? 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."
Jesus meant to tell Pilate, that no earthly Ruler or Governor could have power to put Him to death, unless it had been the Will of God, who dwells in Heaven above, that He should suffer whatever the Jews chose to do to Him. The Jews had cruelly and unjustly persecuted Him, and in spite of His acknowledged innocence, had treated Him as the worst of malefactors: and therefore Jesus told Pilate, that the sin of the Chief Priests and others in insisting upon His death, was far greater than the sin of Pilate in giving way to them, in order to prevent a tumult amongst the people.
The words spoken by Jesus, His whole conduct and manner, so totally unlike that of a guilty person, convinced Pilate more and more, that He had not "spoken blasphemy" in declaring Himself to be the Son of God; and "from thenceforth he sought to release him."