An Innocent Man And A Guilty Verdict

More space is devoted to Jesus’s trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate in the Gospel of John than any of the other three Gospels. While tragic and disturbing, what happened reveals the heart of the Savior who, while an innocent man was condemned to death by a guilty verdict. Three times Pilate declared Jesus innocent (18:38; 19:4; 6), yet for the sake of political expediency and religious bias, he allowed Jesus to be crucified. Each of Pilate’s affirmations of Jesus’s innocence testify to the perfection of the Son of God and His redemptive mission as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.