The Roman Hall Of Judgement

by J.R. LUCK | Category: Devotional Meditations | Aug 1962

(Suggested for reading: Isaiah 53, John 18.28-40, John 19.1-16).

"They lead Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the palace (hall of judgement, A. V.) : and it was early; and they themselves entered not into the palace, that they might not be defiled."

They themselves "are the chief priests with the elders and scribes. They had seized the Lord Jesus and had brought Him for examination before Caiaphas. They now lead Him to Pilate for judgement and sentence, but on the threshold they detach themselves from the rest, lest putting foot in a heathen hall they should be defiled. Defiled ! They were already so terribly polluted by sin, though outwardly religious, that they had earned the epithet, " whited sepulchres," from the One whom they now bring to the hall of judgement. Their position outside explains the oft coming out of Pilate to the people; the Lord also was brought out before them.

Those who, in pseudo-piety stood without, are representative of a sinful race, and we note what inward sin in them has done, notwithstanding their outward religious vaunting. They have laid violent hands on the Son of God, have with malice charged Him with blasphemy, have brought Him to trial in a Roman palace and will hurry Him to the awful death of crucifixion.

By contrast, look at the Lord Jesus as He stands in that judgement hall, the only Man who ever walked this earth undefiled, without sin; the only One, therefore, who should stand free of judgement before God and man. Yet they thrust Him before the Roman judge, and Pilate must needs bring Him out to them, saying, "I find no crime in Him ... Behold, the Man." What a travesty is this, the Lord Jesus, the Perfect One, at the tribunal of Pilate, His sinful creature arbitrating in this sordid dispute against the Lord from heaven! Neither by contact with sinful man, nor by being in a heathen court could the Son of God be defiled.

Let us proceed to Calvary. Did we say the Son of God cannot be defiled ? Why, then, the necessity for this tragic scene ? If He did no sin and no guile was found in His mouth, why was He here, pouring out His life's blood? At Calvary the Lord bore God's awful judgement, He became the Bearer of sin, not His own sin, for He was guiltless, but ours. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." (1) "Him who knew no sin He (God) made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2)

The Saviour became answerable for us and met all God's righteous requirements. In Leviticus 26.19 we read concerning the man who breaks God's covenant, his heaven will be as iron; again, of such a man in Deuteronomy 29.20 it is said, the anger of Jehovah shall smoke against him, His curse shall be upon him and He shall blot out his name from under heaven. How truly the Lord Jesus Christ, instead of the covenant-breaker, came under God's wrath! For Him, at Calvary, the heaven was as iron and gave no answer to His cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us : for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." (3) He died upon a Roman cross, bearing our sins, under divine wrath. How entirely He filled our place! "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the LORD has afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger." (4)

We enquire again, why was all this necessary? Be it noted, it was all in divine foreknowledge and counsel that so it must be. Calvary was no tragic mistake. It was that we, sinners by birth and practice, might not come under God's judgement. Naturally, we are defiled by sin, ripe for judgement and eternal doom; "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgement." (5) "He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness." (6) Over against this we have the sublime declaration, "He that heareth My word, and believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgement, but hath passed out of death into life." (7)

The writer is aware that these words will be read, mainly, by those who have eternal security through a living faith in the crucified and risen Redeemer. He would join with them in saying, in the words of the apostle Paul, "0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements, and His ways past tracing out!" "To Him be the glory forever. Amen."(8) By our meditations at the Cross may we be granted a deeper realization that, by His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ "restored that which He took not away," and, on the grounds of His dying not only " for sin" but " unto sin," calls upon us, in the words of Romans 6.11, "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus."

If this, perchance, should be read by some who have not seen in the Lord Jesus the only Saviour given by God for guilty sinners, who have not realized that His atoning death alone can save from the judgement of a thrice-holy God, may such, by divine grace, say,

"Nailed upon Golgotha's tree,

As a Victim, who is He?

Bearing sin, but not His own,

Suffering agony unknown.

He, the promised Sacrifice,

For the sinner bleeds and dies,

Lamb of God, 'tis He, 'tis He,

Nailed upon Golgotha's tree

(1)Isaiah 53.6.

(2) 2 Corinthians 5.21.

(3) Galatians 3.18.

(4) Lamentations 1. 12