MacArthur - The murder of Jesus: a study of how Jesus died

The Murder of Jesus

The Murder of Jesus

A Study of How Jesus Died

BY
JOHN F. MACARTHUR JR.

THE MURDER OF JESUS: A STUDY OF HOW JESUS DIED

Copyright 2000, 2004 by John F. MacArthur Jr. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All Scripture quotations in this book, except those noted otherwise, are from the New King James Version, 1984 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1988, and 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, and are used by permission.

Quotations marked NIV are from The Holy Bible: New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN 0-7852-6018-8

Printed in the United States of America

04 05 06 07 08 PHX 5 4 3 2 1

To Joe and Georgia Aleppo

beloved friends whose
tireless labor for the cause of
Christ is a constant
encouragement to me, and
whose passion for the truth
has knit our hearts together.

Contents

THE WORLD has recently been drawn to the death of Jesus through the movie, The Passion of the Christ. It depicts the single greatest event in history more graphically than anything ever has before. Since the film only covers the eighteen hours of Jesus life from His agony in the garden to His horrific death, the audience is left with the tormenting question of how He could have been treated so cruelly. Whatever motivated people to do what they did to Jesus?

Seeing the film leaves many in a state of trauma, searching for some way to understand why Jesus was treated so unjustly and made to suffer so greatly. Perhaps this was also your response to the movie, which is the reason you are reading this book. Im glad about that, because the search for the true understanding of Jesus death will satisfy more than mere curiosity for you; it will literally open the way to heaven.

Long before the advent of cameras in the courtroom, it was clear that the finest courts of earthly jurisprudence sometimes convict the innocent or exonerate the guilty. Take, for example, the case of Randall Dale Adams, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 1977 for the murder of a Texas policeman. A 1988 documentary, The Thin Blue Line, raised troubling questions about law enforcements handling of his case and helped win him a new trial just hours before his scheduled execution in 1988. A year later he was released from prison when the prosecutor in the case dismissed all charges against him, acknowledging the lack of any real evidence to convict him. An even more disturbing case was that of Kirk Bloodsworth, sentenced to death for rape and murder in the 1980s. After nearly a decade on death row, Bloodsworth was released in 1994 when sophisticated DNA tests proved beyond question that he was innocent of the crimes he had been condemned to death for.

More recently, a Los Angeles police officer admitted that he and his partner shot a man they had in custody, leaving him permanently paralyzed. They then planted a weapon in order to frame the man on an assault charge. The victim, Javier Francisco Ovando, was convicted on the basis of that false testimony and sentenced to twenty-three years in prison. He served three years before the truth was discovered. He was released from prison in 1999 when one of the offending officers confessed, but Ovando will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Were rightly appalled and outraged by such cases, and yet they do not appear to be diminishing in number. Nearly every week, it seems some new, gross miscarriage of justice is dissected on 20/20, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, or similar network news magazine programs. Americans confidence in their criminal justice system may be at an all-time low.

Modern societys concern about justice gone awry is nothing new. Notorious cases of innocent victims who were imprisoned or executed wrongfully litter the pages of history, from the bibli cal account of Naboth, who was framed and executed by Ahab in ancient Israel, to the witchcraft trials of medieval history, right down to the present age. On the other side of the ledger, history is also replete with accounts of guilty people let off scot-free by so-called courts of justice, ranging from ancient aristocrats who routinely got away with murder, to modern organized-crime bosses who use bribery and intimidation to manipulate the system in their favor.

Clearly, real justice has often been elusive in earthly courts. Innocent Joseph languished in a dank prison while his false accuser, Potiphars wife, lived in Egyptian luxury. Nero set fire to Rome for political purposes and falsely accused Christians of the crime; then he enlisted Roman courts to perpetrate a slaughter against innocent believers, punishing them for an act he himself committed. Medieval clergy lived lives of wanton profligacy while the Churchs office of the Inquisition approved the torture and killing of godly people accused of heresy. With the Supreme Courts sanction, modern abortionists routinely kill infants at birth, while government bureaucrats spend billions to protect snail darters and silverspot butterflies.

Human courts have an uncanny knack for turning justice completely on its head. The wicked frequently prosper while the righteous suffer wrongfully.

Nowhere is this seen more graphically than in the arrest, trials, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. No victim of injustice was ever more innocent than the sinless Son of God. And yet no one ever suffered more agony than He did. He was cruelly executed by men who openly acknowledged His faultlessness. Yet at the same time Barabbas, a murderous, thieving insurrectionist, was summarily set free. It was the greatest travesty of justice the world will ever see.

Consider the facts: Jesus Christ was the only truly sinless individual who ever livedthe most innocent, blameless, virtuous man of all time. He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22). He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners (Hebrews 7:26). And yet the torment and punishment He suffered in His death was infinitely more heinous than anyone else has ever suffered. He bore the full weight of retribution for human evil. He suffered as if He were guilty of humanitys worst offenses. And yet He was guilty of nothing.

It is easy to look at the cross and conclude that this was the worst miscarriage of human justice in the history of the world. And it was. It was an evil act, perpetrated by the hands of wicked men.

But that is not the full story. The crucifixion of Christ was also the greatest act of divine justice ever carried out. It was done in full accord with the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23)and for the highest of purposes: The death of Christ secured the salvation of untold numbers and opened the way for God to forgive sin without compromising His own perfectly holy standard.