When I Survey
H. Hoeksema
Book 1, Part 1, Chapter 4
The Judgment of the People

"Then cried they again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber." (John 18:40)

There are certain unchangeable, inalienable principles, to which the higher powers, the government, even in a republic, is subject, which it may not violate, and that cannot even be submitted to a vote of the people, or the will of the majority, principles which any government can only disregard and violate to its own destruction. Higher than the highest powers in the world, is the eternal and unchangeable objective law of God, and beyond the reach of the power of the State is the Word of God as contained in the Holy Scriptures. To maintain the law of God in its own domain, and to leave room for the free course of the Word of God, is certainly the obligation and calling of the higher powers. The government has not the power to determine whether or not the parents shall exercise proper authority in the home, nor whether or not they shall educate their children in the fear of the Lord. The government has not the authority to determine whether or not the citizens shall have the right to kill and murder, to steal and rob and deceive and blaspheme. The government has no power to violate the unchangeable law of God concerning the marriage relation, to make laws providing opportunity for legal divorce and remarriage on the flimsiest grounds rather than on the ground of adultery alone. I realize, of course, that these evils are committed, and that also the higher powers in our own land trample the eternal law of God concerning the matrimonial relationship under foot, till marriage is made a mockery. But I protest that no government can have the authority to make laws contrary to the law of God, and insist that by doing so, nevertheless, it destroys the very foundations of society and of the State. No government can have the authority to determine whether or not the Church shall worship according to the Word of God, and whether or not it shall confess in all its implications that Jesus is the Christ, that He died for His people, that He rose on the third day, and that He shall come again to judge the quick and the dead. The government does not make truth, but is subject to the truth. The State does not create principles of righteousness and justice, but it must ask for the will of God.

Nor may these eternal and unchangeable princples of righteousness and truth be submitted to a vote of the people, as if the will of the majority could have the right to set aside the law of God, or have authority to determine what shall be regarded as the truth. True liberty consists in harmony with the will of God, never in violation of it. And real political freedom does not exist in that State where matters pertaining to the eternal and immutable principles of truth and justice are submitted to the vote of the people, but where the government itself honors that will of God, and protects the rights of its citizens to worship and preach, to confess and to live in every domain of life according to the Word of God. And woe unto that State that violates this truth! If the majority must decide whether Jesus is the Christ, they will ultimately always vote against Him! That is the application of what happened when Pilate, the Roman governor, in an effort to avoid the responsibility of deciding this question himself, submitted it to a vote of the people by placing them before the choice of Jesus or Barabbas!

How clearly the control of things connected with the suffering and death of the Savior had been taken out of the hands of the conspiring enemies! We remember that they had decided to take the Lord by subtilty and to put Him to death secretly, without any form of legal procedure; and that, moreover, it was not to be on the feast day, when the city of Jerusalem was overcrowded with people, and easily an uproar might be caused among them! And yet, all their evil plans failed. They had been compelled to take Jesus captive that night with the help of Roman soldiers, so that the matter was known to the Roman governor. They had been forced by circumstances to conduct a form of legal trial by the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish tribunal, the result of which had been that they pronounced the death sentence upon Jesus. And, because of the fact that the matter was known to the Roman authorities, seeing that they had employed Roman soldiers to take Jesus captive, they now could not avoid His being brought before the Roman governor, for they did not have the power to pronounce and execute the death sentence. And so, the Savior was brought before the representative of Caesar. However, Pilate, as we saw previously, felt little inclined to take the responsibility of deciding the case. He knew that the Lord was righteous, and that they had delivered Him out of envy. And he stood in awe of Him. On the other hand, he was afraid of the Jews, and above all of Caesar. The result was that he sought to release Jesus without endangering his own name and position, and provoking the hostility of the Jews. And one of the attempts to shift the responsibility that rested upon him in this case as Roman governor is the choice he gives the people between Jesus and Barabbas.

The multitude gathered before the Praetorium was momentarily increasing. And well may we surmise that on this day of the feast they represented the Jewish people from all over the land. They must have been acquainted with Jesus of Nazareth. Many, if not all of them, had been witnesses of His mighty works, and had been in the audience when the Lord was teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God. Many of them had known the time that they were filled with enthusiasm about the Rabbi of Nazareth, and had been prepared to proclaim Him the king of the Jews. For they all looked for a Messiah, that would deliver them from the obnoxious yoke of foreign domination, and that would restore the throne of David to its former renown and glory. And occasionally, it had appeared to them, that this Jesus of Nazareth had, indeed, all the qualifications requisite to be the Messiah. But these moments of popular enthusiasm had not been lasting. Always the Lord had disappointed them. Ever and again He had estranged them from Himself. And the result had always been that they were offended in Him. For it was especially in such moments of the rising tide of popular enthusiasm that the Lord had taken special pains to impress on their minds and hearts that His kingdom was not of this world. Thus it had been in Nazareth, whose people had twice rejected Him. Thus it was at the height of His popularity in and around Capernaum, where the people, especially after the sign of the feeding of the five thousand, had clamored for His exaltation to the throne, and had meant to make Him king by force; but to whom the Savior on the next day had delivered such a hard speech, that all became alienated from Him. And had not some, perhaps even, most of the multitude that was gathered on that passover morning before the Praetorium, been with those who, but a few days before this, had met Him as He made His royal entry into the Holy City, shouting: "Hosanna, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord"? But more than ever they were disappointed in this man now, as He stands there, helpless and bound, in the power of His enemies. Yes, they wanted a Christ, a Messiah, but it must be one that would meet their demands, and would establish a kingdom of this world! But a Christ that meant to represent the cause of God, and to establish the kingdom of heaven, could only be the object of their hatred and contempt.

However, also they, the people themselves, must be brought before the bar of God's justice in this hour of the judgment of this world. They, too, must give an answer to the question: "what will ye do with Jesus that is called Christ?" It is true, they had been represented by their leaders, and in and through them they had already given their answer to the question. But this is not sufficient. They must be left without excuse. They must not be able to complain that the leaders had rejected Jesus as the Christ, and they themselves had never been confronted with the critical question. They, too, must therefore be exposed in the deepest intents of their hearts. And so, they are drawn irresistibly to the Praetorium on that passover morning, not only to be eye-witnesses of the trial, but, as is evident from Mark 15:8, also to demand of the Roman governor that some prisoner should be released unto them. For it appears to have been the custom that on the Passover the Roman governor would release unto them some notorious prisoner, that had been condemned to suffer the extreme penalty. And for this they now begin to clamor. The Roman governor here sees another opportunity to avoid the necessity of sentencing Jesus. For there "was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection." Mark 15:7. And as the multitude began to clamor for the release of some prisoner, Pilate saw his opportunity. He made a nomination of two. He prepared, to speak in modern terms, a ballot, and gave the people the opportunity to determine by vote whether he should release unto them Jesus or Barabbas! And thus the people themselves were very clearly and definitely placed before God's question: "what will ye do with God's Anointed, with Jesus of Nazareth, Who is called Christ?"

Let us clearly understand the significance of the choice before which the people were now placed. On the one hand, they stand before the choice of releasing Barabbas, that is, of giving him back his freedom, and welcoming him once more in their society. Now this Barabbas was what in our day we would call "public enemy No. 1." His name signifies "son of a father." It is not improbable that this means that he was the son of a rabbi, in which case he came from a good family, and must have had a good religious education and bringing up. If this surmise is correct, he had deliberately despised the way of God's covenant, and knowing the way of righteousness, he had chosen to walk in the way of iniquity. From Luke 23:19 we learn that he was guilty of sedition, and at the head of a band of robbers he had instigated an uprising in Jerusalem against the Roman authorities. And in the course of this rebellion he had committed murder. This we also learn from Mark 15:8. John, with characteristic emphasis simply states: "Now Barabbas was a robber." And Acts 3:14 expresses the awful contrast between the two that were here placed on nomination by saying: "But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you." Matthew describes him as a notable prisoner. This, then, constitutes the one alternative before which the people are placed: a criminal, one from the lowest strata of society, an outstanding representative of the world of sin and iniquity, a child of darkness, public enemy number one, that is worthy of death according to the law of God and man. On the other hand, there is Jesus, the Holy and Just One, the Anointed of God, as widely famous for His having done good throughout the land, as the other was notorious for his works of darkness.

Let us consider this nomination for a moment from the viewpoint of the people that are here called to express their preference. It is true, there was an element of ignorance on their part. For so the apostle Peter declares later: "And now brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers." Acts 3:17. But make no mistake, this ignorance was not so complete as to render then excusable, or incompetent to understand their clear duty when they were placed before the choice of Jesus or Barabbas! To be sure, they did not and they could not consider Jesus in the light of which we are able to see Him now. They could not behold the Lord in the light of the cross and the resurrection, as the Lord of glory. He stood before them in the likeness of sinful flesh, without form or comeliness, and when they saw Him, He had no beauty that they should desire Him. Isa. 53:2. But this does not alter the fact that they were perfectly competent, as far as their knowledge was concerned to understand their calling in this case. They did know that Barabbas was a criminal, and they also knew that the Lord was the Holy One and Just. They were aware of the fact that Barabbas was a murderer, and that Jesus had revealed unto them the Father, had proclaimed to them the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, and had done many wonderful works. They were perfectly aware that here they were placed before the choice between the perfectly righteous, and the most notorious bandit, between Him who claimed, and Who had a right to claim to be the Anointed, the Son of God, and him that was worthy of death. The very nomination was an abomination. It could not even be accepted. Their plain calling it was to protest loudly against this choice, and to reject the nomination. But they accept. There is no protest against this plain perversion of justice on the part of the people. The will of the people is not offended.

And Jesus? Does He not protest? Does He not decline to appear on this ballot with Barabbas, and to be submitted to the vote of the multitude? Perhaps, you say that He had no choice? O, but He did! He, more than anyone, felt keenly the offense of being thus reckoned with the malefactors! He stood there in the full consciousness of being the Anointed of God, the Well-beloved Servant of Jehovah, Who had done no iniquity, and in whose mouth there was found no guile. He knew Himself to be the Holy and Just One, Whose meat it always had been to do the Father's will. Nay more, He stood there in the full consciousness of being the Son of God, the only Begotten, Who even at this very moment was in the bosom of the Father according to His divine nature. O, the shame of it! The abominable corruption of it! The unspeakable wickedness of it! Man, mere man, who is less than a dust of the balance, here places the very Son of God on a par with the lowest representative of the fallen and sinful and damnable world! The will of the people is about to make a choice between very God and public enemy number one! Will He, too, will the very Son of God also accept this nomination? O, do not say that He has no choice! He might simply have dropped His bonds and disappeared. Or He might have caused His divine glory and majesty to flash forth to consume these wicked enemies, that loved darkness rather than light! But He is silent! Voluntarily He so deeply humbles Himself that He allows Himself to be numbered with the lowest transgressors! And why? Because He knows that it is the hour of judgment of the world! Clearly He perceives that even at this moment God is sitting on the judgment seat, and the "world", the world of the "people", the "world" of the majority, stands before the tribunal of the Most High! He is trying them. He is submitting them to His searching examination. He is placing them before the question: If ye must choose between the Holy One and the Just, and a murderer, between light and darkness, between righteousness and iniquity, between the Christ of God, and your own wicked world, what will be your preference? And being conscious of all this, the Lord remains silent, and also accepts the shameful nomination!

The question as put before the people by the Roman governor, is recorded in two different forms. Perhaps Pilate repeated the question, and the people took time to consider what they would answer. In the gospel according to Matthew we read: "Therefore when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ?" According to Luke the governor appears to have assumed a bolder attitude, and simply to have stated that he found no guilt in Jesus, and that, therefore, of the two, Jesus or Barabbas, he would release the former. In the gospel according to Mark and John both, we read that Pilate asked the people: "Will ye that I release unto you the king of the Jews?" At any rate, the alternative was clearly put. If there were any need of it, the question by the Roman governor favored the choice of Jesus, and clearly suggested that this was the only proper preference they could express in this case. It was a choice between the criminal and the Christ, the murderer and their King!

And what is the will of the multitude? How do the people vote? What is the preference of the majority? They prefer the murderer! "Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas!" And when Pilate asked them again: "What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified." And when the Roman judge still presses the matter, and asks them, "Why? What evil hath he done?" the answer of the whole multitude comes surging back with a great and angry roar: "Let him be crucified!" Matt. 27:21-23. It is true that the leaders of the Jews moved among the multitude persuading them to choose Barabbas and demand Jesus' blood. Always theirs is the greater guilt and the greater damnation. But the instigation of the chief priests does not render the multitude irresponsible. The choice remains their own. The preference expressed is theirs. Quite consciously they prefer a murderer to Jesus who is called the Christ! And very definite is their choice: the murderer they receive in their midst and take to their bosom, but Jesus they cast out to be crucified!

"Now is the judgment of this world!" The will of the people had spoken. No, indeed, it was not at all proper that a question such as whether Jesus be the Christ, the Son of God, should be submitted to a vote of the people. A shameful act it was on the part of Pilate to present the nomination of Jesus and Barabbas, and leave the preference to the will of the people. By the very act he had trampled all justice under foot. But it had been done. And, no doubt, God so willed it. For also the people, the majority of the world, must have an opportunity to express themselves on the crucial question: what will ye do with Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God? And, let us not become pious, and exalt ourselves above the multitude that made this choice and expressed preference for a murderer above the Holy One. Let us not draw the wrong conclusion that the multitude before the Praetorium who preferred Barabbas above Jesus were an ignorant lot, a mob that knew not what they were doing, and that if only we had been there instead, we of the enlightened twentieth century, we, who are so much more refined, civilized, educated, religious, we would have condemned Barabbas to the cross, and voted in favor of Jesus! For then you and I would only deceive ourselves. The voters that cast their ballot for Barabbas, the murderer, were fully capable of representing any group of voters at all times, casting their ballot for or against Jesus, the Christ. They were religious people. They had Moses and the prophets. The Word of God was entrusted to them. They were well informed. And their choice represents the choice of the whole world apart from grace, the will of the natural man! Always, when the question concerns Jesus that is called Christ is submitted to a vote of the people, to be decided by the will of the world, the answer must be: Give us Barabbas, and let Jesus be crucified! And always, when this Jesus who is called Christ is presented to the will of the natural man, he will surely prefer darkness to light, the murderer above the Holy One, Barabbas to Jesus, the world above Christ! "Now is the judgment of this world!" By its own testimony it is condemned! Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!

O, let that world put on a cloak of righteousness and justice now, it will be of no avail to them. Let them refuse to enter into the Praetorium, lest they become defiled and incapable of eating the passover, all their religiousness cannot alter the fact that they stand forever exposed as friends of the murderer, enemies of the Holy One. Let them take two other malefactors, yes, by all means, let them take two thieves and crucify them together with Christ, to attest to their own severe justice and hatred of all unrighteousness, no number of executions can undo the fact that they have revealed themselves as lovers of unrighteousness, and haters of that which is good! Sin is forever exposed to be sin through the cross of Jesus that is called the Christ! Now is the judgment of this world!

With that sin upon Himself, Christ proceeded to the place of execution! For such is the mystery of the cross: in the hour of judgment the rejected and despised Servant of Jehovah bears the sin of the hostile world that rejects Him and prefers a murderer. He did so by divine appointment before the foundation of the world, as the Head of His Church. And with that sin upon Him He willingly travels all the way of the cross, by his perfect obedience bringing the sacrifice that taketh away the sin of the world. And having made atonement for sin, and having been exalted at the right hand of God, it is He Who by His Spirit and grace changes our wicked preference for Barabbas and all he represents, into a profound and everlasting delight in the friendship and service of the living God!