Imagine there was a competition to explain the Christian faith in 100 words or less. Because that is what the Apostles' Creed does (in the Latin)! [It is possible] to teach the whole of the Christian gospel – from the Trinity, to creation, to redemption, to the church, to the Christian life, to the things that are yet to come – all in the space of 100 words. It is really an amazing achievement. We say it just in a matter of seconds on Sundays, but now that we are thinking about the Apostles' Creed, we discover what an amazing document it is. It is only 100 words! If you can find somebody who will understand your Latin, you can explain the whole Bible message to them in 100 words!

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There are other fascinating things about it. We noted on an earlier occasion that of those 100 words, 75 of them are about Jesus. 75 of those words focus our attention on the person of the Lord Jesus. Perhaps even more amazing is that when we use the Creed, we don't say a single word about anything that Jesus ever taught. It is not that what Jesus taught is absent from the Creed, but one of the things that the Creed is emphasizing is that everything Jesus taught was really to help us to understand the meaning of what He came to do. That is why fascinatingly, although there is much said about the Lord Jesus, the Creed moves from the first day of His life (“conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary”) to the last day of His life – from the first 24 hours to the last 24 hours – without talking about anything that takes place in between.

Why Does the Apostles’ Creed Mention Pontius Pilate?⤒🔗

Today we come to something even more fascinating: That apart from the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, there is only one other person mentioned in the Apostles' Creed. Not Abraham, not Moses, not the Apostle Peter, not the Apostle John, not the Apostle Paul. Apart from being conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, the only [other] person who is mentioned in the Apostles' Creed is Pontius Pilate. In a sense, [he is] the last person who should be mentioned in a Christian confession, because he is the one who is responsible (humanly speaking) for the death of the Lord Jesus.

Why did those who composed this Creed do such a strange thing? Probably for two reasons. One was that they wanted to emphasize that what God has done to bring us forgiveness and to bring us new life, God has done in history. Whenever you hear a version of the Christian faith that doesn't emphasize that our salvation depends upon something God has done in history, you know you are not listening to orthodox Christianity.

I think there is another reason why they mention Pontius Pilate. They might have mentioned the high priests – why didn't they mention Caiaphas? I think the reason is that they wanted to emphasize that what Jesus did He did not just for the Jews. What Jesus did, He did for the whole world. So the figure who is drawn into the confession of faith we make stands as a representative of the whole of humanity, because in that sense, in his day he was the chief representative of all human power, before whom the Lord Jesus was standing.

The Roman Legal System Unravels←⤒🔗

When you look at this story in Matthew's Gospel (there is actually more about Pontius Pilate in Matthew 27), you might be forgiven for thinking that Jesus has failed, that His hopes of bringing in the kingdom of God are being unraveled, and (as is obviously the case) He stands condemned and is taken out to be crucified. So even within the Christian church there are many who read this story and the thing that is in their mind is sympathy for Jesus. “This should never have happened to Jesus.” We sympathize with Jesus. The startling thing is that Jesus made it crystal clear, "If you sympathize with me in this situation, you haven't begun to understand what's happening here." Because in the Gospels there were people who sympathized with Him. There were women from Jerusalem who, as they saw Him going to the cross, had tears in their eyes. This was an appalling sight, and they were broken-hearted. They were weeping. And He said to them, "Do not weep for me; weep for yourselves" (Luke 23:28).

So when I hear the crucifixion story and I find myself deeply moved out of sympathy or out of a kind of empathy for what Jesus is going through and what He is suffering, then my tears are actually misplaced. The only tears that are appropriate when I read this story, says Jesus, are the tears I need to shed about myself. Isn't that amazing? For me that kind of overturns all of my expectation.

And actually, that is one of the chief things that is happening in this portion of Matthew's Gospel. What seems to be is the very reverse of what actually is. It seems, for example, that all of Jesus' plans have failed, but actually what this is about is the way in which humanity's best justice fails. That is what this is about. We think that Jesus is on trial here, but actually it is the reverse that is true. It is human justice that is on trial here.

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I say that because, as the lawyers here know, the Roman legal system in many ways has been the foundation of legal systems throughout the Western world ever since. The Romans were famous for their ability to structure and order society and to create laws. So what we have here in this presentation of the gospel (interestingly, we find it in all the Gospels) is the Lord Jesus Christ standing before the finest legal system that the world had ever known.

And notice that that legal system begins to unravel before the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. It unravels in the person of Pontius Pilate, who is the executor of that Roman legal system. He tries to do a kind of shimmy down the touchline by exchanging Jesus for Barabbas. And then (this is interesting) here is the Roman “judge” essentially, and what is he doing as he distributes Roman law? He is listening to his wife, and that sways him. And not only so, but here is a man whom he himself says on more than one occasion, “This man has done nothing worthy of death. This man is innocent. This man is not guilty.” And what the best of human law does in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ is to take a bowl of water and wash his hands, and say effectively, "We may have the best legal system in the world, but that legal system fails in the face of Jesus of Nazareth." Or if I can put it another way around, the weakness and inadequacy of that system crumbles before the strength in weakness and the glorious adequacy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what does the best legal system do at this point? Well, Pontius Pilate does this very carefully. First of all, he has Jesus scourged. Second, he delivers Him over to his own guard. Now, if the man had any sense, wouldn't he reserve the best of his troops to guard his own life, because his own life was in danger a good deal of the time? He hands Him over to these guards, in order that these guards may deal with Jesus. And in doing so, he demonstrates that the best of human justice crumbles in its inadequacy before the presence of the Lord Jesus.

Human Discipline Unravels←⤒🔗

Then there is a second thing that happens immediately when Pilate hands his prisoner over to his guards. Not only does the best human legal system become exposed in all its inadequacies and in all the inadequacies of those who handle it, but the best of human discipline unravels in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Romans were famous for their ability to structure society through their legal system. They were also famous for their ability to conquer nations, because of the iron discipline of their military system. Notice how that military system begins to unravel in the presence of the innocent and holy Lord Jesus Christ. Pilate hands Jesus over, and these supremely disciplined soldiers lose all sense of discipline. They play games with Him. They mock Him. They take the opportunity to scourge Him. They press a crown of thorns upon His head. And in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the hearts of those best disciplined of all men are shockingly exposed – just as is sadly often true in our own time. We have seen in the last 100 years the most disciplined fighting individuals in the world, and we see how discipline breaks down, particularly in the moral sphere.

Why is this important for us? Why would this have a message for us today? Well, for several reasons. One reason is this: I suspect that if you are a Christian who has borne faithful testimony, you have seen little bits of this, perhaps totally unexpectedly. At the end of the day, all you have done is speak about the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have seen people who are committed to the legal system do things that are frankly immoral in their personal response to your testimony of the Lord Jesus. All of us have known highly disciplined people. Some of us perhaps have known athletes at the university or the college where we studied, who were supremely disciplined. But in the presence of the Lord Jesus, that discipline was shown only to be skin deep. It was a discipline of the external, and not a discipline of the heart, not a discipline of the mind, not a discipline of the will.

Why should this be so important to us? For this reason: We live in a time when we all recognize how things are crumbling, and we have a tendency to say, "What we need is firmer laws. We need to deal with the disfunctions and breakdowns in society by more laws. And what we need to do is we need to deal with our young people by giving them more education and more discipline." And do you know, if we are saying that to our politicians or our educators or our lawyers, we are saying, "Make bricks without straw."

Here we have two supreme illustrations of what man can produce: A magnificent legal system for its time and extraordinary powerful discipline in its men. But in the presence of the pure holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ, these things begin to untangle and unfold and to show themselves in their real light. No legal system can change the heart, and no amount of discipline can change the heart. At some time or another, the sinful, rebellious, treacherous human heart will break out. And sometimes it does it most clearly when as Christians we are speaking about Jesus.

The Heart of God’s Gracious Salvation is Revealed←⤒🔗

That leads me to the last thing I want you to notice about this whole incident in which Jesus suffers under Pontius Pilate. Here we have the best of human legal systems unraveling. Here we have the tightest of human disciplines unraveling. But at the same time, we have the heart of God's gracious salvation unraveling. And in one way or another, all the Gospel writers tell us this without saying it in so many words. A bit like the Apostles' Creed itself, the Gospels often explain the message of the gospel to us without stopping and saying, "Now, let's just take a moment so I can explain the message of the gospel." The way they do it is by weaving the message of the gospel into the way in which the story is told and into what is happening before our eyes.

What is it that is happening before our eyes here? Because it is actually the heart of the Christian gospel. It is that the One who is time and time again (I think in Luke’s account it is five separate times) declared to be innocent is nevertheless treated as though He is the only individual present who is guilty. Even while everybody who surrounds Him – the crowd, the soldiers, the high priests, Pontius Pilate and his guards, even the disciples who surround Jesus at this point – are all exposed as guilty and flawed sinners, Jesus stands in the midst as the One who is absolutely without sin. And it is not just His claim; it is what even Pontius Pilate will say about Him – "This man is innocent." Yet He stands in the midst of all the guilty as the only One who is condemned.

It is very interesting that in a part of Matthew 27 that is not printed today we are told that when Pilate began to probe Jesus, Jesus just stood there. He said absolutely nothing. And Pilate, we are told, was amazed. He was amazed at the poise of Jesus. I wouldn't be surprised [if he was] amazed by the fact that this was the first time a prisoner had stood before him in danger of losing his life who seemed to act as though he were not the accused but the judge. Which is, of course, exactly what He was. Because here it was the high priests who were being judged. Here it was the soldiers who were being judged. Here it was Pontius Pilate who was being judged. Here it was the governor's guard who were being judged. Here it was the crowd who were being judged. Because there was only One who was innocent.

And He remained silent for this reason (and this is the heart of it): Because He would not plead innocent to the charges of which we are guilty, in order that those charges might be brought against Him, innocent though He was, and He alone might take the place of the guilty. That is why, if you know the Bible a little, there is one passage in the Old Testament that will leap into your mind when you read about Jesus standing there silent. It is from the famous section of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. “Like a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he did not open his mouth” (verse 7b). Because He understood that the Lord was laying upon Him the iniquity of us all (verse 6b), that He would be wounded for our transgressions, He would be bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement that would bring us peace would be upon Him, and with His stripes we would be healed (verse 5).

So there, as He stood before Pontius Pilate, the great exchange was taking place in which He was, as it were, beginning to go into God's presence as though He was the only guilty party in the whole world. In order that those whose sins He would bear might go into the presence of God knowing that before Him we are justified, and we can gaze into His face and call Him our heavenly Father.

It is amazing, really. The gospel is so unexpected to me. It is awesome, really, isn't it? I know I say that often. It is awesome. But first it all it exposes me and makes me want to say, “Yes, I was there when they crucified my Lord”, and it does “make me tremble, tremble, tremble.” But I thank you, Lord Jesus, that you were there, the innocent One for the guilty, the righteous One for the unrighteous, to bear my sin and to bring me to God.

And that is actually what we have been singing about:

He stood before the court
On trial instead of us;
He met its power to hurt,
Condemned to face the cross;
Our king, accused of treachery;
Our God, abused for blasphemy!

Shall we be judged and tried?
In Christ our trial is done;
We live, for he has died,
Our condemnation gone;
In Christ are we both dead and raised,
Alive and free, his name be praised!He Stood Before the Court, Christopher Idle, 1982.

Or in words much more familiar to us: “In my place condemned He stood, sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior!” (Hallelujah! What a Savior!, Philip P Bliss, 1875).