The Romans’ Role in the Crucifixion

And so Lord, we want to, we ask you to help us to to increase our faith and help us to learn about what you have done for us and that it might affect our lives and so we commit this time to you now in Jesus name. Amen. So, as you can see in verse number 19, verse eighteen and nineteen, you can see that the the cross, the sufferings, the passion of Christ, you can divide them into a Jewish section and a Gentile section. It’s clearly delineated in this verse.

Of course, we’ve already studied the Jewish section or part of it anyway, a section of it, which is when the Lord was, was before the the the council of the Jews who condemned him to death because he he admitted openly the truth that he was the son of God. And then they, of course, not having the power to actually carry that sentence out, they turn the lord Jesus over to the Gentiles and it is just so fitting that it is that way because the lord Jesus is not only dying for the Jew but he’s also dying for the Greek, not only for the Hebrew but also for the Gentile and so it is fitting, you know, it it was just really as we saw last week, it was just really a few short years prior to this event, the cross that the the Romans took the power of capital punishment away from the Jews and had had it not been at this moment in history, then, it would not have been a Roman execution. It would have been a purely Jewish execution. It would not have been on a cross and therefore, would not have been able to fulfill the the prophecies of scripture in the manner in which the lord must die but it would have been a Jewish execution of stoning and we saw that last week but it was proper that not only the Jews had the hand in in in putting our Lord to death and rejecting him, but the Gentiles as represented by the the the one world Gentile power, Rome, was was also actively involved in the execution and rejection of the lord Jesus.

It is fitting because our lord was dying for both and not only was he dying for both, but our lord was rejected by both and it shows, you you could go to for those of you that are that that would like to study in the school of scripture as we go into the book of Romans, that’s what we’re going to see. Chapter one is about the Gentiles. Chapter two is about the Jews but in both cases, it is proving that they are all under sin. The Jew and the Gentile all under sin. That’s what you see. It’s not only the salvation part but also the condemnation part.

And so we go to chapter 27 and as we’ve studied the various events that are happening in chapter 27, we’re taking our time and instead of looking at the events, we’re paying attention to the figures, the people that are the characters if you will in this story, which is not just a story, it’s a it’s a historical narrative. And so we’ve looked at the various people, we’ve looked at Pilate, we’ve looked at Judas Iscariot, we have looked at Simon of Cyrene, and this today, we’re gonna look at the Romans.

Because the Romans had a part in the death of Christ and were present at his death. So we’ll start in verse number 26. The Bible says this, then released he Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Verse 27, then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe.

And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed and smote him on the head. And after that, they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him.

And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, him they compelled to bear his cross. So in verse 32, which we’ve already covered, the the the pronoun is still referring to the Romans, the the soldiers. Okay? So, the they, they, they, we’re still dealing with the Romans. Now, it’ll switch later but we gotta keep with the with the context here. Verse 33, and when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, still the Romans, mingled with gall.

And when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him, the Romans, and parted his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down, they watched him there, And set up over his head, his accusation written. This is the king of the Jews.

Now, look if you would down at verse number 54. Verse 54 is the only other time the Romans are really mentioned in the narrative. Now when the centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the earthquake, this is after Christ had died immediately after, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, truly this was the Son of God. Truly this was the Son of God.

Now there’s four things I want you to see about the Romans and their relationship, you could say Romans or you could say Gentiles, and their relationship in the crucifixion of Christ. The Romans played a major part of the all of the prophecies of Christ’s death. And as I said, that’s it’s fitting because not only were they showing their rejection but they’re also going to benefit in what Christ is doing upon the cross for sinners.

The first thing we I want you to see here is in verse 26. It’s just barely mentioned in scripture. Now, I know if you if you see any of these movies and stuff, they’re put out about the death of Christ and there’s there’s a number of them. They focus all their attention upon upon the the scourge, right? Upon the the whipping of the lord Jesus Christ but really in scripture, it’s only covered basically in one place, in one verse in in each of the gospels. In our case, it’s in verse number 26, they released then released he Brabbas unto them and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered to him to be crucified. So, it’s actually mentioned in passing and indeed that’s actually correct historically, obviously because the scourging was something that was done as a as a procedure of the crucifixion.

It wasn’t a second thing. It was part of the crucifixion. So, when some someone that was a non citizen, someone of low class was condemned to death by crucifixion as a matter of course, they they would be they would be scourged prior to going out to the going out to be crucified and that was just a man is just torture. That’s what it it was designed to do. It was designed to inflict as much pain as possible but not to the point that they would die, although sometimes they did, but to inflict as much pain as possible before that person was led out to be crucified.

And this scourging, the Romans actually had different kinds of scourging. They had scourging that was done with rods, and then they had scourging that was done with whips. And this kind of scourging have been the worst of the two, the one done with a whip. And this scourging was reserved only for non citizens, because citizens were protected from from this kind of scourging. Now, they could be scourged with rods but that was only after having been examined by trial and you can see this in scripture, Acts 22 verse 25. Remember, they tied Paul up to scourge him as a slave would be scourged and they were there ready to do it and Paul says, Paul Paul says, you know, meekly, he says, is it is it lawful for you to scourge a a Roman uncondemned?

And so they like literally dropped everything and walked away because they were were afraid of what would happen to them. And Paul got out of it on his Roman citizenship. But that’s what they were about to do. And so what they would do is they would the the condemned would be tied to a post or a pillar and his arms would be outstretched above him and then, you know, sometimes we read in in the Bible about how that the Jews would would whip someone with a corporal type of punishment and and it could not be more than 40 lashes.

Right? You’ve read that in the Old Testament and it’s in the New as well. Paul said, he had been whipped by the Jews with 40 lashes save one. 40 stripes save one, which is 39, so they wouldn’t go over. But here, there was no limit like that because these weren’t Jews. These were Romans. So, the the limit of the the scourging was only at the discretion of the officer in charge.

And so this is although it’s just a kind of a passing reference in scripture, the lord Jesus the fact that he endured this punishment, the fact that he endured this punishment is was a fulfillment of the scripture. Let me show you this, look at Isaiah chapter 50. Isaiah chapter 50, we’ll come we’ll come right back to Matthew, but Isaiah chapter 50 and Isaiah chapter 53, if you can look at both of those, Isaiah fifty:fifty three.

Isaiah 50 says this, if you look at verse number 10 to start, notice what it says, Isaiah 5zero 10, Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the lord and stay upon his god. Notice the mention of the servant of the lord. Now, if you’re familiar with the book of Isaiah, you know that this section of Isaiah 52 ish, 53, but but it’s it’s this entire section is when the lord starts referring to his servant, his servant, his servant. You get Isaiah 52, the end of chapter 52, you go into chapter 53, which is you know the chapter that’s prophesying the crucifixion of Christ, that is actually a description of the lord’s servant being crucified.

The lord’s servant being punished, who is wounded for our transgressions. Well, here, this is what we’re talking about in this chapter. Look if you would at verse number six. The servant is speaking in verse number six and he says this, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. You know this is the only verse in the Bible that tells us that hints at the fact that Jesus had a beard. I’ll never understand how someone could argue that having a beard is in any way sinful when Jesus had a beard, David had a beard, Moses had a beard, Aaron had a beard. In other words, all the important people in the Bible had a beard. So let’s get with it, Brother Jim, what’s up? Right?

But there are people that say silly things like that, but this is the only verse that shows us that we know or that leads us to believe that Jesus had a beard, but notice it says, He gave His back to the smiters. He gave his back to the smiters. Look at chapter 53.

Chapter 53, also talking about the servant of the lord. Verse five says this, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his, here it is, stripes. We are healed. You know what that tells us? That our lord must have been whipped. Our lord must have been whipped. It was required. It was part of the prophecy and notice it says, with his stripes, we are healed.

With his stripes, we are healed. Even the chastisement of our peace. Now, chastisement is not the same as a whipping but often in scripture, they’re connected especially when you deal with discipline of children. The chastisement and the use of the rod of correction is sometimes put together and so, our lord is being, our lord is being whipped but these stripes are actually our stripes. Our lord is receiving the lashes but we are the ones who have earned them.

Because it says, He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. Some of the most important scriptures in the Bible right here, it was not His transgressions that earned him these stripes, it was ours that were laid upon him which we will see visually in just a minute.

First Peter two twenty four says this, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. That we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness. By whose stripes ye were healed. Just a slight quote. But you know what this is saying? It’s saying, by whose stripes ye were healed. You know how Peter is using that in this in first Peter two twenty four? He’s saying, look, he’s saying that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness. You know what he’s focusing on? He’s focusing on the word healed.

Christ was Christ was whipped, he was beaten, he was striped for us. It was our sin that put him there. Remember in the garden? That’s all that’s happening is our sin is the cause of it, not his own. Now, we know that but when when the Bible says, we are healed by his stripes and I’ll I’ll touch on the word healed in just a minute but here’s the thing, that means that now that we are or that we have believed in Christ, now that we are healed, we should live under righteousness. That’s the healing of it. You see?

Christ was Christ suffered and he died in our place. He bore those stripes not so that we would continue in sin, but be healed from sin. That’s why he died. That’s supposed to be the effect of the stripes and when we give our attention to why our lord died upon the cross and this is just focus on it. Do you want to be broken of your love of sin and of your attraction to it?

Now, you live in a flesh and that flesh doesn’t matter what you do. You can go live in a mountain in a monastery somewhere. That flesh is like a magnet always attracted to wickedness. Nothing you do will change it. The only thing that will change that is the resurrection, that old body of yours. Mine too. But you do have a heart and Paul described it in Romans seven, you remember? When he says, that which I would not, that I do and and you know that passage And you know what he’s saying, you know what he’s saying? He’s describing this wickedness of his flesh. But you know inside of him in in the heart, he said, I delight after the law of God in the inward man. Do you want that? You know, sometimes our heart actually wants sin. You know that? As a as a believer, our affections are wrong.

You know the way to be broken of that? Is for you and for me to focus our attention upon our Lord’s stripes because they heal us. Now I know they heal us in so many ways, but nobody can look upon this scene of our Lord being whipped. Knowing that he’s whipped, those stripes are our stripes and we we deserve them. Nobody can look in all, look upon this scene that our lord is suffering for our sin and think, well, my sin’s not really all that bad.

You see, the the best way to get a very plain and ugly view of what your sin really is. The best way to get a plain view of it is by looking at what our lord endured. If indeed our sin was not as bad as it seems, if indeed our sin was as was was was as mediocre, it wasn’t quite as bad as maybe the we read in scripture or maybe that’s the way we view it ourselves. If it wasn’t quite that bad, our lord would not have suffered these things.

The fact that he suffered them shows us that it was that bad. It was that evil. It justly earned that punishment. And so the way we break ourselves of this love of sin, and I say break ourselves, it’s an effect of God’s truth on us, is by paying close attention to our Lord suffering for those sins. Due to those sins, they are that bad. My sin is that bad.

That’s one of the reasons I think that Christians dabble in sin a little bit. They dabble so long as they can do it without it reaching out and biting them. It’s this idea that it’s not really all that bad, I’m telling you. It earned every moment of suffering for the Lord Jesus Christ, every stripe, that sin, those sins earned for him. They they were ours. But now that you believed in him, his intention, his desires that you and I might be healed of that sin.

Not just healed in our relationship but healed in our love for it. That we might be different, that we might as as Peter says, that we might live unto righteousness. Man, that’s is is that not the supposed to be the life of a born again Christian? One who has been healed of sin, right? Healed of sin. I know you you and I might not feel that way but that power, that victory is available to you. Inwardly, spiritually, you are whole.

Listen, if you are a believer in Christ, you are whole. You are healed. Amen. It’s just a matter of walking according to that truth because it’s true. It’s true.

I do wanna I do wanna caution you though and ask you to beware of some misunderstandings of this word healing. It says, with his stripes, we are healed. Some people have looked at this word healing in this verse, verse five, and have wrongly used this verse to argue that it is God’s will to heal everyone’s physical diseases or that healing the physical body is part of the atonement. I’ve had actually had someone actually say that to me. They say, see, by his stripes, he were healed. See, healing of the body is part of the atonement. They said those words.

But the truth is this is a that’s a superficial view of this whole passage. In fact, there are many times in the Old Testament where healing is used and it’s not talking about the body at all. It’s not talking about the body at all. It’s not the physical ailments. In fact, not even in this verse. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. We’re not even talking about physical sicknesses here. We’re talking about transgressions and iniquities even in this very verse.

That’s what’s in view. The spiritual and the eternal and besides that, so I believe in Christ, I’m sick, does that mean somehow I’m in sin? I thought he healed me. That’s not what we’re talking about. That’s a misunderstanding of this of this verse. That’s a misunderstanding of this verse. Every one of us just, didn’t say anything but on Saturday, early Saturday morning, my aunt Kathy, my mom’s sister passed away.

She was a believer. I thought she was healed. You see what I’m saying? See how that’s a misunderstanding? The truth is that it is appointed unto men once to die. The healing that the Lord is referring to is a spiritual healing and it will through the resurrection of Christ will redound to the healing of the body eventually at the resurrection. But that’s not what we’re talking about here.

We’re talking about something far more important than just physical ailments. The healing healing of the soul and that’s a right made, a right relationship with God, but that’s also how that comes out in life. A life that’s healed. You know, you look at yourself before you knew Christ and since you’ve known Christ, I would say that your life, I believe would show a healed life that’s been healed of sin.

It doesn’t have its power and control and wreck of your life and mind like it used to. You’ve been healed. And why? Because our Lord bore these stripes. Go back to Matthew 27 if you would.

Verse number 27, 27, 27, Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. The whole band, I mentioned this before, this would have been several 100 soldiers. We’re not talking about a small group here. In fact, this garrison was kept in Jerusalem in order to keep the peace of the city. This is not a small group. In fact, there were several bands that were in Jerusalem either in or near Jerusalem like in Caesarea which is where Herod’s palace was. There were several bands. I mean, there were thousands of soldiers that were kept in this area of the world just to deal with the tensions that constantly came up. They’re not here for no reason. This is a large group of soldiers.

Psalm 22 verse 16, the Bible says, again prophetically of the Lord Jesus, he says, for dogs have compassed me, surrounded me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. The dogs referencing the Gentiles, a common way to reference the Gentiles. At this point in verse 27, the Lord is surrounded in a mob, in a huge crowd, hundreds, literally hundreds of soldiers who are mocking him, surrounding him, beating him. Verse 28, and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe.

Now, this is this is you you know, we as as we’ve gone through this passage, we’ve we’ve we’ve tried to pay attention to the actual events but underneath of that, these events are pictures and here and there, they picture gospel truths. Man, what a what a picture here.

In fact, what you see in verse 28, how they take his clothes off, and they put other clothes on. And then later we’re gonna read about the clothes again, are we not? When he when he’s crucified. You notice this repeated mention of the Lord’s clothes. It’s kind of an odd. Why the detail about his clothes? Well, first of all, there is prophetic. We’ll get to that but also, there’s a there’s a spiritual truth that’s being illustrated here.

A beautiful spiritual truth. Notice how the scripture uses uses and and and symbolizes clothes. Listen to this, Job 29 verse 14. I put on righteousness and it clothed me. My judgment was as a robe and a diadem. Psalm 132 verse nine says this, let thy priests be clothed with righteousness and let thy saints shout for joy. Isaiah 61 verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Revelation 19 verse eight, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. That’s Old Testament, New Testament. Here’s what you see, clothing symbolizes righteousness.

That’s what you see. Think about what’s happening with our Lord. Our Lord is righteous. Our Lord is righteous. Remember what are the two attributes of Christ that we see repeatedly in chapter 27? Number one, we see his deity. He is the Son of God. Number two, what do we see? His perfect righteousness. I told you at least two weeks ago, what did I tell you? Those two themes are gonna be brought up again and again and again and again. Here it is. This is one example.

They take his clothes off. Our Lord was perfectly righteous and that is stripped from him. His righteousness is taken away and replaced with what? A scarlet robe. Come now, Isaiah says, let us reason together saith the Lord.

Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow and though they be red light crimson, they shall be as wool. This is a scarlet robe, a red colored robe that the Romans would wear and and they strip our lord’s righteousness off and they replace it with a dirty, scarlet, sinful robe of humanity, of your robe and my robe that was that was that was defiled and red like crimson, scarlet from sin and that’s the robe that’s put on him. Now, I know this this happened in real life in this actual event but man, what a picture and this is not the last picture we’ll see but what a picture of the lord trading his righteousness for our sin.

And not only that but the but the the further development of this truth in the New Testament is that when a person believes on the lord Jesus Christ, they get his robes.

He bears our red, our scarlet robe to the cross and we enjoy his robe of righteousness that was stripped from him. Here’s the thing. What did God say to Abraham? Abraham believed in the Lord and he counted it unto him for righteousness. There’s no way that you and I can go into the presence of God with any sin at all because God is holy. He is separated from everything wicked and evil.

And so the only way we can go into His presence is if we receive a perfect robe of righteousness. That robe is Christ. Listen, salvation is Christ. That’s it? You want, he that hath the Son hath life, that’s salvation is Christ, he himself is life. And so when you put your faith and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are not only forgiven, but you are robed in a robe.

You are enveloped in a robe of pure righteousness and that is your standing before God. It is not your own goodness. This is why it’s so silly to think, well, if I just, if I’m a good little boy or girl, god will be happy with me. No, it does matter. Your obedience does matter for sure but that is not your standing. Your standing is Christ. Even your obedience is is faulty and even your obedience is lacking and imperfect but your standing is perfect if your faith is in Christ.

That robe stripped off of him. He can’t put his robe on you unless it’s been stripped off of him. So we we did a trade. He got your scarlet robe of sin and you got His perfect robe of righteousness.

Look if you would at verse 29, And when they had plotted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. Genesis three seventeen and eighteen says, And unto Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. For in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. You see the thorns were a product of sin, and here they are woven together into a mock crown and pressed into the head of our Lord. So, this is another picture of the curse of sin in the world bearing down upon the lord Jesus.

Verse 30, and they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head. Isaiah 50 verse six continues and says, he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Here they spit upon the Lord in disgust.

Verse 31, after that they had mocked Him, they took the robe from off Him and put His own raiment on Him and led Him away to crucify Him. And so we go down to verse number 33, And when they were coming to a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull chosen by the Romans, a place of execution. Remember, there’s two others that are being crucified with him. This is just a standard place where executions would be held. Maybe that’s why it had its name, we don’t really know the reason. Verse 34, and they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall and they crucified him and they crucified him. Psalm 22 verse 16 says, speaking of the lord Jesus prophetically, it says, they pierced my hands and my feet. The verse I just read a minute ago, that’s the continuation of it. It says, for dogs, the Gentiles have compassed me. The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me. It goes on to say, they pierced the dogs now, pierced my hands and my feet.

Fulfilling another passage of scripture. Now listen to these verses. This is what our Lord said would happen to him. John three verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up His manner of death. You couldn’t be lifted up if you were stoned. You were beat down. John eight twenty eight, then said Jesus unto them, when you have lifted up the son of man, then shall you know that I am he and that I do nothing of myself, but my father hath taught me, I speak these, as my father hath taught me, I speak these things.

John twelve thirty two says this, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he says, signifying what death he should die. Take a minute and go to Deuteronomy 21.

We call it crucifixion because of the crucifix, which is the word that designates this implement of execution. But if outside of this case, we would call this an impaling, where something is nailed to another and hung on it by the nails. In fact, in Cambodian, that’s they don’t have of course the word crucifix, that’s not a thing. So they actually use the word that we would say is impaling.

And it says in verse 20, in chapter 21 of Deuteronomy, notice what it says. Deuteronomy 21 verse 22. Says this, and if any man have committed a sin worthy of death and he he be be to be put to death and thou hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God, that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. Now, we know Galatians quotes this verse and it says, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.

But here’s what’s happening. The fact that our Lord was cursed, that curse was not His curse, but our curse. It’s the curse that we had earned by not keeping god’s commandments. We have transgressed his law. Cursed is everyone that continue with not all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Wow. What a standard. We earned that curse. Our lord was taking our curse which is directly pronounced in Deuteronomy. Anyone who is hung, impaled on a tree is cursed.

Jesus was cursed but notice what it says in verse 22 And if any man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree. That’s that’s Jesus. I know we look at it and we think, a criminal. This is our Lord. He is living this out in living color. He is enduring this punishment as one who has committed a sin worthy of death because he is in every way taking our place. He is in every way bearing our sin whether it be whatever, big sins or little sins, whether it be venial sins or mortal sins, all sins.

Our Lord is bearing those. Dying the death of that sin. That’s why verse 22 is so important. Jesus stands as if the one committed, He’s the one who committed it.

He is cursed for you. Now that should again, let’s come back around to this. That should then inform the way we see ourselves. If Jesus was cursed of God and he endured that because of our sin, what does that say about our sin? What does that say about what God thinks of it? To be cursed of God. You know, that’s something that we don’t often say when we’re sharing the gospel with people.

Did you know that you were cursed of God? Did you know that is a biblical truth? That’s a biblical truth. His curse was not his own curse, but our curse. And when we see that, we must think and know that it was us. It was us that were cursed.

Back in Matthew 27, you’ll see what the soldiers did after they crucified Him, of course He has no need for His clothing anymore. And the Bible says this, and they crucified him and parted his garments casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which is spoken by the prophet, they parted my garments among them and upon my vesture did cast lots. See, they did two things, They took his clothing, they part, number one, they parted them, that is they divided them up, and number two, they cast lots for them. Now, John informs us in John 19 that the reason they cast lots instead of like, because it was just one garment. It was one whole garment that had no seam so it couldn’t be torn apart without destroying the garment and of course, garments were valuable things back then and so, they decided they were gonna they were gonna roll the dice for it to see who would get it instead of ripping it to pieces.

It’s more valuable together than being torn apart, so that’s why they cast lots. But remember, the prophecy is very specific. It says, not only would they take his garments and give them away, but they would do so by means of casting lots, both of which were fulfilled.

Psalm 22 verse 18, They part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. But here again, we see another gospel truth. Our Lord’s garments became another’s garments. Do you see this? Our Lord with a perfect robe of righteousness is stripped of that and that perfect robe of righteousness is given to someone else. And that’s exactly what happens in the Gospel. Again, you see this, these Gospel truths. The last thing I wanna show you is in verse 54.

Jesus now has died. He has yielded up the ghost, in verse 50. Now there were a number of soldiers around our Lord, and there was a centurion. Centurion is not just a soldier, a centurion is a leader of a 100 soldiers. So this would be fairly significant leadership position. So at the cross, there were not only soldiers, but there were others, there were centurion as well. Verse 54, now when the centurion and they that were with Him, so that’s those under His command, Watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly saying, truly this was the Son of God.

Let me read you the companion verse to that in Luke 23 verse 47. Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God saying, certainly this was a righteous man. Think about the picture, the gospel picture here.

These soldiers had just short a few hours earlier, mocked and ridiculed and beat the Lord Jesus Christ, they had reproached Him in verse 27 to 31, and now He has died, and they’re staring at Him on the cross.

And now their heart is changed. Their thoughts are changed about him. They don’t think about him like they did. Now, that they’ve seen him on the cross. They they confess him. Man, what a picture. Now, the Jews have not. The same Jews who condemned him are still mocking him right up until he dies. In fact, past when he dies which we’ll look at later but the Gentiles now have the Lord Jesus. They’re staring at the and the soldiers and the centurion are saying, two things. What are those two things?

This was the son of God, his deity. This was a righteous man, his sinlessness. They’re saying that, but here’s the picture, the picture is the Gentiles have received the Lord Jesus once they saw the cross. The Jews had not, but the Gentiles did. It was the centurion and his soldiers that confessed that Jesus was the Son of God and that He was a righteous man. A further picture of the gospel and this is exactly how this is gonna play out. Because as the gospel goes forward, it will be mostly rejected by the Jews, but the Gentiles will receive it. And so it is into this day until the Lord’s coming when the Jews repent and see him whom they had pierced.

But as it is now, you can see the confession of the Lord Jesus Christ by those who had previously mocked him. Is that not us? Let me ask you a question. We’re we’re finished, but let me ask you a question. Before any of you Is this true of any of you before you knew the Lord Jesus Christ that at some point you had mocked him? Or mocked those that believe in him? Or ridiculed them?

Is that true of anybody? You see, if the gospel is anything, you know what it is? It’s a bunch of wicked Romans mocking Jesus until they finally see him on the cross. And they finally come to understand who he really was and what he really did and believe in him and confess him. And they are the ones at the cross. They are the first ones who say, he is who he said he was.

And who if you will believe, if you wanna put it like that. Let’s pray together.