J C Ryle
The first point that we should notice is the false conscientiousness of our Lord’s wicked enemies. We are told that the Jews who brought Christ before Pilate would not go into “the judgement hall, lest they should be defiled; but that they might eat the passover”. That was scrupulosity indeed! These hardened men were actually engaged in doing the wickedest act that mortal man ever did. They wanted to kill their own Messiah. Yet at this very time they talked of being defiled and were very particular about the passover!
The conscience of unconverted men is a very curious part of their moral nature. While in some cases it becomes hardened, seared and dead, until it feels nothing; in others it becomes morbidly scrupulous about the lesser matters of religion. It is no uncommon thing to find people excessively particular about the observance of outward ceremonies, while they are the slaves of detestable immoralities. Robbers and murderers in some countries are extremely strict about confession and absolution and prayers to saints. Fastings and self-imposed austerities in Lent, are often followed by excess of worldliness when Lent is over.
All these are symptoms of spiritual disease and a heart secretly dissatisfied. Men who know they are wrong in one direction often struggle to make things right by excess of zeal in another direction. That very zeal is their condemnation. Let us pray that our consciences may always be enlightened by the Holy Ghost and that we may be kept from a one-sided and deformed Christianity. A religion that makes a man neglect the weightier matters of daily holiness and separation from the world, and concentrate his whole attention on forms, sacraments and ceremonies is, to say the least, very suspicious. It may be accompanied by immense zeal and a show of earnestness but it is not sound in the sight of God.
The Pharisees paid tithe of mint, anise and cummin, and compassed sea and land to make proselytes, while they neglected “judgement, mercy, and faith” (Matt 23:23). The Jews who thirsted for Christ’s blood feared the defilement of a Roman judgement hall, and made much ado about keeping the passover! Let their conduct be a beacon to Christians, as long as the world stands. That religion is worth little which does not make us say, “I esteem all Thy commandments concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way” (Ps 119:128). That Christianity is worthless which forces us to make up for the neglect of heart religion and practical holiness with an extravagant zeal for man-made ceremonies or outward forms.
The second point that we should notice in these verses is the account that our Lord Jesus Christ gives of His kingdom. He says, “My kingdom is not of this world”. These famous words have been so often wrested out of their real sense that their true meaning has been almost buried under a heap of false interpretations. Let us make sure that we know what they mean. Our Lord’s main object in saying, “My kingdom is not of this world”, was to inform Pilate concerning the true nature of His kingdom and to correct any false impression he might have received from the Jews. He tells him that He did not come to set up a kingdom which would interfere with the Roman Government. He did not aim at establishing a temporal power, supported by armies and maintained by taxes. The only dominion He exercised was over men’s hearts, and the only weapons that His subjects employed were spiritual weapons. A kingdom which required neither money nor servants for its support was one of which the Roman Emperors did not need to be afraid. In the highest sense it was a kingdom “not of this world”.
But our Lord did not intend to teach that the kings of this world have nothing to do with religion and ought to ignore God altogether in the government of their subjects. No such idea was in His mind. He knew perfectly well that it was written, “By Me kings reign” (Prov 8:15), and that kings are as much required to use their influence for God as the meanest of their subjects. He knew that the prosperity of kingdoms is wholly dependent on the blessing of God, and that kings are as much bound to encourage righteousness and godliness as to punish unrighteousness and immorality. To suppose that He meant to teach Pilate that an infidel might be as good a king as a Christian is simply absurd. Let us carefully hold fast the true meaning of our Lord’s words in these latter days.
Let us never be ashamed to maintain that no government can expect to prosper which refuses to recognise religion, which deals with its subjects as if they had no souls, and does not care whether they serve God or Baal or no God at all. Such a government will find, sooner or later, that its policy is damaging to its best interests. No doubt the kings of this world cannot make men Christians by laws and statutes. But they can encourage and support Christianity, and they will do so if they are wise. The kingdom where there is the most industry, sobriety and honesty will always be the most prosperous. The king who wants to see these things abound among his subjects should do all in his power to help Christianity and discourage irreligion.
The third point that we should notice in these verses is the account that our Lord gives of His own mission. He says, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth”. Of course we are not to suppose our Lord meant that this was the only end of His mission. No doubt He spoke with special reference to what He knew was passing through Pilate’s mind. He did not come to win a kingdom with the sword, and to gather adherents and followers by force. He came armed with no other weapon but “truth”. To testify to fallen man the truth about God, about sin, about the need of a Redeemer, about the nature of holiness – to declare this long-lost truth – was one great purpose of His ministry. He came to be God’s witness to a lost and corrupt world.
He does not shrink from telling the proud Roman Governor that the world needed such a testimony. This is what Paul had in view when he told Timothy, that “before Pontius Pilate [Christ] witnessed a good confession” (1 Tim 6:13). Christ’s servants in every age must remember that our Lord’s conduct in this place is meant to be their example. Like Him they are to be witnesses to God’s truth, salt in the midst of corruption, light in the midst of darkness, men and women not afraid to stand alone and testify for God against the ways of sin and the world. To do so may entail much trouble, even persecution. But the duty is plain. If we love life, if we would keep a good conscience and be owned by Christ at the last day, we must be witnesses. It is written, “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).
1Comments on John 18:28-40 from Expository Thoughts on John, vol 3 (with editing).