"And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, (14) Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: (15) No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him. (16) I will therefore chastise him, and release him. (17) (For of necessity he must release one unto them at the feast.) (18) And they cried out all at once, saying, Away with this man, and release unto us Barabbas: (19) (Who for a certain sedition made in the city, and for murder, was cast into prison.) (20) Pilate therefore, willing to release Jesus, spake again to them. (21) But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. (22) And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go. (23) And they were instant with loud voices, requiring that he might be crucified. And the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed. (24) And Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they required. (25) And he released unto them him that for sedition and murder was cast into prison, whom they had desired; but he delivered Jesus to their will."
If I pause over those verses, it shall be only to detain the Reader with remarking what an awful character this time-serving judge Pilate must bare been. He declared Jesus guiltless, and yet proposed by way of a milder punishment, to scourge him. He pronounced sentence of death upon Christ in the same breath that he declared him innocent! With what horrors must the soul of Pilate behold Jesus at the last day, when his body shall arise at the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, to receive from the Lord his sentence of everlasting misery? Revelation 1:7.