Page 84 - Biblical Theology Textbook - masters

Breaking the Jewish law would have been a sin and Scripture repeatedly affirms that Jesus was sinless (2
Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:22, Hebrews 4:15). James 2:10 says whoever stumbles at one point of the
law is guilty of breaking it all, which means Jesus did not break any Old Testament laws.

But what about Roman laws? The Roman government was the one that carried
out His execution. Did Jesus break any civil laws of His day?

In Luke 23:2, the Jewish leaders bring Jesus to Pilate and accuse Him of three
crimes: misleading the nation, opposing paying taxes to Caesar, and saying He is
the Messiah, a king. Obviously, those claims were “fabrications” of the religious
leaders who could not offer proof of any of the allegations.

When Pilate examines Jesus’ case, he declares Jesus innocent and repeatedly tells
the Jewish leaders so. Pilate directly rejects their charge in Luke 23:14, when he says, “You have brought
me this man as one who misleads people. But in fact, after examining him in your presence, I have found
no grounds to charge this man with those things you accuse him of.”

Later, early Christians would violate Roman law when they declared Jesus, and not Caesar, was Lord. But
during this time, the Romans allowed the Jews to worship as they pleased. Jesus, as the fulfillment of
the Jewish religion, would not have violated the law since it granted permission to worship God.

So, the case can be made that Jesus did not break any religious or civil laws during His life, despite being
judged as a lawbreaker by the religious leaders and sentenced to die as a criminal by the governmental
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leaders.

Skeptics says Jesus was not perfect. For example, they cite John 7:1-9 as an example of Jesus lying to His
brothers. Jesus’ brothers came to Him to taunt Him into going to the great Feast in Jerusalem. Jesus
was resistant to this idea because He knew that the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were seeking to kill him,
and it was not His time, for He must die as the Passover Lamb.
Jesus’ brothers demonstrated unbelief in Him, claiming that He
simply was a public figure who liked to put on a show to gain
attention to Himself. We see here that Jesus’ brothers wanted Him
to go into Judea publicly, but they did not believe who He was.

Jesus told his brothers that He was not going to the feast. But a few
days later, He did travel to Jerusalem in secret and did attend the
feast. Did Jesus tell His brothers a lie?

Early manuscripts of the Gospel of John, including p66 and p75 (late
nd
2 century), record Jesus saying, “I am not yet going up to the
feast” rather than “I am not going to the feast”. That’s another way
of saying, “Brothers, you go ahead. I will not be going with you”. In
John 7:9 we are told that Jesus stayed in Galilee “for a time”. In
other words, Jesus delayed His departure. He sent His brothers on
ahead but did not accompany them as was the common practice for
such a journey. Therefore, according to the earliest manuscripts,

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