The Crown of Thorns

BY TITIAN, THE FOREMOST VENETIAN MASTER, DIED 1576.

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"And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe.”—John, 19, 2.

F IT was Jewish savagery that compelled Christ's

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execution, Roman callousness must share the blame

for making that execution doubly horrible. Pilate, without energy to oppose the mob, still hoped to placate it. He conceived the idea of having the prisoner scourged and otherwise tortured, hoping that His suffering might thus satiate the vengeance of the Jews. The Romans were ever indifferent to the physical misery which they inflicted upon their subject races, and torture was one of their common legal methods of attempting to force testimony of the truth.

So Jesus Christ, the Lord of all the world, was now subjected by the leaders of that world to such bodily pain, such brutality and barbarity, as sickens and revolts the mind even to hear tell of. The Roman law had not passed upon His case; the Roman governor had declared Him guiltless; yet He was given over to the ignorant, savage Roman soldiers with the command to torture Him. He was scourged; a crown of long, sharp thorns was forced upon His head. He was struck, and spit upon, and mocked.

ROMANS II THE JEWISH LAW

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the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:

15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,

18 And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;

19 And are confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,

20 An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.

21 Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? 22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? 23 Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?

24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.

25 For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. 26 Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?

27 And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?

28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Chapter 3

1 The Jews' prerogative: 3 which they have not lost: 9 howbeit the law convinceth them also of sin: 20 therefore no flesh is justified by the law, 28 but all without difference, by faith only: 31 and yet the law is not abolished.

HAT advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?

2 Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.

3 For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?

4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar! as it is

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ROMANS III-GOD'S JUSTICE

written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.1

5 But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man.)

6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?

7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory: why yet am I also judged as a sinner?

8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.

9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;2 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:3

11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:*

14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:5

15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:6

16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.7

19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

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Psalm 116, 11; 51, 4, etc. Instead of "Are we better?" other translations are, Are we in worse case?" or "Do we excuse ourselves?" Psalm 14, 1-5. Psalm 5, 9; 140, 3. Psalm 10, 7. Isaiah 59, 7-8. 7 Psalm 36, 1.