“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father. They answered and said to Him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.’ Then they said to Him, ‘We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.’ ” (John 8:37-47 NKJV)

According to Jesus, His Jewish antagonists were proven to be the children of the devil rather than the descendants of Abraham by two infallible proofs; namely, their desire to kill Him and their deafness to the truth. Likewise, everyone today who turns a deaf ear to the Gospel, as well as attempts to do away with its truth, is proven to be a child of the devil rather than a child of God. As John puts it in 1 John 4:1-6, they’ve been seized by the “spirit of antichrist” rather than by “the Spirit of [Christ]” and are “of the world” rather than “of God.”

While the casual observer may view the trial of Christ as His condemnation by the world, the more careful observer will come to realize that it was really the condemnation of the world by Christ. The fact that no one was ever more shamelessly treated than the sinless Savior, that no one was ever more falsely accused than the Truth Himself and that the world was never uglier than in its execution of Him who was “altogether lovely” is proof positive of the blackness of man’s heart and this world’s enmity with God.

All the proof that one will ever need of the total depravity of man and the doctrine of original sin is found hanging on the Cross of Calvary in the torn and bloody figure of “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” What other possible explanation is there for so unspeakable a crime than the fathomless depths of human depravity?

If I’m okay and you’re okay, would you please explain to me the crucifixion of Christ?