That’s a very interesting question. Let’s look into the Word to find your answer. There, we will find there were three groups of people that bear responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

THE JEWS – In Luke 22:66 we read, “And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council.” It was the Jewish elders, chief priests and scribes that sent men to capture the Lord and brought Him into their council to make accusations against Him. Luke 23:1 tells us that the “whole multitude” was involved as they condemned the Lord and sent Him to Pilate. In course of time, Pilate declared that he found no fault in the Lord, yet the voice of the crowd made their desires obvious. We read in Luke 23:21, “But they cried, saying, Crucify him, crucify him.” The Lord was pronounced guilty by this crowd of Jewish people even before He was sent to Pilate. They hated Him and wanted Him crucified. The Lord had said earlier in John 15:25, “They hated me without a cause.” The Apostle Peter spoke to the nation of Israel and declared their guilt in the death of the Lord. He said in Acts 2:23, “Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, YE HAVE TAKEN, AND BY WICKED HANDS HAVE CRUCIFIED AND SLAIN.”

THE GENTILES – It was the Jewish people who demanded the death of Christ, but it was the Gentiles that actually put their hands on Him and killed Him. We read of Pilate in Matthew 27:26, “Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.” Because the scourging was done under Pilate’s order, he is accounted as the one who beat the Lord Jesus. We read prophetically of the Lord in Psalm 22:17, “I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.” This indicates that the Lord was beat so bad that His flesh had been stripped away and His bones were exposed. It was the Roman soldiers that put the Lord Jesus on the cross. It was a Roman soldier that stabbed Him in the side with a spear after He died. John 19:34 says, “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” Indicating the guilt of Jew and Gentile alike, we read in Acts 4:27, “For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the GENTILES, and the people of ISRAEL, were gathered together.” All were guilty!

GOD – That’s right! God put His own Son to death. We read in Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” Why would the Lord take the life of His Son? It was because He made Christ’s “soul an offering for sin.” The death of Christ on the cross was the only acceptable offering to put our sins away. ONLY the death of Christ could satisfy God’s righteous demands for the payment of sin. As evil men consorted to put Christ to death, we read in Acts 4:28 that they gathered “For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.” Man is guilty for crucifying the Lord, but even so, the Lord had determined that Christ would die for the payment of our sins.

One further thought. Christ, Himself, caused His death. We read in John 10:17-18, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” The Apostle Paul spoke of the boundless love and sacrificial death of the Lord Jesus in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” My friend, do you realize that this death on the cross was for your benefit? Do you realize that if you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, accounting that He died for you…YOU WILL BE SAVED! (237.4)