THERE are two old Romans, whom for centuries all christendom has known, and who till the Lord’s return shall maintain their peculiar standing in Christ’s church the most commonly known Pontius Pilate, because his name occurs in the Articles of Faith; and after him Caesar Augustus, from the Christmas narrative of St. Luke two.
Even now, when Mission work is done at Java or in China, in the South Sea Islands or in Corea, the peoples that have scarcely any knowledge of old-Rome, are definitely taught the names of these two men. Of “Caesar Augustus under whom the decree went out”, and of Pontius Pilate, under whom Christ “suffered”.
And that we take these two names together, not Augustus apart and Pilate apart, but the two combined, is correctly done, because the governor did nothing save represent the emperor. Actually it is only his imperial power that in both names stands over against the kingly crown of the “holy Child” in Bethlehem’s manger.
For surely, there plays and speaks a wondrous coincidence in the fact, that Augustus who knew nothing of Jesus and to the end of his days thought not of Jesus, from far off Rome “made a decree to go out”, by which Mary went to Bethlehem, so that finally Micah’s prophecy of Bethlehem-Ephrata is fulfilled, but yet this seemingly accidental fulfilment of prophecy is here not the main interest.
There lies expressed in the combination of Rome and Bethlehem, and in that of Jesus’ and Augustus’ names a much deeper sense and far mightier word of God, whether from the manger of Bethlehem you go back to Bethlehem’s past in Isaac’s days, or whether you bring to mind the majesty with which at length Jesus’ name broke the power of Rome’s emperor, and still bridles the insolence of all imperial superiority and finally destroys it.
Compared with the glory of the presently glorified Christ, the power of the empire recedes in the shadow in such a way, that for the eternal-youthful Bethlehem you would almost forget ancient Rome.
And yet this should not be.
For in old Rome, there has once shone a work of art of our God.
That too must be remembered.
And therefore in His Word God lets the name of emperor Augustus be written at the head of the Christmas narrative, and presently He makes the name of Pontius Pilate to be inserted in the brief formula of Faith which the whole Church of Christ, century upon century, among all nations and under all skies, shall confess.
Your Savior did not merely have to shed His blood for you, to wash you of your sins in that blood, but He had to die under sentence, i. e. He had to be sentenced by the worldly judge.
He could have had His blood shed by assassination. In a riot some one could have struck Him down. Like John Baptist in Machaerus’ fort, Jesus could have been beheaded in one of the dungeons of Jerusalem’s prisons.
And then too His blood would have flowed, but in this way His blood would not have redeemed you.
In His self-offering right had to come to its own.
You had to be made righteous. God’s violated right had to be restored. And therefore Jesus had to be sentenced by the judge, that at the judgment-seat of the Almighty you might go out free.
And therefore in your articles of Faith stands Pontius Pilate, the judge, named by name.
Consider well, not Herod, and not Caiaphas, but Pontius Pilate, the Roman, just because the Roman judge at the time in Israel had the supreme power to dispose of life and death.
The Sanhedrin might cast out Jesus as an atheist, Caiaphas might deliver Him, Herod might allow Him to be mocked, yet all this was merely impotent wrath. To put Jesus to death according to law (right) and in exercise of his official position as judge, Rome’s Governor alone could do, because at Rome the emperor was enthroned, and because the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob at the time was subject to the emperor of Rome.
Thus, that at the beginning of the Christmas narrative, first emperor Augustus is referred to, points directly to Gabbatha and Golgotha, and in connection herewith to your justification, inasmuch as Christ is legally sentenced to death.
To be able to justify you, your Savior had to be born under this and under no other jurisdiction.
Rome’s emperor must needs have the right, to cause “a decree to go forth” to the land, where Jesus was to come into the world.
So read Luke 2:1, and you read yet more in it.
Not all judicial sentences are of equal weight, or equally rich in significance. It is something very different among us whether sentence is pronounced by a county judge or by the Supreme Court. A sentence passed by a world power like Germany has far higher significance than a sentence passed at Madura by an inland Kadi. And naturally a sentence would obtain highest significance only, when it was passed by a power which judicially had command of the whole world.
Therefore it is added: Augustus, the emperor, could bring it to pass that a decree was sent out, that all the world should be taxed.
His therefore was a power, not merely over one tribe, over one nation, and not even over one part of the world, like the power of Napoleon, but a power over all the world, be it only over the world as it was then known, which then counted, and which extended across Europe, Africa and Asia.
So what Augustus did, or what his governor did, was done in the name of the whole world, and it is not a Jewish prince, but the Prince of the world, who, in the name of all that world, by its governor has sentenced Jesus to death.
That Cyrenius, who is mentioned in verse 2, has nothing to do with it. Dull-brained book learning may break its teeth on him. What matters in vs. 2 is, that that prince of this world, that that emperor Augustus, had a governor over Palestine. Cyrenius was a precursor of Pontius Pilate.
Under that world-power and under that imperial power Jesus was born, and through his governor that emperor would consecrate Jesus unto death, not by an act of violence, but by virtue of sentence, i. e. as maintainer and executioner of appointed law (right).
And that law would be Roman law, that is to say, the richest, most beautifully developed law known on earth; a right in its starting point and principle deeply sinful, but in its guarantee of right the boldest.
Waste no energy therefore on this “first taxing” and on that Cyrenius; the main point is, that when Immanuel comes, He, the Christ is born under that sovereign power, and under that administration of justice; that the “whole world” according to the best interpretation of right which it was able to produce of itself, has judged and sentenced Him; and that only thereby and in this way the judicial sentence on Gabbatha and the execution of that sentence on Golgotha, according to God’s counsel, had power to cause Jesus’ offering to be “an atonement not only for our sin, but for the sin of the whole world”.
So here you see a twofold work of God running side by side, and yet wonderfully inworking one upon the other.
On one side the work of God in Israel, and on the other side the work of God among the nations.
Seemingly these two have nothing in common with each other.
When in Solomon’s days God’s work in Israel had already received its richest foreshadowing, in the seven-hill city of the Romans there was no stone yet put upon another. Even when for Israel the exile was approaching, Rome was still of scarcely any count. In Israel’s prophecies you hear of Babylon and Tyre, of Nineveh and Moab, but Rome has scant mention.
So sacred history in Israel and profane history of Rome run on both sides in a bedding altogether their own, seemingly without connection and without coherence.
In Asia and Africa empire after empire collapse; finally Rome has its rise. Even Greece comes to ruin. And the whiles Israel’s glory pales, and the remnant of Jews seems a mere nothing, the sun of Roman superiority and glory rises ever higher above the horizon. At length Rome’s power has broken the latest resistance. And now Rome’s power embodies itself in an emperor, i. e. in one person, who as “divine”, is worshiped as divus.
A real “Prince of the world” shines from that moment on at Rome in the imperial palace.
And yet by the side of it the quiet work of God in the sacred domain uninterruptedly went on. The Annas and Simeons look for their Messiah. In John has appeared “the voice of one crying”. Mary, “blessed among women”, has conceived. Angels of God have descended. Presently the Babe in Bethlehem is born. And while the Roman legion shake their halberds before the temple at Jerusalem, and horn and trumpet give the signal of the watch, the angels of God sing gloriously in the fields of Ephrata of peace on earth, and of good pleasure with man, not to the honor of Caesar Augustus, but to the glory of “God in the highest”.
So “the work of God” in Israel approaches ever closer “the work of God among the nations”.
First in the decree that went out from Caesar Augustus. Presently more perfectly when Pontius Pilate, his governor, surrenders Jesus to the death of the cross. Finally, with the triumph of Jesus, when the Roman world-empire falls into ruins, and Christ’s church conquers Europe.
And that twofold work of God still goes on.
Even now there is on one side a hidden history of regeneration, of gathering, of faith development and work of love, in brief an history of the Sion of God and of Christ’s continuously repressed church.
And alongside of this, a history of the world, a history of wars and of commotions of peoples, at bottom nothing but one continuous opposition against the Christ of God.
Until some day both these streams shall prove to be aimed by a selfsame Divine purpose at one mark, to be directed to one end, when once more that same Christ shall come to the world, and once more the Prince of the world shall have caused his degree to go forth.
Yea, even in your own life and in the life of your children this is so.
With you too there is an external history of lot in life, of training, of associations, of worldly calling, of vicissitudes, and of enmity of men. But alongside of this that other work of God within you, the work of God of faith and love and hope, of regeneration and conversion, of contrition and sanctification, of bringing in, sealing and initiation.
And these two leadings of God work in upon each other, till once for you too these two shall converge, when the crown shall be handed you, not by an emperor like Augustus, but by your King and Lord.
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