John 19:11

John 19:11. Jesus answered him, Thou wouldest have no power at all against me, except it had been given thee from above; for this cause he that delivered me up unto thee hath greater sin. These words call attention to the fact that the source whence Pilate derived his power, ‘from above,' was the same as that whence Jesus came. In using his power, therefore, against the Son of God, he was really fighting against God. ‘For this cause,' also, he that delivered Jesus up to him (not Judas or Caiaphas only, but whosoever shared in the deed) had ‘greater sin.' Why ‘greater'? Partly, perhaps, because the delivering up was the first step in the process of invoking against God the power of God; mainly, because the sin thus committed was, on the part of those who were guilty of it, a sin against greater light than in Pilate's case. The Jews professed to know (and ought to have known) God better than the heathen judge. They ought to have known better than he the true nature of that source ‘from above,' from which they derived their power. Therefore their sin, a sin against God, was in them ‘greater' than in him. In this reply Jesus had done more than speak as an innocent man. He had assumed a position of superiority alike to His accusers and His judge. The effect produced upon Pilate was proportionally great.