Hi Mike,

Quick question if you can comment. I have a disturbing interpretation of scripture, that makes sense to me in the light of what you teach about the soverignity of God, but it is disturbing nonetheless. I’d like you to help me sort out where the devil is deceiving me if you can.

Act 4:28 KJV “For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.”

This scripture clearly shows that God the Father supernaturally and soverignly brought about the circumstances of Christ’s life to bring Him to that cross. And Christ was a spiritual giant who understood this verse to be true, even before it was penned. Keeping this in mind puts a new spin on Joh 19:10.

Joh 19:10 KJV “Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? 11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.”

Jesus is acknowledging the soverignity of God here, as He says Pilate has no power over Him except what has been given to Pilate from God. Jesus is acknowledging that God supernaturally and soverignly was orchestrating the circumstances of His life to bring Him to that cross. The rest of Verse 11 is the most interesting to me, and the one I find disturbing. Jesus says he that delivered Jesus unto him has the greater sin. Traditionally, people believe this verse is talking about Judas, the one who betrayed Him, and I have no doubt that is one level of meaning. But the scriptures have multiple ways of being interpreted, often one way for the immature, and another for the mature. Act 4:28 and Joh 19:10 clearly show that God the Father is the one who ultimately soverignly put Christ on that cross. And Jesus Himself calls this sin in Joh 19:11 “he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.” A deeper level of meaning is to realize that Jesus Himself is saying God is guilty of sin because it was God, ultimately, who delivered Christ to Pilate. Am I on to something here or is the devil deceiving me? How else can I interpret this? To me, the Bible admits here that God sinned by crucifying Christ, because Christ understood what sin was, and Christ Himself called this act sin!!
Am I going to hell to think like this? Can you help shed some light on these scriptures?

Thanks,
D____

Hi D____,

Thank you for your question.
In your subject box you ask, “Is the devil deceiving me?” Then in your e- mail you ask:

Am I going to hell to think like this? Can you help shed some light on these scriptures?

The scriptures you reference are these:

Act 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,
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Joh 19:10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
Joh 19:11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

You connect the “he that delivered me unto thee has the greater sin” with “whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done”, and you conclude that it was God the Father to whom Christ referred when saying “he therefore that delivered me unto you has the greater sin”.
Then you ask me:

I’d like you to help me sort out where the devil is deceiving me if you can…
Jesus Himself calls this sin in Joh 19:11 “he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.” A deeper level of meaning is to realize that Jesus Himself is saying God is guilty of sin because it was God, ultimately, who delivered Christ to Pilate. Am I on to something here or is the devil deceiving me? How else can I interpret this? To me, the Bible admits here that God sinned by crucifying Christ, because Christ understood what sin was, and Christ Himself called this act sin!!

The question you pose pits God against Himself, acknowledging that Pilate had no power but what was given him from above, and at the same time condemning that “power from above” of sinning against His own plan and purpose.
So the answer to your question is that God cannot sin by doing what He tells us was His intended purpose “before the world began”.

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

There is God’s plan. Eternal life was promised us “in Christ Jesus before the world began”. So then everything that “God’s hand and [ His] counsel determined before to be done” was perfectly right and exactly on schedule when Christ’s own apostle, Judas, betrayed Christ, and Christ’s own people, the Jews, delivered Him up to Pilate to be crucified.
The word ‘sin’ is not defined as ‘God delivering His Son to be crucified”, rather scripturally it is defined thus:

Jdg 20:16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.

The Hebrew word translated as “miss’ in this verse, is ‘chata’, and this is how Strong’s defines this Hebrew word ‘chata’:

H2398
חט×
chaÌ‚tÌ£aÌ‚’
khaw- taw’
A primitive root; properly to miss; hence (figuratively and generally) to sin; by inference to forfeit, lack, expiate, repent, (causatively) lead astray, condemn: – bear the blame, cleanse, commit [ sin], by fault, harm he hath done, loss, miss, (make) offend (- er), offer for sin, purge, purify (self), make reconciliation, (cause, make) sin (- ful, – ness), trespassive
Here is where this words appears in its various English translations throughout the Old Testament:
H2398
חט×
chaÌ‚tÌ£aÌ‚’
Total KJV Occurrences: 239
sinned, 102
Exo_9:27, Exo_9:34, Exo_10:16, Exo_32:30-31 (2), Exo_32:33, Lev_4:3, Lev_4:14, Lev_4:22-23 (2), Lev_4:28 (2), Lev_5:5-6 (2), Lev_5:10-11 (2), Lev_5:13, Lev_6:4, Num_12:11 (2), Num_14:40, Num_21:7, Num_22:34, Num_32:23, Deu_1:41, Deu_9:16, Deu_9:18, Jos_7:11, Jos_7:20, Jdg_10:10, Jdg_10:15, Jdg_11:27, 1Sa_7:6, 1Sa_12:10, 1Sa_15:24, 1Sa_15:30, 1Sa_19:4, 1Sa_24:11, 1Sa_26:21, 2Sa_12:13, 2Sa_19:20, 2Sa_24:10, 2Sa_24:17, 1Ki_8:33, 1Ki_8:35, 1Ki_8:47, 1Ki_8:50, 1Ki_15:30, 1Ki_16:13, 1Ki_16:19, 1Ki_18:9, 2Ki_17:7, 2Ki_21:17, 1Ch_21:8, 1Ch_21:17, 2Ch_6:24, 2Ch_6:26, 2Ch_6:37, 2Ch_6:39, Neh_1:6 (2), Neh_9:29, Job_1:5, Job_1:22, Job_7:20, Job_8:4, Job_24:19, Job_33:27, Psa_51:4 (2), Psa_78:17, Psa_78:32, Psa_106:6, Isa_42:24, Isa_43:27, Isa_64:5, Jer_2:35, Jer_3:25, Jer_8:14, Jer_14:7, Jer_14:20, Jer_33:8 (2), Jer_40:3, Jer_44:23, Jer_50:7, Jer_50:14, Lam_1:8, Lam_5:7, Lam_5:16, Eze_18:24, Eze_28:16, Eze_37:23, Dan_9:5, Dan_9:8, Dan_9:11, Dan_9:15, Hos_4:7, Hab_2:9-10 (3), Zep_1:17
sin, 69
Gen_39:9, Gen_42:22, Exo_20:20, Exo_23:33, Lev_4:2-3 (2), Lev_4:27, Lev_5:1, Lev_5:15, Lev_5:17, Lev_6:2, Num_15:26-27 (2), Num_16:22, Deu_20:18, Deu_24:4, 1Sa_2:25 (2), 1Sa_12:23, 1Sa_14:33-34 (2), 1Sa_19:4-5 (2), 1Ki_8:46, 1Ki_14:16 (2), 1Ki_15:26, 1Ki_15:30, 1Ki_15:34, 1Ki_16:2, 1Ki_16:13, 1Ki_16:19, 1Ki_16:26, 1Ki_21:22, 1Ki_22:52, 2Ki_3:3, 2Ki_10:29, 2Ki_10:31, 2Ki_13:2, 2Ki_13:6, 2Ki_13:11, 2Ki_14:24, 2Ki_15:9, 2Ki_15:18, 2Ki_15:24, 2Ki_15:28, 2Ki_21:11, 2Ki_21:16, 2Ki_23:15, 2Ch_6:22, 2Ch_6:27, 2Ch_6:36, Neh_6:13, Neh_13:26 (2), Job_2:10, Job_5:24, Job_10:14, Job_31:30, Psa_4:4, Psa_39:1, Psa_119:11, Ecc_5:6, Jer_32:35, Eze_3:21 (2), Hos_8:11 (2), Hos_13:2
sinneth, 13
Num_15:28, Deu_19:15, 1Ki_8:46, 2Ch_6:36, Pro_8:36, Pro_14:21, Pro_20:2 (2), Ecc_7:20, Eze_14:13, Eze_18:4, Eze_18:20, Eze_33:12
sinner, 8
Pro_11:31, Pro_13:22, Ecc_7:26 (2), Ecc_8:12, Ecc_9:2, Ecc_9:18, Isa_65:20
cleanse, 7
Exo_29:36, Lev_14:49, Lev_14:52, Eze_43:20, Eze_43:22 (2), Eze_45:18
purify, 7
Num_19:12 (2), Num_19:19-20 (2), Num_31:19-20 (2), Job_41:25
committed, 6
Lev_4:35, Lev_5:7, 1Ki_14:22, Jer_16:10, Eze_16:51, Eze_33:16
offended, 4
Gen_20:9, Gen_40:1, 2Ki_18:14, Jer_37:18
purified, 3
Lev_8:15, Num_8:21, Num_31:23
bear, 2
Gen_43:9, Gen_44:32
blame, 2
Gen_43:9, Gen_44:32
sinning, 2
Gen_20:6, Lev_6:3
bare, 1
Gen_31:39
fault, 1
Exo_5:16
harm, 1
Lev_5:16 (2)
loss, 1
Gen_31:39
miss, 1
Jdg_20:16
offender, 1
Isa_29:21
offered, 1
Lev_9:15
offereth, 1
Lev_6:26
purge, 1
Psa_51:7
purifieth, 1
Num_19:13
reconciliation, 1
2Ch_29:24
sinful, 1
Isa_1:4
sinnest, 1
Job_35:6
trespass, 1
1Ki_8:31

So the “proper” meaning of this Hebrew word ‘chata’ is “to miss” the mark. The Creator is the one who decided that the mark in view is the salvation of all who are in Adam via the sacrifice of Christ to atone for the sins, ‘chata’, of all men who He purposely created in a “marred” body of “sinful flesh”.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Rom 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

It is God who has made us in “sinful flesh”, and we cannot understand why He would then “condemn sin in the flesh”.
So what you are struggling with is the very same spirit we all struggle with at our own appointed time. Just like Job, we all “condemn God to make [ ourselves] righteous”, simply because we do not like the way “the Potter” has made us.
Job is the Old Testament type of the “carnal minded… enmity against God, old… first man Adam” within all flesh.
Our old man despises God’s ways with a purple passion, and this is God’s answer to our old man’s rebellious condemning question, “Why have you made me thus?”:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

Yes, that is what we all do. We all “contend with the Almighty… reprove God [ and attempt to] dis- annul [ His] judgment [ to] condemn [ Him] that [ we] may be righteous”. We all presumptuously demand of God, “Why have you made me thus?”, and we will all, just like Job and through the same process Job endured, come to acknowledge that the Potter does indeed hold all power “over the clay” to make it first a vessel of dishonor before He makes it a vessel of honor.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked [ you and me] for the day of evil.

Everything that happened to Christ was exactly what God intended to happen, so He is right on the mark and right on time, because He and His plan is the mark, and the very words you quote are His Words which “cannot be broken”.

Joh 10:35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

So it is very foolish of us to attempt to use God’s own words against Himself. ‘Sin’ is not a word which is applicable to the Creator who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will” and who gives every word of His Word its own Biblical definition. ‘Sin’ is a word which applies only to the creatures which that Creator created for the very purpose of committing ‘sin’ and coming to see their need for a Savior, according to His plan for His creatures “before the world began”.
I hope this helps you to see that the answer to your question, “Is the devil deceiving me” is, yes indeed, the devil is attempting to deceive you as he has all of us at our own predestined time for our own “day of evil”. But because God is a loving heavenly Father, He will not allow that delusion and deception to be victorious over you, and His goal of the salvation of all in Adam will be realized:

Job 23:13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

He has made it very clear what is His will and what He desires:

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1Ti 4:10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

But this salvation, by design of our heavenly Father, comes to us only though that channel which the devil would have you to believe is a sin on the part of our loving heavenly Father:

1Pe 1:18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
1Pe 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
1Pe 1:20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Christ knew in advance that He had come into this world for the very purpose of dying for the sins of all mankind:

Joh 12:27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

Just look at Christ’s own answer to Pilate. Does this appear to show Christ considering His Father to be sinning against Himself as the devil is attempting to get you to believe?

Joh 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end [ becoming a king through His crucifixion for our sins] was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

For this cause… to this end”. So no, God did not sin. Christ Himself tells us His death was the perfect sacrifice for sins, and that He came for that very purpose.
I hope all these scriptures help to give you Christ’s and God’s perspective of who it was who “delivered Christ to” Pilate to be crucified. Judas and the Jews who did that are mere symbols of the sins of all men of all time, including you and me. It is we who have condemned our own Savior and His Father for their ways of doing things. Christ struggled, just as you and I do, but Christ certainly did not succumb to the spirit with which you are contending, and it is my prayer that you won’t either, and that you to will say with Him:

Luk 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

Further reading on the subject of whether God can sin can be found here. Your brother in the humble and submissive Christ,
Mike