A Question from a Muslim brother

Date of Inscription: November 13, 2025

Scribe: Kemuel Dizon

💬 The Question

"Why did he hand himself over to the Jews to be crucified? Weren't they also his servants? Was Adam's sin of eating from the tree more serious than God's crucifixion? Is it conceivable that he would purify one group of people from a sin they were not guilty of and then cause another group to fall into a more serious sin?"

🕊️ The Answer

This inquiry contains three layered questions about agency, the gravity of sin, and divine justice. The answer requires us to see the event of the Cross from both the human and the divine perspective.

1️⃣ The Divine Hand and the Human Hands: A Sovereign Plan

You ask,

"Why hand himself over to the Jews? Weren't they also his servants?"

First, understand that Jesus was not a passive victim seized against His will.

He stated clearly,

"No one takes [My life] from me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and and I have authority to take it up again" (John 10:18).

He handed Himself over.

But why through the Jews (and the Romans)?

This was the fulfillment of a specific, prophesied mode of death—crucifixion (Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10)—at the hands of God’s own covenant people.

• They Were His Servants: Yes, Israel was God’s chosen nation, the bearers of the covenants and the law (Romans 9:4-5). Their leadership, however, in their blindness, rejected their own Messiah. This was a profound tragedy, yet it was foreseen and woven into the fabric of God’s redemptive plan. As Peter preached to them: "this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men" (Acts 2:23).