We Were There When They Crucified Him

Exodus 20:16 — “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”

When I reflect on the Ninth Commandment, my mind drifts to a courtroom—dignified and solemn, framed in polished wood, charged with tension, where one man’s fate hangs by a thread and another man’s testimony decides whether he walks free or swings. In my imagination, the scene often ends in some dramatic way with the defense attorney catching a false witness in some complex series of lies, which leads to the innocent being exonerated.

But that is not the courtroom I want you to see today. Not on Easter. Instead, I want you to behold a darker room, a courtroom corrupted beyond parody. It was a midnight tribunal held under torchlight, absent all pretense of justice. There were no rules of evidence, no appeals, no defense attorneys. Only hushed conspiracies, staged witnesses, and blood money exchanging hands while the yawning pit of death opened beneath the feet of the only truly innocent Man who ever lived.

This was a different kind of courtroom, and a different application of the Ninth Commandment—one that soaked the Son of God in His own blood, not merely because He was hated or feared, but because the truth itself was hated and feared. He was not destroyed by a sword or a spear or even by the cross. He was destroyed by a lie.

Remember how the final hours of Jesus' life unfolded. Under the cloak of darkness, He was arrested, manhandled, and paraded through the grotesque charade of a trial. False witnesses were summoned—carefully prepped with talking points and armed with lines rehearsed in secret. The trial was a farce. The charges were fabricated. The entire spectacle was a desecration of law and a mockery of justice.

And yet, their lies were potent. They said He blasphemed. They said He threatened Caesar. They said He was a deceiver, a fraud, a false prophet. They said He deserved to die. They cried out, “Let His blood be on us and on our children.” They lied, and the world believed them. The very God who created tongues was condemned by them. The One who had spoken galaxies into motion stood silent before their slander. The Way, the Truth, and the Life was crushed under the weight of a world hell-bent on lies. And the powers that be, both then and now, applauded.

But don’t flatter yourself by imagining that you would have done differently. Don’t presume that historical distance acquits you. You may not have stood in Pilate’s court, but every time your tongue twists the truth to suit your pride, you are there. Every time you embellish a story to flatter yourself or conceal the truth to protect your image—every time you spread gossip under the guise of concern or spin half-truths into self-serving narratives—you bear false witness against the Son of God.

Every exaggeration, every reputation-saving edit, every omission designed to preserve comfort at the cost of clarity places you in the shadows of that courtroom. Every time you justify your sin, you raise the hammer. Every time you deny your need for Christ, you pound in the nails. Every time you wag your tongue against your brother, you wag your finger at Christ. Every time you muzzle the truth for convenience, your voice harmonizes with the crowd that screamed, “Crucify Him!”

The Ninth Commandment doesn’t just expose the Jews who tried Jesus. It exposes you. It reveals whether your tongue is tethered to heaven or still forked like hell. You didn’t need to testify before the Sanhedrin to be guilty of false witness. You’ve done it in the boardroom and the breakroom, at the dinner table and behind closed doors, in text messages and online forums. Jesus died for those lies.

He died for the one you told your spouse.
He died for the fudged number you gave your boss.
He died for the lie you told the stranger because you didn’t want to help him.
He died for the social media performance, for the polished image propped up by quiet deception.
He died for every self-exalting twist of the tongue, every slander cloaked in sanctity, every holy-sounding fraud.

You didn’t have to be physically present at Golgotha. The crucifixion of Christ is not merely a historical event; it is a theological reality that implicates every sinner. The old Negro spiritual asks, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” And the only honest answer is yes. I was there. I was the lie in Peter’s mouth, the betrayal in Judas’ kiss, the false witness in the Sanhedrin’s court. I was the mockery in the crowd, the hammer, the whip, the spit, and the sneer.

And if that doesn’t make you tremble… what will?

The courtroom still stands. The Ninth Commandment has not been retired. It is not a museum piece. It is a mirror that reveals the soul. And unless Christ had risen, unless He had stood in your place, unless He had bled for your transgressions and now intercedes for you—then the verdict would be final. No appeal. No escape. The righteous Judge has seen it all. He doesn’t need a high-powered attorney to trap you in contradiction. He was there. He heard it. He witnessed it. And the case against you is airtight.

There are only two possible outcomes in heaven’s courtroom: either the charges against you stand open, awaiting your eternal execution, or they are closed—stamped, sealed, and satisfied by the blood of Christ. There is only one plea that can silence the judgment: “Paid in full.” And that seal is not inked with your good intentions but with the crimson stream of the Lamb who took your place.

So if you are reading this and do not know Christ—repent. Do not delay. The evidence is already compiled. The witnesses are in place. Your words will be used against you unless they are covered by the mercy of God. But if you turn to Christ, if you call upon His name, if you place your trust in the One who was crucified by lies so that your lies could be forgiven, you will be saved. And if not, then the firing squad of heaven will mow you down justly. The Truth Himself will rise to condemn you.

But if you belong to Christ, if your name is written in the Book of Life, then let this be a call to vigilance. Do not play with the sin that pierced your Savior. Do not trifle with deceit. Do not rationalize exaggerations or sanctify slander. Do not treat false witness like a minor infraction when it was the very poison that sent Jesus to the grave.

As Charles Spurgeon once said, “If Christ has died for me, I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend.” Let that sentence settle in your heart. Let it restrain your lips with holy reverence. Let it bind your conscience to truth like a chain of gold. And let it drive you to confession, not with shame alone, but with joy—because the One you crucified has risen. The One you slandered has forgiven. And the One your lies condemned has now declared you righteous in Himself.