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Could
YOU
Be Guilty
of
Murder?
Newsstands and booksta/ls are full oj it-murder is big business. Books, short stories and articles
are filled with bloody accounts. The Boston strangler,
In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote, the Manson
murders- the public just can't read enough about murder. Homicide provides a strange fascination
forman- so long as it is someone e/se who is doing the murdering, or someone else who is being
murdered. So many wallow vicariously in the crime of murder. But few realize that they are
actua/ly, in a very real sense, guilty of it themselves! Here is how.
could never kili anyone," you
say. But you already have!
Chances are you stand (or sit)
guilty of the crime of homicide
even as you read this article!
No, 1 don ' t mean murder in
the sense of merely hating
someone. Yes, hatred is indeed a
murderous attitude
(1
John
3:
15).
But that's not what I'm talking about
here.
You and
1
areevery bit as gui lty of
murder as if we had plunged a knife
into someone's back or shot another
human being through the head with a
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magnum.
And just whe is yeur victim- my
victim- yeu ask?
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the
victim.
We Kllled
Christ
"But Christ was killed centuries ago
by a mob ef Reman soldiers," yeu
say. ' 'How ceuld 1 be guilty o f
that?"
That's probably what the people
listening toa sermon delivered by the
apostle Peter thought back then, too.
But notice what Peter said te this
February 1980
by
Brian
Knowles
mixed multitude of visitors to J erusa–
lem: "Men of Israel, listen to these
werds: Jesus the Nazarene, a man
attested te you by God with miracles
and wonders and signs which God
performed threugh Him in your
midst, just as yeu yeurselves know–
this Man, delivered up by the prede–
termined plan and fereknowledge ef
Ged,
vou
nailed to a cross
by the
hands of godless men and
put him to
death"
(Acts 2:22-23,
New Ameri–
can Standard Bible).
Here were Israelites visiting J eru–
salem from all over the Reman
Empire (verses 9-11 ), and Peter was
accusing them of the murder of Jesus
Christ!
How could he get away with such
a preposterous charge?
It
wasn't just
a slip of the tengue, either. He said it
again in verse 36: "Therefore Jet all
the house of Israel know for certain
that Ged has made Him both Lord
and Christ-this Jesus
whom you
crucified."
Later, on another occasion, Peter
and John were taking part in the
formal prayers of the Temple about
three in the afternoon. They encoun-
tered a lame man who was carried
each day to the Temple to beg fer
alms (Acts 3:1-2). The man asked
the two apostles for a centributien
but they had none te give. Instead, in
the name of J esus Cbrist they com–
manded the cripple te get up and
walk (verses 3-6).
The man was so elated by his good
fortune that he began leapiog and
jumping and praising God (verse
8).
Naturally, this attracted a let of
attentien.
The people at the temple gathered,
awestruck, around the twe apostles.
Peter immediately sensed that the
people were attributing the man's
healing to them instead of God. He
spoke out strongly and said: "The
God ef Abraham, Isaac, and J aceb,
the God of our fathers, has glerified
His Servant Jesus,
the one whom you
delivered up,
and disewned in the
presence of Pilate, when he had
decided to release Him" (verse 13).
Peter was not blaming his genera–
tion people alone, but
al/
ef mankind
(Acts 2:8-11). He was saying that
the whole human race stands guilty
of the death ef the Son ef God. How
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