But Jesus held His peace. And the high priest answered and said unto Him, I adjure Thee by the living God that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Matthew 26:63
A long-standing principle of Canadian law, one that has its roots in English common law, is that nobody can be forced to testify against themselves in a trial. Witnesses called to testify at a trial or an inquest can ask for – and receive – the protection of the Canada Evidence Act. This protection means that any evidence they give at the trial or inquest cannot be used against them in any trial. Similar type laws in the United States fall under what is known as the Fifth Amendment, in which an American cannot be required to testify against himself. However, there is a legal system that provides – or is supposed to provide – even greater protection. That is the Jewish legal system, which not only protects an accused from testifying against himself, but actually forbids him from doing so. It is this principle that the High Priest was violating in today’s text.
When the high priest used the expression ‘I adjure thee by the living God’, he was actually invoking an oath on the Lord Jesus. The effect of that oath was to require the Lord Jesus to respond to the specific question. This was illegal, and the high priest knew it. It was not the first, nor the last, time that illegal means were used against Jesus Christ and His people.
Because the invoking of an oath required a response, the Lord Jesus responded to the demand of the high priest, even though the oath was invoked illegally. In doing so, the Lord Jesus proved His obedience to the law. Today, Christians are often forced to obey the laws of our country, even though those laws have been twisted and misapplied by those who are in the wrong. For example, although the taking of human lives is a sin, and used to be a crime, the law has been altered by the application of the so-called rights of immoral people to allow the killing of unborn children. It is now illegal for anyone to try to protect the lives of those unborn children. Yet another example is the vigorous promotion of the so-called rights of homosexuals, to the extent that what people viewed not many years ago as the sinful and deviant human behaviour that the Bible describes it as, is now viewed as simply an ‘alternative lifestyle’. Today, it is illegal to discriminate in any way against those who practice this abominable lifestyle.
We are living in a world that distorts the laws of the land, and twists the definitions of what is moral and decent to promote evil and to defy God and godliness. As Christians, we face a growing dilemma of dealing with these evils while maintaining a good testimony for our Lord. Let us hold fast that which is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21). -Jim MacIntosh