When I ask, “Who Killed Jesus? I’m not talking about the obvious ones who were involved in the actual crucifixion (i.e. the vast conspiracy involving Rome, Herod, the Gentiles, the Jewish Sanhedrin, and the people of Israel).

I grew up hearing more than one preacher say that I killed Jesus – that my sins nailed him to the cross. A popular worship song says, “It was my sins that held him there.” But is that true? Did I kill Jesus? Did all of us sinners kill Jesus? The answer is NO!

Our sins made the cross necessary if we are going to be able to be restored into a right relationship with God. However, it is quite another thing to say that our sins put Jesus on the cross. Let me make this clear: God the Father and Jesus could have let us die in our sins. Our sins created a need, but God chose out if his own love and mercy to meet that need.

Let’s let Jesus explain.
John 10:17–18 (ESV)
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

This comment is couched in Jesus‘ teaching about him being the good shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep. The love of the Father for his Son and of the Son for his Father are intertwined here. Notice that Jesus offered up his own life, but also that the Father charged Jesus to die on the cross.

Who Killed Jesus? God the Father put his own Son to death.

Isaiah 53:4–5 (ESV)
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:6 (ESV)
“…. the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Isaiah 53:10 (ESV)
”Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; …”

The Father didn’t just offer his Son to be a sacrifice for our sins. Every lash upon his back, every fist that hit his face, every jab of sharp thorns in his head, every nail driven into his body, even the sword thrust into his side, was a direct blow from the Father as he inflicted eternal punishment upon his Son for our sins.