No Accusation

John 18:30 They answered him, "If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you."

30 ἀπεκρίθησαν καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ· εἰ μὴ ἦν οὗτος κακὸν ποιῶν, οὐκ ἄν σοι παρεδώκαμεν αὐτόν.

Pilate had just asked the crowd for their accusation against Jesus and this is what they came up with.  If you want to be a bit more wooden and literal you could translate εἰ μὴ as "except" or even "unless."  Either way, you get the idea.  They didn't have a true charge against Jesus, but they wanted Him to die.

On the other hand, God the Father does have a true charge against God the Son.  On the cross He took on the sins of mankind.  Therefore, there was a just reason to kill Him.  The problem is that He did not have any sin on His own, so it was only through God's (the whole Trinity) mercy that He went to the cross.

Sinner, do you marvel at this?  Do you realize that there would be no accusation for Jesus' death but for your sin?  I hope you do.  I know that it is something I need to dwell on more and more.  I take this for granted far too often.