John 19:7

The Jewish leaders’ objections to Jesus were both political and religious. Until now, they had been stressing the political implications of Jesus’ claims to Pilate. Sensing that they were not going to receive the desired sentence against Jesus with this approach, they shifted their emphasis to the religious claims that Jesus had made.

Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God, they admitted, which constituted blasphemy under normal circumstances. The penalty for blasphemy under the Mosaic Law was death (Leviticus 24:16). This charge of blaspheming had been the major issue in Jesus’ religious trial (cf. Matthew 26:59-66; Mark 14:55-64). John noted a growing conviction among the Jews that Jesus was blaspheming (cf. 5:18; 8:58-59; 10:33, 36). Their rejection of Jesus was an intelligent and deliberate denial of the evidence that He was deity, not simply a political Messiah.