"10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
12 From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” 13 So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgement seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. 14 Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” 15 They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”"
John 19:10-15
Pilate's words to Jesus in 10 constitute from the human point of view a self-condemnation, for they indicate that he knew very well what he was doing: He had power to release Jesus. And our Lord's words in 11 do not contradict but rather underline this. It is true that the sovereignty of God was at work in these awesome events - this John has been at pains to emphasise over and over again throughout his record, and especially in the later chapters - and that Pilate was fulfilling the divine will, but this must never be interpreted deterministically or fatalistically in such a way as to excuse him of responsibility. Indeed, the verses which follow make it very clear that - the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God notwithstanding - it was mixed motives and ulterior considerations that swayed the governor and dictated his final decision. He was confronted with truth, and he knew it; he knew what he ought to do. But other circumstances weighed heavily with him, and expediency rather than principle won the day. It was his refusal to stand out on principle against the scheming of the Jews, when standing out was going to cost a great deal, that was his downfall. In spite of the awakening glimmer in his conscience, the growing awareness of the innocence of the Son of God, the consciousness that here was a supernatural figure standing before him, and the pressing conviction that he ought to release Jesus, all these things were set at a discount when he heard the words 'If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend' (12). In such a situation it is always an 'either/or' with which men are confronted, never a 'both/and', as Pilate tried desperately to make it. And in that 'either/or' Pilate chose wrongly, tragically.