Acts 25:11

“For if I be an offender, etc.] Against the law of Moses, or the temple at Jerusalem, or Caesar the Roman emperor: or have committed anything worthy of death; by the laws of the Romans, as sedition, murder, etc. I refuse not to die; signifying that he did not decline going to Jerusalem, either through any consciousness of guilt, or fear of death; for if anything could be proved against him, that was of a capital nature, he did not desire to escape death; he was ready to die for it; this was no subterfuge, or shift, to evade or defer justice: but if there be none of these things; to be found, or proved, and made to appear: whereof these accuse me; pointing to the Jews, that came down to be his…”

“I appeal to CÃ&brvbrsar--The right of appeal to the supreme power, in case of life and death, was secured by an ancient law to every Roman citizen, and continued under the empire. Had Festus shown any disposition to pronounce final judgment, Paul, strong in the consciousness of his innocence and the justice of a Roman tribunal, would not have made this appeal. But when the only other alternative offered him was to give his own consent to be transferred to the great hotbed of plots against his life, and to a tribunal of unscrupulous and bloodthirsty ecclesiastics whose vociferous cries for his death had scarcely subsided, no other course was open to him.”

“For if I be an offender - If I have injured the Jews so as to deserve death. If it can be proved that I have done injury to anyone. I refuse not to die - I have no wish to escape justice. I do not wish to evade the laws, or to take advantage of any circumstances to screen me from just punishment. Paul’s whole course showed that this was the noble spirit which actuated him. No true Christian wishes to escape from the laws. He will honor them, and not seek to evade them. But, like other people, he has rights; and he may and should insist that justice should be done. No man may deliver me unto them - No man shall be allowed to do it. This bold and confident declaration Paul could make, because…”

“if I: Act 18:14; Jos 22:22; Sa1 12:3-5; Job 31:21, Job 31:38-40; Psa 7:3-5 no man: Act 16:37, Act 22:25; Th1 2:15 I appeal: An appeal to the emperor was the right of a Roman citizen, and was highly respected. The Julian law condemned those magistrates, and others, as violaters of the public peace, who had put to death, tortured, scourged, imprisoned, or condemned any Roman citizen who had appealed to Cesar. This law was so sacred and imperative, that, in the persecution under Trajan, Pliny would not attempt to put to death Roman citizens, who were proved to have turned Christians, but determined to send them to Rome, probably because they had appealed. Act 25:10, Act 25:25, Act 26:32, Act…”