John Calvin Commentary John 19:15

"They therefore cried out, Away with [him], away with [him], crucify him! Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar." — John 19:15 (ASV)

We have no king but Caesar. It is a display of shocking madness that the priests, who should have been well acquainted with the Law, reject Christ, in whom the salvation of the people was wholly contained, on whom all the promises depended, and on whom their whole religion was founded. Indeed, by rejecting Christ, they deprive themselves of the grace of God and of every blessing.

We see, then, what insanity had seized them. Let us suppose that Jesus Christ was not the Christ; still they have no excuse for acknowledging no other king but Caesar. For, first, they revolt against the spiritual kingdom of God; and, secondly, they prefer the tyranny of the Roman Empire, which they greatly abhorred, to a just government, such as God had promised to them.

Thus wicked men, in order to flee from Christ, not only deprive themselves of eternal life but also draw down on their heads every kind of misery. On the other hand, the sole happiness of the godly is to be subject to the royal authority of Christ, whether, according to the flesh, they are placed under a just and lawful government or under the oppression of tyrants.