Who crucified Jesus?

"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know - this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it." Acts 2:22-24

These three verses in Acts create for us a little bit of a theological conundrum. Verse 23 is particularly interesting. There are two parties acting in verse 23. The first is God who delivers Jesus up "according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God." The second is the "lawless men" who crucified and killed Jesus. So then who was it that crucified Jesus? Was it God that caused it or the "lawless men?" Based on this scripture I think we have to answer that both were involved.

Now this leads to a problem because wasn't the crucifixion of Jesus sinful? How then could God have participated in something that was sinful? John Piper points out in one of his sermons that we have to have room in our theology for this kind of occurrence. We have to have space for God to have a plan and foreknowledge for an act that is sinful while that not actually being a sin or a violation of God's holiness. It is amazing to think that the sinful action of crucifying Christ by "lawless men" was used by God for our salvation.

Going deeper: Read through Acts 2. What does this chapter have to say about the nature and person of Jesus?