This thought occurred to me after I read this thread:
I'm thinking that Pilate's wife told him to have nothing to do with Jesus, a "just Man" because she believed Him to be innocent. Let me explain further.
I'm not saying for a second that Pilate was innocent; far from it actually. And I've heard and read from various sources which say that he was a coward because he eventually gave in to the Jewish leaders' demand that Christ be crucified. What I'm wondering though is, how much did God hold Pilate accountable for?
We know from Scripture, especially in Acts, that Pilate is mentioned as one who is complicit in the crucifixion of Jesus, along with the Jewish leaders (along with Herod). But the reason I'm curious about Pilate's level of accountability is the fact that Jesus Himself told him "........Therefore he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin". Jesus said this right after He told Pilate that he would have no power over Him unless it had been given to him from above.
Pilate apparently had no interest in the Gospel or in acknowledging Christ as his Savior. All he cared about was whether Jesus was indeed a political rebel and insurrectionist against Rome. As far as Pilate was concerned, Jesus was neither (based on what the Scriptures tell us; extra-Biblical sources claim that Pilate actually did see Jesus as a rebel). Now we can debate on whether Pilate was given the Gospel by virtue of having tried Jesus and chose to reject it, or if God held him accountable for that part.
It's possible that Pilate faced the same degree of judgment in the afterlife as Tyre, Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah did, and that if he had explicitly found Christ guilty and sentenced Him to be crucified on that basis, he could have faced the same degree of judgment that the cities did where the Gospel was actually preached (where Jesus performed miracles).
How much knowledge did Pilate actually have? We'll never know for sure, but the Scriptures say that God holds men accountable based on the knowledge they do have.
$0.02