The Seven Last Sayings of Jesus

by Wil Pounds

The Seven Last Sayings of Christ reminds us of our great salvation provided by our Substitute who died in our place on the cross. "There are some things you have to put in the first person singular. He loved me; He gave Himself up for me; for me He rose, for me He ascended, for me He received the Spirit, for me He poured that Spirit forth. There is the great and wonderful procession."

Wil Pounds is a graduate of William Carey College, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He served as a pastor in churches in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry heard in over 100 countries for ten years. He and his wife served as missionaries in Ecuador for 20 years. He is currently the Field Director in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, for the Honduras Baptist Medical Dental Mission. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters.

Messages by Wil Pounds (c) 2003. Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent. Scripture quotations from the New American Standard Bible (c) 1973 The Lockman Foundation.

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Luke 23:32-34

The Perfect Prayer

One morning I stood on the airstrip at Shell Mera waiting for a Missionary Aviation Fellowship plane to take me to a little community deep in the eastern jungle of Ecuador. Another plane landed and taxied up. As it came closer I could read on the nose of the plane the name, Toa written in bold white letters. My mind quickly flashed back to an event that had happened a few years earlier. It occurred one Sunday morning when Dyuwi, the youngest of the killers of the five missionaries on the Palm Beach, Ecuador, announced to the congregation that God had told him to take God's Carving, the Scriptures, to the once-hated, still-feared down-river Waorani (Auca) tribes people. Objections were raised; the service was in an uproar. "They will kill you!" he was told. But Dyuwi calmly replied, "God has told me to go downriver carrying his Carving, and I must do so. If they kill me, it will be like those five men we speared. I will just die and go to heaven, and God will send someone else to tell them as he did for us." Another young Auca, Toa, volunteered to go with Dyuwi. On another occasion Toa said that God had told him to visit some Aucas known as the "ridge group." Everyone was aware of the danger involved. Toa was taken by helicopter and dropped close to his sisters clearing. For two months he taught there; then his two-way radio went dead, and contact was lost. The hearts of the Christians were heavy. Much later we learned that Toa had been hit on the back with an axe and then speared by his cousins. As he was dying he told them, "I love God, and I love all of you, and it is for your sake I am dying." The prayer of Toa for his people reminds me of another great Christian who gave His life for Christ. He was Stephen a deacon in the early church. He was a man who was filled with the Spirit. He preached a powerful Spirit-filled sermon to a group of Jewish leaders who came deeply under conviction of their sin and unbelief. But instead of turning from their evil heart and putting their faith in Christ they began gnashing their teeth at him. Being full of the Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. The effect upon those standing there listening to Stephen was profound. They cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and they rushed upon him with one impulse. And when they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him . . . until he was dead. They kept on stoning Stephen as he called upon the Lord Jesus and said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit! And falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them! Think with me for a few minutes about the perfect prayer and the perfect place of prayer.

THE PERFECT PLACE OF PRAYER

Most of us have a special place where we like to get away from all the clutter and spend time with our Lord. Jesus had his special places.

Christ prayed on the mountainside

We find Him praying in the solitude of the mountainside. He had just healed a man on the Sabbath. As usual it had infuriated the Pharisees and scribes who had been watching Him to accuse Him. Seeing the man healed they were filled with rage and discussed together what they might do with Jesus (Luke 6:10-11). Luke tells us, And it was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray and He spent the whole night in prayer to God (v. 12). The decision that rested upon His shoulders at this time in His ministry would affect the kingdom of God. It was no fleeting moment. It was a night of prayer seeking the will of the Father. When day came, Luke tells us, He called His disciples to Him; and chose twelve of them, who He also named as apostles. Jesus prayed. He spent all night in prayer before making great decisions. Should we not do likewise? We need wisdom that God alone can give us in many of the decisions we make in life. Not only did Jesus pray all night in the mountains before making decisions, I find Him praying before He taught His disciples great truths that affect the kingdom of God. According to Luke Jesus had just fed five thousand men, and who knows how many women and children were there. It was His answer to some tightwad disciples who said, We cant afford it, Lord! He fed the thousands until they were completely satisfied, and when I get to heaven Im going to find out what they did with the twelve large-sized baskets of leftovers. Jesus finally got off by Himself to spend some time alone. Again Luke tells us in 9:18, And it came about that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, Who do the multitudes say that I am? I imagine that He was praying silently as He was asking them that question. They began to respond to Him, John the Baptist, Elijah, or one of the other great prophets. Then Jesus, perhaps holding His breathe, asked, But who do you say that I am? Peter jumped on that question saying, The Messiah of God. You are the Christ, the Anointed of God. If Jesus, the Son of God, prayed alone as part of His preparation before teaching great truths, should we not do likewise?

Christ prayed on Mt. Transfiguration

One of my favorite places where I find Jesus praying is on the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke 9:28-29. It was a week after Jesus had revealed this great truth about Himself and testing His disciples that He took with Him Peter, James and John up on the mountainside to pray. That was the intended purpose, to pray. And while He was praying, the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming. He was changed right there before their very eyes as He prayed. Christ changed from humiliation to the glory of His deity. They were in the presence of God, as they had never experienced before. The Shekinah glory of God hovered over them. Then Moses and Elijah appeared to them talking with Jesus. Years later Peter could still see the glory of God when he wrote of Him saying, We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. We heard the Majestic Glory say, This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased (2 Peter 1:16-17). Oh, what would happen in our lives and the life of our church if we spent time alone praying as Jesus prayed?

Christ prayed on Mt. Olives

There is another place where I find Jesus praying. In deed, it was His custom to go to the Mount of Olives. I think in those last weeks it was His custom to go there to pray. He knew what was coming. Luke tells us, And when He arrived at the place, He said to them, Pray that you may not enter into temptation. And He withdrew from them a stones throw, and He knelt down and began to pray. . . (Luke 22:39-41). Ah, here is the perfect place to pray and with a group of men dedicated to that purpose! They fell asleep on Him. They were weary and tired. They couldnt keep their eyes open. Jesus began praying, Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done (v. 42). Your will Father, not mine! Not my will, Your will! It was not a beautiful mountain top retreat experience. It was the Son of God praying for yours and my eternal destiny. The cup of the wrath of God was before Him. A messenger from heaven appeared to Him strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground (vv. 43-44). There His faithful companions were, dead asleep. They were sleeping from sorrow. They were emotionally and spiritually exhausted. They were in spiritual danger and did not comprehend it. Jesus had been teaching them that He was going to die and they couldnt handle it. Jesus needed their encouragement in prayer. They needed to pray fervently that they would not enter into temptation because they would before the night was over. Pray, asking God to keep temptation away. Three times Jesus prayed that intense prayer as the spiritual battle raged. Thee times He found them asleep. Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation (v. 46). And then we are told that while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them; and he approached Jesus to kiss Him (v. 47). If the Son of God found strength in prayer in the greatest moment of trial and temptation should not His disciples tremble before God in prayer? Do we pray for spiritual strength until we bleed? To what extent do we resist temptation? Perfect places of prayer, are they not? A beautiful mountainside, praying the night through in the presence of God, surrounded with the Shekinah presence of God, a beautiful garden for prayer overlooking a beautiful city at night. Are these not perfect places to bow in the Fathers presence? Yet, I find another place where Christ prayed. We have three recorded prayers while He hung on the cross.

Christ prayed on Mt. Calvary

Lets reverently bow before that horrible scene. There are three crosses and three men hanging on them. Christ was hanging on the center cross because they considered Him to be the worst of the three criminals. The crucifixion was designed by depraved minds to make death as painful as possible. The Romans borrowed it from the cruel Carthaginians and then refined it as a means of capital punishment. The idea was to display in public what would happen to you if you defied the Roman government. It was the most agonizing and shameful form of execution ever devised by man. It was so cruel that the Romans only used it for slaves and criminals of the lowest type. No Roman citizen was ever allowed to be crucified. It was not unusual for the victims on the crosses to be frenzied with pain, to shriek and curse and spit on the spectators below them. Two other men, criminals, literally evil ones, were also being led away to be put to death with Jesus. And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left (Luke 23:32-33).

They were first stripped of every possession in life. At the cross Jesus was robbed of everything He possessed: His honor, His followers, His life, His family, even the last remnant of His earthly possessions, His clothing. He was naked before the watching world. He became absolutely poor, that we might become exceedingly rich. The apostle Paul stated it correctly, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). It is here that we find the perfect place of prayer. A. T. Robertson said, It is certain Jesus spoke these words for they are utterly unlike anyone else! They do not fit the lips of anyone else. The Son of God was praying from the cross! This is the perfect place of prayer. It is there that we also find the perfect petition of prayer.

THE PERFECT PETITION OF PRAYER

But Jesus was saying: Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing (Luke 23:34).

Jesus was conscious of a perfect relationship with His Father

James Stalker in his Life of Christ wrote, The word Father proved that the faith of Jesus was unshaken by all through which He passed and by that which He was now enduring. . . When the fortunes of Jesus were at the blackest, when He was baited by a raging pack of wolf-like enemies, and when He was sinking into unplumbed abysses of pain and desertion, He still said, Father. The word Father implies an intimate love relationship of trust. We are reminded of the words of Job, Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him (13:15). I will trust Him and fear not. Perfect love casts out all fear.

Jesus was conscious of His redemptive responsibility on the cross

Jesus does not pray, Father forgive Me. He was aware that He was the spotless Lamb of God, without blemish, offering Himself up as the perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world. He was acutely aware of His purpose of dying on the cross. He was making it possible for the Father to forgive sinners. To some arrogant, selfish disciples Jesus had said earlier, For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). Now Jesus was dying as that ransom paid to set men free. Jesus gave His own life as the price of freedom for the slaves of sin. Even on the cross Jesus is fully conscious of the significance of His death for men. Father forgive them, and condemn Me. He was dying as our substitute. It was not a prayer shot at random into the Jewish sky. Jesus kept praying. The expression, Jesus was saying, may best be translated, Jesus kept saying. The verb is imperfect indicating continuous action in past. The Greek scholar A. T. Robertson translates, Then Jesus was saying. So translates Kenneth Wuest and Knox, And Jesus was saying. Roterham says, Or kept saying, Montgomerys translation reads, Jesus kept saying. Therefore, Jesus kept saying over and over again, Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing. Russell Bradley Jones helps us to grasp the picture in his excellent little book, Gold from Golgotha: Arriving at the place of the skull, Jesus looked about and prayed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. As the centurion crushed Him to the ground and tied His arms to the crossbeam, He prayed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. When the blunt spikes tore through each quivering

 hemi (p i ) a palm, He prayed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. When they elevated Him to the cross, He prayed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. When the crowd cursed and reviled, He prayed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. When the soldiers parted His garments and gambled for the seamless robe, He prayed, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. How many times that prayer pierced Heavens blue that day no one knows. Jesus kept saying over and over again, Father, forgive them . . . Jones adds, The One who prayed like that is the One I need and want for my Savior. But not only was Christ paying for the soldiers and the people that dreadful day, but He was also praying for you and me while He died on the cross. Take that catalog of sins in Romans chapter one and apply them to the cross. Take the sins you have committed this week and take them to the cross. Take every sin you have ever committed to Him. Name them off one by one. Father forgive them; for they know not what they do when they commit all kinds of unrighteousness. Father forgive them; for they know not what they do when they are wicked. Father forgive them; for they do not know what they do when they are filled with greed. Father forgive them when they are filled with malice. Father forgive them when they are full of envy. Father forgive them; for they do not know what they do when they commit murder. Father forgive them when they are full of strife. Father forgive them when they are full of deceit. Father forgive them; for they do not what they do when they are full of malice. Take each one of these sins listed in Romans 1:28-31 and bring them to the cross. Gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmercifulhear Jesus praying, Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing! Yes, The One who prayed like that is the One I need and want for my Savior. Alexander Maclaren said, The dying Christ prayed for His enemies; the glorified Christ lives to make intercession for us. Jesus prayed the perfect petition from the perfect place of prayer. He prayed for you and me.

THE PERFECT PLEA OF THE PERFECT PRAYER

Jesus did not pray, Father, forgive Me. Jesus was praying, Father forgive them and condemn Me.

God's forgiveness is real

The word forgive means to cancel, remit, pardon, divine forgiveness. It is the undeserved release of a man from something that might justly have been inflicted upon him or exacted from him. W. E. Vine in his Expository Dictionary writes it signifies the remission of the punishment due to sinful conduct, the deliverance of the sinner from the penalty Divinely, and therefore righteously, imposed; secondly, it involves the complete removal of the cause of offence; such remission is based upon the vicarious and propitiatory sacrifice of Christ. The apostle Paul said in Ephesians 1:7, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. The esteemed Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest defines forgiveness: The verb form of this word means to send from ones self. It refers to the act of putting something away. God did that at the Cross when He put sin away by incarnating Himself in humanity in the Person of His Son, stepping down from His judgment throne, assuming the guilt of mans sin, and paying the

penalty, thus, satisfying His justice, and making possible an offer of mercy on the basis of justice satisfied. When a sinner avails himself of the merits of that atoning sacrifice, he thus puts himself within the provision God made. His sins were put away at the Cross, and he comes into the benefit of that when he believes (Word Studies in the Greek New Testament). In Colossians 1:13-14, the apostle Paul says, For He [the Father] delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. God at Calvary, paid the penalty of human sin, thus satisfying the just demands of His holy law, putting away sin and bidding it go away. This was symbolized in the o.t., by the goat, laden with the sins of Israel, being led away into the wilderness and lost. Israel never saw that goat again, and thus never saw its sins again. 1 John 1:9 tells us, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When the Lord Jesus died on the Cross all sin was remitted, paid for, put away on the basis of the satisfaction offered for the demands of Gods holy law which sinners broke. The law was satisfied. All the sins the believer commits, past, those in his unsaved condition, and future, those in his saved state, were put away on a legal basis at the Cross, and are in that sense forgiven the believer the moment he places his faith in the Lord Jesus. But the forgiveness spoken of here has to do, not primarily with the breaking of Gods law, for that was taken care of at the Cross and recognized as such at the time the sinner placed his faith in the Saviour. Therefore, sin in a Christians life is a matter, not between a lawbreaker and a judge, but between a child and his father. It is a matter of grieving the Fathers heart when a child of God sins. The putting away of the believers sin upon confession is therefore a forgiveness granted by the Father and a restoration to the fellowship that was broken by that sin. When the saint confesses immediately after the commission of that sin, fellowship is not broken except for that time in which the sin was committed. Not only does God forgive the believer, but John tells us God also cleanses him from the defilement which he incurred in committing that act of sin. Here the verb to cleanse speaks of a single act of cleansing, for known sin in the life of a saint is not habitual, but the out of the ordinary thing.

God holds us accountable for our sins

The apostle Paul made it very clear that every individual is responsible for his or her sinful behavior and unbelief. We live in a day in which the blame game is in vogue. However, the LORD God tells us, The soul that sins will surely die, and The wages of sin is death. . . Theres blood on our hands and we are guilty.

God dealt with our sins at the cross

Jesus was dying for you and me on that cross. According to Gods Law all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. God could not forgive unless the blood was shed. That is why Jesus was suffering on the cross. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. . . God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:6, 8). Christ has done everything that needs to be done for God to forgive you and me of our sins and cleanse us. God had dealt with our wrong doing in such a way that the sinner, who appropriates the Lord Jesus as Savior, has his sins put away. They are put away on a judicial basis by the out-poured blood of Christ. He paid the penalty the broken law required, and thus satisfied divine justice. Moreover, on the basis of Christs death, God removes the guilt of that sin from the believing sinner and bestows a positive righteousness, Jesus Christ Himself, in whom this person stands justified forever This is what is meant by Bible forgiveness in the case of God and a believing sinner (2 Cor. 5:21).

Believe on Christ as your personal Savior

God in His amazing grace has done everything that is necessary for Him to save us. Now all that we must do

is believe on Christ. He invites us to receive Him as our Savior. The apostle Paul tell us, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. . . for Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:9, 10, 13). Jesus said, Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. The apostle John stated what we must do clearly, But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13). You see there is no other name upon which we may call to receive eternal life. The apostle Peter made that clear when he preached in Jerusalem, And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

God is ready to forgive you right now

If you will take God at His word and confess to Him your need of Christ as your Savior and believe on Him He will forgive you of every sin you have ever committed and give you the assurance of eternal life. The very moment you believe on Christ God gives you a deep, deep sense of peace and forgiveness. He cleanses your heart of all guilt and sets you free. To everyone who believes on Christ there is this promise, Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). He also says, Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God (5:1-2). The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in His day, And there may I though vile as he Wash all my sins away. A number of years ago there was a school in the backwoods of Virginia. They were in need of a schoolteacher. The elderly director of the school told the young man fresh out of college about how rough the class was on the last teacher. Young fellow, do you know what you are asking? An awful beating! Every teacher we have had for years has had to take it. Thinking it over a few moments he said, Ill take it. A few days later the school began and a big fellow by the name of Tom sat in back of the room and took one look at the new teacher and said to the other guys, I wont need any help, I can lick him all by myself. On the first day of school the new teacher said to the students, Ill need your help. We must have rules in our class. So you help me set up the rules. What will they be? One by one they came up with them. No stealing, they yelled. On time, said another. No cheating. Finally they had ten rules on the chalkboard. The teacher said: A law is no good unless there is a penalty. What will it be? Tom spoke up: Beat him across the back ten times without his coat on.

The teacher replied, Tom, that is awful big punishment, dont you think. They all insisted that is what the punishment would be. Things went well in the little school for a while. Then one cold day Toms lunch was stolen. The culprit was found. It was a little fellow by the name of Jim. He was sitting back beside the wood stove. The teacher said, Come on Jimmy you helped make the rules. You have to pay the punishment. Jim took off his coat. He had no shirt on. I have only one shirt and my mother is washing it, he said. The teacher thought to himself, How in the world can I do this? But if he didnt he would lose total control of the class. Suddenly, Tom called out in a loud voice, Teacher! Teacher! Ill take his licking for him. Are you sure Tom? Yes, was the reply. One by one the teacher laid on the stick. Then it broke at five lashes. The whole class was sobbing. Jim hugged Tom and said, Tom, Im sorry I stole your dinner. Tom, Ill love you till I die for taking my licking for me. That is what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross. He died in our place and bore our punishment in our stead. The price for our sin debt has been paid in full. There is no other name upon which you can call for salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Jesus Christ still stands with arms stretched wide open to us and prays, Father forgive them . . . The heavenly Father can forgive us because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. 2003 Wil Pounds Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent. Scripture quotations from the New American Standard Bible (c) 1973 The Lockman Foundation. -AbideInChrist-

Luke 23: 32-43

Eternal Life Today

On the south coast of China on a hillside overlooking the harbor of Macao, Portuguese settlers once built a massive cathedra. But a typhoon proved stronger than the works of mans hands and the walls and fortress of the old fort have long ago come and gone. Some centuries ago the cathedral fell in ruins except for the front wall. High on the top of that jutting wall is a great bronze cross. Throughout the last several centuries thousands have been reminded of life in the One who died on another cross. Ships have gone down in the traitorous waters of the South China Sea and men have clung by faith to the One who died for them on the Cross of Calvary. In 1825 Sir John Bowering was shipwrecked there. Clinging to the wreckage of his ship, at long last he caught sight of that great cross, which showed him where he could find safety on the shore. This dramatic rescue moved him to write: In the cross of Christ I glory, Towering oer the wrecks of time; All the light of sacred story, Gathers round its head sublime. The apostle Paul said, For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified (2 Cor. 2:2). Again he said, We preach Christ crucified (1:23). I ask you to consider with me the second word that Christ spoke from the Cross. There were three men dying on crosses at Calvary. The execution was carried out outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem. The three men carried their own crosses. The person crucified died a thousand death that day. Large nails were driven through their hands and feet (Jn. 20:25; Lk. 24:40). The victims suffered from severe inflammation, swollen wounds around the nails, pain from torn tendons, burning thirst, a strained position that made exhaling nearly impossible. Moreover, in the suffering of Jesus only the damned in hell would know what He endured on the cross. Even then, they could not enter into the depths of His suffering because they were guilty sinners and Jesus also the innocent suffer from heaven. He was suffering the spiritual death of all the accumulated debt of every sinner throughout history. Thousands of people were gathering in Jerusalem that day for the Passover celebrations. No doubt many were passing down the road and would witness firsthand the crucifixion. As they gathered about the cross, staring, gazing, and looking upon the horrible scene the religious leaders were leading them on in shear hatred toward Jesus. All this time Jesus kept on saying, how many times we do not know: Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.

THE CROSS OF REBELLION (Luke 23:35)

This criminal was rebellious to all that was going on around him. He is described as a criminal. The word means doers of evil things. Both Mark and Matthew describe him as a highway bandit, or revolutionary and insurrectionist. This is no common criminal. This was his habitual way of life. No doubt this man had been a rebel at heart all his life.

Rebelling against Rome

Perhaps he was rebelling against the Roman government. Possibly he wanted to free his people from Roman control and had tried by legitimate means, but was disappointed by his zealot friends when his organized efforts failed. Then he organized a guerrilla band to fight the Romans. Now on this cross he is rebelling against all the Romans stood forlaw, order, peace, justice, etc.

Rebelling against society

He was rebelling against society. He is characterized as a criminal. He had gone about the countryside robbing, murdering and raping. He hated the mob that was wagging their heads and shouting at him. He was rebelling against everything society stood for.

Rebelling against religion

No doubt he was rebelling against organized religion of his day. The religious leaders were stirring up the mob to frenzy. He hated everything the pious Jews stood for, and loved. No doubt, he had broken all their commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother. Do not steal.

Rebelling against God

But tragically he was rebelling against God. He was rebelling against His love. The historian Luke tells us, And one of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him saying, Are You not the Christ [the Messiah]? Save Yourself and us! (v. 39). The words hurling abuse literally means blaspheming. This rebel railed on, taunted, hurled insults, and began to blaspheme against Jesus. For all we know he had never seen Jesus before this day. But he was echoing all he heard the priests and people shouting. The religious leaders were not content that they had succeeded in having Jesus crucified. The chief priests, scribes and elders (Matt. 27:41) were busy stirring up the people to heap insults on Jesus. They were sneering at the crucified enemy. They shouted that He could save others, but if He really were the Messiah surely He could save Himself. This criminal echoed the rulers who were sneering at Him saying, He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One (v. 35). The word for sneering or scoffing means literally to turn his or her nose up at someone. They were sneering, jeering and making fun of Jesus. But it was not just a passing gesture. The original language tells us that they kept it up. The activity went on for sometime. It is action in the past that continues over a period of time. They kept shouting at Him, You saved others from death, save yourself! If You are the Messiah, the Anointed of God, save Yourself. He echoed the soldiers mingling about the cross in verses 36-37. Pilate had been used in this terrible ordeal so he took out his rage by having the soldiers put a written an accusation above the head of Jesus that read: This is the King of the Jews (v. 38). That was Pilates way of getting even and mocking the Jewish leaders. They continued to come up holding up their flask of cheap sour wine and making sport of Him mockingly invited Jesus as king to comedown from the cross and join them in a toast to His kingdom. The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine, and saying, If You are the King of

the Jews, save Yourself! Someone retorted, How did they know God didnt drink sour vinegar! After about an hour of bitter taunt, he continued to plead in his agony, Are You not the Messiah? Save Yourself and us! Dont miss the imperfect tense; he keeps on taunting Jesus over and over again. It is a continuous rage of sarcastic, mocking bitter taunt. All this rebel wanted was a way of escape. He looked on the death of Jesus and made his appeal on the level of a prison break. The rebellious criminal kept saying, Are You not the Messiah? Save Yourself and us! Come on down from the cross and take us with You. Well join you in Your crusade against Rome. The paradox is though he rebelled against all the forces he was caught up by them and echoed their rebellious cry as if it were his own. In essence he was saying, Jesus take me down from this cross. I dont mind being a sinner, but I do not wish to suffer for my crimes. I dont mind being what I am. I have no objection to being a criminal.

We are all rebels at heart

Lest we get too hardened against this rebel we need to keep in mind that we all have a tendency to rebel against God. We may not be a robber, or murder, or insurrectionist, but deep down in our heart of hearts we say no to Jesus. The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah said, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (17:9). The prophet Isaiah echoed our hearts when he wrote in 53:6, All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. And in 64:6 he wrote, For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. The Bible makes it very clear that we have all come short of Gods expectations. We have all come short of His perfect standards. That is what it means when it says, We have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We have gotten an F on our spiritual report card. We fall short of His perfect holiness. Our sin and unbelief separates us from God who is perfect holiness, righteousness and justice. The prophet Habakkuk wrote, Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor . . . (1:13a). Therefore there is a severe penalty against all sin. The wages of sin is death . . . (Romans 6:23). Not only do we find a cross of rebellion, but also a cross of repentance at Calvary.

THE CROSS OF REPENTANCE (Luke 23:40-42)

The other criminal who was being crucified with Jesus also got caught up in the riot for some time. There was everything to obscure his vision just like the rebellious thief. Matthew tells us And the robbers also who had been crucified with Him were casting the same insult at Him (27:44). Both of the criminals were joining in heaping the insults on Jesus. What were those insults? Matthew writes, In the same way the chief priests

also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, I am the Son of God. (vv. 4143).

This man saw himself as a sinner

But this second thief finally came to his senses. He turned on and interrupted the other thief rebuking him. Luke continues, But the other answered, and rebuking him said, Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong (23:40-41). He sternly reprimanded the other dying thief. It is an enduring fear of God, present tense that grips his soul. Do you not dread a holy and righteous God? The thief reminds us of Hebrews 9:27-28. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. The same writer said, It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God (10:31). We live in a generation and society that has no earthly idea what that means. Nor does it wish to know. This thief saw himself as a sinner, a rebel against God. He changed his mind toward God. And we indeed justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong (Luke 23:41). In essence he was saying, lets quit playing the blame game. You and I are guilty. He was willing to be saved. He could not save himself physically. More importantly he could not save himself spiritually. He could not come down from the cross and get baptized. He could not go and do good works. He couldnt join a church. All that sinner could do was cast himself on Gods grace! He confessed his need of Jesus as his Savior. We indeed justly. We are receiving what we deserve echoes from his lips.

He recognized Jesus as his only Savior

He kept on saying, Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom! (v. 42). This thief saw the possibilities of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. He kept on saying over and over again, Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom! This was not a lone shot at random into the sky. This man kept storming the ears of the Savior. Jesus, Jesus, remember me. . . Jesus when You come into Your kingdom. . . Jesus, Jesus. . . These words kept pounding the ears of Jesus. There is complete confidence in his words as he cries out, Jesus, Jesus. Remember me. He did not pray, if, but when. The words of this penitent thief reminds us of Romans 10:9-10, 13. Paul writes, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. . . for Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. There was a spiritual war taking place on Mount Calvary that day. One thief is calling out for Jesus to come down from the cross, and the other pleading for Jesus to save him spiritually. What will Jesus do? Let we should forget Jesus has also been praying over and over again, Father forgive them . . . Father forgive them; for they know not what they are doing. Father forgive . . .

Grace is not clemency. Salvation is not pardon without payment for the crime against God. God is a righteous God and someone has to pay the penalty for our sins. Jesus is on the cross of redemption paying the price of our redemption in full.

THE CROSS OF REDEMPTION

The cross on which Jesus died tells us about redemption. Jesus is not dying because He was bad, but because He was supremely good. Both criminals keep up their plea. Christ must make a decision. Come down from the cross and save all three, or endure the cross and its shame and win a kingdom. Save self! Save souls! Which shall it be? Heaven waits. All the saints in heaven strain breathlessly wondering what will He do. The power of His sovereign grace kept Him on the cross. He was sacrificing Himself as their Substitute.

Jesus was dying as our Substitute

The apostle Paul tells the reason why Jesus endured the cross. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:6-8). Jesus was not dying as a martyr, or a criminal. He was dying as my representative in my place on the cross. He was dying in my place on the cross and my substitute. He was paying my sin debt to the righteousness of God. He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Once again we note carefully the original language in Lukes description. It is a once and for all decision that Christ makes. Jesus said. It is past tense. There is no need for repetition. Jesus answered once and for all. He doesnt repeat his words. These are solemn, emphatic, affirmative words of Jesus. What does He say? Jesus said, Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise (v. 43). Amen, certainly, for sure, beyond doubt. It is a great word of assurance. Truly I say to you. These are words of commitment, confidence and assurance. Amen, I will not fail you. I will go through with it for you. You can depend on me. Today before sundown. The Jewish day came to an end at sundown when the light of the first star began to shine. Before the end of sundown today you will be with me in Paradise. You will be with Me in Paradise. Wherever Jesus was going the man was going. Paradise is always used of another name for heaven (2 Cor. 12:2, 4; Rev. 2:7). It is a garden place, a place of beauty and repose. It is a prepared place for a prepared people. The night before Jesus had made this promise to His disciples as He comforted them concerning His own death. He said, Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Fathers house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:1-3).

Salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone

This is vital theology for us today. Today, not tomorrow. The penitent sinner did not have to wait until the Messiah comes in glory. Today, tells us that both of them, the sinner and the Savior, will enter together into the Fathers presence in heaven! I solemnly say to you, this very day you will be in Paradise with Me. What assurance to a dying thief. Whisper those words in my ears when you are ready to pull the sheet over my head! I stake eternity on these words of Jesus. Peter tells us in Acts 4:12, There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has

been given among men by which we must be saved. The death of Jesus Christ is sufficient to make you right with a holy and righteous God. You do not need to add anything else to what Christ did for you on the Cross. His death and resurrection are sufficient to save the worst of sinners. You do not have to add your suffering to the suffering of Jesus. In fact, if you add one touch of your own suffering to His suffering you destroy His atonement for your sins. His death alone is sufficient to save your soul. This vile sinner was instantly transformed into a saint fit for heaven. He did not have to go to some imaginary place and suffer for his sins. Jesus clothed the believing thief in His own spotless righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). The thief on the cross was saved without recourse to baptism, church membership, Lords Supper, sacraments, good works, etc. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:8-10). You do not need to perform any sacraments; you only need the blood of Jesus to cover all your sins. Today the redeemed thief would be in conscious presence of fellowship with his Savior in Paradise, while his body disintegrated in the refuse of Gehenna outside the city walls of Jerusalem. On whatever day you die you go straight to be with Jesus. Today, whatever our today is we will close our eyes in death and be ushered into His presence to be with Him for all eternity. For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life . . . for we walk by faith, not by sightwe are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:4, 7-8). The soul does not go to sleep; the body does until the great resurrection day. Someone observed, The morning of that day the thief walked the stone floor of his dark dungeon in a tumult of horror, and in the evening of that day he walked the golden street of the City of Light in a tumult of joy. There is another great truth in this lesson. Only one thief was saved that day at Calvary. Jesus did not say, Today both of you will be with Me. He did not say in the end all will be saved regardless of their personal choices. Only one thief called upon Jesus to save him that day. Only one was saved. Only one will spend eternity in heaven with Jesus. That truth is still true today. No, not everyone is going to the same place! Those who choose to not receive Christ spend eternity in hell. It took faith for the dying man to trust another dying man for eternal life! This is probably the greatest example of saving faith in the New Testament. It is an example for each of us today. The one making the promise dies first! The thief is saved by faith alone in Jesus alone. Jesus presented to His Father on that day a trophy of grace! Remember me. . . Remember you! You shall be with Me, close to My side today. This day you shall be with Me! Have you come to the place in your spiritual life that you know that if you died today you would go to heaven? Lets suppose that if you died today and stood before the Lord God and He said, Why should I let you into My heaven? What would you say? What do you think you would say?

Seor are you ready to die?

I have a friend who lives in Central America. His name is Jacobo. At one time in his life he was a successful organizer for communist trade unions among the banana workers. His life was powerful, with plenty of influence, lots of money and women on the side. He had everything he wanted in life. But other union leaders hated him. One day his driverbodyguard drove up to a four way stop on a highway

outside of town. Suddenly a jeep pulled up in from of them and another pulled up from behind and gunmen jumped out of the vehicles and riddled Jacobos car with machinegun bullets. His driver slumped over on him with his blood pumping out all over his body saying, Jacobo, dont let me die. In a mater of minutes he lay dead. Another car pulled up a few minutes later and dragged Jacobos limp body out of his vehicle and drove him to a hospital. A Christian medical doctor bent over Jacobos limp body on the operating table and said, Seor, are you ready to die? You probably wont make it through this surgery today. That surgeon led Jacobo to put his faith in Jesus Christ as his savior before surgery began. Then he removed a dozen bullets form Jacobos body. One of his hands, his shoulder, back and abdominal area have long ugly scars from that surgery. Yes, Jacobo did survive. He remained true to his decision for Christ and the surgeon discipled him in Gods Word. Today Jacobo faithfully serves Christ as a missionary in Central America. He is a living testimony of Gods saving grace in Jesus Christ. No amount of human goodness, human works, human morality, or religious activates can gain acceptance with God. You cannot get to heaven in your own merits. We are all in the same boat spiritually. Religious, non-religious, moral or immoral all still fall short of the glory of God. He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:5-7). No amount of human goodness can make you as good as God. He is perfect in His righteousness and He demands that we be perfect. We must be as good as He is. Before Him we stand as naked, helpless and hopeless as the thieves on the cross. The only person who has ever lived a sinless life is Jesus Christ. That is why He died as our Substitute. Because of what Jesus did for you on the cross God can save you today if you put your faith in Him as your Savior. Trust in the person of Christ and His death for your sins right now. Recognize your sinfulness and need to be saved, realizing that no human works can result in salvation, and rely totally on Christ alone to save you. As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name (John 1:12). For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16-18). 2003 Wil Pounds. Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent. Scripture quotations from the New American Standard Bible (c) 1973 The Lockman Foundation.

-AbideInChrist-

John 19:2629

Substituting for the Substitute

"Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews." That was the placard that Pilate, the Roman governor, had the soldiers put on the cross above the head of Jesus Christ. Pilate probably did it in order to get even with the Jewish leaders. History tells us he hated his subjects as much as they hated him, and he often sought ways to get even with them. The title was written in Hebrew, the national language, Greek, the language of the common people, and Latin, the language of the government. The chief priests objected to the title because they realized that the title had been thrown in the teeth of Jewish people. They protested, "Write not, the king of the Jews, but that he said, I am the king of the Jews." Pilate had accomplished his objective and answered, "What I have written I have written." By midday the Roman soldiers stationed at the cross have divided up the garments of Jesus and are trying to decide who shall get his outer garment that was woven tightly without a seam. John thought about it and realized even this was a fulfillment of the Scriptures. He cites Psalm 22:18, "They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots." The words of this Psalm reach beyond David and are fulfilled literally in the death of Christ. "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, 'Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be'; this was to fulfill the Scripture: 'They divided My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.' Therefore the soldiers did these things" (John 19:23-24a). Four women were about the cross. Their tender hearts for the one they loved is a strong contrast to the hardened Roman executioners. John tells us, "But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mothers sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene" (Jn. 19:25). The eminent scholar A. T. Robertson suggests "Mary, the mother of Jesus, had been present in Jerusalem through all the dread ordeal of trial and crucifixion till now. It is comforting to know she was with women who loved her and loved Jesus. Not one of the apostles was present save John, the disciple whom Jesus loved . . ." The historian Luke tells us Jesus has been praying during this time. It is imperfect tense in the original implying He kept it up. He kept saying, "Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." People stood by looking on as the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, "He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Messiah of God, His chosen one" (Lk. 23:35). The soldiers joined in on the mockery continuing to come up to Him and offering sour wine saying, "If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!" (vv. 36-37). The criminals kept on "hurling abuse at Him," "Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!" How long this behavior went on we do not know. However, one of the criminals rebuked the other and said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he kept on saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!" (vv. 39-42). Jesus responded with a onceforall statement of assurance. "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in

Paradise" (v. 43). What will Jesus say to His mother and His friends who are gathered about Him? We must ever keep in mind the central figure at the cross is Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant of the LORD. He speaks as Lord. He issues commands as a king upon His throne.

MARY'S SON (Jn. 19:26)

A. T. Robertson observes, "No mother ever had a son like Jesus. No man ever had a better mother than Mary. Jesus deserved the best of mothers. The Eternal Father chose this maiden in the fullness of time for her high service to the Kingdom of God and to the race. Mary deserves the best from us all. She would say that we best honor her when we honor and worship and follow the lead of the Lord Jesus Christ who will not brook any rival in human hearts, not our own mothers, not even His mother" (The Mother of Jesus, p. 70). "In the mystery of the Incarnation, the eternal Christ became a helpless child, who depended upon His mother for physical and spiritual sustenance. When God became man, He took no halfway measures. He went through the helplessness of every child, the development in body, mind, and soul that each of us has known. As Jesus was growing, someone taught Him to behold the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Someone taught Him to observe so keenly the pathos and drama of village life, the silly pomposities of little people, and the inedible heroism which unknown fold bare the unbearable. The son of Man saw life with all the sensitivity of a woman, and that woman was Mary" (Unknown). Mary knew as no one else did the perfect humanity of Jesus. She knew Him as the Son of God, for the power of the Highest had overshadowed her when He was conceived. No doubt His death was an even greater mystery. "He was still the Son of God although He had died."

Mary had suffered much because of this son.

Simeon's prophecy is recorded for us in Luke 2:34-35. "And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, 'Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed and a sword will pierce even your own soulto the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.' Someone has eloquently written about this piercing of Simeons sword: There her son hung before her eyes, but she was helpless. His wounds bled, but she dared not staunch them. His mouth was parched, hot like an oven, but she cannot moisten it. His body ached, arched from the pain of the scourged, the tearing of the thorns, the piercing of the nails, but she cannot sooth Him. Those out stretched arms used to clasp her neck; she used to fondle those pierced hands and feet; now the nails pierced her as well as him. The thorns around his brow were a circle of flame about her head. The taunts flung at Him wounded her likewise. To add to her agony, Jesus was dying the death of a criminal. Mary was going through the experience prophesied by Simeon. "A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also." However, the sharpest edge of that sword was revealed when Jesus said, "Woman, behold your son." That was when the sword cut the deepest into her heart. But the sword of Simeon had pierced her heart often by the rattle of the tongues of gossip.

Mary's relationship with Jesus

At age twelve Jesus made the declaration to his parents I must be about my Fathers business. After the public ministry of Jesus begins, the Gospels keep Mary in the background. At the wedding in Cana of Galilee Jesus said to His mother, Woman, what have I to do with you. My hour has not come (Jn. 2:4). Two years

later Jesus was teaching at Capernaum. Rumors have it that Jesus is suffering from a nervous breakdown (Mk. 3:30-35). Mary came to check up on her son and sent word to Jesus. The Pharisees said to Him, "Your mother and your brothers are outside wanting to see you." Jesus responded, "Who is my mother? And who are my brothers? (Matt. 12:48-50). "Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my mother, and sisters, and brother." Now at the cross, what will Jesus say to Mary? Will He have some special position for her? What special privilege of grace will He assign to the Virgin Mary? In effect Jesus says, "From now on, not I, but John, is your son." The amazing fact is Jesus does not call Mary, "mother," but "woman." He did not say mother. He could just as easily have said mother. He said, "woman." Jesus is not being disrespectful. But He must terminate the earthly relationship. It is as if Jesus said to Mary: "Mother, look to John. Call him son. He will be with you and take care of you. . . I must be about my Father's business." Jesus could have addressed Mary as "mother" at this time, but He chose not to. He called her "woman." If Mary needs a son to love and cherish, and provide for her needs, she must look to the disciple John.

Important spiritual principle for us today:

As Russell Jones observes, Jesus was denying any special position or privilege to Mary because of her peculiar earthly relationship to Him. Jesus places Mary on the same human plane with the rest of those whom He loved. She must not become His rival. No human being is closer to the Savior than the penitent thief, or you, or menot even Mary! Acts 1:14 records the last reference to Mary in the Bible. It is after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. About 120 believers have gathered together praying. Luke records the events, "These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers." A. T. Robertson says, "A delicate touch by Luke that shows Mary with her crown of glory at last. She had come out of the shadow of death with the song in her heart and with the realization of the angels promise and the prophecy of Simeon. It was a blessed time for Mary." Now we find Mary, accompanied with her, the brothers of Jesus who had once disbelieved in Him (Jn. 7:5). "Jesus had appeared to James (I Cor. 15:7) and now it is a happy family of believers including the mother and brothers (halfbrothers, literally) of Jesus. They continue in prayer for the power from on high." The half-brothers were now whole-hearted believers in Jesus the Messiah. The family is once more reunited. Their Jewish theology was unable to find room for a suffering and dying Messiah until after Jesus rose from the dead. When He opened their minds they understood the Old Testament Scriptures like the rest (Lk. 24:45). Mary lost a son, but found a savior. This Son of Mary became her Savior. Never forget He was her substitute dying in her place on the cross because Mary was a sinner in the need of a savior. Mary needed the Savior. She brought a sin offering in obedience to the law after the birth of Jesus (Luke 2:22, 24; 1:47). The mother was Levitically unclean for forty days after the birth of a son (Lev. 12:18).

MARY'S SAVIOR
Jesus is the central person in the drama before us. God will not share his glory with another, not even the earthly mother of Jesus.

Jesus fulfilled the last detail of the Law.

Jesus was fulfilling to the last detail the letter of the Law. "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother."

Even at the cross Jesus provides for Mary (v. 2627). When Jesus then saw His mother, and disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, Woman, behold, your son! Then He said to the disciple, Behold, your mother! From that hour the disciple took her into his own household. How easily it would have been to rationalize I am dying let her other sons and daughters take care of her. But that is not what Christ did. He was in charge even on the cross.

Jesus demonstrates self-sacrificial love.

This is possibly the clearest, most easily understood demonstration of selfrenunciation of genuine self denial, to be found in the New Testament. R. G. Lee wrote: . . . Jesus cut Himself off from motherlove. He forsook the best earth had to offer Him. He renounced every tie that might interfere with His Saviourhood. He removed even the obstruction of filial devotion. He gave up all for sinners. He gave up all for me. He gave up all for you . . . It was a greater renunciation when Christ gave up the glories of heaven to come to this earth and die for the sins of mankind. He renounced His mother in order that he could become her Savior." Jesus forsook the best earth had to offer Him. He renounced every tie that might interfere with being the Savior of lost mankind. He chose to give it up. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9). Our riches are found in the imputed righteousness God bestows on believing sinners. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (5:21). Jesus drank to the dregs of sorrow, grief, and pain on our behalf. For three hours the sun refused to shine on the suffering deity. Isaiah had given a vivid portrait of the suffering servant of God when he said he was "wounded for our transgressions." John the Baptizer pointed to Jesus as the "lamb of God that takes away the collective sin of a world of sinners." Christ gave Himself a "ransom for many." He who knew no sin God made sin for us. On the Cross Christ became a curse for us and so redeemed us from the curse of the law. We are "redeemed by the precious blood of Christ" shed on Calvary. He gave Himself "a ransom for all." Jesus had to pay the price alone and tasted deathspiritual deathfor every man. This was also true for Mary, as well as you and me. She was a sinner in the need of a Substitute.

Jesus is Mary's Substitute.

You do not find in the New Testament Jesus giving His mother any special assignment or special position. Clearly Jesus denied any special assignment or privilege to Mary. You have to go outside of the Word of God to men's teaching several hundred years later to find any special privileges awarded to her. It is simply not found in the Bible. At the cross Mary discovered that she had a greater need to be in a mystical union with Christ than a natural union with her son. Russell Bradley Jones carefully observes, She gladly took her place among His sincere worshipers. It was not a special place; it was not on the platform; it with the one hundred twenty, as a simple believer! She found that the salvation relationship is higher than the family relationship. She learned that it was better to have Him as her Savior and Lord than to have His as her son (Jones, p. 38).

MARY'S SUBSTITUTE SON (v. 27)

I think Jesus nodded to His mother as He said to the disciple whom He loved, Behold your mother!

It is as if Jesus said to His disciple, John, take care of My mother. I go where none have ever gone. I do what none have ever done. I go from this cross to Josephs tomb. John take care of My mother. I have an engagement. John take care of My mother until I call for her. Mother, look to John. Call him your son. He will be with you. Again, mother, I must be about My Fathers business. Jesus terminated the earthly human motherson relationship. Mary was no longer the mother of Jesus. He was no longer her son. He was now her divine Substitute who was dying as her Savior. He was the Savior dying for her sins. If she needed a son the apostle John must be that person. Jesus was placing Mary on the same human plane with the rest of those whom He loved. "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers and sisters?" No human being is closer to Jesus than the penitent thief or you or me. Jesus as saying Mary must not be His rival.

Why John?
The disciple John led Mary away from the cross to his own home so she would not see the terrible end. Then John came back and saw the piercing of the side of Jesus by the soldiers after He died (John 19:30-37). Simeon's sword had now indeed pierced Mary's heart. Her son died as a criminal condemned by the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman governor Pilate. It appears she was not at the simple, hurried burial of Jesus. Wonder what her thoughts were during that lonely Sabbath when He lay in the tomb? We aren't told. Joseph is probably dead. There were other children by Joseph in the family: James, Joses, Judas, Simon and there were daughters. Matthew records an event in Jesus hometown of Nazareth after He had been teaching in the synagogue. The people were astonished at His teaching and said, Is not this the carpenters son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things? (Matt. 13:55-56). They knew the family quite well. Jesus had divided the household. None of His brothers and sisters believed on Him until after the resurrection. F. F. Bruce notes, "The brothers of Jesus were still too unsympathetic to him to be entrusted with her care in this sad hour: in any case, they may not have been in Jerusalem at this time" (p. 371). Tradition says John took Mary into his home and she lived with him in Jerusalem for eleven years and died. Another says John took her with him to Ephesus and she lived there until she died.

Why you and me?

There is no more glorious mission on earth than to substitute for the Substitute. If the work of Jesus is gong to be taken care of it must be by His substitutes. Jesus is our substitute. Romans 5:6-8 as the apostle Paul writes, For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ chose to take our place on the cross and die in our place. He paid our sin debt in full in order to save us. Let it be noted carefully there is a world of difference between sanctification and justification. We are justified by grace through faith in Christ alone. Our good works have nothing to do with our justification. It is an act of God in His grace when He declares the believing sinner right with Him based upon the death of Christ for his sins. Our doing good works will not save us. It will not add to our salvation. It will not make us right with God. It is not Christ plus good deeds, even great sacrificial works in His name. We are saved by placing our trust in the work and obedience of Jesus Christ who died on our behalf. Yes, it is a holy privilege to substitute for the Substitute, but it can only be done after Christ has come into our lives and saved us by His grace. A clear line must be drawn between justification and sanctification. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a

result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:8-10). Our job is to substitute for the Substitute. If His work is to be carried on it must be by His substitutes. Annie Johnson Flint wrote: Christ has no hands but our hands To do His work today, He has no feet but our feet To lead men in His way, He has no tongue but our tongues To tell men how He died, He has no help but our help To bring them to His side.

SOME ABIDING PRINCIPLES

When you are substituting for the Substitute you do not have anything to prove and nothing to lose. When you are substituting for the Substitute you do not have to worry about who is #1, or #2, or who gets credit, or doesn't, or who makes the decisions. You just want to bring honor and glory to Him! When you are substituting for the Substitute everything you do in His name counts. There is no insignificant ministry in God's Kingdom. Russell Bradley Jones tells about a friend of the reformer Martin Luther. Myconius was a close friend of Martin Luther. He knew Luthers plans to leave the monastery and answer the call of God to go out into the world with the Gospel. He decided to stay and pray for Luther. "Amidst the quiet and seclusion, I will pray for you, Bro. Martin, as you toil out in the great world." Myconius remained steadfast and prayed daily for Martin. But as he prayed daily for Luther he became uncomfortable and lost his peace of mind. He could not sleep as he once did, on the straw pallet. One restless night he dreamed a strange dream. The Savior showed him His wounded feet and hands for the sins for the world. Myconius had never realized the cost of redemption. Jesus said, "Follow Me." The Lord showed Myconius to a mountainside and told him to look. As far as Myconius could see was a plane dotted with sheep. Thousands upon thousands of sheep and one lone shepherd was trying to tend them. He drew closer and recognized that shepherd. He looked familiar. It was Luther. The Lord took Myconius in another direction and showed him corn standing tall and ripe to harvest. Acres and acres and acres of tall ripe corn. One lone reaper was trying to harvest thousands of acres of corn. Myconius looked carefully and saw that he was Luther. It was too much for Myconius. Jesus said, "Shepherd those sheep; reap those fields." Myconius cried, "It is not enough that I should pray. The sheep must be shepherded! The fields must be reaped! Here am I; send me!" He went out the doors of the monastery and joined Luther, substituting for the substitute. (Russell Bradley Jones, Gold from Golgotha, pp. 41-42).

2003 Wil Pounds. Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any

circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent. Scripture quotations from the New American Standard Bible (c) 1973 The Lockman Foundation.

-AbideInChrist-

Matthew 27:46

My God! My God! Why?

On May 21, 1946, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, a daring young scientist was carrying out an important experiment in preparation for the forthcoming atomic tests to be conducted in the waters of the South Pacific at Bikini Atoll. He had successfully performed such an experiment many times before. In his efforts to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction, he would push two hemispheres of uranium together; then just as the mass became critical he would push them apart with his screwdriver, thus instantly stopping the chain reaction. On that day, just as the material became critical, the screwdriver slipped; the hemispheres of uranium came too close together. Instantly the room was filled with a dazzling bluish haze. The scientist, instead of ducking and thereby saving himself, tore the two hemispheres apart with his hands and interrupted the chain reaction. By this instant, self-forgetful act, he saved the lives of the seven other scientists in the room. He recognized at once that he would succumb to the effects of the excessive radiation that he had absorbed, but he did not lose control. Shouting to his colleagues to stand exactly where they had been at the moment of the disaster he drew on the blackboard an accurate sketch of their relative positions so the doctors might discover the degree of radiation to which each had been exposed. Later, as they waited at the roadside for a car to take them to the hospital, the scientist said to his companions, Youll come through all right, but I havent the faintest chance myself. In nine days he died in agony of radiation sickness. Two thousand years ago the Son of the living God walked directly into sins most concentrated radiation, allowed Himself to be touched by its curse and let it take his life. The accumulated guilt of the ages released its deadly contamination over Calvary, and He who made the atom permitted himself to be nailed to the tower at ground zero, allowed wicked man to trigger the cruel device we call Calvary, and by that act He broke the chain reaction, He broke the power of sin. The mocking crowd said, He saved others; Himself He can not save. They were correct, for Christ to interrupt the chain reaction of sin, He had to give His own life. He could not save Himself and others too. It is as if He spoke to every man, You can come through all right, but I havent the faintest chance myself. (George Vanderman quoted in Decision Magazine). The gospel writer Matthew tells us a mysterious darkness covered the land for three hours (Matthew 27:45). A strange, weird darkness settled down over the world, obscuring the sun until it could be seen no more. A supernatural darkness came over the land from 12noon until 3 p.m. It was a supernatural manifestation in nature. As Wiersbe says, It was a heaven-sent darkness that lasted for three hours. It was as though all of creation was sympathizing with the Creator." All the land can refer to the land of Israel or to all the earth. It is possible that Matthew intends his readers to understand the crucifixion as a cosmic event, affecting the entire created order (Newman and Stine). R. V. G. Tasker writes, The supernatural darkness, lasting from noon till 3 p.m., intensifies the

desolation, which reaches its lowest depth, when Jesus, made to be sin in mans stead, experiences in all its horror the separation from God that sin creates, and cries, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The darkness cannot be explained as an eclipse because it was Passover time and with a full moon an eclipse is not possible. Nor was it a sandstorm. We should understand the darkness as supernatural, leading up to the time when the Son of God breathed His last. It was not a local phenomenon, peculiar to Jerusalem and its immediate environs . . . They clearly mean it was not a natural phenomenon but the result of divine intervention . . . . Darkness is associated with judgment in several places in Scripture (Isa. 5:30; 13:10-11; Joel 3:14-15, etc.), it appears that we are to understand it here as pointing to Gods judgment on sin that is linked with the cross (Leon Morris, Matthew, p. 720). John W. Shepherd wrote in The Christ of the Gospels, "When the darkness, like a heavy curtain, fell over the scene of the tragedy, silence reigned and a feeling of awe and horror crept over all. It was doubtless a period during which Jesus suffered extreme anguish of spirit. The increasing nameless agonies of the crucifixion were deepening more and more with every moment into death. Almost at the close of the three hours of darkness, feeling Himself Godforsaken, He cried out words of anguish in the awful stillness of the darkness. The words echoed through eternity and reverberated down the centuries of time: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani! " That darkness meant judgment. It was the coming judgment of God against sin. It was the wrath of God burning itself out in the very heart of Jesus as our substitute. In those dark hours, hell came to Calvary that day. Our Savior descended into it and bore its horrors in our stead. Warren Wiersbe writes: After three hours, the darkness left. Then Jesus cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? This was a direct quotation from Psalm 22:1. It was during the time of darkness that Jesus had been made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). He had been forsaken by the Father! That darkness was a symbol of the judgment that He endured when He was made a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). Psalm 22:2 suggests a period of light and a period of darkness; and Psalm 22:3 emphasizes the holiness of God. How could a holy God look with favor on His Son who had become sin? Jesus spoke these words in Hebrew, and the spectators did not understand Him. They thought He was calling for Elijah to help Him. Had they listened carefully and consulted Psalm 22 in its entirety, they would have understood the truth. Martin Luther sat contemplating these words, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For a long time, without food or water, he sat in deep meditation reflecting on this saying of Christ. After a long time he rose from his chair and exclaimed in utter amazement, "God forsaken of God! Who can understand that?" William Barclay suggests, This must be the most staggering sentence in the gospel record. . . This is a saying before which we must bow in reverence, yet at the same time we must try to understand.

THESE WORDS REVEAL THE REALITY OF SIN The reality of sin keeps us from fully comprehending these words
Every individual comes this day with blood on our hands. The Bible says, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). This verse gathers up the whole race into one statement and tells us we still fall short. "But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe" (Gal. 3:22). "The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they

have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one" (Psalm 14:2-3). In order to understand the fullest meaning of these words we "would need to go to hell itself, go free from the taint of personal sin and go as the holy Son of God. No one will ever be in hell in that condition." No man on earth, no sinner in hell, can approach the experience that will enable him to understand the significance of Jesus' terrible cry. Clearly we do not qualify. The terrible truth is we deserve what Jesus was suffering on the cross. Jesus said sin is a condition of the heart. "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man" (Mark 7:20-23). The apostle James wrote in 2:10, "For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offends in one point, he is guilty of all." And the apostle John said, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8).

We don't fully understand the holiness of God

We do not fully comprehend these words because we don't fully understand the holiness of God. The Hebrew prophet Habakkuk understood this when he exclaimed, "Your eyes are too pure to behold evil, and you cannot look on wrong doing" (1:13). Finite depraved sinners do not understand how sin appears to an infinite, holy and righteous God. His attitude toward sin caused Him to turn His back on His Son and forsake Him. Sin is serious business with God. Christ revealed the horror of sin when we died on the cross. We treat sin lightly. God takes it seriously. God cannot and will not tolerate sin in His presence because He is a holy God. The Bible says: "The soul that sins will surely die." "The wages of sin is death." Gods attitude toward sin caused Him to turn His back on His Son and forsake Him. What a startling contrast these words are to those occasions when God the Father broke through glory and said, This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Sin is so serious that there is only one way God can deal with it. The writer of Hebrews said, "All things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (9:22). These words from the cross reveal the reality of sin and holiness. They also reveal the reason for the sacrifice.

THESE WORDS REVEAL THE REASON FOR THE SACRIFICE

Jesus was fulfilling the great messianic Psalm 22. This great Psalm runs through out the whole crucifixion narrative and is interwoven through out the crucifixion story. It foretells the crucial events in the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus was not a Jewish martyr. He was the Suffering Servant of Yahweh who laid down His life freely.

This was a prayer from Jesus' childhood (Psalm 22:1)

Eli, Eli represents Hebrew version of Psalm 22:1; Eloi, Eloi (Mk. 15:34) is Aramaic. When the human Jesus cried out, My God, my God, He gave full expression to the feelings of abandonment. But these words also express His continuing relationship of confidence, patience, selfresignation and trust in the sovereignty of God the Father. Jesus is crying out after the Father as well as crying to Him for help. In anguish of godforsakenness Jesus continues to trust. The Son of God entered into godforsakenness. The Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest says the word "forsaken" is made up of three words: "to leave" meaning to abandon; "down" suggesting defeat and helplessness; and

"in" referring to place of circumstance. It is the forsaking of someone in a state of defeat or helplessness in the midst of hostile circumstances (Bypaths in the Greek New Testament, p. 87). My God, my God, why did you abandonleave behind, forsake, abandon, desertMe For the first time in the eternal life of Jesus God the Father turns from Him! The Father denies Jesus His presence! Forsaken of God. For the first time that eternal fellowship between the Father and the Son of God was mysteriously broken! In the anguish of godforsakenness Jesus still cries out in trust. He trusts even in His cry of dereliction. In the working out of salvation for sinners the hitherto unbroken communion between the Father and the Son was mysteriously broken, writes Leon Morris. Moltmann writes, Not until we understand his abandonment by God the Father whose imminence and closeness he had proclaimed in a unique, gracious and festive way, can we understand what was distinctive about his death. Just as there was a unique fellowship with God in his life and preaching, so in this death there was a unique abandonment by God (The Crucified God, p. 149). It is impossible for us to understand this cry of our Savior. "One would need to go to hell itself, and go free from the taint of personal sin, and go as the holy Son of God, to understand it. No one ever will be in hell in that condition. Therefore, no man on earth, no victim in hell, can approach the experience that will enable him to understand the significance of Jesus' terrible cry" (Russell B. Jones, Gold from Golgotha, 48). There is no escape. Neither is there an escape from hell for the unbeliever. This is the destiny of every soul without Christ. God our savior has made it forever unnecessary for us to experience or understand the depths of these words from the cross. The reality of sin and holiness reveals the reason for the sacrifice. These words reveal the terrible cost of the putting away of sin.

On Christ representatively fell the collective consequence of sin

This truth becomes clear when we consider the Levitical ceremony of laying hands on head of the innocent scapegoat and confessing the sins of the people. Jesus is our scapegoat, dying in our place, taking the punishment for our sins upon Himself (II Cor. 5:21). Galatians 3:13 tells us Christ became a curse for us, "for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). A. T. Robertson observes the seriousness of our sins in God's sight; "Sin pays its wages in full with no cut. But eternal life is Gods gift, not wages. Both death and life are "eternal." Jesus is made the representative of sin. M. R. Vincent helps us comprehend the language. "On Him, representatively, fell the collective consequences of sin, in His enduring 'the contradiction of sinners against himself.'" Name off your sins one by one: God made Jesus representative of that sin and crushed it! Take that list of sins we read earlier that comes from the heart and bring them to the cross. Jesus was made representative of that sin and died for it. "Evil thoughts" God made Jesus representative of that sin and crushed it! "Fornications" God made Jesus representative of that sin and crushed it! "Thefts" God made Jesus representative of that sin and crushed it! "Murders" God made Jesus representative of that sin and crushed it! "Adulteries" God made Jesus representative of that sin and crushed it! "Deeds of coveting and wickedness" God made Jesus representative of those sins and crushed them! Name them off one by one"deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness" God made Jesus representative of those sins and crushed them at Calvary! Unbelief God made Jesus representative of your cultured, refined,

indifferent unbelief and He died to crush it! God laid the penalty of your sinful heart on Jesus. God made Him representative of all your sins and mine and He paid the penalty. Christ became a curse for us . . . Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Gal. 3:13). This is a revelation of what hell is like. It is a revelation of the penalty of human sin. Think of gathering all the sin of humanity into one heap. What a seething mass of wickedness! Jesus came down to represent that seething mass that God might blot it out in one sufficient comprehensive condemnation! And let it never be forgotten that it was not His, but your and my seething mass of corruption that He identified Himself with and suffered for. No wonder there arose such a cry of Godforsakenness from that sacrifice! He didn't have to do it. He did it only because of His love for us! (Jones, p. 51). Walvoord and Zuck write, "Jesus sensed a separation from the Father He had never known, for in becoming sin the Father had to turn judicially from His Son (Rom. 3:25-26)." William Barclay says, in that moment the weight of the worlds sin fell upon the heart and the being of Jesus; that that was the moment when Him who knew no sin was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21); and that the penalty He bore for us was the inevitable separation from God which sin brings (DSB, Matthew, p. 369). No wonder God pulled the curtain across His holy of holies so no profane eyes could see the terrible spiritual suffering the Lamb of God was enduring as punishment for our sins. God permitted no one to look upon the physical convulsions of the vicarious suffering of Gods Servant. This is how far He traveled from heavens glory to save your soul. It was a place of outer darkness of godforsakenness and God caused a thick darkness to fall upon the land.

God loves you

These words reveal the extent of Gods love for you and me. God continues to demonstrate His own live for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Not the nails, but His wondrous love for me. Revelation 1:5, "To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood . . ." Ephesians 5:2, "Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma." Christs death was an offering to God in our behalf. Kept my Lord on the cross of Calvary. Oh, what power could hold Him there--All my sins and shame to bear? Not the nails, but His wondrous love for me. These words from the cross reveal to us the reality of sin. They also reveal the reason for the sacrifice of Christ, and the satisfaction of God.

THESE WORDS REVEAL THE SATISFACTION OF GOD

Probably only a few moments later Jesus declared with a shout, Finished! Gods wrath is spent. The sacrifice for our sins is finished. John R. Broadus, In Himself the Savior was still wellpleasing to the Father, in voluntarily laying down His life that He might take it again (Jn. 10:17f); it must have been as our substitute, because He bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that He was forsaken.

Jesus has satisfied the holy just demands of God.

These words reveal to us that the wrath of God toward sin has been completely satisfied. Jesus was paying the price of our sin debt in full as He cried out, "Eloi, Eloi . . . My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Hebrews 10:31 says: "It is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God." Heb. 2:3, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation." Now is the day of salvation. God pleads with you to come to Him because your salvation was paid in full at Calvary. I Thess. 5:9, "For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him." Godforsakenness describes the depths of His suffering for us. And when He cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? my hell, your hell, all the hells of all guilty sinners were burning their fires out on Him! He paid that price, not for Himself, but for each of us individually, personally, particularly (Jones, p. 52). He did it so you and I will never know what hell is like. If He was there in my stead, as my representative, doing business for me, then, the agony that I must endure in hell, if I refuse to allow Him to substitute for me. His pains, His shrieks of loneliness, His agonizing question from the cross, are, after all, the prophetic manifestations of what awaits doomed sinners in the everlasting condemnation of their unforsaken guilt (Jones, p. 53). These words from the cross are a divine revelation of what hell is like. It reveals to us the wrath of God against all sin. This is the clearest revelation of the wrath of God. These words reveal the satisfaction of God. The Hebrew prophet Isaiah said the Suffering Servant would be "wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities." The LORD God was laying on Him "the iniquities of us all." The Suffering Servant of Yahweh was crying out, "My God, My God . . . " John the Baptizer pointed to Jesus and declared, "Behold the Lamb of God who lifts up and takes away the collective sin of a world of sinners" (Jn. 1:29, 36). Christ gave Himself a "ransom for many." Him who knew no sin God "made sin" for us. On the cross Christ became a "curse for us" and so redeemed us from the curse of the law. We are "redeemed by the precious blood of Christ" shed on Calvary. He gave himself a "ransom for all." Jesus had to pay the price alone and tasted spiritual death for every man. He felt the way a lost sinner feels, without Himself having sinned. The innocent sufferer was suffering for the guilty. The invitation is clear: "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). Come, sinners! Come harlots! Come blasphemers! Come, murders! Come, adulterers! Come sinners all! "And him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out" (Jn. 6:37).

Some Abiding Principles for Today:

In these words we begin to comprehend the love of God. In these words we understand the depravity of sin and God's holiness. In these words we understand the vicarious, substitutionary atonement of Jesus' death.
Mr. Warren Chandler served both as a trial lawyer and a judge during his illustrious career. On one occasion Judge Warren Chandler was speaking to a man convicted of murder: "At your first trial, I was your lawyer, today I am your judge. The verdict of the jury makes it mandatory for me to sentence you to be hanged by the neck until you are dead." Today Jesus is your advocate; tomorrow He is your judge. Today He pleads for you to believe in your heart that He died for your sins on the cross. The salvation He offers is complete and all sufficient to save you for all eternity. Believe on Him right now and ask Him to be your Savior. 2003. Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent. Scripture quotations from the New American Standard Bible (c) 1973 The Lockman Foundation. -AbideInChrist-

John 19:28-29

I Thirst
On the outskirts of Jerusalem, overlooking the garbage dumps Jesus was crucified on rough-cut timbers with iron spikes. The day began with a mock trial and the scourging of the victims. Pilate had Jesus scourged by the Roman soldiers. It was not humane. A lictor, trained in the proper administration this punishment, stripped and tied the victim to a low stone column. He picked up a flagellum composed of a short circular piece of wood to which was attached several strips of leather. Each strip had pieces of bone, pieces of iron chain, nails, fishhook like claws and glass sewed to it. According to Roman law there were no set number of stripes to be administered, nor to what parts of the body it could be assailed. The lictor took up his position about six feet behind Jesus. Jim Bishop says, "The flagellum was brought all the way back and whistled forward and made a dull drum sound as the stripes of leather smashed against the back of the rib cage. The bits of bone and chain curled around the right side of the body and raised small subcutaneous hemorrhages on the chest." Again and again and again the flagellum came back slightly lower each time and crashed against the skin and flesh of Jesus. In a slow heavy pulsating rhythm the victim of such beatings was often beaten to death. If not he was a bloody pulp when the lictor had finished his deadly job. After being paraded through the streets Jesus was led up to Golgotha surrounded by four Roman soldiers and a centurion. Jim Bishop in The Day Christ Died writes vividly: The executioner laid the crossbeam behind Jesus and brought him to the ground quickly by grasping his arm and pulling him backward. As soon as Jesus fell, the beam was fitted under the back of his neck and, on each side, soldiers quickly knelt on the inside of the elbows. Jesus gave no resistance and said nothing, but he groaned as he fell on the back of his head and the thorns pressed against his torn scalp. Once begun, the matter was done quickly and efficiently. With his right hand, the executioner probed the wrist of Jesus to find the little hollow spot. When he found it, he took one of the square-cut iron nails from his teeth and held it against the spot, directly behind where the so-called lifeline ends. Then he raised the hammer over the nail head and brought it down with force. . . . Two soldiers grabbed each side of the crossbeam and lifted. As they pulled up, they dragged Jesus by the wrists. With every breath, he groaned. When the soldiers reached the upright, the four of them began to lift the crossbeam higher until the feet of Jesus were off the ground. The body must have writhed with pain . . . . His arms were now in a V position, and Jesus became conscious of two unendurable circumstances: the first was that the pain in his wrists was beyond bearing, and that muscle cramps knotted his forearms and upper arms and the pads of his shoulders; the second was that his pectoral muscles at the sides of his chest were momentarily paralyzed. This induced in him an involuntary panic; for he found that while he could draw air into his lungs, he was powerless to exhale (pp. 278-80).

Jesus has been enduring this kind of suffering on the cross for about three hours, from nine a.m. until noon. Through out all of the commotion about the cross we have heard Jesus keep praying, "Father forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). The two criminals got caught up for a time with the hostile crowd sneering at Jesus. They were shouting out with the crowd assembled before them, "He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Messiah, the Chosen One!" Another kept on shouting, "If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself and us!" Then one of the criminals came to his senses as he observed the divine Sufferer enduring the sins of others and he kept saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!" "Jesus remember me . . . " After some time Jesus said once and for all with no repetition, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise" (23:42-43). At some point during the first three hours of the suffering the apostle John and four women drew nearer to the cross. Jesus' mother was with them. When Jesus saw His mother and "the disciples whom he loved" near the cross, Jesus said to His mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" (John 19:25-27). John took Mary to his home in Jerusalem and then made his way back to the ugly scene. This drama kept on going on in the face of Jesus for about three hours and then a sudden, intense darkness fell upon the land from noon until three p.m. Toward the end of that three hours of quiet darkness that surrounded the scene the Suffering Servant of Yahweh cried out in a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?" that is, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:45-46). After about six hours the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ now move quite rapidly. John tells us, "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, said, 'I am thirsty'" (John 19:28). A Roman soldier poured some cheap sour wine onto a sponge and lifted it up on a hyssop branch to the lips of Jesus. When He received the sour wine He said, "Finished!" Jesus then with a loud voice said, "Father, into thy hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46). He gave up His spirit. A centurion standing by saw what happened and "began praising God, saying, 'Certainly this man was innocent'" (v. 47). Let's go back and focus our attention on Jesus in John 19:28-29. Jesus has been suffering for six hours and it is now around three p.m. "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop, and brought it up to His mouth." Let's reflect on what those words of Jesus meant as we contemplate our redemption. THE COMPLETION OF OUR REDEMPTION Jesus is alert The apostle John, who was present at the cross wrote, "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished . . ." (v. 28a). The hardest part of the suffering is now over and now Jesus asked for a drink. He wasnt in some swoon. He was alert in His suffering and the reason for His suffering. Even on the cross He is in control and the Master of the moment. He is alert up to the moment of His death. What is it that Jesus now knows? All things have now been accomplished. They have been brought to a close or reached their goal. The last act in His suffering has now been completed. Whatever it was that Jesus accomplished in that bitter agony during the three hours of darkness when He was covered with our guilt, and experienced the Father turn His face from Him was now consummated. When that was over, the final act was finished, and by that act His purpose of suffering was finished and He completed what the Scripture foretold concerning His death. Jesus was aware that nothing more was needed. The awful, cruel ugly task of paying the penalty for our sins was accomplished. Nothing needed to be added to His completed work. In the terrible darkness that covered the land Jesus had cried out, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? After this terrible suffering in the dense darkness was over Jesus asked for a

drink. It is now that He knows that all His work is done. What was accomplished? "All things had already been accomplished" reveals the things Christ went to the cross to do. When He spoke these words, all things were accomplished. They stood finished and now He must only gain strength and declare that our redemption is completed and then give up His spirit. There was nothing more to be done. He had made the once-for-all sacrifice for sin. The Seed of the woman had bruised the serpents head. The struggle with the power of darkness was over. He had won the battle for the souls of lost men. Lenski writes, "the entire Scriptures in all that they present concerning the earthly work of Jesus have now been turned into actuality, the work mapped out by Scripture is now a work actually accomplished" (John, p. 1303). Nothing else needed to be done. His work of suffering is complete. In a few minutes Jesus will sip the sour wine at His lips and shout "Finished!" announcing to the world that His work is done. The price for our redemption is paid in full. What was accomplished took place in those three hours of darkness when Jesus, covered with our guilt, experienced that even God had turned his face from Him. Jesus' suffering in bitter agony was over, and our redemption was completed. All that the Scriptures had foretold concerning His earthly work was completed. Nothing more was needed but to give up His spirit and die. The long, great work of redemption was completely done. THE CREDENTIALS OF OUR REDEEMER What was in John's mind when he wrote, "in order that the Scriptures might be fulfilled" (v. 28b)? The construction here calls for the fulfillment in the words of Jesus, "I thirst." As Lenski notes, Jesus said, "I thirst," not "I die." A. T. Robertson writes, "John sees the thirst of Jesus in Psalm 69:2f. . . This is one of the severest agonies of crucifixion." The thirst was excruciating and intensified as He hung on the cross. Let it be clearly understood. The Scriptures had not predicted that the coming messiah would cry out, "I thirst." But the Scriptures had indicated that the Messiah would be a Suffering messiah. Jesus is the one and only one who fulfills the scriptures pointing to the coming Deliverer. It is not King David who suffers as an innocent, vicarious divine sufferer, but One greater than David. F. F. Bruce also suggests Psalm 22:15, "my tongue cleaves to my jaws" because of the bitter dehydration and blistering thirst. The Scriptures were fulfilled spontaneously from the lips of Jesus. Nothing is forced on the Old Testament texts. Psalm 69:1-3, 7-9,19-21 is another of those great prophecies in the Old Testament of the humiliation of the Messiah. It speaks of our suffering Savior. The first four verses could be easily compared to the suffering of Jesus. Verse four, "Those who hate me without cause are more than the hairs of my head . . ." Cf. John 15:21-25 John saw the words in verse nine being fulfilled in the events recorded in John 2:17. "For zeal for Thy house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach Thee have fallen on me". All four of the Gospel writers saw v. 21 fulfilled in the death of Jesus. "They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Matthew, Mark and Luke saw it being fulfilled in the beginning hours of the crucifixion when the merciful women offered Jesus the narcotic drink, but Jesus refused it (Matt. 27:34, 48; Mk. 15:23; Lk. 23:36). However, John sees it being fulfilled here in these last moments of Jesus life just before the cry of victory from the cross. This is not the hypnotic drugged wine the merciful women offered Jesus which He refused at the beginning of the crucifixion. "Jesus resolved to die

with unclouded mind." This is the sour wine of the soldiers, "far from dulling the senses, may be intended to preserve or revive full consciousness." I think Leon Morris and many other scholars are correct in thinking "that He wished to undergo His sufferings with a clear mind. But now He is at the point of death. He wishes to say something that will be herd, so calls for a drink to moisten His parched throat. He drinks, then says, 'It is finished.' Immediately He dies . . . . Elsewhere we read that Jesus uttered a loud cry just before His death." This was a Victor's cry! It was a cry of triumph! Read again John 19:28-30. "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop, and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!' And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." "Those are right who agree that 'I thirst' voices a purely physical desire. It is, indeed, true that now all is finished, the work is done, the battle over, the victory won," writes Lenski. This is a request that Jesus makes. He asked for a drink. He wanted the sour wine to moisten His parched lips and throat. "He was rallying for His last strength. . . He wants His lips and His throat moistened in order that He may do just what the synoptists report that He does, namely utter a loud shout and thus die. Even the centurion was astonished a this mode of death. . . This request and the actual death were separated by only a few moments" (p. 1306). This request of Jesus was fulfilled; He received the drink for which He requested. A Roman soldier took a reed and filled a sponge with the cheapest kind of sour wine and lifted it up to Jesus' fevered lips. That is why some of our older translations call it vinegar. It was the cheapest kind of sour wine the poorer people and Roman soldiers drank. It definitely was not like the good stuff Jesus made! Without a pause Jesus said, "Finished!" Luke tells us Jesus cried aloud, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit!" Having said this He died. The Son went home to be with the Father after having done the Father's will. "No wonder His voice rose to its loudest pitch." His work is brought to its perfect completed state. Done! Finished! Complete! All things . . . fulfilled The entire Scriptures in all that they present concerning the earthly work of Jesus have now been turned into actuality. The work mapped out by the Scriptures is now a work actually accomplished. After Jesus rose from the dead He said to two men as they walked along the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures" (Lk. 24:25-27). Later that same night Jesus appeared before all the disciples in Jerusalem and ate with them. Before leaving He said, These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem (vv. 44-46). Let me whet your spiritual appetite and encourage you to examine on your own some of the many Scriptures that refer to the person and work of Christ in the Old Testament. Check out the studies on Christ in the Old Testament where we examine some of the identifying marks of our Redeemer. If you believe the Scriptures you will make no mistake in identifying Him. His cry, "I thirst," marked Him as the promised Suffering Servant and Savior of men. In Genesis 3:15 Jesus is crushing the head of serpent. Paul wrote in Romans 16:20, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you." The victory won over Satan at Calvary becomes your victory and mine. Jesus is the Lamb of Genesis 22:7 when Isaac inquired of his father Abraham, "Where is the lamb?" If there

were no lamb, Isaac must die. At the cross, the Lamb is identified and He makes Isaac's sacrifice for him. Numbers 21:9 Jesus is the one being lifted up that whoever believes in Him may be eternal life. Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (Jn. 3:1416). Moses spoke of the coming of the Prophet of God in Deuteronomy 18:15, 18. Here at the Cross Jesus is the one unique spokesman of God proclaiming the finished work of God in redeeming the world. Hebrews 1:2-3 tells us God "has spoken to us in His Son." "He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high . . . " Jesus had told some Pharisees on an earlier occasion, "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?" (Jn. 5:4647). The person of whom the Hebrew prophet Isaiah wrote in 7:14 is fulfilled in the coming of Immanuel, "God with us." When giving reassurance to Joseph the angel Gabriel said, "And she (Mary) shall bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Here at the cross these words are being fulfilled. Here is the One in Isaiah 53:3 who is "despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief . . ." At the cross we see Isaiah 53:4 fulfilled in the One who "my griefs He Himself bore, And my sorrows he carried; Yet I esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted." Please allow me to reverently change the pronouns in Isaiah 53:5-6 to clarify the application. "Jesus Christ was pierced through for my transgressions, he was crushed for my iniquities; the chastening for my wellbeing fell upon Him, and by His scourging I am healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of all to fall on Christ" (Isa. 53:56). Jesus is the One in Isaiah 53:10 of whom "the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; If he would render Himself as a guilt offering. . . " Jesus is that offering crushed for you on the Cross. "He Himself bore the sins of many" (v. 12). Yes, His credentials are authentic. They certify Him to be the Suffering Servant of Yahweh and our Savior. "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, 'I am thirsty'. . . When Jesus therefore had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished!' And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit" (Jn. 19:28, 30). I want one who has those kinds of credentials as my Savior and Lord. THE COST OF OUR REDEMPTION Wrath of God exhausted on Christ "Jesus said . . . I thirst" (v. 28c-29). Jesus was revealing a physical condition. The Water of Life had drained Himself dry in the fires of hell for you and me. The fight was so bitter, the fire was so hot, and the contest was so severe, that he had to give His all. Death was the price of His victory. The One who drank your bitter cup of woe is now exhausted. The wrath of God has exhausted itself on Jesus! This is the purely physical agony of the cross. Jesus was a human being suffering, not some Gnostic spirit. He was the incarnate Son of God. He was fully human and fully alive. He was GodMan enduring the agony of physical suffering on our behalf.

The spiritual suffering for our sins is now complete, finished, done. The battle is over; the victory is won. The victor makes a simple request, "I thirst." With His lips and throat moistened He gathers up His strength and cries, "Tetelestai!" and says, "Father into thy hands I commit My spirit" and breathed His last. The Son went home to the Father after doing the Father's will. The death of Jesus finishes His redemptive work. The redemptive shedding of His blood, done once for all, is finished and stands as finished forever. Jesus offered up Himself once for all (Heb. 7:27). No more sacrifices! His one all sufficient sacrifice for sin is sufficient! Christ appeared as a high priest in the "perfect tabernacle, not made with hands" and offered up the perfect sacrifice for sin. Hebrews 9:12 says, "not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." "The wages of sin is death," "For the death He died, He died to sin, once for all . . . " (Rom. 6:23, 10). If you do not see Him as your Substitute, and His victory as your victory, there is no hope for you. He is exhausted because He has won the victory for you. He is thirsty because He has gone through your fire. Now He wants you to know it. To remain ignorant is fatal. Jesus died for you Jesus died for you and me. It was your death He was dying. You and I deserved to die, and He intervened on our behalf and made the decision to die in our place. We deserve to die for our sins just like those two criminals did on their crosses. We are sinners. We have failed to bring glory to God. The wages of our sin is death (Rom. 6:23, 3:23). The Bible is extremely clear in its interpretation of Christs death. "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (5:6-8). Make no mistake about it. It is vital for us to understand this great Biblical truth. It is not His teaching ability, nor His miraculous power, nor His early appeal to the crowds, nor His surpassing sympathy, but it is His atoning sacrifice that meets human needs. Neither man nor God will be satisfied apart from the offering of an allsufficient Lamb whose blood has been shed for the sin of the world. There is no one else to call upon for salvation. Only in the name of Jesus can you receive God's gift of eternal life. "There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12). Any and every other name will send you to an eternal hell and eternal separation from the LORD God. But now He wants to fill your cup. The resurrected, living Savior wants to come into your heart and give you eternal life. He is alive and He wants to come in and live in you through His Holy Spirit. He offers to you refreshing waters of life. Jesus stands and pleads with you today, "Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost" (Rev. 22:17b). Are you thirsty? Come. Ask Christ to be your Savior It begins with a simple transaction. Believing that Jesus died in your place on the cross "if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation" (Rom. 10:9-10). Will you do that right now? Will you right now pray, "Lord Jesus I am a sinner. I need you to come into my heart and give me your life. I believe you died for me on the cross and rose from the dead. I invite you to come into my life right now. I want You as my Savior."

Jesus said, "Every one therefore who shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny Him before My Father who is in heaven"(Matt. 10:32-33). 2003 Wil Pounds. Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent. Scripture quotations from the New American Standard Bible (c) 1973 The Lockman Foundation.

-AbideInChrist-

John 19:28-29

FINISHED!
Lets suppose you died and stood before the Lord God and He said to you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" What would you say? What do you think you would say? Consider some typical responses I get from serious well meaning individuals. They go like this: "You know preacher, I am trying the best I can. That ought to be good enough." "God respects all our good efforts. Surely He is not going to reject us if we try hard to live a good life and do what we can to better mankind." "Oh, Joe was a good old feller. He didn't hurt anybody. A feller can only do what he can do, you know." "I joined the church and was baptized. I try to live a good Christian life." My family has done well. Ive been a good parent, a good provider and my kids have turned out fine. You know, I try to live a honest life. I think you guys are entirely too serious about this Christian life thing. God doesnt expect us to get that serious over religion. You gotta have a life to live. We are all trying to go to the same place. One religion is as good as the next. There is a basic flaw with those answers. Because of the finished work of Christ, personal salvation is not by works or even Christ plus my works, virtue or moral character. The reason is found in the saving work of Christ on the cross. The message of the cross is the all sufficiency of Jesus Christ. R. B. Jones wrote, "Nothing greater has ever been accomplished than that which was completed at the cross." John 19:28-30 reads, "After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop, and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, 'It is finished!' And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." F. F. Bruce reminds us on that Passover eve, "The death of Jesus is the true Passover and the effective means of inward cleansing." Let's reflect for a few moments on the man who spoke those words from the cross, "It is finished!"

THE MAN WHO SPOKE THESE WORDS The unique sufferer

What made Jesus uniquely different from any other man who was ever executed on a Cross? Colossians 1:15-20 tells He was the Son of God. The apostle Paul writes: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For He created all things, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authoritiesall things

have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Fathers good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. Yes, it is the Godman who is dying. It is the Son of God, the second person of the holy Trinity who is being sacrificed. He has come to do the Fathers will.

His own volitional choice to die

Jesus chose to go to the cross and die for mankind. John 10:11, 15, 17, 18 makes it clear that Jesus chose to die for His sheep. "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep . . . I lay down my life for the sheep . . .. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received form My Father." You can't get much clearer than that. This is the way Jesus understood and explained His own death. Some people have the false impression that Jesus was a helpless victim of an insidious plot and His life was ended suddenly and unexpectedly as a martyr for a religious cause. That simply isn't the case. By His own testimony He tells us this was a free choice He made of His own free will.

Fulfilled prophecy
The crucifixion of Jesus was carefully predicted in the Scriptures. God planned His death. The words of Psalm 22 were fulfilled at the cross of Jesus. " All who see me sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the head, saying, Commit yourself to the Lord; let Him deliver him; Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him (vv. 7-8). I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It is melted within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And my tongue cleaves to my jaws; And You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. They look, they stare at me; They divide my garments among them, And for my clothing they cast lots (vv. 1418). He is the Servant of Yahweh who is depicted in the suffering songs of Isaiah (42-53). The ancient Targum takes the view here that the Servant is the future Messiah, an individual and not the prophet, and not a personified collective, i.e., the nation of Israel. Jesus Christ is Yahweh's Servant, "My chosen one in whom My soul delights" (42:1). He is a covenant to the people and a light to the nations (v. 6). He opens the eyes of the blind and sets the prisoners free (v. 7). How much more graphic can you get than the poetic description of

the Divine Sufferer in Isaiah 52:13-53:12? Read that grand passage substituting the personal pronouns with the name of Jesus. Peter, preaching his finest sermon on the day of Pentecost after Jesus rose from the dead declared in Acts 2:2324; 3:18 God's grand plan of redemption. "Just as you yourselves knowthis Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power . . . . But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled." Now at the cross the body of Jesus was dehydrated from the hot Jewish midday sun and physical suffering during the six hours He hung on the cross. He revealed the burning physical thirst when He said, "I thirst." A sponge was filled with cheap sour wine and placed on a hyssop branch and shoved up to his lips. Jesus sucked some of the wine to sooth his fevered raw burning throat. He then gathered up his strength and gave a victorious shout, Tetelestai! What did the incarnate Son of God say that is so important?

THE MEANING OF THESE WORDS

Let it be clearly and emphatically stated that Jesus did not say, "I am finished." He did not say, "I am done it is all over with Me; men will have to bring their own merit as a supplement to Mine in order to be saved" (Jones). Jesus said "It," not "I." "It is finished!"

A victorious shout
It is a cry of victory. Jesus was not dying as some pathetic Jewish martyr. It is the victorious cry of our Substitute, our Representative, accomplishing a task on our behalf that we could never accomplish for ourselves. The it that Jesus completed so perfectly is the personal penalty due us because of our individual sin. We deserve to die because we are sinners and Jesus paid our penalty for us. Because He is not finished, the work He came to do was finished. We are not asked by God to continue His saving work and finish it for Him. You and I cannot finish it for Him. Neither can you add to the work that Jesus accomplished on the cross. Jesus accomplished all He came to do. He declared at the end of the day Finished, Done, Completed! The death of Jesus perfectly finished His redemptive work. The Lamb of God made His great sacrifice for the world. All that we must do is believe it and rely upon it. It would appear that the loud cry that Matthew, Mark and Luke referred to was, "it is finished." Leon Morris writes, "Jesus died with the cry of the victor on His lips. This is not the moan of the defeated, nor the sight of patient resignation. It is the triumphant recognition that He has now fully accomplished the work that He came to do." The eyewitness John gives us the touching detail that He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. It "is the thought of a peaceful death, the death of One who trusts in His Father . . . His relation to death is not the same as that of other people." In his footnote Morris says, "Most important is the truth that Jesus' work was finished. He came to work God's work, and this meant dying on the cross for the world's salvation. This mighty work of redemption has now reached its consummation. It is finished" (p. 815).

Completed task
John uses the perfect tense signifying full completion of Jesus' work and the establishment of a basis for faith. It is finished. It has been completed and remains finished. Nothing more was needed. Now Jesus could rest in death. Jesus had reached His goal. Redemption is a successful accomplishment; a long, great work is completely done. Jesus speaks these words to His Father. The job His Father sent Him to do is finished. Our great Substitute has paid the great price of ransom, paid it to the uttermost penny. "It is finished" indeed! The

redemptive shedding of His blood, done once for all, is finished and stands as finished forever. It will never need to be upgraded. It will never have to be repaired. It will never wear out. It will never be out of date. It will never be insufficient. Jesus Christ is our great High Priest, "who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself" (Heb. 7:27). Calvary was the holy Temple of God and Jesus the great High Priest offering up the perfect sacrifice for sin. "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption . . . Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself " (9:11-12, 26). This was a sacrifice that never ever had to be repeated. Tasker reminds us these words are "the triumph of His finished work, resounds over Calvary's hill . . . the work that He had come into the world to do has been accomplished; the one, perfect, allavailing sacrifice has been offered. The sixth statement from the Cross is actually one word in the original: tetelestai. It means, "It was finished and as a result it is forever done." You could translate, "It stands finished." "Done!" "It is finished!" is the perfect of a completed action, denotes an action brought to its termination like this line or sentence that ends in a period. Russell Jones says, "It is a word of accomplishment as well as relief, of satisfaction as well as of fact, of victory as well as of work." G. Campbell Morgan said, "It means that it was rounded out to perfection. Whatever He went to the cross to do was accomplished." The dying by which we are redeemed says Morgan was "something deeper, something profounder, something rooted in Deity, into which human intellect peers reverently, always to be blinded by excess of light had been accomplished." He had finished; it was over, it was done. The pains of hell gat hold upon Him. All the waves and the billows had swept across Him. He had breasted the storm, and accomplished God's purpose. When He knew all things were finished He said, "I thirst"; and then He announced His victory, "It is finished." Whatever the "it" stands for, that which brought Him there, the purpose of His going was fulfilled, completed, rounded out" (Morgan, Gospel of John, p. 297). It was a farmer's word used to describe an animal so beautiful that it seemed to have no faults and defects. The farmer would look upon the animal and declare Tetelestai! Tetelestai! It was a carpenter's word describing his unashamed satisfaction as he rubs his hands across the fine finish of a piece of perfectly finished furniture and says Tetelestai! It was an artist's word describing the final stroke of the master painter, such as Picasso or Rembrandt, as he picks up his brush and makes the finishing touch to his canvas, never to pickup his brush again. Tetelestai! It was a priestly word, which described a worshiper who brought in a perfect sacrifice, without spot or blemish in perfect health. It was the pride of his flock. The priest looked upon the perfect sacrificial lamb and declared Tetelestai!

A perfect sacrifice for sin

F. B. Boreham, in A Handful of Stars writes: "And when in the fullness of time, the Lamb of God offered Himself on the altar of the ages, He rejoiced with a joy so triumphant that it bore down all His anguish before it. The sacrifice was stainless, perfect, finished! He cried with a loud voice, 'Tetelestai' and gave up the

ghost." Never would God require another sacrifice like this one. It was perfect and complete. Alfred Eldersheim gathers up the meaning of Christs death with these words: Christ on the Cross suffered for man; He offered Himself a sacrifice; He died for our sins, that, as death was the wages of sin, so He died as the Representative of manfor man and in room of man; He obtained for man "eternal redemption," having given His life "a ransom," for many. For, men were "redeemed" with the "precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot;" and Christ gave Himself for us, that He might "redeem" us from all iniquity; He "gave Himself a ransom" for all; Christ died for all; Him, Who knew no sin, God "made sin for us;" "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us"and this, with express reference to the Crucifixion. This sacrificial, vicarious, expiatory, and redemptive character of His Death, if it does not explain to us, yet helps us understand, Christ's sense of Godforsakenness in the supreme moment of the Cross. "It is finished!"

What made this sacrifice different?

What was it that was so perfectly completed? "Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled . . . said, 'It is finished!' And He bowed His head, and gave up His spirit" (vv. 28, 30). These words confirm that Jesus knew "that all things had now been accomplished (Tetelestai). All Scripture that was due to be accomplished in His passion had now been accomplished; the entire purpose for which the Father had sent the Son into the world was now assured of fulfillment . . . salvation and eternal life were henceforth freely available . . . In the consummating moment of death, He declares this work to be finished" (F. F. Bruce, Gospel of John, p. 374). Lenski observes The death of Jesus finishes His redemptive work, the work of reconciliation and atonement. This specific work is now brought to a close. The Lamb of God has made His great sacrifice for the world. It is this that is now done. Our great Substitute has paid the great price of ransom, paid it to the uttermost farthing. "It is finished" indeed! . . . the redemptive shedding of His blood, done once for all, is finished and stands as finished forever. Heb. 7:27; 9:12, 26; Rom. 6:10. (Gospel of John, p. 1309). "'It' was the torment of the payment of the penalty of the accumulated sin of all men. 'It' was the suffering of the full punishment of all the guilt of all time. 'It' was the experience of the combined hells of all who have offended God," writes Jones. The "it" of Isaiah 53:6 was declared finished. "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." It is the it of Isaiah 53:12, "He poured out his soul unto death." The "it" of 2 Corinthians 5:21 was finished. "God has made Christ to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." The "it" of 1 Timothy 2:56 is finished. "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all . . ." The "it of Revelation 5:9 is finished. "And they sang a new song, saying, `Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.'" The "it" Jesus completely satisfied was the personal penalty due you and me because of our individual sin. James Proctor expresses it beautifully: "Nothing either great or small,

Nothing, sinner, no; Jesus did it, did it all, Long, long ago. "It is finished!" yes, indeed, Finished every jot; Sinner, this is all you need; Tell me, is it not? Cast your deadly doing down, Down at Jesus' feet; Stand in Him, in Him alone, Gloriously complete." James Proctor

THE MESSAGE FOR US TODAY.

There is a powerful, relevant, vital and significant message in these words for you and me.

Jesus satisfied the demands of God's justice.

We seem to have forgotten in our day that God is a holy and righteous God. He is an impartial God who does not make decisions based upon personal biases. "For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law . . . on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus" (Rom. 2:11, 12, 16). No one will be left out. "There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek . . . " (v. 9). The Scriptures have locked us up in prison and has thrown the key away. "The Scripture has shut up all men under sin" (Gal. 3:22). No one is exempt because we have all sinned and failed in God's sight. Because He is a holy God, Jones says God the Father was interested in those words of Christ. His sacrifice "satisfied the demands of God's justice. . . Jesus had paid the price of human redemption with His own precious blood, God can now receive the repenting, returning sinner both as a loving Father and as a just God." He adds, "The heavenly Father is now free to accept lost men into His eternal Kingdom without violating His holy justice" (p. 80). Hell was also interested in these words of Jesus at the cross. When Jesus said, "It is finished" the doom of hell was complete. By Christ's vicarious cry Satan was defeated. Hebrews 2:14 tells us, "Through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Now, Jesus carries the keys of death and hell (Rev. 1:18).

Justification by faith
Earth was interested in those words. How can God remain a holy and righteous God and allow sinners in His presence? The apostle Paul gives us the answer in Rom. 3:19-26; 5:6, 8; Gal. 2:16; 3:13, 22. All of these Scriptures stress the fact that MAN IS JUSTIFIED BY FAITH IN THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST ALONE. There is no other way to stand right in the sight of a holy and righteous God. Galatians 2:16 is very clear when it says, "a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." You ask, "What must I do to be saved?" Because Jesus has paid our debt in full all we can do is trust Him. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household (Acts 16:31). That does not mean

all of your household will be automatically saved. They will respond to the gospel and put their faith in Christ because they will see the change in your life and they too will want to be saved by God's free grace. Salvation is now possible because it does not depend on your efforts or your goodness. The apostle Paul could exclaim, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14). Only because Christ completed the work is it possible for any man to be saved. Now I need to repent and put my faith in Christ's work for me. Nothing else will give you eternal life. All you can do is receive it. In your heart of hearts finish this sentence. Jesus Christ plus _______ saves. What do you place in that blank? My virtue, goodness, hospitality, sacrificial giving to good causes, being a martyr, a missionary, baptism, church membership, sacraments, etc? Gods answer is NOTHING! It is finished! All we need to do is call upon His name and believe on what He did for us on the cross. His sacrifice is all sufficient to forgive us our sins and cloth us in Christs righteousness. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. 2003. Wil Pounds. Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent. Scripture quotations from the New American Standard Bible (c) 1973 The Lockman Foundation.

-AbideInChrist-

Luke 23:46

"FATHER INTO THY HANDS"

The cross of Jesus Christ is the center of everything. Early in the Gospels we hear Christ declaring that He set His face steadfastly toward Jerusalem and the cross. His entire life was spent in the shadow of the cross. He was ever eager to go to the cross because apart from that He could not fulfill His divine mission. The cross was perpetually present to the mind of Christ. It was always in His heart and on His lips after Peters great confession of Him as the Messiah, the Son of the living God. He was always moving toward that cross as a Victor, not a victim. He was always moving toward the ultimate final victory over sin and death. It was on His mind as He spoke to Nicodemus, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. The cross was the only way Jesus could fulfill His mission. His death was a vicarious, substitutionary sinners death even though He never experienced sin. He was the sinners representative dying in his place. Why did God choose crucifixion since it was an unspeakably horrible death? Cicero was well acquainted with it and said it was the most cruel and shameful of all punishments. Let it never, he said, come near the body of a Roman citizen; nay, not even near his thoughts, or eyes, or ears. So it pleased the LORD God to put to grief His Suffering Servant, when He who knew no sin was made sin for us. Lets examine for a few moments the circumstances around the death of Christ.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES AROUND JESUS DEATH (23:44-45)

Luke's arrangement of the events at Calvary the day Christ died is topical, not chronological. We get the whole picture when we examine the death of Christ in all four of the Gospels. Each writer has selected events that helped him to explain the message of salvation. There were six miracles at Calvary. A miraculous darkness enveloped the scene for three hours, and the thick curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom like gigantic hands took hold of it at the top and ripped it apart. An earthquake rocked Jerusalem and split open rocks. People came out of their graves after Jesus' resurrection and entered the city of Jerusalem.

The mysterious darkness

"It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour" (Luke 23:44; cf. Matt. 27:45; Mk. 15:33). The very fact that this darkness is mentioned shows it must have stood out in memory as having been of great intensity and an unforgettable experience. It occurred when least expected, at high noon, and lasted three hours, not a few minutes like an eclipse. Besides it was the time of the full moon at Passover when the darkness covered the whole land. No one can say the darkness did not extend over the whole of the daylight half of the globe. This darkness was in the presence of the full sun and covered the sun at noonday. All at once the darkness covered the land and it seems to have departed just as suddenly. It was not late afternoon as the sun normally goes down quietly, but it was a frightful darkness that suddenly dropped like a thick curtain. It was very extensive and concentrated like the three days darkness in Egypt during the plagues preceding the first Passover. Like that event there is only one explanationGod. It was a special act of God. It was as if God put His hand over the sun and blocked its light for three hours. The gospel writers say "darkness" and then everything falls silent for three intense hours. Even the Divine Sufferer is silent until just before the darkness ends. Out of that impenetrable frightening darkness is a shout of God forsakenness, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" The incredible thing is how that exclusive darkness attached itself to the death of Christ. What did this darkness mean? The darkness meant judgment, the judgment of God upon our sins. The punishment was borne by Jesus, so that He, as our Substitute, suffered the most intense agony, indescribable woe, and terrible isolation for our sins. Hell came to Calvary that day, and the Savior descended into it and bore its horrors in our stead. The judgment of God came upon our sins that day. Our representative and substitute died in our place. Jesus Christ the Son of God was suffering the torments of hell. The Son of God was dying as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was enduring the inconceivable wrath of His Father against our sin. He was paying our debt. Darkness is associated with the judgment of God in the Bible. At the second coming of Christ we are told that climatic changes will take place in the heavens. Isa. 5:30; 60:2; Joel 2:30, 31; Amos 5:18, 20; Zeph. 1:14-18; Matt. 24:29, 30; Acts 2:20; II Pet. 2:17; Rev. 6:12-17 On the cross the agony of judgment that Jesus was suffering was so intense He finally uttered the words, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Jesus was giving His life as a ransom for our sins (Mark 10:45; Matt. 20:28; 26:28). And God drew the curtains over Calvary so sinful man could not see the intensity of God forsaking God.

The Temple veil was torn

Moreover, in the moment Jesus died the one-inch thick woven loosehanging curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Hollies into two rooms was sliced into from top to bottom. It did not shake to pieces, but was like a giant hand took hold of it at the top of the veil and ripped it apart from top to bottom. The moment Christ died the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many" (Matt. 27:51-53). Luke simply says, "the veil of the temple was torn in two" (23:45). Referring to the same event Mark writes, "And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last. And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (15:37-38). The rending of the veil occurred at the moment of His death.

God the Father acted, as any devoted Jewish father standing by His Son's deathbed would have done renting His garments. This was a customary Jewish mourning gesture. God tore the veil as if renting His own outer garment. This tearing of the veil happed at three p.m., when the priests were busy in the temple slaughtering the Passover lambs. Think for a moment if you had been a Jewish priest slitting the throats of the lambs preparing for the Passover that would begin at late evening when the first star appeared in the distant sky. Perhaps you would have been throwing incense on the altar at that precise moment! What if it had been your Passover lamb that was being slain at that exact moment? Some of the priests working in the temple would have been eyewitnesses to this event. That is probably the reason why "a great many of the priests one after one were becoming obedient to the faith" in Jesus Christ as their Savior (Acts 6:7). Through the death of Christ the way into the heavenly sanctuary was opened for all mankind. All may now freely enter in by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Heb. 6:19; 9:3). "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (10:1922). Now we can experience an intimate, love relationship with Christ because His sacrificial death opened a way for every believer to enter into the holiest "through the veil" of His flesh. "Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:16; Cf. Eph. 2:18-19; 3:11-12). At that moment the throne of grace was opened up for all who will believe. The way into God's presence is now open for all to come in. Jesus is the only sacrifice needed for us to have a right relationship with God. However, there is only one way to enter and that is through the blood of Jesus (Acts 4:12). The Temple in Jerusalem was no longer God's dwellingplace. The Temple was profaned, and consequently abolished by God Himself when in A. D. 70 the Roman army burned it. From the day of Pentecost every believers body became the dwelling place of God (1 Cor. 3:16).

Earthquake and graves split open

Matthew tells us that other things happened. "And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many" (Matt. 27:51-53). Josephus (War VI. 299) tells of a quaking in the temple before the destruction and the Talmud tells of a quaking forty years before the destruction of the temple. A. T. Robertson gives keen insight, "We come back to miracles connected with the birth of Jesus, Gods Son coming into the world. If we grant the possibility of such manifestations of Gods power, there is little to disturb one here in the story of the death of Gods Son." Walvoord and Zuck conclude: "The tombs, then, broke open at Christs death, probably by the earthquake, thus heralding Christs triumph in death over sin, but the bodies were not raised till Christ was raised." Warren Wiersbe explains, "The earthquake reminds us of what happened at Mount Sinai when God gave the Law to Moses (Ex. 19:16ff). The earthquake at Calvary signified that the demands of the Law had been met and the curse of the Law forever abolished (Heb. 12:1824). The torn veil indicates that He conquered sin; the earthquake suggests that He conquered the Law and fulfilled it; and the resurrections prove that He defeated death." Yes, amazing things happened the day Christ died. But were is the evidence of His death?

THE CRY OF JESUS AT HIS DEATH (23:46) "Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit."
The victorious Son commits His all to His Father. This is what we would expect of the person who lived the way Jesus did. He had a perfect trust in the heavenly Father which was never broken. He then addressed His Father in the final statement from the cross, Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit (Ps. 31:5). Jesus died with a bedtime prayer upon His lips that every Jewish mother taught her children. He had learned it in the arms of Mary. Only one word is added to this verse, "Father." It tells us how our Lord died: confidently, willingly (John 10:1718), and victoriously (John 19:30). Barclay says, "Even on a cross, Jesus died like a child falling asleep in his father's arms." Moreover, everyone who knows Jesus as their Savior may die with the same confidence and assurance (2 Cor. 5:18; Phil. 1:2023). Jesus was an obedient Son through out His life and ministry. Everything that He said or did can be understood only in the light of the cross. Calvary is the key to truth. The message of God centers in His Son on the cross dying for sinning humanity. Unless we are the instruments of His will we blunder through our physical existence without any worthwhile purpose. Jesus repeatedly tells us He did nothing except in the Fathers will. I can do nothing, Jesus said, on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me (John 5:30). My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working. . . Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing, whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner (vv. 19-20). Jesus came to do the Fathers will and on the cross He is accomplishing the ultimate purpose of His coming to this earth. "Into God's hands must go all that we are and all that we have. God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:19 says, God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them . . . How could He do that? Paul tells us for in Christ all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form . . . (Col. 2:9).

Jesus died in obedience to the Father's will.

Jesus breathed His last breath. He died. The expression "He breathed His last," or "He gave up His spirit" means "to breath out, to expire, to die." Geldenhuys explains the last moments in the death of Jesus were a calm restfulness. He had accomplished with satisfaction what the Father gave Him to do. The March 21, 1986 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association had an article on The Physical Death of Jesus Christ. Here is the conclusion by the author: Thus it remains unsettled whether Jesus died of cardiac rupture, or a cardio respiratory failure, however the important feature may not be how He died, but whether He died. Clearly the weight of historical and medical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead before the wound to His side was inflicted, and supports the traditional view that the spear thrust between His right ribs probably perforated not only the right lung but also the pericardium and the heart, and thereby insured His death. Accordingly interpretations based upon the assumption that Jesus did not die on the Cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge. Jesus died.

The meaning of His death

What was the purpose of His death? The apostle Peter writes, you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18, 19).

Andrew Murray writes in his excellent little book, The Power of the Blood of Jesus: The power of that blood in its divers effects is nothing less than the eternal power of God Himself. . . But the power of the blood lies above everything else in the fact that it is offered on the altar for redemption. When we think of blood as shed, we think of death; death follows, when the blood or the soul is poured out. Death makes us think of sin, for death is the punishment of sin. God gave Israel the blood on the altar, as the atonement or covering for sin; that meansthe sins of the transgressor were laid on the victim, and its death was reckoned as the death or punishment for the sins laid upon it. The blood was thus the life given up to death for the satisfaction of the law of God, and in obedience to His command. Sin was so entirely covered and atoned for, it was no longer reckoned as that of the transgressor. He was forgiven. But all these sacrifices and offerings were only types, and shadows, till the Lord Jesus came. His blood was the reality to which these types pointed. His blood was in itself of infinite value, because it carried His soul or life. But the atoning virtue of His blood was infinite also, because of the manner in which it was shed. In holy obedience to the Fathers will He subjected Himself to the penalty of the broken law, by pouring out His soul unto death. By that death, not only was the penalty borne, but the law was satisfied, and the Father glorified. His blood atoned for sin, and thus made it powerless. It has a marvelous power for removing sin, and opening heaven for the sinner; whom it cleanses, and sanctifies, and makes meet for heaven (p. 20). Russell Jones reminds us Jesus' "death was different. It was a victorious death. He brought His spoil with Him. It was a vicarious death. It had no personal claim upon Him except as the representative of sinners. He was doing man's dying for him. It was a voluntary death. No man took His life from Him; He laid it down of Himself." Jesus died the only kind of death that was able to satisfy the justice of God and to save men (John 10:11, 15, 1718). His blood had satisfied the law and righteousness of God, wrote Murray. Jesus did not yield to death in weakness. Jesus summoned death like a chariot or limousine to serve His purposes! It is significant the inspired writer does not say, "He died," but "He gave up the spirit." NASB reads, "He breathed His last." He breathed out his life, clearly indicating the voluntary nature of the act. Augustine had a good understanding of this great truth. He said, "He gave up His life because He willed it, when He willed it, and as he willed it." No other person has ever done that. You and I dont have that kind a choice about matters of life and death. The word translated "commend," or "commit" "might have been as properly translated "I render up, or lay down" (Jones). It means, "to deposit with another, to give him charge, to commit." Luke noted that Jesus death occurred because He willed it. Breathing His last(Luke 23:46), He voluntarily gave up His life (John 10:15, 17-18). One of the amazing things about His death was the timing. "The terror of the crucifixion was this," writes Barclay, "the pain of that process was terrible but it was not enough to kill, and the victim was left to die of hunger and thirst beneath the blazing noontide sun and the frosts of the night. Many a criminal was known to have hung for a week upon his cross until he died raving mad" (Luke, p. 285). When Jesus knew the payment was paid in full He chose to give up His spirit. He was sovereign in His own death. He died like no other man.

I commend my spirit, said William Hendriksen, indicates that the Savior died the only kind of death that was able to satisfy the justice of God and to save man. It had to be a voluntary sacrifice. The very fact that Jesus uttered this word with a loud voice also shows that He willingly, voluntarily laid down His life (John 10:11, 15) (The Gospel of Luke, p. 1036). Jesus, as the High Priest on that last Passover Day, was offering Himself to God as the bleeding sacrifice to atone for mans sin. His cross is the altar of the sacrifice. His body is the bloody Sacrifice. Jesus is the Great High priest offering up Himself as the sacrifice that covers our every sin. By His voluntary death, this Priest carried His sacrifice into the Holy of Hollies of Gods presence; and with these words offered it to God. The deed is done, finished. Year after year, for centuries, the Jewish priests had been doing it. Thousands upon thousands of lambs had been slain. Little did they realize that very day just outside the walls of the city, a different kind of Priest had appeared, with a Lamb that brought bloody sacrifice forever to an end. Jesus, the Son of God, offers His broken body, without spot or blemish, to God. He pours out precious and efficacious blood at the foot of the cross. The veil of the temple is rent in two from top to the bottom. God Almighty is satisfied! His wrath is propitiated through the blood of Jesus. He comes from the secret place, saying, "It is enough! No more priests, but Jesus! No more blood, but His blood! The work is done!" The New Testament has much to say about the sacrifice of Christ. Heb. 7:22-27; 9:24-28; Rom. 5:6, 8; 6:10; 8:34; II Cor. 5:14-15 At Calvary's altar, the crucified Priest offered Himself, the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world.

THE CENTURION'S TESTIMONY AT JESUS' DEATH (23:47-48)

The Roman centurion in charge of the execution was a professional executor who had never seen anything like this before. He watched how Jesus conducted Himself in the midst of all the hostility and hatred. In His last moments Jesus loud cry of restful resignation made a profound never to be forgotten affect upon that soldier. It was a voluntary surrender of His life into the Fathers hands. This was a cry of confidence. The centurion testified, Certainly this was a righteous [innocent] man, the Son of God (Mark 15:39; Luke 23:47). He was greatly impressed by the darkness, the earthquake (Matt. 27:54), and certainly the manner in which Jesus suffered and died. Never had he heard a victim praying for his enemies. This hardened Roman soldier must have been shocked when Jesus shouted and then instantly died, for victims of crucifixion often lingered for days and did not have the strength to speak.

Praising God (v. 47)

The Roman centurion had seen men die, but none like this. Russell Jones suggests this King commanded death to come to His service and convey His spirit to God. Never had the world seen anything like this before. Jesus ordered Romes death chariot to carry Him back home! From that moment on death became the doorway and vehicle to heaven. Jesus transformed the Roman symbol of the power of death and made it His servant by using the very thing it stood fordeath and despairto accomplish His eternal purpose of victory over death. A. T. Robertson notes the centurion, "Began to glorify . . . or kept on glorifying." He kept it up. The Roman centurion began to praise or glorify God probably by acknowledging the righteousness of God and he continued to do so (Matt. 27:54; Mk.15:39; Lk. 23:47).

Reaction of the crowds

The crowds reaction is seen in verse fortyeight. Luke describes the people slowly winding their way back

to Jerusalem. They must have said to themselves over and over again in deep agonizing conviction of their evil party as they slowly walked, We did this! We did this! How could we have been party to this? Cf. Acts 2:36; I Thess. 2:14, 15. Returning to the city they began to beat their breasts in self-reproach. Lenski says, They came to witness a show; they left with feelings of woe. They knew they were guilty before God and deserved death (Rom. 6:23). They must have gone away sounding like the tax collector in Luke 18:13, God, be merciful to me, the sinner par excellence! It was a time of mourning and lament for the common people who were present.

The burial of Jesus

All four Gospel writers present details of the death and burial of Jesus. His death and burial is a historical fact. When Jesus died, Joseph immediately went to Pilate for permission to have the body, and Nicodemus probably stayed at Calvary to keep watch. They tenderly took Jesus from the cross, quickly carried Him to the garden, washed the body, and wrapped it with the spices. It was a hasty temporary burial. They would return after the Sabbath on the first day of the week to do the job properly. When they laid Jesus into the new tomb, they fulfilled Isaiah 53:9, and they kept the Romans from throwing His body on the garbage dump in Gehenna outside the city. Condemned criminals lost the right to proper burial, however God saw to it that His Sons body was buried with dignity and love. It was important that the body be buried properly, for God would raise Jesus from the dead. If there were any doubt about His death or burial, that could affect the message and the ministry of the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:18). The resurrection of Jesus caught everyone by surprise. It was not an anticipated event. No one believed Jesus when he said he would rise from the dead. They spiritualized the prophecy or simply could not grasp the possibility. Every one of the disciples was shocked three days later when He was raised. They thought that was the end when Jesus died and was buried.

What will you do with Jesus?

Darrell Bock reminds us, "The most perceptive people at the scene are a criminal and a centurion . . ." The criminal died that day with great assurance of eternal life, and the centurion spent the rest of his life praising God. Two converts, saved by grace! Can you imagine with me what it will be like when Jesus Christ returns and those who have heard the message of the cross and have chanted down through the ages, Crucify Him! Crucify Him! And then when they see His face will only beat their breasts and scream We did this! We are guilty. We have sinned. We have done Him wrong. We have rejected Him! For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sins will surely die. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? At that time it will be too late. It will be even worse than when these people came back from the ugly scene at Golgotha and deep under the convicting power of God realized they had crucified a righteous and holy God! Now is the day of salvation. Jesus went to the cross and died for you. Your sin debt has been paid in fully by Jesus Christ. He died for you on the cross. God can now pardon and forgive you of every sin and bestow on you the free gift of eternal life. The reason He can do that is because Jesus was obedient to the Fathers will, even unto death. Now a righteous and holy God can offer us forgiveness through His grace. Jesus Christ has already done everything for you. By offering up His Son, God is able to make sons and daughters of all who respond to this work by faith. Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow. Again Darrell Bock wrote, "The ripping of the temple curtain shows that no barrier exists between God and humanity that cannot be removed by turning to God through Jesus. . . . To embrace the cross means to renounce our own work as the basis of our salvation. Our relationship with God comes through trusting in Jesus and in His finished work. 'My sin, not in part but the whole' has been wiped away by the forgiveness Jesus provides" (NIV Application Commentary, Luke, p. 601). Martin Luther was going through terrible periods of depression. Luther seemed to see a hideous and malignant form inscribing the record of his own transgressions on the walls of his room. The accusing hand wrote down the sinful thoughts, the sinful words, the evil deeds, the sins of omission and commission, secret sins, open sinsthere seemed to be no end of them. Luther bowed his head in prayer. When he looked up again, the writer had paused and was facing him. "You have forgotten just on thing!" said Luther. "And that?" queried his tormenter. "Take your pen once more and write cross it all: `The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin!'" At the mention of the blood of Jesus, the evil spirit vanished and the walls were clean! (Russell Bradley Jones, Gold from Golgotha, p. 91). All you need to do is trust Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The apostle Paul wrote, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation (Romans 10:9-10). All we need to do is call upon His name and believe on what He did for us on the cross. His sacrifice is all sufficient to forgive us our sins and cloth us in Christs righteousness. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. 2003 Wil Pounds. Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent. Scripture quotations from the New American Standard Bible (c) 1973 The Lockman Foundation.

-AbideInChrist