by Pastor Paul Wolff
“It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:44-46)
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| Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. |
As Jesus was dying on the cross He had just proclaimed His victory by the word, “It is Finished.” Yet there was one thing yet to do, and without it we could not have been saved. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) And if Jesus had not died to pay for the sins of the world, we would have had to die for our sin without any hope of salvation. It was proper for Jesus to proclaim His victory before it was done, because after He was dead He would not be able to say anything. Plus, He had come this far, He was not going to back out now. He had suffered God’s wrath over our sins and remained the faithful, obedient Son, still loving and trusting in God the Father, even while enduring the fierce wrath of God over all our wickedness and sins.
Is it any wonder that God twice proclaimed publicly, “This is my beloved Son. With Him I am well pleased.” When any of us sinners face some lesser pain or suffering we are easily tempted to wonder if God has abandoned us. Yet, here is Jesus, tormented and tortured on the cross, suffering the wrath of God over the sins of the world, which He had nothing to do with and did not contribute anything to in the least, and He still trusts in God to save Him from the death which follows directly.
We also see here that both His first and last words on the cross were prayers to His beloved Father. “Father, forgive them” and “Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.” These prayers were prayed by a faithful Son who loved His good and gracious Father, even when it seemed like God was His enemy. Jesus lived His life as a man by faith, just as all of us ought to do, but where we often fail, Jesus was steadfast at all times. Here as Jesus faced death, He was still trusting in God to save Him. Jesus knew that He had to die, but He had faith that God is the one who rescues people from death. Even the sinless Son of God, who carried the sins of the world in His body and suffered the wrath of God like no one ever knew – He trusted that God would not abandon Him to the grave forever, but would rescue Him as He had promised to rescue us sinners for the sake of Christ.
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| Jesus died on the cross to rescue you from the condemnation of your sins. |
Jesus had no proof that God would save Him from death, except what was written in the Holy Scriptures. In His humility, Jesus did not use His Omniscience as God to give Him assurance of God’s Will. He had the Word of God in the Bible, but Jesus had to trust that the Bible was true, and that God always kept His word.
It is humbling to think about it, but among all the things that could have gone wrong and cost us our salvation, we had to depend on Jesus not being a Biblical skeptic who doubted that the Bible was an accurate and dependable record of God’s Word. Jesus fully trusted that the Bible was the Word of God, and He always interpreted it correctly, even when those around Him often misinterpreted the Scriptures, and twisted the meaning to say something different – just as we see people doing it today. Even when the devil tried to twist the Scripture to tempt Jesus to sin, Jesus trusted God’s Word in the Bible was right, even when it caused Him suffering and pain.
Here we also see that these very last words out of the mouth of Jesus before He died were straight from the Bible. Jesus was quoting Psalm 31:5 which says, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.” We see that Jesus did not quote the whole verse, but His strength was failing, and He was dying, and we get the idea. Jesus was trusting in God, His Father, to look after His spirit and do with it what was good, right, and proper. Jesus would not try to save Himself, but trusted in God to restore His life, and to accept His sacrifice as the payment for the sins of the world, so that all who believe in Jesus will also be forgiven and rescued from death and given life everlasting in Paradise. Jesus trusted in God to be faithful to His Word, and He was not disappointed.
Jesus died trusting in God to save Him, and He not only saved Jesus from death, but gave Jesus all authority in Heaven and on earth, and rescue from sin and death to all who look to Jesus to save them from their sins. God’s Word is true, and because Jesus trusted in God and gave His life to redeem our sinful lives, we have the full forgiveness of sins and the promise of everlasting life in Paradise. We can live by faith, just as Jesus did His whole life, so that when we find ourselves face to face with death, we can trust in God to rescue us, and say with Jesus: “Into Your hand I commit my spirit; You have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.”
Articles in this series from 2023:
Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.
Woman behold your son. Son, behold your mother.
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
I thirst.
It is finished.
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
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