The Message of the Cross (20) Jesus’ Last Seven Words on the Cross (4)
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September 20, 2020 |
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 “And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46).
Jesus left behind the words of love shortly before He breathed His last on the cross and they are known as “The Last Seven Words on the Cross.” Let us pick up today the seventh and last words Jesus bequeathed on the cross.
1. The Reason Why Jesus Cried Out “Father” With a Loud Voice
This was so that His last words on the earth could be heard by the people and it is also because God’s will dictates that we “[cry] out with a loud voice” to Him in prayer.
Including His Word in Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know,” God tells throughout the Bible that we are to call out to Him in prayer as in Numbers 12:13; 2 Chronicles 32:20; Psalm 57:2; Mark 10:47; John 11:43; Acts 4:24; and Acts 7:59.
When Jesus prayed at Gethsemane shortly before His arrest, He prayed so earnestly that “His sweat became like drops of blood.” The medical professional claims that when a person is under a great amount of stress or strives hard in an endeavor, it is possible for the capillary vessels to burst, causing sweating and bleeding at the same time, and for the person it is to “sweat as if he were bleeding.” Furthermore, the fact that Jesus sweated as if He were bleeding while praying late into the night in the kind of climate found in Israel suggests how earnestly and desperately He must have been praying.
2. The Reasons Why Jesus Said, “Father, into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit”
1) Jesus Testifies to the Immortality of the Spirit of Men
Man consists of a spirit, a soul, and a body. Once life expires, the body, that was merely a vessel for the spirit and the soul, returns to the ground. Since the spirit is eternal and immortal it does not become extinct. Adam’s spirit was formed after creating him, when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). God filled Adam’s spirit with spiritual knowledge that is the truth.
“Soul” refers to all functions that allow a person to store information in his brain and allow him to remember certain information, think and feel about it, and apply or act upon it. Originally, the master of Adam was his spirit which controlled both his soul and body. Since his spirit was filled with the truth, the soul and the body under the control of the spirit were also of the truth. When Adam sinned against God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, his spirit died. The “death of spirit” refers to the severing of one’s communication with God and the spirit’s inability to perform its duties.
Once the spirit, the master of man, dies and stops functioning, the soul assumes the role of master and begins to govern the body. The soul is then subject to the work of the enemy Satan and begins to accept untruthful knowledge. As much as the heart becomes filled with untruths, the truths which God had originally planted are supplanted by untruth. Eventually the heart is filled with hatred, temper, and selfishness. However, the discontinuation of the functioning of a person’s spirit does not signify the extinction of his spirit. The spirit of man was formed with the breath of life of the eternal and immortal God. It could never become extinct.
What would happen to the soul when the body dies? The brain is required for a person to function. It is through his brain cells he has memory and thinks. When the physical life of an animal (which has no spirit) expires, the memory system within the brain of an animal also disappears; its flesh and soul become extinct and return to nothingness. However, the functions of the soul of man, who has spirit, are conveyed to the ‘heart’ and stored in it. Therefore, instead of becoming extinct, the soul will exist forever in union with the spirit as the attributes of the soul are input within the spirit.
For the same reason the Lord said, “Father, Into Your hands I commit My spirit.” When an individual hears the gospel and accepts Jesus Christ he receives the Holy Spirit and his spirit that had previously been ‘dead’ is revived. Of the person whose spirit has revived and who has filled his heart with the truth we may say “His soul has prospered.” As much as one’s soul prospers?in other words, as much as one’s heart is filled with the truth?every affair of his life will prosper and he will enjoy good health (3 John 1:2).
As Jesus tells us in John 3:5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” when people who have been born again of water and the Holy Spirit?those whose spirits have revived?will enter Heaven. However, those whose spirits have failed to be revived and their hearts have not been cultivated with the truth from their unbelief in Jesus Christ will be unable to enter Heaven. Hell is a place reserved to accommodate such people.
2) Jesus Testifies to His Having Obeyed and Fulfilled Everything in Accordance with only God’s Providence
The fact that Jesus prayed on the cross, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit,” testifies to how He had obeyed and fulfilled everything in accordance only with God’s providence. Jesus’ having come into this world, His crucifixion on the cross, and His resurrection were not planned and executed according to His own will or plan, but only according to the will of God who governs man’s life, death, curses, and blessing, as well as the history of mankind (John 4:34).
While we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the One who answers our prayer is God. Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:29-31, “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”
If you truly fathomed and engraved in your heart the spiritual significance of such assurance from the Lord, you would be able to commit everything to God. As God reminds us “not one of [the sparrows] will fall to the ground apart from your Father” and that “the very hairs of your head are all numbered,” if we could trust in Him by faith, there is nothing for which we would fail to receive His answers, whether it be for the problem of disease, for the blessing at the workplace or business, or even for accomplishing God’s work.
Even though Jesus had existed in the form of God and is one with God, Jesus only sought and pursued the will of God and committed everything to Him. By the same token, instead of placing your trust in the ways of man or other people, may each of you fix your eyes only on God, always experience His work that transcends the might of man, and honor Him in everything.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, by always keeping in mind Jesus’ “Last Seven Words on the Cross,” grasping the heart of Jesus who cried out with a loud voice amidst the affliction of the crucifixion, and wholly accomplishing God’s will, I pray that, as you long for the One who is to come back for us in the name of the Lord, each of you will receive the crown of righteousness on that day.
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