The fifth thing Jesus says while on the cross is found in John 19:28-29. “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now accomplished, said in fulfillment of the Scriptures, I thirst. A jar of sour wine was there, so they put a sponge soaked in the sour wine on a stalk of hyssop, and held it to His mouth.” The statement “I thirst” is in fulfillment of Psalm 69:21.
I believe this is to emphasize the humanity of Christ. And He was human in every way, facing every temptation that could be experienced, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). The humanity of Christ is the mark of His priesthood. God cannot be a priest; a priest must be a man (Hebrews 5:1-4). Christ was appointed by the Father to be our High Priest (Hebrews 5:5-6). Therefore, Christ took on the form of a man (Philippians 2:5-8) to become our High Priest.
As both God and man, Christ is equal to the Father and with mankind and so is able to draw the two together through His work as mediator (I Timothy 2:5-6). So, we are reconciled to God through the cross of Christ (Colossians 1:20-22). And here let me point out the verb “reconcile” found twice in this passage is apokatallasso, the strongest term for reconcile used to describe the restoration of a relationship of peace that has been disturbed.
Now we need to go back to the beginning of this lesson in the quotation of John 19:28 that says, “Jesus, knowing that all was now accomplished”. What was accomplished? He had been judged for the sins of mankind. The spiritual death (separation from God) we have been discussing since lesson 149 was over.
His sixth statement is found in John 19:30, “Then when Jesus had taken the sour wine, He said, It is finished” further confirms this. This is one of those instances where I love the preciseness of the original language. “Finished” is tetelestai, the perfect indicative passive of teleo. If properly translated, it would be “it is finished now with results that will go on forever”. The sin question is now resolved once and for all time. Those who believe in Christ and trust in what He did on the cross will never be judged for their sins – He took that judgment on Himself.
However, we must be clear, even though the sin question is settled, when He said “it is finished” it did not mean He had done everything the Father had determined He would do. There are still important events associated with the cross that are yet to be completed. Among these are His physical death (to be discussed later in this lesson) and events during the three days He was in the grave, then His resurrection, demonstrating His power over death and the validity of His promises regarding the future resurrection of believers.
This, then, brings us to the seventh and final statement Jesus makes from the cross indicating His physical death. For this we’ll go to Luke 23:46, “Jesus called out with a strong voice, Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit. And when He had said this, He let out His breath.” The first thing to notice is the change in vocative here from His previous statement. When He was under judgment and separated from the Father, He addressed Him with “My God”. Now the judgment has ended, fellowship is restored and Jesus addresses Him as “Father”
Then He quotes yet another verse from the Old Testament. This is Psalm 31:5, “Into Your hands I commit My spirit: redeem Me, Oh Lord, God of faithfulness.” Now, let me try to explain the significance of this verse from David’s psalm. Though Jesus did not quote the last part of this verse, there is no doubt He knew it. And He was ready at this very point in time to experience this redemption. “Redeem” is from padah, an old commercial term that basically meant, to recover something by paying a price.
Jesus had paid the price, so what was He ready to recover? The answer is found in His prayer in John 17. This is verse 4 and 5; “I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed.” Jesus is ready to go back to the Father’s presence (Hebrews 1:3; 10:12).
And, it bears mentioning again that Jesus’ physical death was not caused by Him bleeding to death (we’ll deal with that in a later lesson), the Jews did not kill Him, nor did the Romans. Man cannot kill God. Jesus makes it clear in John 10:17-18 that He had the authority to give up His life at a point in time that He determined and that He had the authority to take it back again. So, Jesus makes this last statement as He exhales His last breath and doesn’t inhale again – He was gone.
That Jesus’ physical death was remarkable is evident from the response of the Roman centurion who was there watching Him. This is Mark 15:39, “And when the centurion who was standing there in front of Him saw Him exhale His breath in this way, he said, surely this Man was God’s Son.” (Compare Luke 23:47) Why would the centurion say this? He had watched many men die from crucifixion. He had seen them struggle for hours to breathe, to expend every ounce of strength to stay alive. He had witnessed the fear and panic as death neared. But it was not evident with this Man. His voice was strong; He was in control. And He died much sooner than the centurion had any reason to expect. This was unusual in every respect and caused him to rethink what he had thought before (remember Luke 23:36-37).
It was not just the centurion who recognized the unusual way in which Jesus died. “And all the people who had gathered to watch this spectacle, when they saw what had happened, went away beating their breasts.” (Luke 23:48) Now, as we will see in the next lesson, it was not simply the way in which Jesus died that caused this reaction. There were other events that accompanied His death (besides the three hours of darkness and the way in which He died) that led them to believe that they had, in fact, just consented to the death of a righteous man.