"Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit."

"Jesus called out with a loud voice, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.'  When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Luke 23:46

As we anticipate our celebration of Christ's Resurrection, I would like to suggest four important lessons from these, His final words from the cross.  His words teach us that…

1.  Jesus died actually.

 There has been a theory proposed over the centuries, by those who reject the possibility of His resurrection, that Jesus didn't actually die on the cross, but only "swooned," or passed out.  Medical scientists who are familiar with crucifixion assure us that this suggestion is entirely impossible, since physical exertion by the victim was necessary in order to continue breathing.  The victim of crucifixion died primarily from suffocation, overcome by weakness and the blood loss associated with his wounds, as he became unable to push himself up on his feet in order to get the next breath.  So had Christ become unconscious, He would have suffocated.

Neither was Jesus somehow rescued by angels from the cross, as others have proposed.  These people suggest that Jesus was spiritually delivered prior to His death, and that He therefore only gave the appearance of having died on the cross.  Of course, the evidence contradicts this theory as well.

After He died, the Roman soldier pierced His side with a spear.  Blood and water poured out of the wound, satisfying them that if He wasn't dead before, He was now, or would be shortly.  Blood and water do not pour forth from an apparition.  Moreover, the cry, "Into your hands I commit my spirit," would have been totally unnecessary had He been somehow spiritually rescued prior to his death.

It is of utmost importance to understand that Jesus died actually, not apparently, nor symbolically.  If Christ did not actually die, then the resurrection is a hoax, and you and I, and all mankind, are still in our sins.

But the clear evidence is that Jesus truly died.  He died actually. 

2.  Jesus also died willingly.

Having given His body, Christ now willingly offered His very soul to God.

Death has been defined as the unnatural rending of the soul from the body.  Death only exists as a curse from our Creator.  It is the penalty for sin: the sin of our first parents, and our own sin.

However, the Holy Spirit assures us through the writer of Hebrews that Christ, though tempted in every way just as we are, never committed sin (Heb. 5:14).  So He died a death that He himself did not merit.  Thus, in His suffering and death, Jesus truly experienced God's righteous judgment for sin.  He did this willingly, not reluctantly, not grudgingly nor under compulsion.  He willingly gave up everything He had – even His own soul – in order to set free those who rightfully deserved the sentence He endured.

Hebrews 9:14 tells us that "Christ...offered Himself without blemish to God".  No one took Jesus' life from Him; He died willingly...for us. 

From Jesus' last words from the cross, it is also evident that....

3.  Jesus died confidently.

Christ, who previously cried out to "Eloi, Eloi" – "my God, my God" - from whom He was, in that hour, and for the only time in all eternity, separated from fellowship, now with His final breath, addressed this same God personally as "Pater" - "Father."

The words which He shouted to His Father were from Ps. 31, in which the full text of the fifth verse reads:

"Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God."

The One to whom Jesus addressed these words is the Father about whom Jesus taught us:

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.  Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him?" (Matt. 7:7-11).

Jesus was confident that the One to whom He now committed His very soul would care for Him even after He had "breathed His last."  He knew that He would be delivered, on behalf of all those for whom He had died.  He died confidently.

Not only did Jesus die actually, willingly and confidently, but…

4.  Jesus died faithfully.

Everything Jesus did, He did with purpose.  The manner in which Jesus surrendered his soul reveals a great deal about the meditations of his heart even in confronting the Great Terror, and the courage and tranquility of his innermost character in that moment.  Jesus died – even after feeling forsaken by His Father – with a steadfast heart.  Jesus' heart at His death was one of devotion and expectation.  We know this because the prayer on His lips came first from the devotional diary of his earthly ancestor, David.

"Into your hands I commit my spirit; deliver me, Lord, my faithful God." 

Matthew Henry observes that "Christ died with scripture on His lips."  Thus He died with scripture in His heart.  No resentment, no hate, no condemnation of those who had hurt and killed Him.  Of this, the Apostle Peter writes:

           

 He never sinned,
      nor ever deceived anyone.
  He did not retaliate when he was insulted,
      nor threaten revenge when he suffered.
  He left his case in the hands of God,
      who always judges fairly.
  He personally carried our sins
      in his body on the cross
   so that we can be dead to sin
      and live for what is right.
   By his wounds
      you are healed.

            I Peter 2:22-24 (NLT)

Implications.

What do Jesus' last words from the cross imply for you and me?

We have no choice about this; we will die.  But how we die is up to us.  Willingly or humbly.  Entrusting our souls to God, or tenaciously clinging to life as if this is all there is.

In a sense, when we die is up to us.  We can wait until we "breathe our last," or we can consider, as the Apostle Paul said, that

My old self has been crucified with Christ.^[a] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Jesus said that "he who loves his life loses it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life" (John 12:25).

You and I can choose to live in the present as dead to ourselves, entrusting our lives to God every day, living for His purposes.  As the Paul also taught us, "He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised on their behalf" (II Cor. 5:15).

But in those final hours, what thoughts will fill minds?  What words will be on our lips?  I suspect it will depend greatly on the thoughts that occupied our minds the most during our lives.

So, whether we die actually is not our decision:  We will die - actually.

But, when our time comes to die, will we die willingly, responding obediently to our Master's summons?  Will we die confidently, knowing that the One who calls us is faithful to His promises?  Will we die faithfully, resting in those promises, allowing them to minister to our souls even as we release those souls to Him?  Will we also willingly, confidently and faithfully say, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit?"