Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
After utter physical exhaustion from hours of agony on the cross, Jesus cried out again with a loud voice declaring His work finished and truly died. He died in the afternoon at the time of the evening sacrifice, at the very moment the darkness passed away and the priests were officiating in the temple with the Passover lamb ready to be slain. His loud dying cry was a clear and triumphant proclamation that the covenant pledge was fulfilled to the letter, the redemption price paid and victory won. Type met antitype in the death of God's Son as the true Lamb, so the need for the Jewish system ended and sacrifices and offerings were no longer accepted. At His expiring cry God's own unseen hand tore the temple veil from top to bottom, laying open a new and living way into the Holiest of all so all sinful humanity may come directly to God and find pardon and peace.
Death on the Cross
After utter physical exhaustion Jesus cried out again with a loud voice declaring His work finished and died, truly dying after hours of agony on the cross in the afternoon. The expiring moment was the cry It is finished, by which He reached the prescribed limit as a sacrifice, conscious He had fulfilled to the letter the covenant pledge. His path to death included taking neither food nor drink since the Passover supper, agonizing in Gethsemane in conflict with satanic agencies, betrayal and flight of disciples, examinations before Annas and Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod, insult upon insult and mockery upon mockery, and being twice scourged. He was delivered to a murderous throng crying for His blood and led away pale and weak and fainting, with the cross prepared for Barabbas laid on His bruised and bleeding shoulders as He passed the gate of Pilate's court, while two companions of Barabbas also received crosses to suffer with Him, and human nature could bear no more so He fell fainting beneath the burden and could not carry it farther. He was stretched upon the wooden cross with nails driven through His tender hands and feet and hung there those dreadful hours in agony with mockery and reproach until He died, while angels veiled their faces from the horrid scene and the sun refused to behold and hid its light.
He suffered and died outside Jerusalem's gate where criminals were executed, as humanity's substitute to redeem people from the curse of the law. A vast crowd from all classes followed Him from the judgment hall, including disciples and other believers from Jerusalem and nearby areas. He died with a loud cry not because of the spear thrust or the physical pain of crucifixion but from a broken heart caused by mental anguish. The blood and water flowing from His side confirmed that He was already dead and showed that He was slain by the sin of the world. His death came in the afternoon at the time of the evening sacrifice, at the very moment the mysterious darkness that enshrouded the earth passed away.
It was at the very moment the priests were officiating in the temple with the Passover lamb ready to be slain and the priest standing with lifted knife. Though assurance of His Father's approval was withdrawn and He had no clear hope of the triumph to come, He trusted in His Father's known justice, mercy and love and commended His spirit into His hands. No command came from heaven for the angels to rescue Him, but He was left to suffer at the hands of opposers. His death came surprisingly soon, since crucified persons frequently lingered days on the cross.
It was purposely kept from Pilate amid conflicting reports of the strange events attending the crucifixion, until Joseph of Arimathea first told him Jesus was really dead. Then the centurion in command at the cross confirmed it for a certainty and recounted the fearful scenes of Calvary. This made Pilate believe more firmly He was no ordinary man, left him strangely agitated and keenly regretting his part in condemning Him. The hour He laid down His life was marked by supernatural signs of creation's response and heaven's sympathy: darkness covered the earth concealing the company of heavenly angels present, the earth quaked with the tread of the heavenly host, rocks split, and graves opened.
The darkness concealed heaven's powerful agencies, whose presence showed heaven's sympathy with His suffering and humiliation, and nature itself shared in His sorrow and mourned His humiliation. That mourning contrasts with the triumph and glory of His second coming. Just as an earthquake marked the hour He laid down His life, another earthquake signaled the moment when He took His life up again in triumph at His resurrection. The verse belongs to the history of professedly pious Jews given in Matthew 27 and 28, to be read together with His commission to His disciples in Matthew 28.
What His Death Accomplished
Jesus yielded up his life on the cross after hours of agony, and in that dying he completed his mission and his costly sacrifice for humanity and for sinners. That sacrifice was made to open the way for people to be saved, to show the way and to bring the divine help needed to overcome, so that the world would not perish and everlasting life could be given to all who live. The crucifixion stands as the climax of his suffering and the decisive event of the plan of redemption, marked by supernatural darkness, earthquake, torn rocks, and opened graves.
His loud dying cry was a clear and triumphant proclamation that his work was finished. In dying he reached the prescribed limit as a sacrifice but not as a Redeemer, conscious he had fulfilled to the letter the covenant pledge made with the Father, with the redemption price paid and victory won as more than conqueror. Type met antitype in the death of God's Son as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to whom the Jewish offerings pointed. Because the sacrificial type met its reality, the need for the Jewish system ended and all sacrifices and offerings and sacrificial offerings were no longer accepted.
At his expiring cry of It is finished, uttered at the very moment the priests were officiating in the temple with the Passover lamb ready to be slain and the priest standing with lifted knife, the earth trembled, the priest's knife dropped from his nerveless hand and the unfettered lamb escaped. At that instant God's own unseen hand, not any priest, the same hand that wrote Belshazzar's doom, tore the strong and gorgeous fabric of the temple veil from top to bottom. That rending threw open the Most Holy Place where the Shekinah glory had dwelt above the mercy seat and which only the high priest entered once a year, ending all secrecy there so God would no longer reveal his presence in the Most Holy Place. By that act the Jewish nation was pronounced unchurched and its exclusive system ended.
The rending laid open the way into the Holiest of all as a new and living way with no veil between and an open door before the human race. By it Jew and Gentile, free and bond, high and low, rich and poor, all sinful humanity may come directly to God without earthly priest or ruler and without waiting for the high priest, and find pardon and peace. God bowed his head satisfied, now able to blend justice and mercy and to be just yet the justifier of all who believe. He declared the human race shall have another trial, answering the controversy over the rebellion, destroying him that had the power of death, making Satan fall like lightning from heaven, and opening the way whereby mercy and truth meet together and righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot and by one offering perfected forever those sanctified, purging the conscience from dead works to serve the living God and obtaining eternal redemption. That offering qualified him to enter heaven itself as the pure, undefiled, sinless true High Priest in contrast to the false and corrupted Caiaphas whose rent official robes no longer had meaning, to ever live to make intercession and save to the uttermost those who come to God by him. His death was accompanied by a mighty earthquake that opened the graves of faithful people, with rocks split and the earth shaken. At his resurrection he summoned these saints from the grave as a chosen company coming forth glorified as the first fruits of his power and witnesses to his victory over death and the grave, who unlike those he raised during his ministry were raised to everlasting life and represent the final resurrection of the righteous.
Responses and Application
The earthquake, the split rocks, the darkness, and the torn temple veil testified that the Son of God had died. Those signs troubled His enemies, and His murderers trembled at them. Terror fell upon the executioners and spectators at the convulsions of nature that accompanied His loud dying cry.
His followers grieved and lost hope at His death. They had expected Him to reign as a temporal prince, to deliver Israel, to take an earthly kingdom and David's throne, with their hopes of eternal life centered in Him. In that grief they wondered whether He had deceived them, and even His mother's faith in Him as Messiah wavered.
The disciples witnessed His agonizing death and laid Him in the tomb. They saw Him put in the hands of wicked men and a cruel mob, rejected by His own nation clamoring for His blood, crowned with thorns, clothed in the purple robe, mocked and struck with the reed, scourged as the worst of criminals while murderous Barabbas was chosen in His place, stretched upon Calvary's cross as a malefactor and dying as a criminal. That sight killed their hopes and tried their faith, so that hope and courage failed and gave them cause to mourn and fast. After He was taken from the cross and laid in Joseph's new tomb their affliction and anguish was beyond measure and terrible because they had lost their Lord, until hope revived when He rose and appeared to them.
On the cross He stands as an example of one who trusted God's word against human power, when Jewish priests and rulers forced even the Roman governor to do their will. His agony teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, and solemn consecration to God. His death proves He demanded and gave all, so that nothing believers call self-denial compares with it and the narrow way is not too strait. That sacrifice on the cross is presented as the measure of the church's missionary work and devotion.
After utter physical exhaustion from hours of agony on the cross, Jesus cried out again with a loud voice declaring His work finished and truly died. He died in the afternoon at the time of the evening sacrifice, at the very moment the darkness passed away and the priests were officiating in the temple with the Passover lamb ready to be slain. His loud dying cry was a clear and triumphant proclamation that the covenant pledge was fulfilled to the letter, the redemption price paid and victory won. Type met antitype in the death of God's Son as the true Lamb, so the need for the Jewish system ended and sacrifices and offerings were no longer accepted. At His expiring cry God's own unseen hand tore the temple veil from top to bottom, laying open a new and living way into the Holiest of all so all sinful humanity may come directly to God and find pardon and peace.
Death on the Cross
After utter physical exhaustion Jesus cried out again with a loud voice declaring His work finished and died, truly dying after hours of agony on the cross in the afternoon. The expiring moment was the cry It is finished, by which He reached the prescribed limit as a sacrifice, conscious He had fulfilled to the letter the covenant pledge. His path to death included taking neither food nor drink since the Passover supper, agonizing in Gethsemane in conflict with satanic agencies, betrayal and flight of disciples, examinations before Annas and Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod, insult upon insult and mockery upon mockery, and being twice scourged. He was delivered to a murderous throng crying for His blood and led away pale and weak and fainting, with the cross prepared for Barabbas laid on His bruised and bleeding shoulders as He passed the gate of Pilate's court, while two companions of Barabbas also received crosses to suffer with Him, and human nature could bear no more so He fell fainting beneath the burden and could not carry it farther. He was stretched upon the wooden cross with nails driven through His tender hands and feet and hung there those dreadful hours in agony with mockery and reproach until He died, while angels veiled their faces from the horrid scene and the sun refused to behold and hid its light.
He suffered and died outside Jerusalem's gate where criminals were executed, as humanity's substitute to redeem people from the curse of the law. A vast crowd from all classes followed Him from the judgment hall, including disciples and other believers from Jerusalem and nearby areas. He died with a loud cry not because of the spear thrust or the physical pain of crucifixion but from a broken heart caused by mental anguish. The blood and water flowing from His side confirmed that He was already dead and showed that He was slain by the sin of the world. His death came in the afternoon at the time of the evening sacrifice, at the very moment the mysterious darkness that enshrouded the earth passed away.
It was at the very moment the priests were officiating in the temple with the Passover lamb ready to be slain and the priest standing with lifted knife. Though assurance of His Father's approval was withdrawn and He had no clear hope of the triumph to come, He trusted in His Father's known justice, mercy and love and commended His spirit into His hands. No command came from heaven for the angels to rescue Him, but He was left to suffer at the hands of opposers. His death came surprisingly soon, since crucified persons frequently lingered days on the cross.
It was purposely kept from Pilate amid conflicting reports of the strange events attending the crucifixion, until Joseph of Arimathea first told him Jesus was really dead. Then the centurion in command at the cross confirmed it for a certainty and recounted the fearful scenes of Calvary. This made Pilate believe more firmly He was no ordinary man, left him strangely agitated and keenly regretting his part in condemning Him. The hour He laid down His life was marked by supernatural signs of creation's response and heaven's sympathy: darkness covered the earth concealing the company of heavenly angels present, the earth quaked with the tread of the heavenly host, rocks split, and graves opened.
The darkness concealed heaven's powerful agencies, whose presence showed heaven's sympathy with His suffering and humiliation, and nature itself shared in His sorrow and mourned His humiliation. That mourning contrasts with the triumph and glory of His second coming. Just as an earthquake marked the hour He laid down His life, another earthquake signaled the moment when He took His life up again in triumph at His resurrection. The verse belongs to the history of professedly pious Jews given in Matthew 27 and 28, to be read together with His commission to His disciples in Matthew 28.
What His Death Accomplished
Jesus yielded up his life on the cross after hours of agony, and in that dying he completed his mission and his costly sacrifice for humanity and for sinners. That sacrifice was made to open the way for people to be saved, to show the way and to bring the divine help needed to overcome, so that the world would not perish and everlasting life could be given to all who live. The crucifixion stands as the climax of his suffering and the decisive event of the plan of redemption, marked by supernatural darkness, earthquake, torn rocks, and opened graves.
His loud dying cry was a clear and triumphant proclamation that his work was finished. In dying he reached the prescribed limit as a sacrifice but not as a Redeemer, conscious he had fulfilled to the letter the covenant pledge made with the Father, with the redemption price paid and victory won as more than conqueror. Type met antitype in the death of God's Son as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world to whom the Jewish offerings pointed. Because the sacrificial type met its reality, the need for the Jewish system ended and all sacrifices and offerings and sacrificial offerings were no longer accepted.
At his expiring cry of It is finished, uttered at the very moment the priests were officiating in the temple with the Passover lamb ready to be slain and the priest standing with lifted knife, the earth trembled, the priest's knife dropped from his nerveless hand and the unfettered lamb escaped. At that instant God's own unseen hand, not any priest, the same hand that wrote Belshazzar's doom, tore the strong and gorgeous fabric of the temple veil from top to bottom. That rending threw open the Most Holy Place where the Shekinah glory had dwelt above the mercy seat and which only the high priest entered once a year, ending all secrecy there so God would no longer reveal his presence in the Most Holy Place. By that act the Jewish nation was pronounced unchurched and its exclusive system ended.
The rending laid open the way into the Holiest of all as a new and living way with no veil between and an open door before the human race. By it Jew and Gentile, free and bond, high and low, rich and poor, all sinful humanity may come directly to God without earthly priest or ruler and without waiting for the high priest, and find pardon and peace. God bowed his head satisfied, now able to blend justice and mercy and to be just yet the justifier of all who believe. He declared the human race shall have another trial, answering the controversy over the rebellion, destroying him that had the power of death, making Satan fall like lightning from heaven, and opening the way whereby mercy and truth meet together and righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot and by one offering perfected forever those sanctified, purging the conscience from dead works to serve the living God and obtaining eternal redemption. That offering qualified him to enter heaven itself as the pure, undefiled, sinless true High Priest in contrast to the false and corrupted Caiaphas whose rent official robes no longer had meaning, to ever live to make intercession and save to the uttermost those who come to God by him. His death was accompanied by a mighty earthquake that opened the graves of faithful people, with rocks split and the earth shaken. At his resurrection he summoned these saints from the grave as a chosen company coming forth glorified as the first fruits of his power and witnesses to his victory over death and the grave, who unlike those he raised during his ministry were raised to everlasting life and represent the final resurrection of the righteous.
Responses and Application
The earthquake, the split rocks, the darkness, and the torn temple veil testified that the Son of God had died. Those signs troubled His enemies, and His murderers trembled at them. Terror fell upon the executioners and spectators at the convulsions of nature that accompanied His loud dying cry.
His followers grieved and lost hope at His death. They had expected Him to reign as a temporal prince, to deliver Israel, to take an earthly kingdom and David's throne, with their hopes of eternal life centered in Him. In that grief they wondered whether He had deceived them, and even His mother's faith in Him as Messiah wavered.
The disciples witnessed His agonizing death and laid Him in the tomb. They saw Him put in the hands of wicked men and a cruel mob, rejected by His own nation clamoring for His blood, crowned with thorns, clothed in the purple robe, mocked and struck with the reed, scourged as the worst of criminals while murderous Barabbas was chosen in His place, stretched upon Calvary's cross as a malefactor and dying as a criminal. That sight killed their hopes and tried their faith, so that hope and courage failed and gave them cause to mourn and fast. After He was taken from the cross and laid in Joseph's new tomb their affliction and anguish was beyond measure and terrible because they had lost their Lord, until hope revived when He rose and appeared to them.
On the cross He stands as an example of one who trusted God's word against human power, when Jewish priests and rulers forced even the Roman governor to do their will. His agony teaches self-sacrifice, patience under affliction, and solemn consecration to God. His death proves He demanded and gave all, so that nothing believers call self-denial compares with it and the narrow way is not too strait. That sacrifice on the cross is presented as the measure of the church's missionary work and devotion.