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Friday, March 18, 2011

Easter Lesson 5: Part D Our Lord's Physical Death

D. His Physical Death

Let us now turn out attention to our Lord’s physical death.  Jesus said four things while He was hanging on the cross.  The first was His prayer of separation: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”  We have spoken of this at length.
The second, His utterance of physical anguish:
ü     After this [His work of salvation], Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished in order that the Scripture [Ps 69:21] might be fulfilled, He said, “I am thirsty.”  John 19:28
Notice that all of the things that Jesus did as He died physically continued to point to who He was and what He was accomplishing on the Cross.  He left nothing undone, providing a wealth of indicators for those who were looking, the sure signs that He was the Messiah.  The Scripture, in Psalm 69, clearly indicates, prophetically those things to be accomplished to fulfill the Scripture. 
ü     They also gave me gall for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Psalm 69:21
Thirst accompanies intense suffering.  Jesus suffered, to maximum intensity while bearing our sins in His own body on the cross. This was the humanity of Christ speaking.  The vinegar here is different from that offered to Him earlier.  It was typical of the fermented acid drinks enjoyed by laborers in wine-growing countries. The posca of the Romans was very similar in nature, and formed part of the soldiers’ rations. It was this beverage that the soldiers offered to the crucified Christ as refreshment.  It was different from the myrrh-flavored anodyne (drug which lessons pain) which He had refused earlier. The gall referred to here is the food He had earlier refused. [New Bible dictionary (3rd ed. /). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.] They gave it to Christ, not in derision, but from compassion, to assuage his thirst. [Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.]
The apostle John described this actual event:
ü     Now a jar of [the Roman soldier’s] wine was standing there, so they dipped a sponge in it, put it on a branch of hyssop, and brought it to His mouth.  John 19:29
That the soldier picked up a branch of hyssop is a fulfillment of prophecy.  Hyssop was used to sprinkle the blood of the animal sacrifices.  In the account of the Passover in Exodus hyssop was first used to sprinkle blood on the sides and top of the door. Hyssop was also used in the ceremony of purifying lepers as per Leviticus 14.  Hyssop was used in the ordinance of ceremonial purification of a person who had touched a dead body in Numbers 19. So it was used to indicate spiritual cleansing:
ü     Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Psalm 51:7
Only a hyssop branch was there at the cross, indicating the fact that this was the efficacious and ultimate sacrifice.
The third, His shout of victory:
ü     Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” John 19:30a
By this statement, He announced the completion of His salvation work!  He had received the imputation of all sins ever committed in human history.  God the Father had judged every one of them, incurring His Son’s substitutionary spiritual death. After He had finished this spiritual death, He said, “It is finished.”  This phrase is the Greek word TETELESTAI, the perfect passive indicative of TELEO. This perfect tense is an intensive perfect referring to a completed action, emphasizing the existing results of that past action. The intensive perfect states emphatically that a thing is.  It refers to a present state resulting from a past action.  The present state is that salvation is available to every human being.  The past action is that the Father judged Jesus Christ for our sins.  The past action is a completed action so that the present state is a continuing status quo.  In other words, our Lord said, “My salvation work is finished in the past with the result that it stands finished forever.” 
This statement is one aspect of His death that indicates that He did not accomplish salvation by dying physically, but by His unique substitutionary spiritual death. Had His work involved physical death, He would have died physically without indicating that His work was complete.  You see, there no analogy exists between the physical death of the animal in the Old Testament sacrifices and the physical death of Christ.  The analogy exists between the physical death of the animal and the spiritual death of Christ.  If Jesus had died physically for our sins, He could not have said TETELESTAI:
ü     It has been finished in the past with the result that it stands finished forever.” John 19:30
The fourth statement, He exhaled His physical life:
ü     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 did not die physically as we do. We have no control over the manner, time and place of our death.  He, however, used His volition to dismiss the attributes of life from His body when He had completed His work.  As some allege, He did not die from blood loss.  We will see more on this issue in a minute.  John, who was evidently closest to our Lord when He died, noted exactly what he did before His physical death:
ü     Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.  John 19:30
An expanded translation of the second half of this verse indicates that not only did He bow His head, but that He pushed it and His upper body forward.  We will note the significance in a few minutes.  Another significant expansion to this translation indicates to whom He gave up His Spirit.  Here is a complete expanded translation:
ü     ...and He pushed His head forward and gave up His Spirit [to God the Father].  John 19:30b
ü     Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him.  John 19:31-32
As further evidence of their antagonism and hatred of Jesus, the Sanhedrists petitioned Pilate that the legs of the crucified be broken to speed up their death.  Note that they asked that their legs be broken, not that they be sent to their death by some merciful means such as strangulation or beheading, “like the coup de grace (as the French call it) to those that are broken upon the wheel, the stroke of mercy,” but by means of a method of the most exquisite pain.  There was not an ounce of compassion in these Jewish rulers’ souls!  [Henry, M. (1996, c1991). Matthew Henry's commentary on the whole Bible : Complete and unabridged in one volume (Jn ). Peabody: Hendrickson.]
ü     ...but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.  John 19:34
Notice that that the Roman soldiers did not do what they were commanded to do, to break all of the victims’ legs.  By passing over our Lord, they fulfilled the Word of God! The bones of the Passover lamb were not to be broken according to prophetic Scripture:
ü     It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it.  Exodus 12:46
Our Lord’s bones were not broken, again pointing to the fact that He was the Lamb of God!  The Passover Celebration portrayed His death every time the Jews partook of it.
ü     But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.  John 19:34
That blood and water came out when the soldier speared His body is very significant.  First, in doing what they were not commanded to do, that is spearing our Lord’s body, that soldier again fulfilled prophecy:
ü     I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.  Zechariah 12:10
John did not quote from the Septuagent, the current Greek translation of the Hebrew Scripture but directly from the Hebrew.  The Hebrew word choice is very significant.  The word “piercing” that Zechariah used means, “to thrust through with spear, javelin, sword, or any such weapon.” The word so carefully chosen describes exactly the action of that Roman soldier.  John carries it over from the Hebrew, not the Greek Septuagent. There is a very different word for “pierce” used in Psalm 22:16, “They pierced my hands and my feet.” The word used there is one signifying to bore as with an awl or hammer. What a striking difference!”  [Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., Fausset, A. R., Brown, D., & Brown, D. (1997).]
Secondly, our Lord’s dying posture and that spear thrust resulted in the refutation of two false doctrines.  First, as we mentioned earlier, there are those who attach a special significance to His physical blood; that somehow the shedding of His physical blood was significant in dying for the sins of the world.  For instance, some believe that an angel caught His blood in a bowl then took it to heaven.  This passage heads that false doctrine off at the pass.  You see how important that this is.  To place emphasis upon His physical blood is to deny the significance of His substitutionary spiritual death, thereby relating His work to His physical death.
This verse documents that the blood in His body gushed out upon that spear thrust.  No angel caught it!  Furthermore, there are those who believe that He paid for our sins by His physical death.  This false doctrine also denies the significance of His substitutionary spiritual work. He did not bleed to death. How do we know this?  Had He bled to death, there would have been no blood to coagulate and pour out of that spear wound.  Furthermore, had He bled to death then He would not have volitionally “given up His Spirit” to the Father, after His salvation work was complete.
Thirdly, by the action we are about to discuss, He refuted a false doctrine that was to appear later, that is Docetic Gnosticism, which says that Jesus was not truly human, but actually an apparition, a spirit. Therefore, denying His true humanity.  Before He died, He thrust out His chest, as per John 19:30.  He had to push His head forward in order to push His body into a certain position, leaning far forward.  This was so that the blood in His body could pool in His chest cavity.  This was very significant. Generally when people died by crucifixion, they either slumped to the right or left, or just sagged down, depending on how they were nailed.  Jesus, however, actually pushed His body forward and held that position in physical death, allowing His blood to pool so that it would coagulate upon His death, then spill out upon the spear thrust.  What came out of His chest was blood clots and serum.  This indicated very clearly that He was human because we all know that apparitions do not bleed! Again, had He bled to death, there would not have been enough blood left in His body to coagulate. The fact that His blood did coagulate normally testifies to the fact that He was true humanity in the Hypostatic Union (contra Docetic Gnosticism), and then died of His own free will not bleeding to death on the Cross.  His physical death was not the sacrifice!  It was in His spiritual death.  It is mythology that Christ died physically for our sins.
How do we know this physical description in the Scripture is true?  Listen to the emphatic words of John:
ü     And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. John 19:35 
Not only was our Lord’s sacrifice unique but His very physical death was also unique.  His underwent a trichotomous separation, that is, each of His attributes of life went into separate directions.  When believers die, their bodies return to the earth while their souls and human spirits go to Heaven.  During His trichotomous separation, His human spirit went into the presence of God the Father in the third heaven:
ü     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
His human soul went to Sheol or to Paradise, a part of Hades, in the heart of the earth. He had said to the dying thief:
ü     Today shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.  Luke 23:43
His soul went into Paradise, a compartment of Hades. David prophesied about this as well.  What he wrote is documented in the Psalms:
ü     You will not leave My soul in Sheol neither will You permit Your Holy One [your body] to undergo decay.  Psalm
Peter commented on this passage, further documenting that our Lord’s soul went to Sheol as a part of His physical death in Acts.   :
ü     His soul came out of Hades.  Acts
This was a resurrection message taught by Peter at Pentecost.  He further explained this passage later in Acts. 
ü     David [referring to Psalm 16] looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades nor did His body suffer decay.  Acts
The Apostle Paul also taught this in his letter to the Ephesians when he wrote:
ü     (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?  Ephesians 4:9
The lower part of the earth is Hades or Sheol.  The soul of our Lord’s humanity specifically went to the compartment called Paradise, or Abraham’s Bosom, which was where all Old Testament believers were located, until our Lord transferred them to the third heaven.  Why did he descend into Sheol? Again, Paul wrote to the Ephesians.
ü     Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives…” Ephesians 4:8a
Our Lord also addressed this topic as well when He introduced Himself as Messiah to those in His hometown. Jesus quoted from the Prophet Isaiah.
ü      The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives [those held in Paradise until the Lord released them], and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed…  Luke  [The parenthesis is mine.]  
You may ask why the Scripture calls the Old Testament saints, “captives.”  To what were they captive?  While in Abraham’s Bosom, or Paradise, they were still subject to space and time.  They were not released from that limitation until our Lord escorted them to Heaven.  While He was in Hades or Sheol, He went to anther compartment, Tartarus, the place imprisoning all of the fallen angels who participated in the Genesis 6 invasion of the human race, where, according to Peter, He made the victorious proclamation to certain fallen angels.
ü     …also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison…” 1 Peter
The Holy Spirit sustained and guarded the soul of our Lord while He was there.  
Jesus’ human body went into the grave when Joseph of Arimathea claimed Him. 
ü     And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God; this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.” Luke 23:50-53
Our Lord’s physical death then, was unique.  His human soul went to Sheol, His human spirit went into the presence of the Father, while His body went into the cave-tomb provided by Joseph of Arimathea.  His is the only trichotomous separation in physical death in all of human history.
Why did Jesus have to die physically even though He had accomplished His spiritual work?  The answer to this question relates to our spiritual royalty.  He had to die physically or He could not have been resurrected.  His physical death looked forward to His resurrection, ascension, and session while it looked backward to His finished work on the cross. He had to die physically before He could have a resurrection body.  He had to have a resurrection body before He could ascend.   He had to be resurrected, ascend and be seated at the right hand of the Father before He could receive His third royal warrant.  He had to receive His third royal warrant so that we could become His body, the church, the royal family of God.  The very uniqueness of the Church Age is directly related to His physical death on the cross, which led to His resurrection, ascension, and session.

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