Words from the Cross – 7

“Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.” Luke 23:46

Jesus spoke the seventh and last time. The first part of the plan of salvation had reached its end. He had faithfully fulfilled His duty of teaching, preaching the word, healing the sick. Up until the last moment He had been calling those who were tired, heavy laden, to find rest in Him, and the harvest at the foot of the cross was not small. Many of those wicked men who surrounded the cross were pierced to the heart during those six hours that the Son of God had been hanging there and they experienced a deep conversion.

Jesus saw that His sacrifice was not in vain. He had already saved many people. He was saving others and He would save many others in the future, just by the power of His word and work that would trascend time and space. For the end, there was reserved a group of 144000 that would escort Him wherever He would travel, from planet to planet, in eternity, to give testimony of His love and infinite grace. They would be priests and kings in the new earth. They would go through hard trials, through tribulations, as we read in Daniel 12;!:” There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation.” But they would overcome through faith because they would run the race, “looking unto Jesus, the Author an finisher of our faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Jesus had walked humbly upon the earth, giving an example to all the persons who entered in contact with Him or had heard about Him in all times. He had bore the insults and offences in silence, He had poured out blessings, had healed the sick and had brought peace to the hearts of repented sinners whom He had reconciled with God. He had taught all man needed to know, He had given all He had and was, and now He was giving His own life, the most precious gift God has given man, He was voluntarily sacrifying it. He, the Son of God who had become the Lamb of God was dying on the cross in order to preserve life in man who in such a naive way and at such a low price had sold it in Paradise as he was induced to covetousness.

Abraham had had a revelation of His sacrifice when a ram appeared the very moment he was about to sacrifice his son Isaac; Enoch had walked with Him for three hundred years, and when the Lord gave him a son, he better understood the relationship we have the privilege to have with Him, that relationship of total dependancy like the one He has with the Father. Enoch had also seen Him coming in the clouds of heaven to look for his chosen ones. All those who performed sacrifices in the sanctuary had the opportunity to see, by faith, the vicar sacrifice of Christ, and we can also see it when the Holy Spirit reveals to us our sinfulness nailed to the cross in the beautiful person of Jesus and His blood washing off our sins so that we may be presented before the Father as if we had never sinned.

There was the Lamb, silent, humble, docile, meek, hanging on the cross, the Lamb that had been sacrificed since the foundation of the world, a sacrifice that Adam and Eve had accepted by faith as they received from the hands of the Father the skin of two animals to cover their nakedness as death entered Paradise.

His heart was torn because the sin He had taken upon Himself separated Him from the Father. But His mission on earth was over. He had overcome the enemy forever, so He spoke a seventh and last time and said: “Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit.”

He was resurrected on the third day and ascended to heaven to present His sacrifice to the Father and take with Him the first fruits, and we read: “and the graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” (Matthew 27:52) They are the guarantee that if we sleep in the Lord, we shall meet Him in heaven. For 2000 years He has been serving as mediator between God and man. Each sin we commit and confess is presented by Him to the Father as He lifts His hands and shows Him the s&ars of the nails that pierced His flesh for our sins and forgiveness is granted to us immediately. Century after century, one man after the other who has approached the throne of grace with a contrite heart, confessing his iniquities, has left with peace in his heart as he was justified by faith.

We are living in the time of the end. Wherever we look we see the signs of his iminent coming, as He foretold His disciples. We are in the threshold of eternity and very soon the same words that were pronounced on the earth, before He expired on the cross of Calvary, will be pronounced in the heavenly temple: “It is finished.” The last part of the plan of salvation will reach its end. Soon we shall be able to say: “This is the Lord, we have waited for Him, and He will save us.” (Isaiah 25:9) Let us wait for Him every moment, let us sleep with a heart that wakes (Songs 5:2) and keep our lamps trimmed. Let us look at Jesus alone and remember that “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9) .
Amen