Series on "The Message of the Cross" – (20)
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 13260 |
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April 15, 2007 |
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 Jesus' Last Seven Words on the Cross (4)
{The Order of Publication}
1.The First and Second Words
2.The Third Word
3.The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Words
4.The Seventh Word
"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).
When the moment of death approaches, most people look back at their lives and leave a will to their families and friends who, in turn, cherish the last words of their loved ones. Jesus, who had come into this world as the Savior of mankind, left behind a few words shortly before He breathed His last on the cross and they are known as "The Last Seven Words on the Cross."
Once we have clearly fathomed the heart of Our Lord who, as the Son of God, fulfilled the Providence of salvation, we can become true children of God. Continuing from the last edition of Manmin News, let us pick up today with the seventh and last word Jesus bequeathed on the cross.
1.The Reason Why Jesus Cried Out "Father" With a Loud Voice
Luke 23:46 tells us, "And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, 'Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.' Having said this, He breathed His last." Why did Jesus cry out "Father" with a loud voice?
This was so that His last words on the earth could be heard to people and it is also because God's will dictates that we "[cry] out with a loud voice" to Him in prayer.
Including His Word in Jeremiah 33:3, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know," God tells throughout the Bible that we are to call out to Him in prayer (Numbers 12:13; 2 Chronicles 32:20; Psalm 57:2; Mark 10:47; John 11:43; Acts 4:24; Acts 7:59).
When Jesus prayed at Gethsemane shortly before His capture, He prayed so earnestly and desperately that "His sweat became like drops of blood." Medical professional claim that when a person is under a great amount of stress or strives hard in an endeavor, it is possible for the capillary vessels to burst, causing the sweating and bleeding at the same time, and for the person to "sweat as if he were bleeding." Furthermore, the fact that Jesus sweated as if He were bleeding while praying late into the night in the kind of climate found in Israel suggests how earnestly and desperately He must have been praying.
2."Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT."
1)Jesus Testifies to the Immortality of the Spirit
As He was breathing His very last, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT." For His spirit does not become extinct even if His physical life expired on the cross, Father God was to receive Jesus' spirit. Man is made up of spirit, soul, and body. Once life expires, the body merely becomes a vessel for the spirit and the soul, and returns to the ground. For the spirit is eternal and immortal, however, it does not become extinct.
The seed of life – Adam's spirit – was formed when, after creating the first man, God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life. God filled Adam's spirit with spiritual knowledge that is the truth. Adam's heart was spirit itself in which the seed of life was wrapped in the spiritual knowledge.
"Soul" refers to all functions that allow a person to store information in his brain and allows him to remember certain information, think and feel about it, and apply or act upon it.
Originally, the master of Adam was his spirit, controlling his soul and body. As his spirit was filled with the truth, the soul and the body under the control of the spirit were also of the truth.
When Adam sinned against God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, his spirit died. The "death of spirit" refers to the severing of one's communication with God and the spirit's inability to perform its duties. Once the spirit, the master of man, dies and stops functioning, the soul assumed the role of master and began to govern the body and the soul, by the work of the enemy devil and Satan, began to accept untruthful knowledge. As much as the heart became filled with untruths, the truths with which God had originally planted were removed. Out was the heart to seek love, gentleness, and the other's benefit and in was the untruthful heart filled with hatred, temper, and selfishness.
The "death of spirit" refers to a state in which the untruthful knowledge has the seed of life wrapped in its grip and is preventing the seed of life from functioning and performing its intended duties. However, the discontinuation of the functioning of a person's spirit does not signify the extinction of his spirit. For the spirit of man was formed with the breath of life of the eternal and immortal God, it could never become extinct.
What would happen to the soul when the body dies? The brain is required for a person, through his brain cells, to remember and think. When the physical life expires and the memory system within the brain of an animal (which has no spirit) also disappears, its flesh and soul become extinct and return to nothingness. However, the functions of the soul of man, who does have spirit, are conveyed to the heart and stored in it. Therefore, instead of becoming extinct, the soul will exist forever in union with the spirit as the attributes of the soul are input within the spirit. For the same reason Our Lord said, "Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT."
When an individual hears the gospel and accepts Jesus Christ, he receives the Holy Spirit and upon receiving the Holy Spirit, his spirit that had been previously dead is revived. Furthermore, as much as he resumes communication with God and is supplied with the truth from Him, the individual will be able to cast off untruths from within; as much as he fills himself with the truth, the person will think and walk by the truth.
Of the person whose spirit has revived and who has filled his heart with the truth we may say "His spirit has prospered." As much as one's spirit prospers – in other words, as much as one's heart is filled with the truth – every affair of his life will prosper and he will enjoy good health (3 John 1:2).
As Jesus tells us in John 3:5, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," when people who have been born again of water and the Holy Spirit – those whose spirits have revived – their soul and spirit will unite and that union will enter heaven. However, those whose spirits have failed to be revived and cultivate their heart with the truth from their unbelief in Jesus Christ will be unable to enter heaven.
Hell is a place reserved to accommodate such people. Upon the expiration of their physical, sinful life, they will be confined alongside the enemy devil in the eternal flame of hell.
2)Jesus Testifies to His Having Obeyed and Fulfilled Everything in Accordance Only with God's Providence
The fact that Jesus prayed on the cross, "I commit My spirit to the Father," testifies to how He had obeyed and fulfilled everything only in accordance with God's Providence.
Jesus' having come into this world, crucifixion on the cross, and resurrection was not planned and executed according to His will or plan but only according to the will of God who governs man's life, death, curse, and blessing, as well as the history of mankind (John 4:34). While we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, the One who answers our prayer is God.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:29-31, "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows." If you truly fathomed and engraved in your heart the spiritual significance of such assurance from the Lord, you would be able to commit everything to God.
As God reminds us "not one of [the sparrows] will fall to the ground apart from your Father" and that "the very hairs of your head are all numbered," if we could trust in Him by faith, there is nothing for which we would fail to receive His answers, whether it be for the problem of disease, for the blessing at the workplace or business, or even for accomplishing God's work.
Even though Jesus had existed in the form of God and is one with God, Jesus only sought and pursued the will of God and committed everything to Him. By the same token, instead of placing your trust in the ways of man or other people, may each of you fix your eyes only on God, always experience His work that transcends the might of man, and honor Him in everything.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, by always keeping in mind Jesus' "Last Seven Words on the Cross," grasping the heart of Jesus who cried out with a loud voice amidst the affliction of the crucifixion, and wholly accomplishing God's will, may each of you, as you long for the One who is to come back for us, receive the crown of righteousness on that day, in the name of Our Lord I bless!
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