Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read John 19 (Selected verses):
Jesus Sentenced to Be Crucified
1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged… But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”
7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, 9 and he went back inside the palace. “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. 10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
…
The Crucifixion
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19 Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20 Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21 The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
22 Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
…
The Death of Jesus
28 Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. 30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32 The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33 But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35 The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36 These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,” 37 and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”
My Understanding: As I considered prayerfully the words to this song against this passage of scripture, the Lord brought to mind how this passage of scripture was not only the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and death on the cross, but that it was a pattern for our own salvation.
Man thinks he has control over his own life, destiny and/or over the lives of others
Pilate thought that he had the power to free or to crucify Jesus Christ. Man thinks he has the power over his own life and destiny and even some men and women (those in authority over others) think they have the power over other people’s lives and destinies. I believe this is why many do not believe in Jesus Christ, because they think if they don’t believe that somehow that means that they still have the control and power over their own lives. Oh, how wrong! Many believers, even, will withhold complete surrender to Jesus thinking that they can control their own destiny or will not pray about something because they are afraid what Jesus may tell them, so they think if they don’t pray and ask, then that means they can still make their own decisions (control over their own lives and destinies).
God tells man that man has no power except what is given to him by God
I love Jesus’ response to Pilate: “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.” Amen! We must come to the realization, as human beings, that we are not the ones truly in control of our own lives and destiny. Only God Almighty holds that kind of power over our lives. We have no power and rulers on this earth, no matter how wicked they may seem or how powerful they may appear, have no power except what is given to them or to us by God; by Jesus Christ. So, we should stop trying to hold on to our own lives thinking that makes us the ones in control. It does not. That is a false security.
Man then accepts the truth of who Jesus (God) is – believes him to be who He said
The Bible records that, “From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free.” Pilate recognized, if only intellectually, that Jesus was not the criminal that the Jews said he was, and I believe he realized that Jesus was truly who he said he was. He fastened to the cross a notice which read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. The chief priests protested, yet Pilate responded, “What I have written, I have written.” Amen!
When we come to the realization that we have no power over our own lives except what is given to us by God, and when we recognize and acknowledge that Jesus is indeed who he claimed and still claims to be, those are the first steps toward true belief in Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection was the complete and total sacrifice for sins
The soldiers then took Jesus’ clothes and divided them among themselves and cast lots for his undergarment in fulfillment of scripture. The disciple John was now at the cross with Jesus’ mother Mary, and it was there that Jesus gave his mother to be John’s mother and for John to be her son. Then, the scripture says that later Jesus, knowing that all was completed, and so the scriptures might be fulfilled, said he was thirsty.
Rom. 6:10: “The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.”
Heb. 5:8-9: “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…”The work of salvation and the sacrifice for our sins was completed at the cross of Christ through his death, his burial and his resurrection and thus in his conquering of death, hell, Satan and the control, power, dominion, and rule of sin over our lives. We cannot earn salvation through human effort. It is a free gift of God to all who will believe.
When man has drunk of the water of life (Jesus/The Holy Spirit), it is finished
Jesus said he was thirsty. The scripture said that when Jesus had received the drink, he said, “It is finished.” When we believe in Jesus Christ, it means our death, too. It means that our old life is finished and is hung on the cross. It is a bitter drink to die to our old lives, yet there is much rejoicing when we are resurrected to our new lives in Christ!
The head is bowed in submission; the human spirit is surrendered to Almighty God
When Jesus came to the acknowledgement that “It is finished,” then he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit. He took upon himself all of our sins and he crucified our sins with him, buried them, and then he rose from the dead, conquering sin, death and hell. Our sins were paid for. Through his death and resurrection our sins are dead and buried never to rise again. He conquered them once and for all! Jesus bowed his head in submission to the Father and he surrendered his human spirit.
When we come to Jesus and we drink of his blood and his suffering and his death by being crucified with Christ so that we (our flesh natures) no longer live but Christ lives within us and the life we now live we live by faith in Jesus Christ, we must come to him in humility, in repentance, in obedience to the cross in our own lives, and in a surrender of our human wills. We cannot believe in Jesus Christ and still hold on to our old lives. We can’t put new wine into old wine skins. They will break. Believing in Jesus Christ is more than just acknowledging that he is who he says he is. It means death to our old lives. It means surrender and it means giving up our wills (selfishness) to the will of the Father in heaven.
When pierced, then, out of us should flow the blood of Christ and the water of the Spirit
I heard or read a sermon once on the subject of being dead to our old lives that I thought was quite good. The main emphasis of the sermon was that if we are truly dead to our old lives, then when circumstances in our lives arise that pull at our flesh nature and that draw us back into wanting to fulfill the desires of our flesh instead of us choosing to follow and submit to the will of the Father, then we must remember that we are dead. If we are dead, then we should not desire those things. For instance, if someone does something to me that would normally anger or upset me because of my own selfishness, then if I remember that I am dead, then that shouldn’t bother me. Try it, it works! Just remind yourself, “I’m dead!” Dead people have no rights. So, if we are dead, then out of us should not flow cursing, hatred, envy, bitterness, anger, resentment, selfishness, etc.
When pierced by others or by our circumstances that are beyond our control, out of us should flow rivers of living water and the blood of Jesus Christ, i.e. the evidence in our lives that we truly have been transformed by the grace and power of the cross of Christ Jesus and by his resurrection. So, if we want Jesus, His Holy Spirit, the power of God, the rivers of living water, etc. to be what comes out of us instead of hatred, envy, etc., then we need to die to our flesh. We need to appropriate to our lives what Jesus Christ already did for us on the cross when he died, taking our sins with him. We cannot do this in our own flesh because flesh gives birth to flesh but Spirit gives birth to Spirit. This comes through bowing our heads in humility, repentance, faith and obedience to God and through surrender of our wills to the will of the Father for our lives.
Then they will look on the one they have pierced and will see Jesus in our lives
The scripture said that when Jesus was pierced in his side, bringing forth a sudden flow of blood and water, that John was there and saw it and has given us his testimony, and the testimony is true. He testifies to us of that truth so that we might believe. When we are pierced in our flesh by life’s circumstances or by other people, if what flows out of us is living water and the blood (the evidence of a life transformed by the power of what Jesus did for us on the cross), it, too, stands as a testimony to others that we have, indeed, been changed by the working and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives in saving us from sin. And, other people will notice the change in us and our changed lives will stand as a testimony of truth to them so that they, too, may believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Just as I Am, Without One Plea / Charlotte Elliott / William Bradbury
Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee, whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings within, and fears without,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;
Because Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
Just a I am; Thy love unknown
Has broken every barrier down;
Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.
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