"The Virgin Mary Swooning over the Dead Body of Christ at the Foot of the Cross", c 1710 by Pierre-Etienne Monnot. This is a marble rectangular relief depicting the Deposition, from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
This is my ninth and final post, joining fellow Christian bloggers in reading Christian Classics. In this series we are reading Dr. A.W. Pink's, "The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross".
Luke 23:46, "Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last."
These were the last words of our Saviour in His incarnate state. In my reading of Pink's previous chapters the first thing I notice is that Christ called with a loud voice. As we saw earlier, Jesus, although still incarnate, was still in charge.
It occurs to me that Jesus is also giving us an example of how to die "well". "Father" (our glorious benefit from adoption), "into your hands" (total trust), I commit (action on our part), "my spirit" (the real us that lives in these earthly bodies.
Another point that Pink continually drives us to is that every single act and word of Christ on the Cross was in fulfillment of prophesies from the sacred Hebrew Canon. Here, we see this reflected in David's anticipative Psalm in chapter 31:
"In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame; in your righteousness deliver me! Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily! Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me!
For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me; you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God."
I have learned a great deal, from Dr. A.W. Pink, in these chapters. There is much to come back to and meditate in the future. I am also grateful for the blogging medium, whereby I will easily make reference to my notes, share them with friends and family and enter into dialog with new friends from all over the world.
Lets explore the final chapter of Dr. A. W. Pink's, "The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross"...
Here we see the Saviour back again in communion with the Father.
When ever we see Jesus addressing God, we notice that he calls him Father. The occasions of this example in the gospels numbers in multiple scores. However, when we see Christ taking our sins upon himself, the skies growing dark, the temple veil torn, and the earth in violent shaking, Jesus says, "My God, my God".
As we learned earlier, this was because God turned his back on Christ, during this time as Christ bore the sins of the world, on our behalf. But now that this unspeakable sacrifice was complete, we see Christ back into relationship with the Father. There is much to learn and meditate upon here!
Here we see designed contrast.
I love how Pink finds morsels for us to chew on. Here Pink shows us that Christ voluntarily delivered himself into the hands of his tormentors. Lets not forget he was still God and could have easily chosen an alternative path.
Pink further shows a contrast in that once Jesus was in the hands of man, they said, "Away with him", leading to his sacrifice on the cross. But, Pink points out, there is a time coming when man will stand before him and Christ will say, "Depart from me", to those who dare not believe.
Here we see Christ's perfect yieldedness to God.
I am beginning to understand what is meant by "the eyes of faith". It is easy for us, two thousand years later, to miss all that happened here. Further adding to the difficulty, it that many of the most precious moments of Christ's life are served to us, through our culture, as though this Life is no more than Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny.
Jesus perfectly yielded to the Father in coming to earth as a babe. That all by itself is completely mind bending. Add to this an understanding of all the Christ did, and said, with His ultimate death on the cross and we see an example of complete and perfect yielding to the will of God.
When I was a young man, I was told that everything I needed to know was in the Bible. I had no idea what that meant until now.
Here we see the absolute uniqueness of the Saviour.
Pink has pointed out to us that Christ did not die, as we know death. He laid His life down for us. In order for there to be a perfect propitiation of our sins, two things needed to be present:
- a complete satisfaction must be offered to God's outraged holiness and offended justice. Horribly, we don't understand this in the post-modern world. Jesus, the second member of the triune God, was the perfect satisfaction.
- Secondly, the penalty for sin (which was imputed to Christ) is death. Jesus Christ had to taste death and separation from God.
Please here me.....no one, in the history of the world, made the claims of Christ. He was absolutely unique in all the world. Any serious seeker will find this to be true.
Here we see the blessedness of communion with God.
Pink points out the staggering realization that where ever we are, what ever consternations we may face God is always there. We need only look at Daniel in the lion's den, or Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail, or Jonah in the belly of a whale. The Bible is clear, as believers and the adopted children of God, He is always there and cares for us as only a Heavenly Father could do.
Here we see the heart's true haven.
I am going to let A.W. Pink have the last words:
"If the closing utterance of the Saviour expresses the prayer of dying Christians it shows what great value they place on their spirits. The spirit within is the precious treasure, and our main solicitude and chief care is to see it secured in safe hands. "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." These words then may be taken to express the believer’s care for his soul, that it may be safe, what ever becomes of the body. God’s saint who has come nigh to death exercises few thoughts about his body, where it shall be laid, or how it shall be disposed of; he trusts that into the hands of his friends. But as his care all along has been his soul, so he thinks of it now, and with his last breath commits it to the custody of God. It is not, "Lord Jesus receive my body, take care of my dust;" but "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" - Lord, secure the jewel when the casket is broken.