The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross-52

"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit"

4. Here we see the absolute uniqueness of the Saviour.

The Lord Jesus died as none other ever did. His life was not taken from him; he laid it down of himself. This was his claim: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:17, 18). The various proofs that Christ’s life was not taken from him have been set before the reader in the Introduction of this book. The most convincing evidence of all was seen in the committal of his spirit into the hands of the Father. The Lord Jesus himself said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit", but the Holy Spirit, in describing the actual laying down of his life, has employed three different expressions which bring out very forcibly the fact that we are now considering, and the various words used by the Spirit are most appropriate to the respective gospels in which they are found.

In Matthew 27:50 we read, "Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up his spirit." But this translation fails to bring out the proper force of the original: the meaning of the Greek is he "dismissed his spirit". This expression is most appropriate in Matthew, which is the kingly gospel, presenting our Lord as "The Son of David; the King of the Jews". Such a term is beautifully suited in the royal gospel, for the Lord’s act connotes one of authority, as of a king dismissing a servant. The word used in Mark - which presents our Lord as the perfect servant - is the same as in our text -taken from Luke, the gospel of Christ’s perfect manhood - and signifies, he "breathed out his spirit". It was his passive endurance of death. In John, which is the gospel of Christ’s divine glory, another word is employed by the Holy Spirit: "He bowed his head and gave up the spirit" (John 19:30), or delivered up would perhaps be more exact. Here the Saviour does not "commend" his spirit to the Father as in the gospel of his humanity but, in keeping with his divine glory, as one who has full power over it, he "delivers up" his spirit!

Two things were necessary in order to the making of propitiation: first, a complete satisfaction must be offered to God’s outraged holiness and offended justice and this, in the case of our substitute, could only be by him suffering the outpoured wrath of God. And this had been borne. Now there remained only the second thing, and that was for the Saviour to taste of death. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). With the sinner it is death first, and then the judgment; with the Saviour the order was, of course, reversed. He endured the judgment of God against our sins and then died.

The end was now reached. Perfect master of himself, unconquered by death, he cries with a loud voice of unexhausted strength, and delivers up his spirit into the hands of his Father, and in this his uniqueness was manifested. None else ever did this or died thus. His birth was unique. His life was unique. His death also was unique. In "laying down" his life, his death was differentiated from all other deaths. He died by an act of his own volition! Who but a divine person could have done this? In a mere man it would have been suicide: but in him it was a proof of his perfection and uniqueness. He died like the Prince of Life!