THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

John: Believing On The Christ, The Son Of God, For Eternal Life

Part XLII: Trusting In Christ For His Truth And Grace Revealed In His Death

(John 19:17-30)

I. Introduction

A. John's Gospel presents Jesus as the Son of God (John 1:18) and "full of grace and truth," and the extensive way His truth and grace is presented in His death on the cross greatly augments this claim by John.

B. We view the death of Christ for insight on His truth and grace revealed in His death (as follows):

II. Trusting In Christ For His Truth And Grace Revealed In His Death, John 19:17-30.

A. En route to His crucifixion, Jesus bore His own cross, John 19:17a, fulfilling the Old Testament practice of the sin offering being taken outside the camp, bearing reproach in its identification with sin, Hebrews 13:11-13. Jesus was made to be sin for us outside the camp, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 339.

B. Jesus was crucified at a place called Golgotha in Aramaic, meaning "place of the skull," significant in that it fit the event where Christ was predicted as giving His life in death to atone for sin, John 19:17b-18a.

C. The crucifixion of two other men on either side of Jesus (John 19:18b) necessarily occurs in God's plan to contrast the later breaking of these criminals' legs to hasten their death in contrast to the preservation of Jesus' bones in fulfillment of Christ as the Passover Lamb, John 19:32-33 with Exodus 12:46 and 1 Corinthians 5:7.

D. Pilate's inscription of Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, communicated to all men in a language they could read what God the Father wanted men to know, that they had crucified the Messiah of Israel, John 19:19-22. Pilate's refusal to modify the sign to read that Jesus had said He was the King of the Jews, made out of spite to the Jews, nevertheless fulfilled the Father's will re: Jesus' true identity.

E. The soldiers' parting of some of Jesus' garments and casting lots for His seamless undergarment (John 19:23-24) fulfilled Psalm 22:18, a prediction made a thousand years before Christ by David! (Ibid.)

F. The distribution of Christ's underclothing means He died naked as part of the shame (Ibid.), that we who trust in Him might be graciously clothed in His righteousness, Ibid.; 2 Corinthians 5:21 (with Gen. 3:21 where God slew animals to clothe Adam and Eve after their fall into sin, a figure of Christ's substitutionary atonement).

G. Amid all the trauma of this event, Jesus' grace is seen in His thoughtfully directing His mother Mary, who would have been in shock and deep grief at this time, to adopt the Apostle John as her caretaker and son, and for John to care for her as his mother, John 19:25-27. [This event also counters the exaltation of Mary as a co-mediatrix with Jesus as an alleged "Mother of God": though Mary was the earthly mother of One who was God Incarnate, Jesus was divine quite apart from her (Luke 1:30-38), and He here clearly led Mary to view the mortal John as her caretaker and son in place of Jesus as her earthly offspring! The relationship Mary had with Jesus as His earthly mother thus carried no innate value beyond her earthly life, cf. 2 Corinthians 5:16.]

H. Demonstrating His full awareness of the need to fulfill Scripture though in agony, Jesus said, "I thirst," to fulfill Scripture that He drink of vinegar wine on the cross, Ps. 69:21, John 19:28-29; Ibid., p. 340. The fact that a piece of hyssop was used to extend the sponge with the vinegar to Jesus, an odd plant in such a crisis situation, likely shows typological fulfillment where hyssop was used in Passover ceremonies, Ex. 12:22; Ibid.

I. Having received the vinegar, Jesus announced, "It is finished," both an allusion to the last phrase in Psalm 22 (at verse 31) as well as a reference on papyri receipts to tax bills being paid in full, John 19:30a. Christ thus announced that His redemptive work was finished on the cross at His death, Ibid. (Romans 3:24-28)

J. Jesus then bowed His head and thereupon died, John 19:30b, a miraculous way for any crucified person to die: crucifixion victims died by gradually losing consciousness, which in turn caused their head to slump forward, but Jesus reversed the order, bowing His head while conscious and then dying to signify He was not being killed by crucifixion, but, in fulfillment of His prophecy, He gave His life in His death, John 10:17-18.

Lesson: Even in His crucifixion and death, circumstances outside of His human control, events fulfilling Old Testament prophecy, His gracious sensitivity even in a state of human agony and the way He fulfilled Scripture in matters He both could and was directed of the Father to control, all reveal that Jesus was full of God's unmerited favor, His grace, and full of God's truth, truly the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.

Application: (1) May we believe in Jesus as the true, gracious Messiah and Son of God to be saved, John 20:31. (2) As believers, may we hold firmly to and proclaim mankind's need to believe in the Gospel that God saves men through faith alone in Christ alone, the GRACIOUS and TRUE Substitutionary Atonement for the world!