Bible Verse of the Day Sunday February 14th 2021

Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

The Cross of Calvary is the epicenter of all things, on earth and in heaven. Through the Gospel writings, it is clear that Jesus had purposefully set His sights toward Jerusalem and the Cross (Luke 9:51). Jesus spent His entire earthly existence, and His earthly ministry in the shadow of the Hill of Calvary. His eagerness to go to the Cross was because He knew that humanity would never attain eternal life on their own without His sacrifice on the Cross. Every step Jesus took the Cross was enduringly and continuously on His mind and in His heart and soul. 

Jesus' movement towards the Cross was not as a victim, but a victor. He was continually moving towards the victory over sin and death. When His mission on the Cross was complete, that is, the shedding of His innocent, sinless blood to cover the sins of the world, He commended His spirit into the hands of the Father. Jesus was not a fatality or casualty that we should feel pity for, but a conqueror that we should marvel at, respect, and reverence. We should reserve our sympathy for those that reject the work of Christ on the Cross. Those that are destined for an eternity separated from God in an awful place called Hell. 

Jesus said that He committed His spirit into the Hands of God, clear evidence that when our spirits leave our bodies at death they go to God, the one that gave it (Ecclesiastes 12:7). When Jesus had finished His work on the Cross, He did not feel any need to endure any more suffering. He yielded His body to the grave, and His spirit went back to God. The words of this verse, “he breathed his last,” have embodiments and manifestations of Genesis 2:7, God the Father breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul. God, the Son, Christ Jesus, breathed out the breath of life. Christ Jesus paid for the consequences of Adam's sin, to pay the penalty for our sin so that all could have eternal life. 

The substitutionary work of Christ Jesus does not automatically give eternal life to all humanity. However, it provides the chance of gaining eternal life by placing our faith and trust in Christ Jesus and not attempting to gain the favor of God by our inadequate and insufficient works and deeds. Through His earthly ministry and His sacrifice on the Cross, he committed Himself to provide all that we need to have eternal communion with our creator. We do not have to wait until the jaws of earthly death have us in its clutches to commend our souls to God. As saved, born again washed in the blood, followers, and believers of Christ Jesus, we can commend our souls right now because of the substitutionary work of Christ Jesus on our behalf, on the Cross of Calvary. Furthermore, there is no need for death to overtake us before we say: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, for we, as His children, are daily in His hands and no one can ever pluck us out of His keeping (John 10:28).