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SELAH! Pause - reflect- just think of that!

Selah Alphabetical Index

Evidences of the Death of Christ

The eyewitness John keenly observed two unusual things that happen at the crucifixion of Jesus. These facts made a deep impression on him as he watched the crucifixion taking place.

The crucifixion took place on the day of preparation for the Passover festival that would begin at 6 p.m. The Jewish authorities felt an urgency to get the bodies off the crosses and buried before the sun went down.

“So that the bodies might not remain on the crosses on the Sabbath (for the Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away” (John 19:31; cf. Deut. 21:22-23).

The legs of Jesus were not broken as was the case of the other two men crucified that day, and in His case a Roman soldier seeing He was already dead thrust a spear deep into His side and out flowed water and blood. Either to make doubly sure that Jesus was dead, or out of hate he picked up a spear and thrust it deeply into the side of Jesus (John 19:32-34). A real man, with a real human body, with real human blood, died on the cross that afternoon in Jerusalem.

Prophecy was fulfilled in a most unusual manner. One Scripture said the Savior’s bones must not be broken (Exodus 12:46; Num. 9:12; Ps. 34:20), and another said His body must be pierced (Zech. 13:1).

These Roman soldiers would have done just the opposite. They came to break the legs of Jesus as they had the other two men, but there was no point in breaking his legs since He was already dead.

Moreover, they had no intention of piercing the side of Jesus with the spear. To John’s utter amazement that is exactly what the soldiers did.

Why was this observation so important to John?

God intervened and caused it to happen as His Word said it would centuries before. God overruled the circumstances and caused it to happen according to His will. The enemy was unconsciously executing God’s counsels. A sovereign God was in control at Calvary. The soldiers had received instructions to break the legs of Christ, but this had not been done. The soldier had not received the order to pierce the Savior’s side, but this he did (John 19:34).

The purpose of God was fulfilled in the case of the typical Passover lamb whose bones were not broken (Ex. 12:46; Num. 9:12). The astonishing thing that John pondered was the fact that not a bone of Jesus was broken proving that He was the Passover Lamb that God provided. Not one bone of the Passover lamb was broken. God slew His own Lamb and made provision in the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, so that when the judgment of God comes, He will see the blood of Jesus and pass over you. Only the blood of Jesus makes atonement for our sins.

It was no simple pricking of the body of Jesus, but a wound intended to kill someone. “If you are not already dead, this will finish you off,” was the intent of the soldier. Blood and water flowed out of His body.

The prophet Zechariah had written, “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity” (Zech. 13:11).

There is a fountain filled with blood

       Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;

And sinners plunged beneath that flood

       Lose all their guilty stains.

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006