The Unfathomable Love of Jesus at the Cross

Pilate found no fault in Jesus, but to satisfy the Sanhedrin he gave the order to have Jesus scourged. The scourging alone could have ended any other mans life, but God strengthened Jesus to handle the burden of the worlds sins. Jesus obeyed God during the entire span of his ministry, doing only His will. His ultimate submission to God was most prevalent when He prayed if the cup could pass him by (Matthew 26:39). He nevertheless willed to do Gods will instead of His own. Jesus knew what He would ultimately face because the Holy Spirit held nothing back. He knew in advance the horrendous suffering He would experience on our behalf throughout the ordeal of His crucifixion. The worst, which Jesus also knew, was yet to come. In order for us to be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21), Jesus would take the full burden of penalty for the worlds sins upon His shoulders. The burden of penalty Jesus would receive was death and separation from God. This rejection from His Father would be far worse than all the physical pain combined. His greatest feat was not his actual crucifixion, but the knowing that the hour would come when His Father would not look upon Him, for God does not behold sin. In this hour of loathsome darkness, Jesus, no doubt, would have experienced a kind of loneliness and abandonment that transcends far beyond anything we can comprehend or imagine. He was so affected in His thoughts concerning just this burden that His sweat became like great droplets of blood. God sent an angel to minister unto Him to give Him strength. His flesh suffered incredibly, but His will to submit to His Father was never shaken. He loved us so much that he was willing to endure the pain, suffering, and loneliness for our sake.

God's desire is hopefully to bring the ordeal of Jesus' death on the cross to life in your heart. Please keep in mind as you read that Jesus was a man in flesh during His time on earth. His body consisted of the same bodily organs as you and me. Though Jesus was God, He laid down His deity. In a mothers womb, He was conceived and born into the world as flesh and blood by the will of God (John 1:14). When Jesus purchased us by the price of His blood, He had not only made Himself the sacrifice for our sins, but also He made a covenant with us where He took upon Himself everything we had. We had curses, sickness, death, and poverty. We were a people without hope and alienated from God. We were a people who were enslaved to Satan and bound to hell and eternal death (Ephesians 2:12). Jesus took our nothing and gave us His everything. He created the earth and all the goodness within it, and then gave it all to His creation. He gave us abundance of peace, joy, and eternal life. He released us from all of our debts to Him with a simple request that we do the same for each other (Matthew 18:2335; Mark 11:2526). In return, He only asks that we recognize and accept His invitation to eternal life.

Mock Trial and Scourging

After Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus, He was handed over to the assemblage of the Sanhedrin at the palace where Caiaphas was the high priest. When questioned by the high priest about His teaching to His followers, a soldier struck Jesus across the face (John 18:1922). They asked Him if He was the Son of God. When Jesus answered yes and told them that the day would come when they would see Him seated at Gods right hand, and would witness Him in Majesty returning in the clouds of heaven (Matthew 26:64), the mob accused Him of blasphemy. They spat on Him and brutally beat Him. Guards then took Jesus to be imprisoned where they blindfolded Him and beat Him in the face repeatedly. Sadistically, they mocked and taunted him, asking him to prophesy which one it was that struck him (Luke 22:6365). Eventually, they took Jesus to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. The Jews sought his death by treason because Jesus answered that He was the Son of God (John 19:7). Only the Romans had the authority to execute capital punishment. When they brought Him before the Roman Governor, he spoke to Jesus to hear His plea or justification, of which Jesus gave none. Though he did not understand why Jesus would not defend Himself, he nevertheless found no fault in Him. This outraged the Pharisees, and the people sought His death even more. In a possible effort attempt to appease Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, Pontius Pilate gave orders to have Jesus scourged. We should note that it was Jewish law and custom to give no more than 40 lashes with the whip (Deuteronomy 25:3). Because they were scrupulous in their observance in this law of Moses, they never gave more than 39 lashes. This prevented them from going over the limit of the law. The Romans, however, had no such law or custom. It was not the Jews who administered the scourging of Jesus, but the Roman soldiers. Thus, no restrictions were given to monitor the number of lashes Jesus would receive. It was the Romans intent to completely humiliate Jesus before the people. They stripped Jesus of His garments and strung Him up to be whipped.

The instrument of torture they used was a type of whip with a cluster of nine leather straps referred to as the cat-o-nine tails. Embedded in these straps were marble sized iron pellets. The iron pellets gave the whip strands added weight. This added weight resulted in a fearsome force of contact from each blow. Imagine being pelted at least a minimum of thirty-nine times with a whip of nine straps of embedded heavy iron pellets by one or two monstrous men with brute strength. Who could survive even one blow? The resulting blows from just this portion of the whip would bruise, break, and welt the skin. These iron pellets would have no doubt sunk into Jesus fleshlike the smooth stone that lodged in Goliaths head from Davids slingonly to be retracted and struck again and again.

Tied to the end of each strap were also razor sharp metal hooks. Some of these whips also consisted of razor sharp bone fragments. These razor sharp hooks attached to the tip of the leather straps were designed to slice into the skin and hook into the flesh. Imagine a tiny fishhook stuck in your finger and someone grabbing hold of the fish wire and yanking it out. I cannot even begin to fathom the unspeakable agony and suffering Jesus endured from the nine massive hooks that would tear through His flesh. When the soldier retracted the whip, these razor sharp hooks would snag and tear out the flesh from Jesus body. It has been said that an expert with such a device could remove most of the flesh from a mans back with a single blow. One stroke could have been deathly severe. Jesus received at least a minimum of thirty-nine strokes, which is a minimum of three hundred and fifty-one times those sharp hooks tore out His flesh. Meditate on that for a moment. Remember, Jesus was a man in flesh just like you and me. The pain He endured for us was far beyond the reality of any pain you can imagine. The combination between the force of each strike with the weight of the iron pellets and hooks at the end of each leather strap would have driven those hooks deep into Jesus flesh. Unlike what most people have been taught, Jesus suffered much greater bodily damage than just the simple tearing and scrapes of the outer layer of His skin. The Romans were literally mutilating His body before the eyes of those who watched. Jesus survival through this entire ordeal until the cross was supernatural, for Jesus was a man of flesh (God had to send His angels to strengthen Him in the garden). It is most certain that many of His vital organs were damaged, yet He was not broken.

Another thing to consider is that Jesus was not scourged in the way you may have seen it done in the movies. Contrary to what the world has led people to believe, they brutally whipped Jesus all over His body from head to toe, front and back. The Bible described Him as being hideously deformed and unrecognizable as a human being. Taking a beating by someones fist can cause swelling, cuts, bruises, and even broken bones. But what would cause Jesus body such deformation that He was utterly unrecognizable as a human being? The sight of His torture was no doubt a horrific scene of blood and gore. The people who witnessed Jesus torture saw massive amounts of blood-saturated meat ripped out of His body and hurled into the air when the soldier retracted the whip, laced with hooks, out of His flesh. When the soldier flung the whip at Jesus, they saw the iron weighted straps swiftly spiral around His leg, arm, neck, and even face, where the hooks would deeply embed into His flesh. They witnessed the soldier then give a mighty yank to retract the whip, causing Jesus to contort and twist in helpless agony as His body was being gouged while tied and suspended. Many relished in the satisfaction of seeing Jesus flesh mixed with blood funneling down His body upon the ground. They saw His blood spewing from lacerations and gaping wounds like a fountain spilling onto the ground creating enormous pools of blood. Jesus was drenched in His own blood. Those who witnessed could hear the ugly solid thud each time the whip made contact with Jesus body and sank into His exposed flesh. They saw shreds of Jesus's skin and flesh impaled upon the hooks each time the soldier tore the whip away from Jesus withering body.

Finally, were the horrific screams Jesus must have emitted from the unimaginable pain inflicted upon Him. Based on what some people have seen from the worlds enactment of Jesus crucifixion and what they have gathered from religious mainstream, some believe that Jesus actually experienced no pain. Thus, He was silent throughout the ritual of His crucifixion. The Bible says that Jesus took upon Himself the burden of all sins and the entire penalty. He did this without any mitigation from people or mercy from His Father. Jesus not experiencing the pain would have cut His sacrifice for the entire world mightily short. Jesus was God, but He laid down His deity and took the form of flesh. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us . . . (John 1:14). In other words, Jesus was a man capable of feeling psychological and physical pain, which He most certainly did. The Word of God speaks about His silence, but this silence was about His defense. Jesus did not speak to defend Himself. He already knew He had the victory, but the pain and suffering He endured was nevertheless real. Jesus emitted blood-curling screams for every infliction upon His body. Yet He did not beg them or His Father for mercy. He never justified Himself. He opened Himself to them even more that they might inflict upon Him everything they had. He took every stitch of punishment the devil could dish out and still came out victorious! God has given us this same victory in Christ. Those who believe in God will be strengthened to endure the pain and suffering in their life. What is greater than the love of Jesus, who willingly allowed Himself to be beaten, scourged, beaten again, and ultimately nailed to a cross just so that we could have eternal bliss in the kingdom of God? Whom do you know that would be willing to lay down His life and shed His blood for your sake, because of love? There is no one but Jesus.

The Romans had obliterated most of Jesus flesh during the scourging. He suffered from massive gouges, tears and lacerations all over His body. His body would have resembled a mass of unrecognizable flesh, organs, and exposed out of joint bones (Psalm 22:14). God measured Jesus sacrifice for us against all the sins of the world for all time until His return. He took those beatings for us in the midst of our ignorance. He took the beatings for the sake of saving His people from the punishment of sin, even though many would not be born until thousands of years later. By His torturous beating, bloodshed, and ultimate death on the cross, Jesus was able to save us from hell and the eternal lake of fire. This was the price He paid in order for us to have eternal life with God in heaven. He took everything Satan could dish out so that we would not have to. He substituted Himself for us and left no stone unturned. He suffered everything you and I could ever suffer in this lifeevery detriment, every pain, all the loneliness, hurt, persecution, sorrow, grief, sickness, and death. For every stripe He received, He healed us. People, that means that as Jesus body was being mutilated, we were being divinely healed. Every diabolical evil from Satan is what Jesus suffered. Jesus can relate to anything you could ever experience in life because He has gone further down any road than you have ever been on. Jesus experienced the full end-result of every sin on earth. When He died on the cross, He went into the abode of hell for three days before the Holy Spirit raised Him up from death. He understands all your sorrows and pains because He has actually been there and beyond. He already suffered these things on your behalf, which is why He says you do not have to. You can cast all your cares onto Him, and He will make your burdens light.

Through the sacrifice of Christ, God would now be able to deliver His people from the power of darkness and translate them into the kingdom of His dear Son. By His blood, we have our redemption and His forgiveness of our sins (Colossians 1:1314). This is why God will remove His saints from the earth before He sets His vengeance upon Satan and all evil. In His vengeance, God will unleash His wrath upon the world. Through Christs sacrifice, He gave His people the gift of righteousness and eternal life. Thus, God translated them into the kingdom of light. He promised us even at the cross that He would take us out of the way. Those who have been translated (saved) are able to bypass the wrath of God, for He will remove them from the earth. Those who have rejected what Jesus has done will suffer pain, torment, and death as Jesus did because they will not be covered by His blood. They turned their backs on His gift of righteousness and eternal life. For them, until there is repentance, there is no redemption because they turned it down by denying Jesus and His sacrifice of death on the cross.

When the centurion in charge determined that Jesus was near death, he gave the order to stop the beating. The Word of God does not say that after thirty-nine lashings the beating was finally stopped. Because the Romans did not abide in the Jewish laws and customs there were no restrictions on the number of lashings that would be inflicted upon Jesus. The pain Jesus endured would be unfathomable to us, yet Jesus still had to bear His cross to Golgotha after the scourging. What pictures or illustrations have you ever seen depicting Jesus as such just described? The enemy does not want you to know what your Lord and Savior truly suffered that you might have eternal life with God. His mission is to deny or minimize at best, all of which Christ has done. Satan will tell you either that the crucifixion of Christ did not exist or that it was not such a big deal. Thus, he persuades many believers to remain silent about the blood. The result of this is that few are preaching and teaching on the blood of Christ in churches today. Satan mixes truth with deceit to dissolve and dilute the truth. The effects are no different from my error of reading the Bible concerning the splitting of the Red Sea for instance, and having the attitude that none of it was really such a big deal. Even elite men and women of God behind pulpits in churches around the world today are in this deception. Many display their giant images of a physically immaculate and beautiful Jesus praying in the garden or nailed to the cross for instance, with no blood to be seen anywhere. Such pictures and illustrations of Jesus hang on the walls in the sanctuaries all around the world. The entire ordeal of Jesus saving us was about the blood, yet His blood and its meaning is hardly portrayed at all in our teachings, media, art, and illustrations. I am not saying that people and churches should display the gore of the crucifixion on their walls, but what I am saying is that we should honor Gods commandment in Exodus 20:4. Much of the Gospel taught and preached concerning our Lord and Savior is reflective of the images and understanding of man and not necessarily the reality of Gods Word. The graven images and idols that are created of our Lord and Savior serve to teach a lie and not the truth. I believe this was why God in advance forbade it.

After the Scourging

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head (Matthew 27:2730).

Jesus condition after the beating and scourging still did not suffice those who wanted him crucified. After His scourging, they put His robe back on, which in itself had to be unspeakably painful. By the time He was escorted to the common hall, his wounds would have adhered to the material. Even the slightest movement of His garment would have torn off flesh from His body. Blood clots would reopen, causing constant bleeding. When they reached the common hall, they disrobed Him of His bloody garment and wrapped a scarlet robe around Him. Again, Jesus would experience the pain of having His garment disrobed, which would have been stuck to His flesh by the coagulation of His bloody wounds. When they disrobed Him, undoubtedly adhered to His garment would have been clots of blood and scabs of skin. In addition, Jesus would have experienced an agony of pain from the scarlet robes cloth material that abrasively scratched against His exposed flesh.

A soldier found a small flexible branch covered with long thorns and fashioned it into a crown. He pressed it firmly upon Jesus head, creating punctures and lacerations in his scalp. Afterwards, they placed a scepter in His hand, mocked Him as king and spat in his face. When they finished mocking Him, they took the scepter from Him and struck Him on the head with it, embedding the crown of thorns deeper into His scalp. Again, they stripped Him of His garment, this time the scarlet robe, which was also another moment of excruciating pain. Again, the robe would have become adherent to the clots of blood and exposed nerve cells. Every time the soldiers would disrobe Jesus, it caused more blood clots to tear open, which resulted in more pain, constant bleeding, and great loss of blood. The soldiers were deliberately clothing and disrobing Jesus of His garments to inflict as much pain and torture imaginable. What had Jesus done to deserve such torment?

When they delivered Jesus back to Pontius Pilate after the scourging, His face and body were utterly unrecognizable. As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men (Isaiah 53:14). Never before had anyone seen such a horrifying sight of a mans deformity. Jesus did not look human. Blood from the puncture wounds of the crown of thorns embedded upon His head poured into what should have been His eyes and down his terribly disfigured face. Massive amounts of skin and chunks of flesh about His face and body were gone. His face was a twisted and contorted mask of blood marred by the beatings and scourging he took from the soldiers. They even pulled out the hairs on his face. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting (Isaiah 50:6). He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). Jesus unrecognizable body was a contorted mass of exposed bloody organs, out of joint bones, and gouged flesh hanging from his body in shreds.

Normally, the Roman soldiers would derive great pleasure seeing their prisoners beg for mercy in their screams from the pain of torture, but Jesus did not beg them for mercy. In fact, they were astounded by His ability to endure. Jesus did not attempt to cover Himself or shield Himself from their blows, but opened Himself up that they may strike Him. He didnt cover His face when they pulled out the hairs of His beard. He didnt turn His head when they spat in His face. Though He experienced the epitome of all pain and sorrow, which would be unfathomable to us, He did not beg them for mercy or scream about His injustice. He did not call out to God to save Him or change His mind and thus quit in the midst of saving us because of what He had to endure. He never justified Himself at all and this infuriated them even more, so they intensified their brutality toward him as much as they could. Despite everything Jesus endured, still it was not enough to suffice the Pharisees and the mob of people. They cried out even more to crucify Him. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children (Matthew 27:2425). So Pontius Pilate delivered Jesus to be crucified (Matthew 27:26).

Bearing the Cross

The Romans tied the heavy patibulum across Jesus shoulders and forced him to walk from the Fortress Antonia to Golgotha, also known as Calvary. Jesus would carry the heavy beam over a quarter of a mile. The place of His crucifixion would be upon the same mountain that God tested Abrahams obedience by the sacrifice of his son Isaac. It is also the location where King David approached Araunah and subsequently purchased the site for six hundred shekels of gold to build an altar upon the threshing floor to appease God to save Jerusalem from Davids sin of conducting a census (1 Chronicle 21). Later, this site would become the place where King Solomon would build Gods temple. Some two thousand years later, this site would also serve as the place where God's two witnesses would be killed at the hands of the beast during the tribulation and resurrected three and a half days later (Revelation 11:78, 1112).

Jesus had to utilize all the strength He could muster to carry the heavy patibulum across His shoulders from the Fortress Antonia to Calvary after having been beaten, scourged, and then beaten again. In spite of His effort to walk, the weight and grinding of the wooden beam into his mostly obliterated flesh were too great. Between His physical trauma in addition to severe blood loss, Jesus suffered a rapid depletion of strength, which eventually disabled Him from carrying the heavy beam. No longer able to sustain the weight across His shoulders, Jesus collapsed. He would get up, continue a little further, but eventually collapse again.

He was despised and rejecteda man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! (Isaiah 53:34, NIV).

And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross (Matthew 27:32). And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck (Luke 23:2729).

Despite the gruesome torture Jesus endured, His spirit was untouched. He remained obedient to God, taking all the sins of the world upon Himself, seeking no sympathy. Jesus focus was not on what the Jews or the Romans had done to Him. His focus was not on those who cheered and relished in His agony. He forgave those who turned their backs on him in shame, hate, and disgust. He even prayed to His Father to forgive those who inflicted Him with the pain He suffered.

The passion of Christ was about God saving His creation. God wanted His people free, and He would accomplish this through Christ. Love emanated through Jesus in spite of the horrors of his crucifixion. The crucifixion did not change Him. It did not change His love for Gods creation nor did not change His desire for us to have eternal life through salvation in His kingdom. When Adam fell, all people were destined for eternal death, but Jesus our Lord and Savior died for our sins and saved us.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:46).

The Crucifixion

And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull, They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink (Matthew 27:3334). This drink mingled with gall was a mixture of wine and a pain-relieving substance to deaden His senses. Jesus, however, refused to drink. He would take the full burden of all sin, sickness, pain, and ultimately death without any mitigation. As the crucifixion commenced, they again stripped off His garmentanother earth-shattering moment of sheer pain. A soldier threw Him down upon His back. This would intensify His pain even more as the abrasive gravel, jagged edge rocks and dirt cut into His flesh and became embedded in His wounds. They positioned His shoulders, arms over the cross beam, and a legionnaire felt for the depression at the bottom palm side of His hand at the top of the wrist. He positioned a thick, heavy, square wrought iron nail (or stake) at the mark, and with an iron mallet, he drove the stake through Jesus hand, through His wrist bone and deep into the wood. He then repeated this process with Jesus other hand. With each blow of the mallet driving both stakes deeper into His hands, another blood curling shrill would have emitted from Jesus mouth. His blood would spill from His hands, saturating the wood. The agonies of pain shooting down Jesus arms were phenomenally tremendous. This strategic positioning of the iron nails prevented any possibility of the nails from ripping through Jesus hands. They would hoist Jesus body upward vertically, where all His weight would have rested on these nails. Thus, the positioning of the nails prevented Jesus from possibly falling off the cross. Lying on His back, the slightest movement would have created an intense searing pain throughout His body from the abrasive ground. The tremendous pain from His pierced hands in addition to his body became multiplied many times over as they finally hoisted him up.

For Jesus, there was no relief. There was no mercy. After they fastened the horizontal patibulum to the vertical pole and hoisted Jesus up vertically, they pressed His one foot against the top of the other on a small angular platform they built onto the pole. With both His feet extended toes down, the soldier again drove another long, thick, iron stake through first one foot, continuing into the second until the stake completely pierced both feet, through the bones, through the arches, and deep into the wood. Jesus entire body would shake convulsively from the enormous pain as He screamed when the soldier pounded the thick stake with the heavy mallet until the nail disappeared deep into both feet. In addition to the relentless pain Jesus suffered as he hung on the cross by the nails in His hands and fee, He also experienced great agony with every movement he made against the pole along His backside. Suspended on the cross by the wrought iron nails in His hands and feet, Jesus was now crucified.

Death on The Cross

Hanging by nails on the cross must have been yet another unrelenting torture for Jesus that we cannot fathom. Any movement at all would have brought immense pain from his feet, legs, arms, and back. There was no relief for Jesus, regardless of any movements He could have made. Even the staggering pain inflicted upon Jesus from the abrasive and splintery wood that His body rested against, was merciless.

Following is an excerpt from Dr. C. Truman Davis, a medical expert who through Scripture analyzed the crucifixion from a medical perspective. Dr. Davis article was originally published in Arizona Medicine in March 1965 from the Arizona Medical Association:

As Jesus slowly sagged downward with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. The nails in the wrists were putting pressure on the median nerve, which are the large nerve trunks that traverse the mid-wrist and hand. As he pushed himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he placed his full weight on the nail through his feet. Again, there was searing agony as the nail tore through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of his feet. At this point, another phenomenon occurred. As the arms fatigued, great waves of cramps swept over the muscles knotting them in deep relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps came the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by the arm, the pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the chest, were paralyzed and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the ribs, were unable to act. Air could be drawn into the lungs, but could not be exhaled. Jesus fought to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, the carbon dioxide level increased in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subsided. Spasmodically, He was able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided Him, saying He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, and saying, if thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, This is the King of the Jews (Luke 23:3438).

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Psalm 22:1; Matthew 27:4546).

Dr. Davis asserts, He suffered limitless hours of pain cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, and searing pain as tissue was torn from His lacerated back from His movement up and down against the rough timbers of the cross. Then another agony began: a deep crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium, the sac surrounding the heart, slowly filled with serum and began to compress the heart.

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint, my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels ( Psalm 22:14).

Davis continues: The end was rapidly approaching. The loss of tissue fluids had reached a critical level; the compressed heart was struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood to the tissues, and the tortured lungs were making a frantic effort to inhale small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues sent their flood of stimuli to the brain.

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst (John 19:28).

My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death (Psalm 22:15).

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, it is finished (John 19:30). And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost (Luke 23:46).

Not as I Will, but as Thou Wilt.

Christians understand that Jesus died for them on the cross, but few have understood the tremendous love He had for His people. For this cause, He voluntarily laid down His life for us. Even though the people hated Jesus then as many still do today, Jesus nevertheless loved them. Today, Christians talk Christianity, but very few of are actually walking and living in Christianity. Few have understood what Jesus actually saved them from. Thus, they turn their backs on Jesus offer of salvation. They disregard the fact that God literally allowed His only Begotten Son to die a brutal death in order to save us. They may intellectualize the written words pertaining to Christs crucifixion in the Bible, but they have not conceptualized the fact that the Word is life and speaks about life. Because the reality of the Word escapes them, people are not seeking God with repentant hearts. Instead of graciously embracing Christ, they embrace their sins. The crucifixion of Christ was the epitome of Gods love for you. Jesus was born into the world for one purpose and He accomplished that purpose at the cross. It was the Lords desire to save us from the eternal punishment that was inheritably ours due to Adams sin. Those who cannot see what Christ has done for them will fail to see the significance of Gods invitation to eternal life.

End.