It is finished

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”  With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit (John 19:30 NIV).

   What is “it?”

   The answer: The atonement.

   Now various words and phrases are used to describe the work of Jesus on the cross, such as atonement, sacrifice, substitution, propitiation, and satisfaction for sins.

   The word which Jesus used was “ransom,” as is recorded in Matthew 20:24-28.

   Being a kid back in the 1970’s, I remember a popular movie where two children were kidnapped and held for “ransom.”  Ransom was a payment to get back people who had been abducted.  That was, and still is, the common definition of “ransom” in the United States.

   Yet that is not the biblical definition of ransom.  We can learn the biblical definition from the book of Exodus: Then the LORD said to Moses, “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the LORD a ransom for his or her life at the time he or she is counted.  Then no plague will come on them when you number them” (Exodus 30:11-12).

Continuing on: “The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the LORD to atone for your lives.  Receive the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the Tent of Meeting.  It will be a memorial for the Israelites before the LORD, making atonement for your lives” (Exodus 30:15-16).

   Thus the biblical definition of “ransom” is a payment to atone for sins.

   Jesus foretold that He would give His life as that spiritual payment.

   Now we do have a selection of biblical words to use, though I need to clarify this statement, and I do so using a superb quote from Dr. John Stott: “To be sure, neither ‘satisfaction’ nor ‘substitution’ is a biblical word, and therefore we need to proceed with great caution.  But each is a biblical concept.” (1)

   When reading Scripture, we need to learn concepts.  And here I phrase the atonement concept by saying that Jesus died in our place, taking the punishment we deserved, which was spiritual death, thus making the forgiveness of sins available to anyone.

   Jesus died for you!  To receive forgiveness from God, you need to believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord.

   Jesus loves you!

Hunter Irvine

Scripture Love Blog

(1) John Stott, The Cross of Christ

(Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1986), 112.

Father, into your hands I commit my spirit

Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46 NIV).

   Praying at Gethsemane, a word which means “oil press,” as in olive oil, there at the foot of the Mount of Olives, Jesus submitted to the Father:

“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

   When being arrested, Jesus submitted to the Father:

“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:53-54).

   And after suffering on the cross for six hours, as He was about to die, this sixth statement made by Jesus from the cross recorded in Scripture reveals that Jesus submitted to the Father.

   The pinnacle of His mission in this world was to be the atoning sacrifice for sins.  Trusting God the Father, Jesus fulfilled His mission.

Hunter Irvine

Scripture Love Blog

I am thirsty

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty” (John 19:28 NIV).

   When a person loses much blood, sometimes he or she becomes very thirsty.  This was illustrated by Bethany Hamilton, the young lady who had her arm bit off by a shark in 2003.  Only age 13 at the time of the tragedy, she then wrote a book at age 14, along with a professional writer, entitled Soul Surfer.  Bethany told of her extreme thirst in the hospital.

   New Testament Scripture reveals this verse was a fulfillment of a prophecy, and Psalm 69:21 fits the details.  (Likewise, Psalm 22:1 foretold Christ’s statement which we learned about last week, and Psalm 31:5 foretold His statement which we will learn from next week.)  Yet Psalm 69:21 was simply the foretelling, plus in an indirect manner.  Whereas Jesus was living it, fulfilling the prophecy as He was probably desperately thirsty.  Jesus was fully human.  Indeed it is an orthodox theological standard to acknowledge that Jesus was fully human once born into this world, and still fully God.

   This is important, because we need to recognize that when Jesus was on the cross, He was physically suffering, and also suffering in His spiritual heart, which is holy.  It was the ultimate agony.

   God used this tragedy to offer salvation to people.  The consequence of sins is physical and spiritual death.  Suffering on the cross, Jesus became the atonement for the sins of anyone.

   Then Jesus was gloriously resurrected.  The One who was tragically thirsty on the cross is now in heaven offering eternal satisfaction for the spiritual thirst of anyone.

   Recorded in Revelation 21:6 is the promise: “He said to me: ‘It is done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.  To him or her who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.’”

Hunter Irvine

Scripture Love Blog

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” - which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46 NIV).

   What took place on the cross was the most unnatural separation in the history of the universe.  Jesus, God the Son, was spiritually separated from God the Father.  For the only time in eternity, there was a separation in the Trinitarian being of God.

   This separation was because Jesus took the penalty for sins within Himself, and that penalty involved the Father judging the Son for the sins of the world, and separating from Him, deeming the Son’s physical and spiritual death.

   I add that the “ninth hour” was roughly nine hours after sunrise.

   For over 1,000 years Hebrew was the language for the ‘children of Abraham.’  Genesis 14:13 states: “One who had escaped came and reported this to Abram the Hebrew.”  This is the first time Scripture uses “Hebrew,” a specific ethnic term for Abram, whose name was later changed by God to Abraham.  The term Hebrew would continue to be applied to his family and descendants.  At some later point, their increasingly distinct language was likewise termed “Hebrew.” (1)

   Why the switch to Aramaic?

   In the wake of the northern kingdom, Israel, being conquered by the Assyrians, the southern kingdom, Judah, had a revival thanks to King Josiah.  And Judah had periods of general devotion to God.  But a point was reached where the Israelites of Judah increasingly devoted themselves to false gods and also did other sins.  The result of their forsaking the LORD was exile in Babylon, and the destruction of the temple and the city of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.

   As captives in Babylon, their native language of Hebrew faded, and they picked up a common language of that region, Aramaic, the closest Semitic language to their native Hebrew.

   Because of the incredible faithfulness of God, the Israelites were able to return home in 536 B.C.  Now Aramaic remained their common language, yet Hebrew was preserved with Scripture, and was preserved within the Israelite community by the devout.

   Have you ever felt forsaken by God?

   I have.

   Makes sense, since there was a physical and spiritual separation between God and people after the disobedience of Adam and Eve.  Yet that disaster was all due to people forsaking God, not the other way around.  For those of us who follow Jesus, spiritual unity is now possible thanks to Jesus, and we have been baptized by the Holy Spirit.  However, we are not yet with our Trinitarian God in full.  We still must deal with problems caused by our sins.  We still must deal with hurts from other people.  And disasters continue to strike in this world, resulting in more hurts.  With so many hurts, sometimes I feel like I have been abandoned by God.  Yet if spiritually united with God in Christ, there can be comfort in the heart from Him, the One who will never forsake His children.

   Going back to the subject of the Aramaic language, such a desperate expression from the cross in Aramaic rather than in Hebrew is a reminder of the fact that much sin was committed against God in history.  Punishment was inevitable.

   We all have sinned.  We all deserved punishment.  This yell of agony appeals to us to ponder the fact that Jesus suffered the ultimate agony on the cross, taking the punishment we deserved.  Jesus was our substitute.  Jesus took our punishment because He loves us.  Jesus loves you.

Hunter Irvine

Scripture Love Blog

(1) Milton S. Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics: A Treatise on the Interpretation of the Old and New Testaments (New York: Phillips and Hunt, 1885), 76.

Today you will be with me in paradise

Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43 NIV).

   Three people were executed by the Roman government outside of Jerusalem at the Place of the Skull the morning after the Passover meal.  Luke tells us the other two men had committed crimes, and he states that Jesus was crucified between the other two men.  Both “criminals” insulted Jesus at first (see Matthew 27:44 and Mark 15:32).  Then one of the “criminals” had a change of heart, which Luke reveals.  That “criminal” went from ‘hurling’ insults at Jesus to rebuking the other criminal for doing the same thing.

   Then that man said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” (Luke 23:42).

   And the response by Jesus?  His response remains an epic promise of the entire Bible: “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

   One contextual challenge to explain is how Jesus could promise that they both would be in paradise that very day.  Jesus would end up dying, physically and spiritually, on the cross.  After dying, His deceased body was put in a tomb.  Now He was spiritually resurrected, and He went to Hades, which was revealed by Peter: “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison…” (I Peter 3:18-19).

   Granted this passage has a variety of interpretations, and I discussed this challenging passage when doing a series on the book of I Peter back in 2013 here in Scripture Love Blog.  Even the wording in the Apostles' Creed regarding where Jesus went to after dying is debated.  Here I summarize, and I start by saying the atonement made by Jesus on the cross was for all people of all time.  The spiritual act of atonement transcended time and space.

   Back to the revelation given by Peter, thanks to the ministry of Jesus, after He suffered and died as the substitutional sacrifice on the cross, all people who had passed away since the separation between God and people had the opportunity to turn to Christ and be saved.  But if Jesus was in Hades spiritually after dying on the cross, preaching the Gospel, how could He be with that “criminal” in paradise?  Considering a Jewish day started after sundown, there were only a few hours left in that “day.”

   Then at the crack of dawn on that Sunday morning, the body of Jesus would be resurrected, in a transformed state where Jesus was once again Himself, God the Son in full.  (As a human in this world, Jesus accepted certain limitations, still being God, by becoming fully human.)  And He would remain in the world for forty more days (see Luke 1:3).  Then Jesus ascended into heaven.

   We must realize a critical spiritual fact revealed by Jesus in John 2:24, “God is spirit.”

   I will always remember Labor Day of 2009, which was a warm Colorado day.  Being a holiday with no classes at Colorado Christian University, I used the free day to read chapters in the textbook for my “Introduction to Theology” class.  Due to my negative comment to come about the textbook, I add the professor for that class was, and still is, one of the great Christians to serve at CCU.  But sitting on a rock on the shore of Clear Creek, the reading seemed so dry compared to the life around me as many students from the Colorado School of Mines, and even one group of CCU students, floated by me on inner-tubes there on Clear Creek.  Yet it turned out to be a wonderful place to read that dry textbook, because after hours and hours of reading in “nature” with people frolicking all around me, I appreciated the fact that God created everything before me.  That helped me to digest the doctrine that God is “omnipresent,” meaning that He can be everywhere at once.

   Telling that man that they would be together in paradise “today,” it can be literal in a sense.  Being spiritually resurrected immediately after the crucifixion, Jesus was back to being Himself without self accepted limitations.  Jesus, who had subjected Himself to time and space by becoming fully human, was once again “omnipresent,” thus He could have been in heaven as well as Hades.

   Then as Scripture reveals, for the sake of us "fallen and finite" human beings, a John Stott phrase, there was the resurrection, physical and spiritual, for anyone to see at the Garden Tomb, on that glorious Sunday morning.

   Though not something I can mentally comprehend: God, who is spirit, transcends time and space!

   God is with me, even when I feel lonely.

   Disparity continues between my life as a follower of Jesus, and my interactions with people and circumstances in this world where there is so much emptiness, so much disappointment, and so much hurt, in contrast to the promise of paradise by Jesus.

   Getting personal, I express how as a Christian in my fifties, I have long felt a missing facet of my life.  There has long been a desire of my heart to be married, which has never been fulfilled.

   During the pandemic of 2020, isolating and social distancing was an adventure I accepted, and I did a good job carrying it out, yet through it all I realized it was so unnatural.

   During that time, I did some consideration of the Garden of Eden.  Now that was natural for people!  There was no attire, and masks were never needed.

   But even in the Garden of Eden, there was the temptation for going against the will of God.  The essence of eternal life is not only purity, yet perfection.  And God wants eternal life for everyone!  Though that opportunity was lost in the Garden of Eden, that gift is offered to everyone now by Jesus who took the punishment for sins on the cross.

   This statement by Jesus requires us to trust Him!

   Going back to my studying on the rock by Clear Creek, over many years I walked the path there many times.  It was a frequent Sunday afternoon walk.  Such an activity was a blessed time of seeing the world, exercising, thinking, and praying!  Yet nice as those walks were, I was not stepping into paradise.

   God is perfect, and we must trust Him that His kingdom of heaven is indeed the paradise which continues to elude us in this fallen world.

   Jesus made the ultimate promise.  I believe Him.

Hunter Irvine

Scripture Love Blog

Here is your son

Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”  From that time on, this disciple took her into his home (John 19:25-27 NIV).

   John recorded this statement which Jesus made from the cross.  John was the ideal person to write this since John was directly involved.  Yes, John was “the disciple whom [Jesus] loved.”  Yet why did John single himself out with such a phrase?

   We learn from the Scriptures that Jesus loves everyone.  And Jesus loved all twelve apostles, even Judas Iscariot.  That is the reason Jesus died for the sins of everyone.  So why did John have the privilege of such a title?  Did he just make that up for himself?

   John was probably the youngest disciple, and Jesus apparently had a special mentoring friendship with him.  I better understand this when I consider the loving friendship I have had for many years with a young man who is like my nephew.  Our friendship started when he was only the age of one.  Such friendships from youth are powerful relationships, since youth is such a formative time.

   Now this statement raises another big question, which has two parts: Why did Jesus choose John to be an adopted son for Mary?  And why did Jesus choose Mary to be an adopted mother for John?

   First, Mary already had numerous children: 

   “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?  Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?  Aren’t all his sisters with us?  Where then did this man get all these things?” (Matthew 13:55-56).

   Likewise:

   “Isn’t this the carpenter?  Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon?  Aren’t his sisters here with us?”  And they took offense at him (Mark 6:3).

   Now Joseph, the husband of Mary and the earthly father of Jesus, apparently passed away before Jesus even started ministry work, for he is not mentioned at all during that time period.  And I learned in my Old Testament Survey class at Colorado Christian University that the Hebrew culture was extremely patriarchal.  Yet if Mary had four other sons, plus daughters who were probably married, it would make sense that one of them could take her into his or her home.

   Second, John already had a mom.  His mom, “the mother of Zebedee’s sons,” is told about in an important story recorded in Matthew 20:20-28.  And John was young and single, more in a position to get married than to take on the responsibility of supporting an older woman.

   The bottom line: I do not know for sure.  Scripture does not get into such details.  There are many details about the life of Jesus in this world, and the life of the twelve apostles, which we do not know.  In the ancient world, writing material such as papyrus was limited.  Ancient writing was more selective with details.

   Yet one thing I do know regarding this arrangement: Both Mary and John were present at the crucifixion.

   How many other family members of Jesus were present?  We do not know, but no others were mentioned.

   How many other apostles were present?  We do not know, but no others were mentioned.

   And Jesus foretold a short time before His arrest: “But a time is coming, and has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home.  You will leave me all alone.  Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me” (John 16:32).

   Both Mary and John shared a devotion which Jesus understood.

   I add that John’s birth mom was also present at the crucifixion, as we know from Matthew 27:56.  This arrangement would open up the possibility for those two devout women, Mary and John's mom, becoming like family.

   And what I do know for sure: Jesus cared about his earthly mother.

   From Luke 1:26 to Luke 1:38, there is a recorded story about Mary from over 33 years earlier.  That Jewish virgin woman had an encounter with an angel named Gabriel.  After his greeting to her, Mary had fear.  She was human.

   However, the encounter also showed Mary was a woman with an incredible devotion to God.  She was utterly willing to be obedient to God.

   Being human, and being a human who was committed to serving God, suffering did result for Mary who became the earthly mother of the Messiah.  One example is that after Jesus started His ministry work, people in his own hometown of Nazareth tried to kill him, as recorded in Luke 4:28-30.  That event surely brought suffering to Mary.

   Yet more than anything, Mary was surely devastated being there at the crucifixion and watching her son suffer.  A loving mom suffers when her child suffers.

   Jesus cared!  Even when He was suffering on the cross, He worked to take care of His mom.  Jesus could have waited to do so after His resurrection.  Instead He did so at her moment of agony.

   And Jesus cared about John, His loving friend.  Surely there would be blessings in store for him by taking Mary into his home.

   This passage calls for us to trust Jesus that He knew this arrangement would be best for them both.

   The end result: John took Mary into his home for the rest of her days in this world.

   Jesus had a purpose and a reason for dying on the cross!

   The purpose was to totally forgive sins.

   And the reason: Jesus loves all people.  Forgiveness is an aspect of love, and love was the reason He died for you, and for me, and for the sins of all people of all time.  Then Jesus was resurrected!

   And His true love for people remains.  As I expressed in my Christmas letter of 2002, where I talked about this exact passage: “Death had not changed the love Jesus has for anyone…”

   Regarding the motivation of Jesus for this unique family adoption, we can know it was love.

Hunter Irvine

Scripture Love Blog

Father, forgive them

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34 NIV).

   Luke recorded three statements which Jesus made from the cross.  John recorded three additional statements which Jesus made from the cross.  And both Matthew and Mark recorded a seventh statement, the same single statement, yet one which was not recorded by Luke or John.  Thus we have a total of seven statements.  Piecing the details of the four witnesses, it is likely this epic petition to the Father is the first statement which Jesus made from the cross recorded in Scripture.

   With utter vigor, I immediately offer the message of this statement: In a Spirit of forgiveness, Jesus was expressing that His crucifixion was the murder of God.  Seriously.

   Jesus was affirming His own divinity.

   Now a number of people did not believe that Jesus is God the Son.

   Jesus made many gentle statements in which He stated He is God.  For example, in the book of John, chapter 10, Jesus made statements which included:

   “I give [my sheep] eternal life, and they shall never perish…” (John 10:28).

   “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).

   The result of these claims by Jesus:

   Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father.  For which of these do you stone me?”

   “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33).

   Those folks realized Jesus was claiming to be God, but they did not believe Him, considering their reaction.

   And on the morning before Jesus was crucified, the identity of Jesus was refuted.  A council of chief priests and teachers of the law questioned Jesus:

   They all asked, “Are you then the Son of God?”

   [Jesus] replied, “You are right in saying I am.”

   Then they said, “Why do we need any more testimony?  We have heard it from his own lips” (Luke 22:70-71).

   They proceeded to send him to the Roman prefect of Judea, Pilate, to be punished.

   That council of chief priests and teachers of the law did not believe Jesus.

   Tragically, the opposition by rulers only escalated.  In mocking Jesus when He was on the cross, some said:

   “…Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him” (Matthew 27:42).

   Willing to believe truth only on their own terms, they carried out the murder of their own Creator.

   Anyone who knowingly attempted to murder God was someone who obviously rejected the love of God.  They would likely be on a path of no return.  In this case, these fallible human beings were carrying out an execution, not fully knowing they were doing.  Sinful, yes.  Ignorant, yes.

   Jesus knew what they were doing.

   Even suffering on the cross, Jesus knew He is God.

   In addition, this petition to the Father foreshadowed His purpose of allowing Himself to be murdered.  (Jesus could have prevented this murder, as He expressed as recorded in Matthew 26:53.)

   Forgiveness was the purpose.  We are going to learn more about that from additional statements Jesus will make.  There on the cross, Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins.

   Lastly, it is crucial for us to realize that Jesus was not setting a standard of conditional forgiveness.  It would be wrong to take this statement out of context and apply it as our model for forgiving people.  Jesus loves all people!  Forgiveness from Jesus is for all sinners.  Jesus offers forgiveness for everyone by His substitution on the cross for the consequence of our sins (see I Peter 3:18).

   And Jesus commanded us to forgive as recorded in the Sermon on the Mount.  Our loving forgiveness needs to be offered whatever the motivation was of the person who did wrong, a motivation which only God truly knows in the first place.

   In order to forgive, we need to rely on the enabling power of Jesus!  And may we continue to remember what Jesus said we need to do to bring goodness:

   Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”

   Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:28-29).

Hunter Irvine

Scripture Love Blog