For most Christians, the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ are very familiar. We’ve all probably heard many messages on the crucifixion and even possibly seen movies or plays depicting it. Not to mention, there are four gospel accounts of the crucifixion in the New Testament. However, not all the gospels recount the exact same details. One gospel might include some things which others leave out. In John’s gospel, he includes some details which others have not, and also, he has left out some events that others included. So the tendency among preachers and expositors preaching on this text is to fill in the blanks, so to speak, as if to make up for what John’s gospel is lacking.
Now in the case of the synoptic gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, that could be considered an appropriate method of exposition, since you could make the case that those three writers were not actually in attendance at the crucifixion. However, that’s not the case with John. He makes it clear that He was there. He is the disciple whom Jesus loved mentioned in vs.26 and 35 who was there and who had personally witnessed the crucifixion.
So then the question is, why did John include some things and not others? Well, the answer is that John is not writing a history book, but he’s writing a gospel. He is telling and emphasizing certain events to present the gospel of Jesus Christ which leads to salvation. That’s what he says in chapter 20:30, 31, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
My concern then is to figure out exactly how to elucidate this gospel message that John is endeavoring to give us. And as I prayed about and studied this text, I came to a very simple conclusion; John is presenting the fact that Jesus gave His life to accomplish salvation, not just focusing on the morbid aspects of the crucifixion, but on the aspects which teach the principles of Christ’s atonement for us. So as someone has well said, Christ gave His life not to engender sentimentality but spirituality. Not just so that we might be mortified by the physical torture and bloody gore of the crucifixion, but that it might teach us the knowledge leading to salvation. And as another writer said, Salvation is based on believing. Believing is based on truth. And truth is revealed in Scripture. That believing we might have life in His name.
So then, we will examine this principle of Christ giving His life to accomplish salvation through four vignettes which John presents to us. The first is Jesus gave up His garments, then He gave up His mother, then He gave up His Spirit, and finally He gave out His water and blood.
I also want to add at the beginning that John correlates some of these events with Old Testament prophesies, showing that they were fulfilled in Jesus’s crucifixion. And I believe three of the references he mentions are found in Psalm 22, and one in Psalm 34. And I just want to point out that the Psalms were written about 1000 years before Christ. There is absolute proof of that. It is indisputable. In fact, the enemies of Christ, the Jews, would have been very familiar with these Psalms. Though they probably did not consider those references as Messianic prophesies. So they would not have contived to correlate Christ’s crucifixion with the prophesies even if they had wanted to.
The Romans, on the other hand, did what Roman soldiers did, irregardless of what the Jews wanted. So they would not have deliberately acted in a way to confirm scriptural prophesies. So these prophetic fulfillments are very important for John to point out, so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ. And John wanted to make sure you understood that certain events of the crucifixion fulfilled scripture. But now let’s focus on the four vignettes of how Jesus gave His life to accomplish our salvation.
First. Jesus gave up His garments. We’ve all heard the phrase made about someone, that “he didn’t own anything but the clothes on his back.” Well, that was especially true of Jesus. He had no possessions, no home, nothing of any value. All that He had were the clothes on His back. And we see in vs 23, that the soldiers took those clothes and divided them up between themselves. When Jesus came down from heaven’s glory to earth, He came all the way down to the lowest level of humanity to accomplish our salvation. He let go of all His pride, all His royal garments, becoming completely poor for us, so that we might become rich in Him. He became naked, bearing all the shame which that brings. It’s the same shame that Adam and Eve felt in the garden of Eden when they realized they were naked and hid from God. Christ became naked for us, Christ became sin for us, bearing the shame, the scoffing, the stares, as He gave Himself to be our substitute.
2 Cor. 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” Now how does this incident illustrate that we became rich? Because these four soldiers each received a part of His clothing. There were no greater sinners than these soldiers who had stripped Jesus’s clothes from Him, whipped Him with a cat of nine tails to within an inch of His life, crushed a crown of thorns upon His head and nailed Him to a cross. And yet we know that even as they did so, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
What John illustrates here is that the garments of Christ were made available at the cross for the covering of sinners. Just as when after the fall God skinned animals to make clothing for Adam and Eve, so also He slew Jesus to provide a garment of righteousness for you and me. Isaiah 61:10 says, “For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.”
The hymn we sing, The Solid Rock, says, “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.” 2 Cor. 5:21 says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” There is no better picture of our sin situation than that we are naked and ashamed before God. Christ took that upon Himself, that we might become clothed in His righteousness.
But John adds that there is another piece of clothing there, which was not divided, because it was made in one piece. It was a tunic, worn under the outer clothing. And I see two pictures in this; first it is the inner garment, signifying the Spirit. And secondly, it was without seams. It’s not in part, it’s complete. The Spirit of Christ is not given piecemeal.
Now as we see this dividing of His clothing played out by the soldiers, it may seem that Jesus has no control over these events. Yet John informs us that the invisible hand of God guides all things, so that specific prophecy is specifically fulfilled. Psalm 22:18 says, “They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.” The fact that it was foreordained indicates that Jesus gave His clothing willingly, even as He gave His life willingly.
The picture teaches us that we need to be clothed in His righteousness if we are to be saved. It is the means of our justification; Christ’s righteousness is given to us in exchange for our sin. And when we are saved, then we receive the spiritual covering of His Spirit, so that we might be joined with Christ.
Secondly, Christ gave up His mother. I know that heading sounds awkward. Maybe it would be better to say, He gave up His family associations. But all we have presented here is His mother. There are indications from this text and others that Joseph was long dead and Jesus had, as the eldest son, taken on the responsibility as the head of the family of His mother and His brothers. His brothers at this point had not believed in Him. There is no evidence that they were there at the crucifixion. In fact, all his disciples had fled except for John and these four women.
Jesus would have been very aware of the pain that His crucifixion was causing to Mary. She was the only one of His family that had believed in Him. And now as Simeon had prophesied to her 33 years earlier, a sword would pierce her soul. I’m sure in some part of His humanity, Jesus would have loved to have used His divine power to come down from the cross and spare His mother this grief. But He was obedient even unto death to the will of the Father, knowing that through His death He would accomplish salvation not only for her soul, but millions more. And make no mistake, Mary needed salvation, just as all sinners need salvation. She was not without sin, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There was only one sinless One, and that was Christ Jesus, the Lamb slain for the sins of the world.
So in Jesus’s instructions to John, He indicates that John is not only part of the kingdom, but a child of God. Jesus said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” Not only was Jesus concerned about her physical care, but He was emphasizing also the nature of family in the kingdom of God. There is a new family dimension in the Kingdom of God. Our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers are those who have been born of God. In Luke 8:21 Jesus said, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” And in John 1:11-13 it says, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Thirdly, Jesus gave up His Spirit. Vs. 30 “ Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” Phil. 2:8 says, “And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Giving up His Spirit means first of all, that He gave up His life. That is a tremendous thing. It was not an act of suicide. His hands and feet are nailed to a cross. He can’t take His life by violence against Himself. But what He does is an act of divinity. He gives up His life willingly, of His own volition.
But before He acts in divinity, John shows His humanity. Jesus became thirsty and asks for a drink. So they give Him vinegar to drink. He suffered as any man would suffer the torments of the cross. His divinity did not prevent His suffering. As a man, He thirsted. We should be reminded when Jesus cried out; at the feast in John 7:37-39 saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
As God, He had the power over His life. But He gave up His life, voluntarily. As Jesus said in John 10:17, “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”
The gospels record 7 statements or words of Jesus on the cross. John only gives us three. One was the statement to John and His mother. The second was He was thirsty. And now John records another statement that Jesus made as He gives up His Spirit. He cries, “Tetelistai!” it is finished. Tetelistai means it is complete, perfect. His ministry on earth as a man was complete. He lived from the first moment to the last, a sinless, perfect life. By the death of His perfect life He paid in full the debt of mankind who could never live a perfect life. And by dying, He paid the complete price which we owed; that God might place upon Him our sins as our substitute. The work of atonement that Jesus came to do in the flesh was finished, it was complete.
1Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.” Not only did He give up His life, but He surrendered up His Spirit to death, to the abode of the dead. Very little in scripture is given to us concerning the three days Christ’s body was in the grave. But according to both Peter and Paul, though His body was in the tomb, His Spirit was alive in the abode of the dead. As the Apostle’s Creed confirms, “He descended into Hell.” A better translation would be that He descended into the lower regions of the earth, which is what the Bible calls Hades, so He might triumph over death through His resurrection.
The human body is spirit, soul and body. Our spirit is the spiritual part of our being that is connected to God, which has died as the result of sin. That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus back in John chapter 3 that it is necessary to be born again of the Spirit. The reborn spirit then rules over the mind and the body. We must be born of the Spirit, if we are to be spiritual. And then we must give up our self rule to the rule of the Spirit if we are going to live as God would have us live, dying to the lusts of the flesh, even as Christ died in the flesh but was alive in the Spirit.
Finally, the last vignette John presents for us is He gave up water and blood. The soldiers, in order to hurry the death of those who were crucified, broke their legs, which would cause them to suffocate from the weight of their body. But coming to Jesus, these executioners realize that He is already dead. So one of them took his spear and stabbed Him in the side, presumably to prove He was dead, and John tells us that blood and water came out. Now doctors have said that this water-like liquid was from the pericardium surrounding the heart and flowed out with partly coagulated blood. That’s the physical explanation.
Other, more sentimental explanations have said it was a sign of a broken heart. I’m not sure that such a thing has been established as physically possible. But there is no doubt that there is a symbolic reference in the blood and water coming out of His side. And perhaps it is best stated in the old hymn, Rock of Ages, which says, “Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from death and make me pure.” The blood therefore representing justification from sin, and the water being purification from sin.
Matthew Henry, an 18th century theologian said it like this; “The blood and water that flowed out, signified those two great benefits which all believers partake of through Christ, justification and sanctification; blood for atonement, water for purification. They both flow from the pierced side of our Redeemer. To Christ crucified we owe merit for our justification, and Spirit and grace for our sanctification.”
Therefore, we can say that He gave His life to save us not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of sin. As I have said numerous times, there are three phases in salvation. All must be accomplished for salvation to be complete. Justification is deliverance from the penalty of sin. Sanctification is the deliverance from the power of sin. And glorification is the deliverance from the presence of sin. The glorification phase will not happen until the resurrection when we will be given a glorified body. But all three phases are necessary for our salvation to be complete.
John has given us these vignettes of salvation tucked into the greater story of the cross, so that we might get a better understanding of what Christ gave His life for. Salvation must be more than just believing intellectually in Christ’s existence, otherwise everyone attending the crucifixion would have been saved that night. But we know that is not the case. Salvation is more than partaking of the elements of His body, or drinking His blood, otherwise the soldiers that were splattered with the blood of Christ would have been saved. Salvation is more than just some sort of superficial belief in the historicity of the events.
And I will add something else that you may find disconcerting; salvation is more than just what Christ did on the cross. If salvation was accomplished for the world by what Christ did on the cross, then all men have been saved. There is no need to evangelize. Christ has done everything. We do nothing. Everyone goes to heaven, irregardless.
No, we must do something, we must believe. We must believe with saving faith. And faith is not merely intellectual, but it is also a matter of the will. Romans 10:10 says, “with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Faith is a matter of both the intellect and the will. It is a commitment to surrender your life to Christ to live by His Spirit. And in those two aspects of faith, the intellect and will, are couched justification and sanctification. So that James may rightly say, “show me your faith by your works. Faith without works is dead.”
Christ dying on the cross in our place has freed us from the enslavement to sin that the devil has held all of mankind in. The symbolism of the blood and the water is the crux of the gospel, it is powerful for the destruction of fortresses. And it provides complete salvation. It is able to justify us, to deliver from the penalty of sin, but it is also powerful to sanctify us, to deliver us from the power of sin. Sin no longer has dominion over us. The truth will make us free from the captivity of sin when we embrace the whole truth of the gospel. Let us take up our cross and follow Christ, dressed in His righteousness, our justification. And being made free from the penalty of sin, let us live as free from the power of sin as we yield to the Spirit who lives in us and rules over our will.
I hope that you have seen the purpose of gospel in these four vignettes of the cross. I hope you have seen first of all that you are a sinner, lost and without hope. And because your are a sinner you are condemned to death by the Great Judge over all the earth. But Jesus, the Son of God, has offered Himself to be our substitute, to take our punishment upon Himself, that we might be given freedom from sin and everlasting life. The only requirement for you is to repent and believe that He will save you and give you new life if you trust in Him as your Savior and Lord.
John says back in chapter one that Jesus came to His own, that is His own people, and they did not receive Him. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, [even] to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” Receive Jesus today as your Lord, and be born again in the Spirit, that you may have life in His name.