What can you tell me about Jesus bowing His head and giving up the ghost? Is that significant?
Let’s look at John 19:28-30, “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” I’m sure you recognize this portion as it speaks of the Lord Jesus on the cross, dying to save sinners like you and me.
The Lord, in his indescribable agony, realized that was a prophesy concerning Him that must be fulfilled before He died. He was referring to Psalm 69:21 which says, “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” When the Lord said that He thirsted, He was given a sponge filled with vinegar to drink. The weakness which He was suffering, the grief He felt, the heat of the day, and the loss of blood…these were the natural causes of the Lord’s thirst. He could have tolerated these things without complaining; but He must need give the fullest proof of his being the Messiah, by distinctly fulfilling everything relative to His Messiahship, which had been written in the prophets concerning Him.
Upon drinking the vinegar, or sour wine, the Lord declared that “It is finished.” It is edifying to see that “It is finished” was literally only one Greek word…”teleo.” This word is translated ‘pay’ in Matthew 17:24, “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master PAY tribute?” In essence, the Lord cried from the cross, “PAID.” The full price for our sins has been paid by the Lord Jesus Christ when He suffered and died for us. He alone died for our sins. He alone satisfied God’s righteous demands for payment for our sins. He alone is our savior, our Lord, our redeemer!
The Lord Jesus then bowed His head and gave up the ghost. Let’s go back and read the words of the Lord in John 10:17-18, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh 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. This commandment have I received of my Father.” On the cross, the Lord Jesus was in complete control. He LAID DOWN His life. Philippians 2:8 tells us about the Lord Jesus, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH, even the death of the cross.” Christ’s death on the cross was an act of obedience to His Father. He acted in obedience and authority. When He bowed His head, He dismissed His Spirit from His body. Who could possibly do that other than the Lord Jesus? No one!!!
While man was guilty of the death of the Lord Jesus for their desire was to kill Him, He actually GAVE His life for sinful men and women. The Apostle Peter, in his great sermon on the day of Pentecost, put it this way, “Him (Jesus), being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.” (Acts 2:23-24). We see that it was the deliberate and sovereign will of God that the Lord Jesus go to the cross to die, but it was by the wicked and guilty hands of men that He was put upon that cross.
I want to repeat once more: Christ was in absolute control while He was on the cross. He had the power, or authority, to lay down His life and this He did in obedience to His Father’s will. He had the power to bow His head and dismiss His spirit. Three days later, He was raised from the dead because “it was not possible that He should be holden of it.” Have you accepted Christ as your savior? (CC) (584.6)