Jesus Willingly Dying

Minister:
Date: PM (Good Friday)
Text: Luke 23:46
  1. The willing death.
    1. Death must be understood as divine punishment (Rom. 6:23).
      1. Death (physical and spiritual) is the expression of God’s wrath in justice against sin (and the sinner).
      2. Therefore man is justly fearful of death (Heb. 2:15) and it is the Christian’s last enemy (I Cor. 15:26).
    2. Jesus’ dying was a voluntary act.
      1. With power over death He regally summed death, determining the moment of His physical death.
      2. At conception He had willingly entered into the midst of death (in obedience to His Father).
      3. In all His life He tasted death.
      4. As an act of perfect obedience to His Father He accepted God’s just judgment against our sin.
    3. Jesus’ “loud voice” is a victory cry (not one of unintelligible agony).
      1. His outcry speaks of perfect consciousness, which is not the way of all other crucifixions.
      2. Jesus commended His Spirit into the hands of His Father.
      3. This explains why His time on the cross was so short, so Pilate marveled.
  2. His willing dying is what made it a perfect, sacrificial death.
    1. Jesus laid down His life, having tasted death in all its meaning.
      1. The atoning power of His death is that He experienced the fulness of God’s wrath.
      2. Jesus died (commended His spirit) AFTER He declared, “It is finished.” (John 19:30).
      3. How did Jesus know it was finished?
    2. God gave further evidence that Jesus bear the fulness of His wrath
      1. The best evidence is the resurrection.
      2. The rending of the temple veil (45) and the earthquake (Matt. 27:51b), and the Roman centurion (47).
    3. Believe that full and complete satisfaction has been made for you because He willingly died our death.