Complete Devotion

“Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last.” (Luke 23:46)

The holy body of Jesus had been abused to the utmost by the scourging and crucifixion. Isaiah writes, “His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind” (Isa. 52:14).

Then the great waters of God’s judgment entered His holy soul, so that He had to lament, “Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger” (Lam. 1:12). Finally, after all this was over, His human spirit, which He had received from God, was to be separated from His body.

One last time He cried out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”! No one else could have shouted out loudly in such agonizing pain on the cross. But although He possessed this supernatural power, He didn’t use it to save Himself. Instead, He trustingly surrendered His spirit into the hands of Him Who had sent Him. This commandment He had received from His Father—and He obeyed Him unto death!

The Lord Jesus lived in dependence on God and died in dependence on God. How wonderfully the Father responded to His Son’s complete surrender: After three days, He used His divine power and glory to raise Him from the dead, the One Who had glorified Him so perfectly here on earth. He gave Him all power over heaven and earth (see Mt. 28:18) and finally received Him into glory.

There He now sits at the right hand of the Majesty—exalted “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named” (Eph. 1:21)—crowned with glory and honor (see Heb. 1:4; 2:9).

The Son of God didn’t hold back anything in His life. He surrendered Himself unreservedly to God and finally even gave up His spirit into the hands of the Father. Abraham had not withheld his beloved son from God and was richly blessed in return. Paul and Barnabas had given their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus and were therefore entrusted with a special task (see Acts 15:25- 26).

Paul had been able to say, “I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself” (Acts 20:24). With this attitude He had more joy in prison later on than most Christians living in freedom today. Letting go and relying on the Lord is connected with great reward and blessing!

Are there still things you cling to and withhold from God, or does He really have one hundred percent control over your life? What does it mean practically for you to present your life to God as “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:1)?

J.P.S.