Our Saviour’s Death

    “And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned. And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things” (Luke 23:44-49).

    What great wonders attended the death of God’s darling Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, upon the cursed tree!

    In the passage before us we are told that two great miracles attended the sacrifice of our Saviour at Calvary. First, God the Holy Spirit here calls our attention to the fact that there was “a darkness over all the earth” for three hours. “The sun was darkened and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.” Our Saviour, the true Passover, is here delivering his true Israel out of great darkness. Therefore, as the sun was darkened in Egypt for three days, it was darkened for three hours when the Lamb of God was sacrificed for us.

    Nothing could be more proper and fitting. When the great sacrifice for sin was offered, when the Son of God was dying, darkness covered the earth. This was done by the hand of God once before in the sight of all Israel. When the Lord God came to redeem Israel out of Egypt, he sent darkness upon that cursed land for three days. And when the law by which we are condemned was given on Mount Sinai, God sent darkness upon the mountain of terror. Now, as the One who gave the law suffers all the penalty of the law for us, being made a curse for us, on Mount Calvary the sun was darkened for three hours. Such a miracle, complete darkness at mid-day, was a miracle that should arrest our attention. It should compel us to stop and think.

    During those three hours of darkness, our Redeemer was assaulted by all the powers of darkness with utmost might and malice. But he foiled them all and spoiled them all. He made an open show of them (as Roman conquerors used to do), triumphing over them on his cross, as on his chariot of state (Colossians 2:13-17), dragging his vanquished enemies and ours bound behind him (Ephesians 4:8; Psalm 68:17-20).

    Next, we read that “the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.” That huge, thick curtain that hung between the holy place and the holy of holies was ripped from top to bottom. This was a miracle that must have shook the priests in the temple in their very souls. What an instructive miracle it is!

    The law that once separated man and God has been completely fulfilled, satisfied, and terminated by the death of our Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 6:14, 15; 7:4; 8:1-4; 10:4; Galatians 3:13, 24-26; 5:1)

    Christ is the fulfilment of the law. Christ is the satisfaction of the law. Christ is the end, the finish, the termination of the law. We have no covenant with the law. We live under a covenant of grace. We have no commitment to the law. Our commitment is to Christ, who obeyed the law for us. We do nothing by constraint of the law. “The love of Christ constraineth us.” We fear no curse from the law. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.”

    By the rending of that veil, God and men are reconciled; and by the rending of that veil, everything that separates men from one another is destroyed (Ephesians 2:11-22). Sinners like you and me have free access to God in all his glorious holiness (Romans 4:25-5:11; Hebrews 10:19-22).

    Signs like these are part of the ways God speaks to arouse man’s attention and warn. He often performs miraculous things, forcing eternity bound sinners to open their eyes whether they want to or not, and to hear his voice though they try to be deaf to it. He has done so many times in the days that are past: when he brought Israel out of Egypt, when he gave the law at Sinai. And he did so when by the sacrifice of his Son, he brought in this great day of grace. He will do so again when Christ comes in his glory (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 1:7). He says, “Yet once more, I will shake not the earth only, but also the heavens” (Hebrews 12:26; Isaiah 24:23).

    In verse 46 we hear our Saviour’s cry to his Father and our Father, as he left this world, having finished everything he came into the world to accomplish. “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.”

    There was something mysterious about our Lord’s death, which made it unlike the death of any mere man. He who spoke those words is both God and man. His divine and human natures are inseparably united. Our Saviour did not die as we shall. He did not die because he was compelled to die, or could not avoid dying. No! He voluntarily laid down his life as our Good Shepherd (John 10:15-18). He died as our sin-atoning Substitute. And he set before us in his death the example we ought to follow in life, committing himself entirely to God (1 Peter 2:19-25; Philippians 3:7-10).

    “Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man” (v. 47). I do not doubt at all that this centurion was converted by his dying Redeemer. His testimony in Matthew and Mark goes further: “Truly this was the Son of God.” He glorified God. He confessed that Christ was the Righteous Man. And he worshipped him as the Son of God.

    “And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned” (v. 48). They were terrified by their crime. They were repentant, pricked in their consciences; but theirs was “a repentance to be repented of”. They returned to their homes under the wrath of God.

    “And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things” (v. 49). They stood afar off from danger, because their Surety had died. They stood, “beholding these things”, with wonder, as well as looking upon their dear suffering Lord, with aching hearts and flowing eyes, remembering all he had taught, reflecting upon what they were beholding that day: redemption accomplished!

    Sons of peace redeemed by blood,

    Raise your songs to Zion’s God;

    Made from condemnation free,

    Grace triumphant sing with me.

    Calvary’s wonders let us trace,

    Justice magnified in grace;

    Mark the purple streams, and say,

    Thus my sins were washed away.

    Wrath Divine no more we dread,

    Vengeance smote our Surety’s head;

    Legal claims are fully met,

    Jesus paid the dreadful debt.

    Sin is lost beneath the flood,

    Drowned in the Redeemer’s blood,

    Zion, oh! How blest art thou,

    Justified from all things now.

    John Kent