"FATHER INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT"

Proclamation:

“Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.’  When He had said this, He breathed His last.” Luke 23:46 (NIV)  In The King James version of The Bible it reads “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.”

Explanation:

Under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God Luke, the physician and traveling companion of the Apostle Paul, recorded these words which are considered to be the seventh and final of the last seven saying of Christ that He spoke while on the cross.  Normally death by crucifixion on the cross is a long, slow, painful process.  However, Jesus was only on the cross for a little over three hours before He died. (Luke 23:44)  Jesus was in control of the situation and ended His own life by quoting a verse from the Old Testament. (Psalm 31:5)  He had already told His disciples beforehand that no man could take His life, He had the power to lay down His life and to pick it back up again. (John 10:18)  Jesus ended His own earthly life after He had all that had to be done for the redemptive process of man. (Matthew 20:28)

Application:

When we die, the soul and the body separate, (James 2:26) the soul returns to God created it and gave it to us. (Genesis 2:7)  The body remains on earth to be buried, cremated, or disposed of in some manner prior to it returning to the dust of the earth. (Ecclesiastes 3:20 and 12:7)  When Jesus died His soul went to paradise and on that third day morning His earthly body was resurrected.  (Luke 23:43 and 24:6-7)  Now He sits at the right hand of The Father making intercessions for us. (Romans 8:34)  In order for us to be saved we must confess and believe that God raised Jesus, The Christ, from the dead. (Romans 10:9)  We can entrust our soul to the hands of God knowing that there is no place which is more secure.