Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
The Blood of The Lamb. Part 6.
Sunday, October 19, 2003
There are two concepts of the blood of our Lord on the cross, His physical death and His spiritual death.
It is wonderful to realize how TLJC loved the Scriptures as they then existed and how His life in His humanity centered around them.
The thirst of Jesus indicates His humanity, for deity does not get thirsty.
This utterance of the Savior, “I thirst,” followed right after the three hours of darkness, during which the light of God’s countenance had been withdrawn from the Sin – Bearer.
In the volume of that Book which expressed the will of God, it was written that He should thirst!
PSA 69:21 They also gave me gall for my food, And for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
He had hung on that cross for six hours, and had passed through suffering unparalleled: nevertheless His mind was perfectly clear and His memory entirely unimpaired.
JOH 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you, “A slave is not greater than his master.”
MAT 10:24 “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master.”
The power to suffer for another, the capacity to be self-denying, and to accomplish some great work for God should be sought after.
LUK 16:24 And he cried out and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.”
When the Lord Jesus Christ uttered the words “It is finished!” He evidenced the fact that salvation was complete.
When He said, “It is finished” He made it very clear that to add anything to the finished work of salvation is sheer blasphemy!
“It is finished” is a single word in the original, Tetelestai!
The costly ransom was given, the great conflict had been endured, sin’s wages had been paid, divine justice satisfied.
There was His resurrection, ascension, and session on high, but these are the fruit and reward of that work which He completed.
It was the declaration on the part of the Divine Redeemer that all for which He came from heaven to earth to do, was now done.
All which was needful to reveal the glorious character of God had now been accomplished.
Everything necessary for the putting away of the sins of His people, providing for them a perfect standing before God, securing for them an eternal inheritance and fitting them for it, had all been done.
If He was still physically alive on the Cross after salvation was complete, His physical death could have nothing whatever to do with the payment for sin.
They had just demanded and secured the execution of the only perfect man who ever lived, their own Messiah.
Jewish Law demanded that the body of any criminal be put out of sight during a Sabbath or feast day in order not to pollute the land, DEU 21:22-23.
The fact that the soldiers did not break His legs is a fulfillment of specific promises contained in the Old Testament Scriptures; EXO 12:46; NUM 9:12;
PSA 34:20; cf., JOH 19:36,37.
EXO 12:46 It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it.
NUM 9:12 They shall leave none of it until morning, nor break a bone of it; according to all the statute of the Passover they shall observe it.
PSA 34:20 He keeps all his bones; Not one of them is broken.
In spite of the insidiously evil demands of the religious Jews, in spite of Pontius Pilate’s orders, in spite of the entire Roman army, not one bone could ever be broken because God keeps His Word – no matter what is involved.
God always honors and respects His Word, and therefore Bible doctrine resident in your soul is your source of confidence and security.
REV 12:11 “And they overcame him because of the doctrine applied by means of their testimony.”
ZEC 12:10 they will look on Me whom they have pierced;
Water – “Hudor” = used in the medical sense for the grayish-yellow fluid that separates from the clot in the coagulation of blood.
Instead of “Blood and water” a more accurate translation would be “blood clots and serum.”
Internal hemorrhaging would have resulted in very little blood remaining in the heart.
Tetelestai – per-act-ind – teleo = it has been finished in the past with the result that it stands finished forever.
When John mentioned “blood and water” in his epistles as in 1JO 5:6-8, John was dealing with gnosticism that claimed that Jesus Christ was not true humanity.
Our Lord provided salvation while He was alive, not dead, and the saving work of Christ is generally called redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation, but sometimes it is called the blood of Christ.
The blood of Christ refers to the saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ which He accomplished when He was judged as our substitute.