OUR LORD GAVE UP HIS SPIRIT FOR US

The final act of Jesus on the cross was to give up His spirit. 

John 19 verse 30 described the last moments of Jesus this way;

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

Here, the words 'It is finished!" are spoken before Jesus surrenders His spirit.

In Mathew 27 verse 50,  the events are described this way;

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 

It is conceivable that the crying out in a loud voice in John 19 verse 20 and the uttering of "It is finished!" in Mathew 27 verse 50 were the same event. One witness may have heard distinct words while another just heard the sound of a voice crying out.

Mark 15 verse 37 renders an abbreviated version of what happened;

And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last.

Mark registers the loud cry and the final breath of Jesus but does not mention the giving up of His spirit.

On the other hand, Luke 23 verse 46 records the final moments of Jesus' life  with the verbalizing of His surrender of His Spirit and then registered Jesus' final breath.

And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” Having said this, He breathed His last.

These four renditions of the final moments of Jesus' life tell of the story from slightly different perspectives and proximities but what is clear from of them is that at this point, Jesus was completely out of strength and completely out of reserves as His organs began shutting down and the body of the Messiah reached the end.

He had only one strand of life left which was His spirit.

His spirit had tenaciously clung to Jesus as His body and soul endured the brutal treatment under the unrelenting pressure of crucifixion. 

Jesus' Spirit waited for our Lord to relinquish Him and with His last breaths, Jesus released His Spirit to His Father and died.

This solemn event was the culmination of all the decisions and actions Jesus had meticulously undertaken to effectively  sacrifice His own life for us. 

At the end, He gave up His Spirit for us so that we who believed in Him could receive His Spirit as our helper and comforter..

Bless our Lord and Redeemer.

Amen.