Secret Disciples, John 19:38-42

We live in a culture today when death is portrayed in movies and television with all sorts of blood and gore and people are unmoved by it.  But on the other hand, in reality, in our day to day lives, we go to great lengths to avoid seeing death.  If the average person even saw a steer killed and butchered they would probably be so traumatized that they would swear off eating meat forever.  

We have an unrealistic perception of death, and perhaps because of that, we have an unrealistic perception of life.  Even in the death of a loved one, it is rare that we really see much of the person as they die, or after they are dead, but rather doctors and nurses and morticians whisk the body away as soon as possible and what we end up seeing eventually at the funeral doesn’t even look like the real  person anymore. And a funeral is rare today.  The person is usually cremated, and so no one even sees the dead body.

It must have been a tremendously shocking thing to witness the crucifixion of Jesus.  The savagery of it is something that is hard for us to fathom.  The suffering is something that would not be tolerated today even in the execution of the worst criminals.  The Romans view of a merciful hurrying of the death by crucifixion was to break the legs of the victims so that they ended up suffocating due to being unable to push their chest up enough to breath.

Christ, as we saw last week, gave up His life before the soldiers would have finally taken it from Him by breaking His legs.  But that doesn’t mean He didn’t suffer immensely. Not only did He suffer in His flesh, but He suffered shame that only a righteous God could suffer.  To be holy and innocent of all sin and have all the sins of the world put upon your back and then be stripped naked and hung on a cross as the worst of criminals, and have your mother and a few friends watch you in your agony is beyond our comprehension.  But to have the wrath of God upon you as you take on the weight of the sins of the world is even more incomprehensible for our mortal minds.

We are not given in John’s gospel all the details of Christ’s crucifixion.  Even if we piece together the four gospels there are still gaps in what God has given us in the gospel record.  John says that there were many other things that he could have included, but that these were given that we might believe that Jesus was the Son of God and that believing we might have life in His name.

So as we come to this last section, the burial of Christ, it is important that we understand the full significance which John intends for us to gather from  this passage.  And I think that one of the main things that John wants to illustrate for us in the end of this chapter and the next chapter is the various responses of the disciples to the crucifixion and the resurrection.  There are many different responses that are presented in chapter 19 and 20. And I think that John illustrates these various responses in order to show that salvation is an individual response to the gospel.  Salvation did not come to all the world simply through the crucifixion of Christ, but salvation comes through an individual’s faith in what Christ did on the cross.  Salvation requires more than a head knowledge, or an intellectual assent to the facts, but it requires the response of faith for it to be efficacious.

To become saved means not only to be justified by faith in what Christ has done for us, but to be saved, practically speaking,  is to become a disciple.  To follow Christ, to follow His teachings, to be led by Him in all aspects of our life.  Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, “Go into the world and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”  Discipleship then is the goal of evangelism. Not just to make converts, but disciples. Not just to have people raise their hand or repeat a prayer and then they are given an insurance policy from hell, but to have people become transformed into the image of Christ. 

Micah tells us what discipleship is. Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”  To follow Christ is to walk with God. And to walk humbly is to walk circumspectly in His footsteps, following His example in all things.

Now in this last section of chapter 19, we see two men, who are called secret disciples.  I think that is somewhat of an oxymoron.  But if we give them the benefit of the doubt, let’s say that they had come to a saving knowledge of Christ, but that faith had not become public, and therefore not transformative.  I’m not sure such a thing is possible, but God knows the heart, not I, and He knows what are the intentions of the heart even before we act on them.  

So if John, under the influence of the Holy Spirit calls them disciples, then maybe they have been saved prior to the cross.  However, I will remind you that in John 6, after Jesus said “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink,” it goes on to say in vs66 that after this “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.”  So there is a sense in which you could be considered a disciple of Christ but not be saved and turn and walk away from the Lord.  Not that you can lose your salvation, but that you never had it.  You were considered a disciple because you were in the group, but you never truly believed unto salvation.

And I think that is indicative of many in the church today.  There are some who have a head knowledge of Christ, they attend  church occasionally, holding on loosely so to speak to the things of God, but in times of difficulty they will expose their true nature; they will turn away and stop following.  They will turn to something more edifying to their ego.  Something not as demanding.  And so we have churches today filled with people who move from group to group, from church to church, in an attempt to avoid the rigors and demands of true discipleship.

So Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were secret disciples up to this point.  Whether they had truly been saved or not we don’t know, but we do know that as they came face to face with the crucifixion of Christ they came all the way into discipleship. At the cross of Christ they faced the true nature of Christianity, and they chose to identify and  suffer with Christ.

Now who were Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus?  Well, I’m sure most of you are familiar with Nicodemus.  We met him in the third chapter, he came to see Jesus at night. And we are told there that he was a ruler, that means a member of the Sanhedrin.  Jesus calls him a teacher.  John also calls him a Pharisee.  That means that he believed in the afterlife, and he practiced the law to the nth degree. In that famous discourse in chapter 3, Jesus told him that he needed to be born again of the Spirit. And so we can assume that message resonated with Nicodemus, and eventually produced saving faith. 

There is one other note about Nicodemus in chapter 7, around vs 50, we see Nicodemus coming to the defense of Christ, saying that He should be given a fair hearing before they judged Him.  And in that passage, the Pharisees rebuked him for that defense.  So at that point there is an indication of the Spirit at work in him, but he has not yet come forward completely as a disciple.

The other man we know less about.  Mark tells us that Joseph of Arimathea was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin as well. Matthew says he was a rich man. And Mark also adds that he was waiting for the kingdom of God. That means he was looking for the Messiah. Some traditions say that Joseph and Nicodemus were actually brothers.  They both were rich men, they both were members of the Sanhedrin. They both were very prominent in Jewish religion and society.

And because of those things, they had a lot to lose for becoming disciples of Christ.  John says that Joseph was a disciple, but secretly for fear of the Jews.  He doesn’t mean just the Jewish people at large necessarily, but the Jewish leaders, the ruling party.  There were 70 men that were part of the Sanhedrin.  And there were undoubtedly thousands of Pharisees.  These were the leaders of the community, and these two men were considered the most prominent of the leaders. And so to come out publicly as Christ’s disciples meant the possible loss of their positions in society, their careers, and their wealth. So up to this point they hid their growing faith. I personally think that most of the Sanhedrin and the priests knew that Jesus was the Messiah.  But they were not willing to confess Him as such because they wanted to preserve their authority and position. And they would actually murder the Messiah in order to maintain their positions. So also Joseph and Nicodemus were believing, and until the crucifixion had not yet reached the point of confessing Jesus publicly as Lord.

I think that it should be obvious God does not save us, He does not shine His light in us, that we might hide it under a basket. Jesus said in  Matt. 5:14, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”  So we are not saved to hide our discipleship, but to reflect the light of Christ.

The application to disciples today should be pretty obvious as well.  Christ died to save us not just to escape the sentence of hell, but that we might shine His light through us to the world by looking like Christ, by acting like Christ.  That the world might see our good works, and bring glory to our Father in heaven.  

What stops us from doing that?  Well, it’s the same things that stopped Joseph and Nicodemus.  They feared the excommunication of the ruling party.  They feared what their peers might say if they really stepped out and followed the Lord.  They were afraid they might lose their friends.  Lose their social standing in the community.  And I’m afraid that the same concerns keep many of us from truly following Christ today.  If we really gave Christ 100% it would cost us friendships or jobs or money or something that we hold dear.

You know, tradition says that these men did eventually lose all those things.  Not so much is known about Joseph, but there are traditions about Nicodemus that say that as a result of his coming forward to claim the body of Christ and becoming a true disciple that  he lost his position in the Sanhedrin, he lost his wealth, and one historian recounts one of his daughters being so destitute that she was seen picking grain from manure.

Jesus speaks of what it means to truly follow Him, to be a true disciple.  In Matt. 16:24

Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”  

So it would seem that Joseph and Nicodemus attended the crucifixion. They would have had to have been there, to be able to respond so quickly to Jesus’s death that they were able to appeal to Pilate for His body and prepare His embalmment before nightfall and the Sabbath began.  It’s ironic, all His disciples save John had fled Him in the darkest hour.  And yet in the providence of God, these two fearful, secret disciples are the ones who are there to take Him to a tomb and prepare Him for burial.  

Somehow in the death of Christ, these men’s reservations fell away.  When they saw the way that He died, they must have come to the same conclusion that the Roman centurion did, saying, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”(Mark 15:39)  All their reservations fell away.  And in that moment, they realized that they had participated in some way in the crucifixion of the very Son of God. They knew that their sin had caused the death of God’s Son. And in light of that realization, they knew that their lives meant nothing if they were not sealed in Christ.

I can’t help but think that Nicodemus remembered what Christ had told him back in chapter 3:14, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”  When He saw Jesus lifted up on the cross, I’m sure this statement came flooding back to him, and He realized not only the fulfillment of prophecy, but also realized that for the deathly sting of his sin to be removed, he had to look unto Christ as his Savior and Lord.  That instead of death from the serpent’s sting he might receive the eternal life that God promised to those who believe in Him.  And so I believe Nicodemus and Joseph came to full discipleship when they saw Jesus hanging on that cross for their sins.

And that is where true discipleship starts for us as well.  When we consider the horror of our sins, when we consider the Son of God taking our penalty by His death, when we consider the shame and suffering that we deserved, placed upon Him who did not deserve it, then the least that we can do is to follow Him in forsaking our sin, being willing to give up our hold on this life, so that we might have spiritual life, even eternal life through Him. 

So I think that Joseph and Nicodemus not only got a vision of the cross, but they considered the cost of discipleship in light of what Christ did for them, and they realized that whatever it cost them, He was worth it all. In Mark 15:43, it says Joseph went in before Pilate and gathered up his courage, and asked for the body of Jesus.  I think it took a lot of courage to do that.  Pilate had after all just condemned Jesus to death.  What prevented him from doing the same to Joseph for revealing he was Christ’s disciple?  

But it also took a lot of courage because it would have been known to all his colleagues in the Sanhedrin.  With this one bold act, he pretty much sounded the death knell on his career.  That kind of courage and commitment to Christ, no matter how great the cost, is what is required of disciples.   Jesus said in  Matt. 10:37, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.”  So to take up your cross means to count the cost, and consider as Paul said the things I once thought valuable in this life as nothing but rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ.  Phil. 3:8 “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”  

That kind of abandon in following Christ is illustrated in two sacrificial gifts that each man gave to the Lord in His death.  First of all, Joseph gave Jesus his own personal tomb.  If not for this act of love on the part of Joseph, Jesus’s body would have been dragged off to Gehana, a trash pile outside of town that was always burning.  Gehena was a picture of hell that Jesus had often referred to.  But Isaiah 53:9 had prophesied that  “His grave was assigned with wicked men,Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.”  

John gives us some information about this tomb.  It was a tomb fit for a King.  He says that no body had ever been laid in it.  And he also mentions that this tomb was in a garden.  It’s interesting that when the first Adam sinned it was in a garden, and when the second Adam atoned for that sin, He was laid to rest in a garden.The fellowship with God that had been broken by sin in the first garden was restored by atonement in the second.  

So Joseph’s gift to Christ was fit for a King.  A new tomb, in a garden.  An extravagant gift to honor Christ as his King in death.  And of course God used this gift of Joseph to prove conclusively that the resurrection of Christ had taken place.  If Jesus’s burial place had not been well known, there would not have been the numerous witnesses to His resurrection.

And then Nicodemus also gives an extravagant, sacrificial gift suitable for a king. John tells us that he brought a hundred pounds weight of spices, made from myrrh and aloes.  Myrrh was brought at the birth of Jesus as well, by the wise men, who noted that a King had been born and came to worship Him.  Now in Christ’s death, another wise man brought myrrh to honor the King.  A hundred pounds weight would have represented a fortune in perfume.  Much more than simply sprinkled in the folds of the shroud, it would have filled the tomb where Jesus’s body was laid.

And so I suggest that a true disciple is known by his extravagance, by sacrificial giving to honor God.  Material things are recognized as merely offerings we give back to God.  Whether it be our time, or our treasure, we realize that no sacrifice is too great, when we consider the sacrifice He gave first for us.

When Joseph and Nicodemus stepped up to full discipleship, they claimed Christ’s body and boldly took on all the associations that came with that.  So we too as Christians  must  claim His body - which is His church - and embrace all the associations that come with that.  All the stigma.  All the social rejection.  There is no cost too great for the sake of Him who suffered for me.  It requires stepping out of our comfort zone.  It requires fellowship in His suffering.  It requires a sacrifice of time, money and resources for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  Being a true disciple requires that we lose our identity in the world, and claim our identity with Christ.  And when we give up our hold on this life and follow Him completely in true discipleship, then we will know the spiritual, abundant life that God promises to those who trust Him. 

I would ask you to consider your relationship to Christ this morning.  Are you living in effect as as secret disciple?  Are you trying to hold on to control of your life?  Are you holding onto things that are keeping you from fully committing to the Lord?  True discipleship demands our all, renouncing sin and clinging to the cross of Christ.  And when that kind of commitment has been made in our life, then it will be revealed in an extravagant love for Christ that considers anything that was once considered gain as loss for the sake of knowing Him.  I pray that today you see clearly what Christ did for you at the cross, and that you fully commit to take up your cross as well and follow Him.

Four vignettes in the crucifixion; John 19:23-37

For most Christians, the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ are very familiar.  We’ve all probably heard many messages on the crucifixion and even possibly seen movies or plays depicting it.  Not to mention, there are four gospel accounts of the crucifixion in the New Testament.  However, not all the gospels recount the exact same details.  One gospel might include some things which others leave out.  In John’s gospel, he includes some details which others have not, and also, he has left out some events that others included.  So the tendency among preachers and expositors preaching on this text is to fill in the blanks, so to speak, as if to make up for what John’s gospel is lacking. 

Now in the case of the synoptic gospel writers, Matthew, Mark and Luke, that could be considered an appropriate method of exposition, since you could make the case that those three writers were not actually in attendance at the crucifixion.  However, that’s not the case with John.  He makes it clear that He was there.  He is the disciple whom Jesus loved mentioned in vs.26 and 35 who was there and who had personally witnessed  the crucifixion.

So then the question is, why did John include some things and not others?  Well, the answer is that John is not writing a history book, but he’s writing a gospel.  He is telling and emphasizing certain events to present the gospel of Jesus Christ which leads to salvation.  That’s what he says in chapter 20:30, 31, “Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”  

My concern then is to figure out exactly how to elucidate this gospel message that John is endeavoring to give us.  And as I prayed about and studied this text, I came to a very simple conclusion; John is presenting the fact that Jesus gave His life to accomplish salvation, not just focusing on the morbid aspects of the crucifixion, but on the aspects which teach the principles of Christ’s atonement for us.  So as someone has well said, Christ gave His life not to engender sentimentality but spirituality.  Not just so that we might be mortified by the physical torture and bloody gore of the crucifixion, but that it might teach us the knowledge leading to salvation. And as another writer said, Salvation is based on believing. Believing is based on truth. And truth is revealed in Scripture.  That believing we might have life in His name.

So then, we will examine this principle of Christ giving His life to accomplish salvation through four vignettes which John presents to us.  The first is Jesus gave up His garments, then He gave up His mother, then He gave up His Spirit, and finally He gave out His water and blood.

I also want to add at the beginning that John correlates some of these events with Old Testament prophesies, showing that they were fulfilled in Jesus’s crucifixion.  And I believe three of the references he mentions are found in Psalm 22, and one in Psalm 34.  And I just want to point out that the Psalms were written  about 1000 years before Christ.  There is absolute proof of that.  It is indisputable.  In fact, the enemies of Christ, the Jews, would have been very familiar with these Psalms. Though they probably did not consider those references as Messianic prophesies. So they would not have contived to correlate Christ’s crucifixion with the prophesies even if they had wanted to.  

The Romans, on the other hand, did what Roman soldiers did, irregardless of what the Jews wanted. So they would not have deliberately acted in a way to confirm scriptural prophesies.  So these prophetic fulfillments are very important for John to point out, so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ.  And John wanted to make sure you understood that certain events of the crucifixion fulfilled scripture.  But now let’s focus on the four vignettes of how Jesus gave His life to accomplish our salvation.

First. Jesus gave up His garments.  We’ve all heard the phrase made about someone, that “he didn’t own anything but the clothes on his back.”  Well, that was especially true of Jesus.  He had no possessions, no home, nothing of any value.  All that He had were the clothes on His back.  And we see in vs 23, that the soldiers took those clothes and divided them up between themselves.  When Jesus came down from heaven’s glory to earth, He came all the way down to the lowest level of humanity to accomplish our salvation.  He let go of all His pride, all His royal garments, becoming completely poor for us, so that we might become rich in Him.  He became naked, bearing all the shame which that brings.  It’s the same shame that Adam and Eve felt in the garden of Eden when they realized they were naked and hid from God.  Christ became naked for us, Christ became sin for us,  bearing the shame, the scoffing, the stares, as He gave Himself to be our substitute.

2 Cor. 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”  Now how does this incident illustrate that we became rich?  Because these four soldiers each received a part of His clothing.  There were no greater sinners than these soldiers who had stripped Jesus’s clothes from Him, whipped Him with a cat of nine tails to within an inch of His life, crushed a crown of thorns upon His head and nailed Him to a cross.  And yet we know that even as they did so, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  

What John illustrates here is that the garments of Christ were made available at the cross for the covering of sinners.  Just as when after the fall God skinned animals to make clothing for Adam and Eve, so also He slew Jesus to provide a garment of righteousness for you and me.  Isaiah 61:10 says, “For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.” 

The hymn we sing, The Solid Rock, says, “dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”  2 Cor. 5:21 says, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  There is no better picture of our sin situation than that we are naked and ashamed before God.  Christ took that upon Himself, that we might become clothed in His righteousness.

But John adds that there is another piece of clothing there, which was not divided, because it was made in one piece.  It was a tunic, worn under the outer clothing.  And I see two pictures in this; first it is the inner garment, signifying the Spirit.  And secondly, it was without seams.  It’s not in part, it’s complete.  The Spirit of Christ is not given piecemeal.  

Now as we see this dividing of His clothing played out by the soldiers, it may seem that Jesus has no control over these events. Yet John informs us that the invisible hand of God guides all things, so that specific prophecy is specifically fulfilled. Psalm 22:18 says, “They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.” The fact that it was foreordained indicates that Jesus gave His clothing willingly, even as He gave His life willingly.

The picture teaches us that we need to be clothed in His righteousness if we are to be saved. It is the means of our justification; Christ’s righteousness is given to us in exchange for our sin. And when we are saved, then we receive the spiritual covering of  His Spirit, so that we might be joined with Christ.

Secondly, Christ gave up His mother.  I know that heading sounds awkward.  Maybe it would be better to say, He gave up His family associations.  But all we have presented here is His mother.  There are indications from this text and others that Joseph was long dead and Jesus had, as the eldest son, taken on the responsibility as the head of the family of His mother and His brothers.  His brothers at this point had not believed in Him.  There is no evidence that they were there at the crucifixion.  In fact, all his disciples had fled except for John and these four women.  

Jesus would have been very aware of the pain that His crucifixion was causing to Mary. She was the only one of His family that had believed in Him.  And now as Simeon had prophesied to her 33 years earlier,  a sword would pierce her soul.  I’m sure in some part of His humanity, Jesus would have loved to have used His divine power to come down from the cross and spare His mother this grief.  But He was obedient even unto death to the will of the Father, knowing that through His death He would accomplish salvation not only for her soul, but millions more.  And make no mistake, Mary needed salvation, just as all sinners need salvation.  She was not without sin, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There was only one sinless One, and that was Christ Jesus, the Lamb slain for the sins of the world.

So in Jesus’s instructions to John, He indicates that John is not only part of the kingdom, but a child of God.  Jesus said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!”  Not only was Jesus concerned about her physical care, but He was emphasizing also the nature of family in the kingdom of God. There is a new family dimension in the Kingdom of God.  Our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers are those who have been born of God. In Luke 8:21 Jesus said, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” And in John 1:11-13 it says, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:  who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Thirdly, Jesus gave up His Spirit.  Vs. 30 “ Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” Phil. 2:8 says, “And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Giving up His Spirit means first of all, that He gave up His life. That is a tremendous thing.  It was not an act of suicide.  His hands and feet are nailed to a cross.  He can’t take His life by violence against Himself. But what He does is an act of divinity.  He gives up His life willingly, of His own volition. 

But before He acts in divinity, John shows His humanity.  Jesus became thirsty and asks for a drink.  So they give Him vinegar to drink.  He suffered as any man would suffer  the torments of the cross.  His divinity did not prevent His suffering. As a man, He thirsted. We should be reminded when Jesus cried out; at the feast in John 7:37-39  saying, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."  But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet [given], because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

 As God, He had the power over His life. But He gave up His life, voluntarily. As Jesus said in John 10:17, “I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” 

The gospels record 7 statements or words of Jesus on the cross.  John only gives us three.  One was the statement to John and His mother.  The second was He was thirsty.  And now John records another statement that Jesus made as He gives up His Spirit.  He cries, “Tetelistai!” it is finished.  Tetelistai means it is complete, perfect.  His ministry on earth as a man was complete.  He lived from the first moment to the last, a sinless, perfect life.  By the death of His perfect life He paid in full the debt of mankind who could never live a perfect life.  And by dying, He paid the complete price which we owed; that God might place upon Him our sins as our substitute.  The work of atonement that Jesus came to do in the flesh was finished, it was complete.

1Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.” Not only did He give up His life, but He surrendered up His Spirit to death, to the abode of the dead.  Very little in scripture is given to us concerning the three days Christ’s body was in the grave.  But according to both Peter and Paul, though His body was in the tomb, His Spirit was alive in the abode of the dead. As the Apostle’s Creed confirms, “He descended into Hell.” A better translation would be that He descended into the lower regions of the earth, which is what the Bible calls Hades, so He might triumph over death through His resurrection.  

The human body is spirit, soul and body.  Our spirit is the spiritual part of our being that is connected to God, which has died as the result of sin. That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus back in John chapter 3 that it is necessary to be born again of the Spirit. The reborn spirit then rules over the mind and the body. We must be born of the Spirit, if we are to be spiritual. And then we must give up our self rule to the rule of the Spirit if we are going to live as God would have us live, dying to the lusts of the flesh, even as Christ died in the flesh but was alive in the Spirit.

Finally, the last vignette John presents for us is He gave up water and blood.  The soldiers, in order to hurry the death of those who were crucified, broke their legs, which would cause them to suffocate from the weight of their body.  But coming to Jesus, these executioners realize that He is already dead.  So one of them took his spear and stabbed Him in the side, presumably to prove He was dead, and John tells us that blood and water came out.  Now doctors have said that this water-like liquid was from the pericardium surrounding the heart and flowed out with partly coagulated blood.  That’s the physical explanation.  

Other, more sentimental explanations have said it was a sign of a broken heart.  I’m not sure that such a thing has been established as physically possible.  But there is no doubt that there is a symbolic reference in the blood and water coming out of His side.  And perhaps it is best stated in the old hymn, Rock of Ages, which says, “Let the water and the blood, from thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from death and make me pure.”  The blood therefore representing justification from sin, and the water being purification from sin. 

Matthew Henry, an 18th century theologian said it like this; “The blood and water that flowed out, signified those two great benefits which all believers partake of through Christ, justification and sanctification; blood for atonement, water for purification. They both flow from the pierced side of our Redeemer. To Christ crucified we owe merit for our justification, and Spirit and grace for our sanctification.”

Therefore, we can say that He gave His life to save us not only from the penalty of sin, but the power of sin.  As I have said numerous times, there are three phases in salvation.  All must be accomplished for salvation to be complete.  Justification is deliverance from the penalty of sin.  Sanctification is the deliverance from the power of sin.  And glorification is the deliverance from the presence of sin.  The glorification phase will not happen until the resurrection when we will be given a glorified body.  But all three phases are necessary for our salvation to be complete. 

John has given us these vignettes of salvation tucked into the greater story of the cross, so that we might get a better understanding of what Christ gave His life for.  Salvation must be more than just believing intellectually in Christ’s existence, otherwise everyone attending the crucifixion would have been saved that night.  But we know that is not the case. Salvation is more than partaking of the elements of His body, or drinking His blood, otherwise the soldiers that were splattered with the blood of Christ would have been saved.   Salvation is more than just some sort of superficial belief in the historicity of the events. 

And I will add something else that you may find disconcerting; salvation is more than just what Christ did on the cross.  If salvation was accomplished for the world by what Christ did on the cross, then all men have been saved.  There is no need to evangelize.  Christ has done everything.  We do nothing.  Everyone goes to heaven, irregardless. 

No, we must do something, we must believe.  We must believe with saving faith. And faith is not merely intellectual, but it is also a matter of the will.   Romans  10:10 says, “with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  Faith is a matter of both the intellect and the will.  It is a commitment to surrender your life to Christ to live by His Spirit.  And in those two aspects of faith, the intellect and will,  are couched justification and sanctification. So that James may rightly say, “show me your faith by your works. Faith without works is dead.”

Christ dying on the cross in our place has freed us from  the enslavement to sin that the devil has held all of mankind in.  The symbolism of the blood and the water is the crux of the gospel, it is powerful for the destruction of fortresses. And it provides complete salvation.  It is able to justify us, to deliver from the penalty of sin, but it is also powerful to sanctify us, to deliver us from the power of sin.  Sin no longer has dominion over us.  The truth will make us free from the captivity of sin when we embrace the whole truth of the gospel.  Let us take up our cross and follow Christ, dressed in His righteousness, our justification.  And being made free from the penalty of sin, let us live as free from the power of sin as we yield to the Spirit who lives in us and rules over our will. 

I hope that you have seen the purpose of gospel in these four vignettes of the cross.  I hope you have seen first of all that you are a sinner, lost and without hope. And because your are a sinner you are condemned to death by the Great Judge over all the earth. But Jesus, the Son of God, has offered Himself to be our substitute, to take our punishment upon Himself, that we might be given freedom from sin and everlasting life.  The only requirement for you is to repent and believe that He will save you and give you new life if you trust in Him as your Savior and Lord. 

John says back in chapter one that Jesus came to His own, that is His own people, and they did not receive Him. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, [even] to those who believe in His name,  who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”  Receive Jesus today as your Lord, and be born again in the Spirit, that you may have life in His name.