“Stop breathing,” said the teacher, “and don’t start again—just stop!”
Each of the children took a deep breath and held it as long as they could and then burst out laughing.
“Don’t start breathing again,” said the teacher. “Just stop!”
“We can’t!” they all said. And they were right. Of course, none of them could just stop breathing.
There’s a verse in the Bible that says, “The God in whose hand thy breath is” (Daniel 5:2323But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: (Daniel 5:23)). That was written thousands of years ago, and it is still true today. “God ... breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:77And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)). Your breath is in the hand of God, and you can’t stop breathing just by telling yourself to stop.
There was One, and only One, who gave up His breath on purpose and died. His death was as wonderful as His birth. Jesus Himself was born without a human father, and He was the only One who was born into the world like that. The people hated Him and wanted to kill Him— with the sword, or by throwing Him over the edge of a steep hill, or by catching Him in the temple. But their plans never succeeded, because it was not what God’s Word said would happen.
A band of men and officers who hated Jesus found Him one night in the dark, and it was His disciples who ran away, but not Jesus. These men said they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth. When Jesus answered, “I am He,” they stepped back and fell to the ground.
Why didn’t Jesus escape? Instead, He let them arrest Him and tie up His hands, and then they led Him away to the authorities. It was God His Father who was with Him all that awful, dark night.
The next morning they had an unfair trial. They couldn’t accuse Him of any wrongdoing, because He never did wrong. They crucified Him anyway, because they wanted to get rid of Him.
At noontime while Jesus was on the cross, the sun was completely darkened so it was pitch black. Jesus was left alone on the cross, totally alone for three hours. During that dark, dark time, God poured out upon Him all the judgment that I and all other saved sinners would have had in hell forever. His amazing love in doing this for sinners is far, far greater than anything we can begin to understand! Only God and Jesus know the greatness and awfulness of those dark, dark three hours He went through to save us from our sins.
There was one more thing that the Bible tells us. When it became light again after those three dark hours, Jesus said, “I thirst,” and someone ran and brought him a drink of vinegar. Then Jesus said, “It is finished!” And the Bible records these next wonderful words of power: “He bowed His head and gave up [His spirit]” (John 19:3030When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30)) ... He stopped breathing.
No one else ever died like that. They wanted to kill Him, but He gave up His life.
When Pilate, the judge, heard that Jesus was dead, he was very surprised. He did not know what you and I know—that Jesus was God and the power of life was in Him. A cruel soldier came and pierced His side with a spear, but this did not kill Him, because He was already dead. This just showed that His blood was poured out for sinners. I did not see it, but I know it is true: Jesus, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:77In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; (Ephesians 1:7)). He did all this because He loves you and me so much and wants us to live with Him in heaven one day very soon.
This wonderful story is recorded four times in the Bible—in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It would be good to read this for yourself!
ML-01/12/2014