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“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30).
In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it is recorded that before the Lord Jesus dismissed His spirit, He cried out with a loud voice. Here in John’s gospel, we learn what He said. He gave that victorious cry, “It is finished,” for in the three hours of darkness, He had borne all the righteous judgment of God against sin. Now the work was done, and the Lord Jesus cried out with a Victor’s cry. Then He dismissed His spirit, and died.
The centurion who was there, and others who were looking on, were very impressed, for normally a man who died from crucifixion was so weak that he could scarcely talk at all. But here was One who cried with a loud voice, and then voluntarily dismissed His own spirit. Only the Lord Jesus could do that, as a divine Person. A natural man might commit suicide, but he cannot dismiss his own spirit and die. This was a fulfilment of what the Lord Jesus had said previously, “I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh 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. This commandment have I received of My Father” (John 10:17-18). It proved even to the soldiers that this was no ordinary man; He was the Son of God.
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