“Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit”

Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last. Luke 23:46

I have long held that no one killed Jesus. Yes, Jesus died on the cross, but He wasn’t killed per se.

When the soldiers came to break the legs of the condemned in order to speed up suffocation, they discovered that Jesus had already died. The two criminals were both still alive after six hours of crucifixion. Their legs were broken. Jesus’ legs were not, which actually fulfilled a prophecy (Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12; Psalm 34:20). While Jesus’ injuries prior to the cross were much worse than the criminals’, the expectation was that Jesus would still have been alive.

They pierced His side with the sword causing blood and water to flow out. Some have proposed that Jesus actually died of a broken heart, since the blood and water would indicate a cardiac condition (John 19:31-37). A heart attack wasn’t the usual result of crucifixion. A crucified person typically died by suffocation. The soldiers didn’t pierce the other two, but Jesus was pierced as prophesied in Zechariah 12:10.

In His last words on the cross, Jesus expresses trust in the Father. “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. When he said this, he breathed his last.”

No one could take Jesus’ life from Him. He gave His life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). Jesus willingly gave His life. Whether or not He was killed is really just a matter of semantics.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).