Commentary on the Gospel of John

                                  Chapter Nineteen

                                                                                                                                              Verses 31-37

In these verses that relate the story of the crucifixion of Jesus, one can see the influence of the Devil to thwart the prophecies of the Old Testament, and his attempts to cause Jesus to fail. One can also see the counter moves by the Holy Spirit to cause the Old Testament prophecies to come true, and to help Jesus to succeed.

The Jews urged Pilate to have the soldiers break the legs of all three men on the crosses. Sundown started the Sabbath, and the Jews did not want anyone to hang on a cross on the Sabbath. Deuteronomy 21:23. The Devil especially desired that Jesus' legs be broken because that would violate an Old Testament prophecy, and the Devil also assumed that if Jesus' legs were broken then that would ruin the perfect body of Jesus which would prevent God from raising Him from the dead. The Devil knows the scriptures. The agony and suffering that Jesus endured from the garden to His pierced side could not mar His perfection because He did it all in Love and self-sacrifice which would only emphasize His perfection.

The soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves, but when they saw that Jesus was already dead, they did not break His legs. Since the Jews had urged Pilate to break the legs of all three men, then those soldiers must have had orders to break the legs of all three men whether they were alive or dead. Yet, they did not break Jesus' legs. The Holy Spirit stopped them. One of the officers present must have altered Pilate's orders because he ordered a soldier to pierce Jesus' side with a spear to make sure He was dead. No soldier on duty does anything of importance without orders. Every Roman soldier had expert training in how to thrust a spear all the way to the heart. A soldier pierced the side of Jesus and all of the blood and water that had collected in Jesus' heart poured out to the ground.

No blood and water whatsoever remained in Jesus' body after the soldier pierced His side. Remission not only means the forgiveness of God, it means that the sins and evil of all humans saved by grace must be washed away by the shed blood and water from the body of Christ. Hebrews 9:22. Every living human who becomes saved by grace, Jesus saved when He became kosher on the cross. The Holy Spirit possesses the power to transform the physical blood of Jesus to spiritual blood and convey that blood to the hearts of believers to thoroughly cleanse the souls and spirits of all living humans who repent and believe while still alive in the flesh and save them forever by God's grace. I Corinthians 6:9-11. After being thoroughly cleansed and forgiven, the Holy Spirit enters into the inner beings of believers saved by grace, and He recreates their souls and spirits and gives them the very righteousness of Christ Himself so that their souls and spirits cannot sin, and God will be able to accept them into Heaven when their physical bodies die. II Corinthians 5:17; II Corinthians 5:21; I John 3:9; II Corinthians 5:8. And the Holy Spirit has the power to do all this without altering the personal identities of the believers. John 12:25.

But God allows the fleshly natures of believers saved by grace to remain with them so that they can still sin if they so choose to do. Romans 7:18. Water cleanses the body. To that same spiritual extent, the Holy Spirit possesses the power to transform the physical water that Jesus shed into spiritual water that He can convey to every believer saved by grace to forgive them and cleanse their fleshly natures as they daily repent of their sins. John 13:1-12; I John 1:9. Most believers saved by grace will be sanctified by the Holy Spirit and will have no desire to practice fleshly sins. Galatians 5:22-24. But some believers will backslide and refrain from daily repentance. Nevertheless, Christ has all power over all sin and evil, and He will cause all backsliders to repent so that He can wash them all with the water of His Word to cleanse and forgive them when He Raptures His Church if they do not repent before then. Ephesians 5:25-27.

John saw Jesus accomplish all of this, and he wrote what he witnessed in his gospel so that that the Holy Spirit could bring under conviction all who would read it or hear it preached so that they might repent and believe and become saved by God's grace. The Holy Spirit also holds the power to preach the gospel to the whole world and save by His grace even those humans who have never read or heard the gospel. Colossians 1:23.