Jesus is God in human form!!! there is still The Father God AND the Holy Spirit…..3 beings ONE GOD!
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John 8:58 KJV. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
Exodus 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
1 John 5:7 King James Bible
For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
KJV Bible = The WORD is Jesus
God = Jesus
John 1:1-3 King James Version (KJV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
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Php_2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
Exodus 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
John 10:30 I and my Father are one.
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John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and THE WORD WAS GOD. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 14AND THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH, and dwelt among us,(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John 8:58
“Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”
King James Version (KJV)
Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US.
John 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
8Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
John 20:28And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord AND my God. 29Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us
2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, WHO IS THE IMAGE of God, should shine unto them.
Ephesians 4:4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 5One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
John 10:30 I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was MANIFEST IN THE FLESH, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7But MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, AND TOOK UPON HIM THE FORM OF A SERVANT, and WAS MADE in the likeness of men:
Psalm 18:2 The LORD IS MY ROCK, and my fortress, and my deliverer; MY GOD, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and THE HORN OF MY SALVATION, and my high tower.
1 Corinthians 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that SPIRITUAL ROCK that followed them: and THAT ROCK WAS CHRIST.
Isaiah 44:6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
Revelation 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Revelation 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Revelation 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
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Why did Jesus have to experience so much suffering?
Answer
Jesus suffered severely throughout His trials, torture, and crucifixion (Matthew 27; Mark 15; Luke 23; John 19). His suffering was physical: Isaiah 52:14 declares, “There were many who were appalled at Him—His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness.” His suffering was emotional: “All the disciples deserted him and fled” (Matthew 26:56). His suffering was spiritual: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus had the weight of the sins of the entire world on Him (1 John 2:2). It was sin that caused Jesus to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Jesus’ brutal physical suffering was augmented by His having to bear the guilt of our sins and die to pay our penalty (Romans 5:8).
Isaiah predicted Jesus’ suffering: “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3, 5). This passage specifies the reason for Jesus’ suffering: “for our transgressions,” for our healing, and to bring us peace.
Jesus told His disciples that His suffering was certain: “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” (Luke 9:22; cf. 17:25). Note the word must—He must suffer, and He must be killed. The suffering of Christ was God’s plan for the salvation of the world.
Psalm 22:14–18 details some of the suffering of the Messiah: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death. Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” In order for this and other prophecies to be fulfilled, Jesus had to suffer.
Why did Jesus have to suffer so badly? The principle of the innocent dying for the guilty was established in the garden of Eden: Adam and Eve received garments of animal skin to cover their shame (Genesis 3:21)—thus, blood was shed in Eden. Later, this principle was set in the Mosaic Law: “It is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11; cf. Hebrews 9:22). Jesus had to suffer because suffering is part of sacrifice, and Jesus was “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus’ physical torture was part of the payment required for our sins. We are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19).
Jesus’ suffering on the cross showed the devastating nature of sin, the wrath of God, the cruelty of humanity, and the hatred of Satan. At Calvary, mankind was allowed to do his worst to the Son of Man as He became the Redeemer of mankind. Satan may have thought he had won a great victory, but it was through the cross that the Son of God triumphed over Satan, sin, and death. “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out” (John 12:31; cf. Colossians 2:15).
Jesus suffered and died in order to secure salvation for all who would believe. The night of His arrest, as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, He committed His all to the task: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). The cup of suffering was not taken from Christ; He drank it all for us. There was no other way for us to be saved.
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Why did Jesus Die a Brutal Death
QUESTION: Why did Jesus Die a Brutal Death?
ANSWER:
Crucifixion was the torture and execution method where a victim was usually nailed or tied to a wooden stake and left to die. This was the Romans’ most severe form of execution, reserved only for slaves and criminals. Nails were pounded through the wrists into a crossbeam that was attached to a vertical stake. Sometimes the feet were also nailed to the vertical stake. As exhaustion came to the victim, he could not hold himself up to allow blood to reach his vital organs. Sometimes it would take days for the person to die. The executioners sometimes broke the victim’s legs with a club to speed up the dying process.
“Just as many were astonished at you, so His visage was marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men,” says Isaiah 52:14. Jesus suffered tremendously through His trials, torture, and crucifixion (See Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19 for complete biblical details of the beating of Jesus).
Even more intense than the physical death of Jesus was the spiritual suffering He experienced. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Jesus carried the sin-weight of the entire world (1 John 2:2). It was the sin of the world that caused Jesus Christ to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Jesus’ physical suffering was brutal, but it was our sins that caused Him the most suffering.
Jesus’ suffering and torture shows the hatred and cruelty of humanity. Satan’s hatred of God and His Son Jesus were the motivation behind the extreme torture and abuse. The suffering of Jesus is an example of how sinful man feels toward a holy God (Romans 3:10-18).
Isaiah 53:3-5 says, “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”
The Bible declares that it is by Jesus’ stripes we are healed! It is His death that paid the penalty mankind could not pay-death! We are all sinners and have fallen short of what God demands. We deserve to die. Jesus, in His obedience to His Father, died for us, so through faith in His atoning act we could measure up to God’s standards! God loved each of us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to bear our sin and die in our place.
https://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/why-did-jesus-die-a-brutal-death-faq.htm
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Crucifixion – The Physical Suffering of Jesus
By Jeremy Myers
I apologize in advance for the graphic nature of this post about the crucifixion of Jesus.
We all know Jesus was crucified. But since nobody is crucified today, few of us realize how painful and gruesome crucifixion was. Two thousand years of separation has sanitized it. For example, if you do an image search on Google for crucifixion, most of the images of Jesus are pretty clean. It looks like he stepped out of a shower, climbed up on the cross, and had some nails driven through his hands and feet…which hardly bled at all.
If there is one thing we can thank Mel Gibson for, it is showing us the graphic and torturous nature of the crucifixion in his movie, The Passion of the Christ. Here is an image from the movie which is somewhat closer to how Jesus probably appeared:
While I have no desire to be provocative in explaining the details of the crucifixion of Jesus, I do think it is important for us to understand the physical suffering of Jesus as it shows us how much we are loved and what he went through for us.
2015 Edit: My thinking has changed quite a bit since I wrote this article over ten years ago. Today, I am not so sure that Jesus wants us to know how much pain and suffering He experienced on the cross. To learn more about how my thinking has changed, sign up at the bottom of this page to receive my emails about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through that sequence of emails, I show how my thinking has changed about the death and resurrection of Jesus.
History of Crucifixion
The first known practice of crucifixion was by the Persians, and it was closer to impaling a person on a sharpened pole than what we think of as crucifixion. In the book of Ester, Haman builds a “gallows” 75 feet tall upon which he wanted to hang Mordecai (Esther 5:14). This was not a hangman’s gallows like we see in Western movies with the looped noose, but was a large pole stuck into the ground, with the top sharpened to a point. A person was impaled on this stake, and hung there until they died. The Persian’s became quite skilled at knowing how to impale a person so they stayed alive for several days.
The Greeks brought crucifixion back to the Mediterranean world during the reign of Alexander the Great. The Romans learned crucifixion from the Carthaginians, and rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill in carrying it out. This type of torture was normally reserved for traitors, criminals, and murderers.
The Crucifix
There were several different types of crosses that were used over the years. The first type, as I indicated, was simply a sharpened stake in the ground. Later, as rulers sought to prolong the life of the person, they developed the T-type structure we are more familiar with in movies and pictures today.
It was made of two pieces. The upright portion of the cross was called the stipes. The blood of the victim ran down this vertical piece of wood, forming stripes on the surface. Remember that in Isaiah 53, it says that by his stripes we are healed.
The arm of the cross, or the horizontal part was then attached to the upright piece. Most often, we think of the cross as the one we so often see in pictures, with the horizontal piece about one-fourth to one-third of the way down the vertical piece. But historians and archeologists tells us that probably, the shape of the cross that Christ died on was more like a capital T than a lower case t. This piece was known as the patibulum, and it is this form of the cross that was most often used in Christ’s day. There was also an X-shaped cross, but this was rarely used in the days of Jesus.
Sometimes, in the crucifixion of notorious criminals, a small sign was added to the top of the crucifix, stating the victim’s crime. This was called the titulus. The picture on the right shows the criminal on the T-shaped cross, and cross of Jesus with a titulus. According to John 19:19, the titulus of Jesus read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”
The upright post (stipes) was permanently fixed in the ground at the site of execution and the condemned man was forced to carry the patibulum from the prison to the place of execution. When John 19:17 says that Jesus carried his cross, it was not the entire cross, but just the patibulum. The entire cross would generally have been too heavy for one man to lift. Even the patibulum proved too much for some men, as it generally weighed about 110 punds, and after the beating which many of them received, could not carry that weight too far.
Crucifixion Methods
There were a couple different ways of “attaching” the victim to the cross, and it all depended on how long the authorities wanted the victim to live. Sometimes, the victim was simply tied to the cross, and they died from starvation. If they were offered water to drink, they could live for weeks before dying.
If the authorities wanted a quicker death, they would generally drive nails into the hands and feet of the victim. The nails were not driven into the palms of the hands as most pictures show. Rather, they were driven through the wrist near the hands. If the spikes were driven through the hands, the weight of the person would cause the nail to rip through the hands and the victim would fall off the cross. But when driven through the wrist, the set of bones which attach the wrist to the hand keep the hands from ripping free.
Even then, the crucified victim rarely died from blood loss. Most often, they died from asphyxiation, that is, the inability to breathe. Before the nail was driven through the victim’s feet, the legs were bent at the knee so that the bottom of one foot was flat against the vertical beam. One foot was placed on top of the other, and one long nail was driven through both feet. When the cross was erected, the weight of the body caused the victim to slump, putting all the weight of the body on the nails through the wrists. This also caused compression on the lungs, which kept the victim from inhaling. As long as he was slumped down, he could not take in breath.
To take a breath, the victim would have to stand up on the nail through his feet, causing excruciating pain in the feet, but enabling him to take a breath. As long as he was putting all his weight on his feet, he could breathe. But when that became too painful, he would slump back down, putting all his weight on his wrists, and also returning to the condition of not being able to breathe.
Eventually, the victim would become so weak, they could no longer lift themselves up on their feet to take a breath, and they would die from asphyxiation. Some of the stronger victims could last for up to a few days in this state. To speed up a victim’s death, the authorities might command that his legs be broken so that he could no longer raise himself to take a breath. Once the legs were broken, the victim would die within a few minutes.
Let us turn now to look at the specific details of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.
The Trial of Jesus
Note: Much of the following information comes from Martin Hengel’s work on Crucifixion, and from an article written by Dr. Truman Davis called “A Physician Testifies About the Crucifixion.”
After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas, the High Priest. It is here the first physical trauma is inflicted. A soldier strikes Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiaphas. The palace guards then blind Him with a cloth, and taunt Him to identify them as they pass by. They also spit on Him, strike Him in the face, and pull out His beard. Spitting on someone was the lowest form of disgrace to a person in that time. Furthermore, while we do not know exactly how many guards participated, we know from history that the palace guard consisted of 900-1200 soldiers. Even if only ten percent participated, Jesus endured a lot of shame, disgrace, and pain at the hands of the soldiers.
In the early morning, Jesus, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night is taken across Jerusalem to the Praetorium of the fortress Antonio, the seat of government of the procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. Pilate tries to pass the responsibility to Herod, the tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no harm at the hands of Herod and is returned to Pilate. It was then in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate orders Barabbas released, and condemns Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.
The Scourging of Jesus
Preparations for the scourging are carried out. Jesus is stripped of His clothing, and His hands are tied to a post above His head so that the flesh of the shoulders and the back are stretched to the limit. The Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than 40 lashes which is why Paul several times received 39 lashes. But the Romans made no attempt to follow Jewish law in this matter and Jesus probably received many more.
When the back of Jesus is bared and stretched tight, a Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (sometimes it is called a flagellum or cat-of-nine-tails) in his hand. It is a short whip consisting of nine heavy leather thongs, each with small lead balls, embedded with bits of glass, stone, or bone attached near the ends. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again on the shoulders, back, and legs of Jesus.
At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissue, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead, bits of glass, and stone produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Eventually, the skin on the back hangs in long ribbons, and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn bleeding tissue.
The blows do not hit just the back either. When the long strands of the flagellum strike, they wrap around the victim’s body and dig into the front and sides of the body. Then the flagellum is quickly pulled back, violently ripping and tearing the flesh off the body. Sometimes, in the process, a victim will have several ribs broken by the lead balls. This probably did not happen with Jesus since it was prophesied that none of His bones would be broken. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.
The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, soaked with His own blood. The Roman soldiers see an opportunity to make a joke out of Him. Here is a provincial Jew claiming to be a king, but was now barely alive. So they throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. To make the travesty complete, a small bundle of flexible branches covered with long thorns are woven into the shape of a crown and pressed into His scalp. Since head wounds always bleed a lot, the blood runs down His face and into His eyes.
After mocking Him and striking Him across the face some more, the soldiers take the “scepter” from His hand and strike Him on the head, which drives the thorns deeper into His scalp. After they tire of their sadistic sport, the robe is torn from His back. It had already adhered to the clots of blood and ribbons of flesh on His back, and had begun to dry in the hot mid-eastern sun. The tearing of the robe from His back, just like the careless removal of a surgical bandage from a wound, causes excruciating pain as wounds reopen and more flesh is torn from His back.
Most artists do not even come close in depicting what Jesus looked like after all of this torture. He was probably the most inhuman looking thing you’ve ever seen. The prophet Isaiah wrote of the Messiah: “They shall see the Servant of God beaten and bloodied, an object of horror; so disfigured many were astonished. His face and His whole appearance were marred more than any man’s, one would scarcely know it was a person…” (Isa 52:14).
The Journey to Golgotha
The soldiers then took the heavy patibulum, and tie it roughly to Jesus’ shoulders. The procession leads down the Via Dolerosa. With Jesus are the two thieves who will be crucified with Him, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers. They walk slowly through the crowded streets. Some people jeer and mock. Others shrink back in horror.
In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by blood loss, is too much for Jesus. He frequently stumbles and falls. When He does so, the rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of His shoulders and sends splinters deep into His skin. At one point, He tries to rise, but human muscles had been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selected a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the crossbeam. Jesus follows behind, still bleeding, and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock.
After the 650-yard journey from the fortress Antonio to Golgotha is complete, the crucifixion begins.
The Crucifixion
Prior to nailing Jesus to the cross, He is offered wine mixed with myrrh (Mark 15:23). This was a mild anesthesia, and was intended to help numb the pain. Jesus refuses this drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground, and Jesus is roughly thrown backward upon it with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist, places a spike in the depression, and quickly drives a heavy, square, wrought iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. He moves to the other side and repeats the action, making sure he does not pull the arms too tightly. The patibulum is then hoisted to the top of the stipes, and the titulus is nailed into place.
The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. Death by crucifixion now begins.
As Jesus slowly sags down with the weight of His body on the nails through His wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shoots along the most sensitive nerve endings in the body – called the median nerves – and travels along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain.
At this point, another phenomenon occurs. As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps come the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed, and the intercoatal muscles are unable to act. He can draw air into the lungs, but it cannot be exhaled.
Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, He is able to push Himself to exhale and bring in more life-giving oxygen. Doing so, however, comes at a price. To get a breath and relieve the pain in His arms and chest, He pushes Himself upward, placing His full weight on the nail through His feet. The searing agony transfers from His wrists to His feet, tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. Nevertheless, He gets a breath, and sags back down. It is undoubtedly during these periods of breathing that He uttered His seven short sentences which are recorded in the Gospels.
When air is so precious, and each breath so painfully won, He still uses that breath to communicate with people who are near. The first sentence, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, is “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” In my mind, this is one of the most remarkable statements in all of Scripture.
The second statement, to the penitent thief, is “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”
The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken John (the beloved apostle), He says, “Behold, your mother,” and looking at Mary, “Woman, behold your son.” He was telling them to take care of each other.
The fourth cry is from the beginning of Psalm 22, and shows that not only was Jesus experiencing great physical torment, but was also undergoing intense spiritual pain. He says, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Hours of this limitless pain, cycles of twisting cramps, and intermittent partial asphyxiation, eventually lead to another type of pain. He begins to experience a deep, crushing pain in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum, and begins to compress the heart. This did not happen to all victims of crucifixion, but was known to occur. In the case of Jesus, it sped up His death. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level, the compressed heart is struggling to pump thick, heavy blood into the tissues, and the tortured lungs make a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain.
Jesus gasps His fifth cry, “I thirst.” In response, a sponge soaked in Poska, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman legionnaires, is lifted to His lips. Since this was different from the drugged wine He had been offered earlier (Mark 15:23), He did drink some of this (John 19:29-30). The body is now in extremis, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth saying, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, “It is finished.”
His mission of atonement is nearly complete. Finally, He can allow His body to die. With one last surge of strength, He presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, looks into heaven, and utters His seventh and last cry, “Father, into you hands I commit my spirit.”
While it generally took about two or three days for a crucified victim to die on the cross, due to the loss of blood and the compression upon His heart due to lungs filled with fluid, Jesus died in about six hours. Since the crucifixion took place on the eve of a Sabbath (probably not a Saturday Sabbath, but a Passover holiday Sabbath), and because it was against Jewish law for a crucified person to hang on the cross during a Sabbath, the Roman soldiers come around to break the legs of those being crucified.
When this was done, the victim was then unable to lift themselves up in order to breathe. They would be able to draw in air, but not be able to exhale it. When the legs were broken, it was only a matter of a few minutes before the victim would die of suffocation.
So the legs of the two thieves were broken, but when they came to Jesus, He is already dead. The legionnaire drives a spear into Jesus’ heart to see if He was dead. Scripture reports that “immediately there came out blood and water.” Jesus’ legs did not have to be broken, which fulfilled the Scripture that said that none of the Messiah’s bones would be broken.
Jesus is taken down from the cross, wrapped in burial clothes, and laid in a stone tomb.
Why is it important to know this?
Why am I sharing this? Because we need to know what Christ went through for us. He went through all of this because He loves us. My purpose is not to make you feel guilty, but for you to see how great the love of Jesus is. But let not your heart be troubled… for the resurrection is coming!
To understand the REAL significance of the crucifixion, get my new book, The Atonement of God.
A Physician’s View of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ
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WARNING: MATERIAL IN THIS ARTICLE MAY BE UNSUITABLE FOR YOUNGER CHILDREN. PARENTAL DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
About a decade ago, reading Jim Bishop’s The Day Christ Died, I realized that I had for years taken the Crucifixion more or less for granted — that I had grown callous to its horror by a too easy familiarity with the grim details and a too distant friendship with our Lord. It finally occurred to me that, though a physician, I didn’t even know the actual immediate cause of death. The Gospel writers don’t help us much on this point, because crucifixion and scourging were so common during their lifetime that they apparently considered a detailed description unnecessary.
So we have only the concise words of the Evangelists: “Pilate, having scourged Jesus, delivered Him to them to be crucified — and they crucified Him.” I have no competence to discuss the infinite psychic and spiritual suffering of the Incarnate God atoning for the sins of fallen man. But it seemed to me that as a physician I might pursue the physiological and anatomical aspects of our Lord’s passion in some detail.
What did the body of Jesus of Nazareth actually endure during those hours of torture?
This led me first to a study of the practice of crucifixion itself; that is, torture and execution by fixation to a cross. I am indebted to many who have studied this subject in the past, and especially to a contemporary colleague, Dr. Pierre Barbet, a French surgeon who has done exhaustive historical and experimental research and has written extensively on the subject.
Apparently, the first known practice of crucifixion was by the Persians. Alexander and his generals brought it back to the Mediterranean world — to Egypt and to Carthage. The Romans apparently learned the practice from the Carthaginians and (as with almost everything the Romans did) rapidly developed a very high degree of efficiency and skill at it. A number of Roman authors (Livy, Cicer, Tacitus) comment on crucifixion, and several innovations, modifications, and variations are described in the ancient literature. For instance, the upright portion of the cross (or stipes) could have the cross-arm (or patibulum) attached two or three feet below its top in what we commonly think of as the Latin cross. The most common form used in our Lord’s day, however, was the Tau cross, shaped like our T.
In this cross, the patibulum was placed in a notch at the top of the stipes. There is archeological evidence that it was on this type of cross that Jesus was crucified. Without any historical or biblical proof, Medieval and Renaissance painters have given us our picture of Christ carrying the entire cross. But the upright post, or stipes, was generally fixed permanently in the ground at the site of execution and the condemned man was forced to carry the patibulum, weighing about 110 pounds, from the prison to the place of execution.
Many of the painters and most of the sculptors of crucifixion, also show the nails through the palms. Historical Roman accounts and experimental work have established that the nails were driven between the small bones of the wrists (radial and ulna) and not through the palms. Nails driven through the palms will strip out between the fingers when made to support the weight of the human body. The misconception may have come about through a misunderstanding of Jesus’ words to Thomas, “Observe my hands.” Anatomists, both modern and ancient, have always considered the wrist as part of the hand.
A titulus, or small sign, stating the victim’s crime was usually placed on a staff, carried at the front of the procession from the prison, and later nailed to the cross so that it extended above the head. This sign with its staff nailed to the top of the cross would have given it somewhat the characteristic form of the Latin cross.
But, of course, the physical passion of the Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the many aspects of this initial suffering, the one of greatest physiological interest is the bloody sweat. It is interesting that St. Luke, the physician, is the only one to mention this. He says, “And being in agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of blood, trickling down upon the ground.” Every ruse (trick) imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away this description, apparently under the mistaken impression that this just doesn’t happen. A great deal of effort could have been saved had the doubters consulted the medical literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well documented. Under great emotional stress of the kind our Lord suffered, tiny capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process might well have produced marked weakness and possible shock.
After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin and Caiphus, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus. The palace guards then blind-folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face.
In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with Pilate’s action in attempting to pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and was returned to Pilate.
It was then, in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion. There is much disagreement among authorities about the unusual scourging as a prelude to crucifixion. Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two. Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his full punishment and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in response to the taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending Caesar against this pretender who allegedly claimed to be the King of the Jews. Preparations for the scourging were carried out when the Prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would have made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter, but the Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes. The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs.
At first the thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped. The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood.
The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming to be king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. Flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body.
After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed. In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa.
In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance. The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed. Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” is nailed in place.
The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain — the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves.
As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet. At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen.
It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven short sentences recorded:
The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
The second, to the penitent thief, “Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”
The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken adolescent John — the beloved Apostle — he said, “Behold thy mother.” Then, looking to His mother Mary, “Woman behold thy son.”
The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, “My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?”
Jesus experienced hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins — a terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. One remembers again the 22nd Psalm, the 14th verse: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.”
It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level; the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissue; the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain. Jesus gasps His fifth cry, “I thirst.” One remembers another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into the dust of death.” A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman legionaries, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn’t take any of the liquid.
The body of Jesus is now in extremes, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, “It is finished.” His mission of atonement has completed. Finally He can allow his body to die.
With one last surge of strength, he once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, “Father! Into thy hands I commit my spirit.”
The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews asked that the condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; thus the tension could not be relieved from the muscles of the chest and rapid suffocation occurred. The legs of the two thieves were broken, but when the soldiers came to Jesus they saw that this was unnecessary.
Apparently, to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart. The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John reports: “And immediately there came out blood and water.” That is, there was an escape of water fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving postmortem evidence that Our Lord died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure (a broken heart) due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.
Thus we have had our glimpse — including the medical evidence — of that epitome of evil which man has exhibited toward Man and toward God. It has been a terrible sight, and more than enough to leave us despondent and depressed. How grateful we can be that we have the great sequel in the infinite mercy of God toward man — at once the miracle of the atonement (at one ment) and the expectation of the triumphant Easter morning.
Are you moved by what Jesus did for you on the cross? Do you want to receive the salvation Jesus purchased for you at Calvary with His own blood? Then keep reading.
https://www1.cbn.com/medical-view-of-the-crucifixion-of-jesus-christ