John 19:30

John 19:30. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished; and he bowed his head, and delivered up his spirit. It is not said that Jesus took much of the vinegar, and the probability is that He did not. When He had taken it He exclaimed, ‘It is finished.' The word is the same as in John 19:28, but now He utters what there He ‘knew.' It is the shout of victory, not the cry of satisfaction that suffering is at an end. Having said this, ‘He bowed His head' (which had been previously erect), and ‘delivered up His spirit.' The verb used for ‘delivered up' is peculiarly important. The choice of the word leaves no doubt as to the meaning of the Evangelist. However true it is that by the cruelty of man the death upon the cross was brought about as by its natural cause, there was something deeper and more solemn in it of which we must take account. It was His own free will to die. There is in Him an ever-present life and power and choice in which He, even at the very last moment, offers Himself as a sacrifice (Hebrews 9:14). He tells us Himself of His life, ‘No one taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again' (chap. John 10:18); and these words have now their illustration. Compare the language of His dying cry, recorded by Luke (chap. Luke 23:46): ‘Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.' We forbear to enter further upon the physical cause of the death thus recorded. It is impossible not to feel that the speculations which have been indulged in on this subject have done more to shock Christian feeling than to satisfy a legitimate spirit of inquiry.