The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to the death penalty.  At the time crucifixion was the "worst" death.  Only the worst criminals condemned to be crucified.  Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, for unlike other criminals condemned to death by crucifixion, Jesus was nailed to the cross by His hands and feet, rather than tied...

Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long.  The nails were driven into His wrist.  not into His palms as is commonly portrayed.  There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder.

The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist, that tendon would tear and break, forcing Jesus to use His back muscles to support himself, so that He could breathe.

Both of His feet were nailed together.  Thus He was forced to support Himself on the single nail that

impaled His feet to the cross.

Jesus could not support himself with His legs for long because of the pain, so He was forced to alternate between arching His back and using his legs just to continue to breath.

Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, and the courage.  Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours.

Yes, over 3 hours!

Can you imagine this kind of suffering?  A few minutes before He died, Jesus stopped bleeding.

 He was simply pouring water from his wounds.  From common images we see wounds to His hands

and feet and even the spear wound to His side...

But do we remember the many wounds made to his body.  A hammer driving large nails through the wrists, the feet overlapped and a nail hammered through the arches, then a Roman guard piercing His side with a spear.  And... before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the Flesh from His body. The beating was so horrific that His Face was torn and his beard ripped from His face.

The Crown of thorns (two to three inch thorns) cut deeply into His scalp.  Most men would not have survived this torture.  He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured from His Wounds.

The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters (just less than a gallon) of blood.  Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His members; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His Chest.

All these without mentioning the humiliation He passed after carrying His own Cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his Face and threw stones (the cross beam was almost 30 kg of weight, to which His hands were nailed).

Jesus had to endure this experience, so that you may have free access to God and that your sins can be "washed" away.

All of them, with no exception!

BUT WAIT!  There is Good News!  On the 3^rd day just as He predicted, Jesus arose from the dead.  We celebrate His resurrection by calling it Easter.  Jesus walked on the earth which was witnessed by skeptics, the disciples and more than 500 people over a period of 40 days.  Then He ascended into heaven, but He sent His Spirit to live in us and empower us to live an abundant life.  For Him to be your Savior, you must believe in Him and ask Him into your life to be your Lord and Savior.

Accept the reality, the truth, that JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD.  

God has special plans for YOU !

Hope to see you here for our next study.

__________________________________________

If you have enjoyed my post and have found if helpful, please leave a comment or share this post with the buttons below.

 

You can also follow this site by clicking "G+ Follow" or you can "Subscribe by Email".  If you follow by email, you will receive an email every time there is a new post.