Did you ever wonder why Jesus died so quickly when the two men who were crucified with Him were still alive and would have lived longer if measures to end their lives prematurely had not been taken?  The answer to that question sheds extremely important light on the reason He died.  The main issues surrounding His death are 1) THAT He died for our sins and 2) exactly HOW He died.  It is extremely important that we address both issues USING THE HOLY BIBLE AS OUR ONLY SOURCE OF INFORMATION.

Young, robust Jesus of Nazareth had spent several years working as a carpenter.  Due to the dearth of trees in that part of the country, He had probably been a stone mason which requires considerable strength and energy.  Over the previous three years He had walked untold miles while spreading His gospel message throughout the Judean countryside.  How could this very active, obviously physically fit man have died so much quicker than the men who were crucified alongside Him?  Let us return to the time of His death in order to learn a valuable lesson about His premature passing.  As the title to this series reveals, the method of His death is as important as the death itself.

Due to advancements in the science of chronology, modern day experts in the field are able to determine the exact date and on the exact day of the week an event took place anciently.  With that in mind let us turn to the gospel of John, chapter 19, verses 31-33.  The day that the crucifixions took place was set aside annually to prepare for the following day, which was an annual sabbath, called a “high day.”  Jewish law would not allow crucified men to remain on their crosses on any part of that sabbath day.  The Lord’s day begins at sundown.  As the men hung on their crosses the sun was on its downward turn.  Normally, the crucified men would remain alive well into the following (sabbath) day.  History records that some lived several days after being nailed to a cross.  The known record is nine days.  It was therefore assumed that the three men would live well into the following day.  However, Jewish law would not allow criminals to remain on their crosses on the sabbath.  Therefore, the Jews asked Pilate to have their legs broken so that they would suffocate and die much more quickly, which would allow for the removal of their bodies before sundown.  Pilate granted their request.  Soldiers came and broke the legs of the two other men.  But when they came to Jesus they found that He was already dead.  Therefore they did not break His legs.  This fulfilled an ancient prophecy that not a bone of the Messiah would be broken (Ps. 34:20).  Many have wondered how Jesus could have died so quickly.  This series will answer that question.

Many believe that Christ “died of a broken heart.”  Though this makes for a nice sound byte, it refutes the Biblical account of His death and renders it without purpose relative to mankind.  Many have assumed that Christ was dead before the spear was rammed into His heart, and that all that came out was a small amount of blood mixed with water.  We will see, however, that it was the sudden and severe loss of blood caused by that wound that killed Him.  The Truth is that if His blood had NOT been poured out BEFORE His death, then man does not have a Savior.  If He died of a “broken heart” then He died because of His OWN weakness, His own sins and not because of our sins.  Sin produces weakness.  If His heart (mind) failed Him to the point that it caused His death, then He had to have sinned.  This is not possible, for we are told in 1 John 1:5 that: “In Him there is no darkness (sin) AT ALL” (1 Jn. 1:5), and that though He was tempted as are all men, He was “without sin” (Heb. 4:15).  Jesus did not die of a broken heart.  His death was caused by the sudden loss of blood, the result of a spear being rammed into His physical heart.

We are told in Leviticus 22:8 and Deuteronomy 14:21 that we are not to consume any animal that dies of itself.  Relative to the Passover, a lamb that had died of itself could not be used for the Passover meal.  Similarly, if Christ had died of Himself (a broken heart), His blood was not shed for us, but rather for Himself.  God’s plan demanded that He had be killed BY THE SHEDDING OF HIS BLOOD, not by a mental breakdown.

Isaiah 53:7,8 describes Christ’s future death.  The prophet wrote that the coming Messiah would be “led like a lamb to the slaughter,” meaning that, as a symbolic sacrificial lamb, He would die by the shedding of His blood.  Jesus of Nazareth perfectly fit the description of man’s Savior as depicted in Acts 8:32.  Christ–our Passover–was like a lamb led to slaughter.  The Passover lamb died by having its blood drained from its body.  In Isaiah 53:12 it is written that Christ “poured out His soul UNTO death.”  Note two things: 1) Christ willingly and purposefully allowed man to drain Him of His blood unto death and 2) the pouring out of His soul CAUSED His death.  He did not die of a broken heart.  Another grave error perpetrated by the church’s false prophets and believed by the whole of professing Christendom concerns man’s soul.  We will not allow this error to stand.

Throughout my younger church life I often sang a hymn in which I proclaimed that I would be going to heaven where “… the soul of man never dies.”  Two errors are found in this church “truth”: 1) no one except Jesus has gone or will ever go to heaven.  Read The Kingdom of God.  Key word–Kingdom.  Secondly, the soul of every human ever born has died or will die.  In Ezekiel 8:14,20 we are told that “the SOUL that sins, THAT SOUL DIES.”  Which brings up the obvious question: What is the soul?  It is not man’s spirit.  The personal spirit of every human being, upon the death of the person, “returns to God Who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:7).  The soul is not some ethereal spirit.  In Hebrew the English word “soul” is “nephesh,” which is translated “breath” and “life.”  We are told in Leviticus 17:11 that the life is in the blood.  Therefore, when Jesus “poured out His blood” He poured out His life.  He had to do this in order to fulfill His commission from God.  The life of every man is in his blood.  John 10:11 tells us that the Good Shepherd (Christ) gave His life (blood) for His sheep.  The word “nephesh” is used Biblically to refer not only to the life of man, but to the life of animals, birds, etc.  The fact that ALL animate entities (anything that moves of its own accord) have one thing in common: THEIR LIFE IS IN THEIR BLOOD.  Remove the blood, the life ends.  And in the case of ALL human beings, “the body (also called the “soul”) returns to dust and the (man’s) spirit returns to God Who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7).

If, as many believe, Jesus of Nazareth died of a broken heart, then mankind is still looking for the Messiah of God.  God’s Messiah must die exactly as a sacrificial lamb dies–by the loss of blood, which contains its life.  Those who believe the Satanic broken heart ruse are still in their sins because they (their sins) cannot be forgiven because, “without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins (justification).”  Without the forgiveness of all past sins conversion is impossible.  Without conversion and the infilling of the Holy Spirit there can be no holiness.  Without holiness there can be no salvation (Rom. 5:21; 6:22).  I once heard a false prophet tell his vast t.v. audience: “Don’t even try to be holy, you’ll just make yourself sick.  You are nothing but a society of sinners.”  With those words that “preacher of righteousness” condemned a large number of people.  Unless they hear, believe and obey God’s Truth, turn from their wicked ways and “walk as He (Jesus) walked” (1 Jn. 2:6), “purify themselves even as He is pure (1 Jn. 3:3) and “… overcome as I (Jesus) overcame (temptation to sin” (Rev. 3:21) they will remain condemned.  It is impossible to obey God, I am told.  And how do church people know this?  “Human experience proves it.”  Alas, the everyday experience of unregenerate man proves that God’s commands are impossible to obey and that Jesus of Nazareth was not our example.  But all is well, I am assured, Jesus died so that we could obey Satan and live forever in paradise.  Adam and Eve, Cain, Judas, et al would disagree.  But each of us must choose whom we will obey and from whom we will receive our reward.  As Joshua told the children of Israel, “Choose you this day whom you will serve.  If the Lord, then follow Him.  If Satan, then follow him.”  Choose you whom you will serve, but as for me, I will serve the Lord.  L.J.