The Miracle of the Seven Statements of Jesus on the Cross

Norbert Lieth

The Lord Jesus Christ spoke seven statements during the six hours He hung on the cross. We will consider these seven statements and see in them the miracle He accomplished for us.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

These words speak of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God. Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” Surely there is prophetic significance in the fact that the Lord Jesus spoke seven statements on the cross. The Lord’s words are pure because God is pure and holy. People were continually surprised at the words that came from Jesus’ mouth.

One of my favorite passages in the Gospel is where the scribes and Pharisees sent officers to capture Jesus Christ. The scribes and Pharisees were notorious for being prideful about their ability to teach, for they expected people to look up to and respect them. The officers came to capture Jesus on the orders of their masters. They saw Jesus and they heard Him speak, then they turned on their heels and left amazed. They were asked, “Why have ye not brought him? The officers answered, Never man spake like this man” (John 7:45–46). This was a slap in the face to the proud Pharisees; they taught the people daily, and now their own servants were saying they had never heard a man like Jesus Christ speak and that was why they could not capture Him.

The words of the Lord are pure. Psalm 12:6 further says His words are like silver. Why silver and not gold? Why doesn’t the Bible use the word “gold” here? His words are compared to silver because in this instance silver represents redemption and gold represents the glory of Jesus Christ. Our Lord was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Exodus 30:11 says that when the Israelites reached the age of 20, they had to give half a silver shekel as their “ransom.” They were “redeemed” with this payment. Silver gives a picture of redemption.

Didn’t Jesus, the incarnate Word, speak pure words? Wasn’t it Jesus who came to “a furnace of earth”? Isaiah wrote this about the Messiah: “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground”(Isaiah 53:2). Perhaps this refers to the years when Jesus was hidden. Mary carried Him for nine months and we do not know very much about Him until He began His earthly ministry at age 30. He came to a “furnace of earth,” this earth, the “furnace” of sin. Psalm 12:6 says, “purified seven times.” How Jesus was purified! Of course, this was not really necessary because He was the pure, untouchable, unapproachable One, yet He became approachable for us. He was sinless, yet the Bible says He learned obedience through what He suffered (compare Hebrews 5:8). He became wholly man. “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” (Psalm 12:6).

Jesus also proved Himself throughout His earthly life. He proved Himself on Calvary’s cross when He completed His work of redemption. He fulfilled everything the Old Testament said about Him, His advent and His sufferings. He proved Himself to be the Son of God. We cannot fathom what Jesus did for us on Calvary’s cross. He suffered more in those six hours on the cross than we will ever be able to imagine. From a prophetic perspective, Jesus Christ took upon Himself the entire history of mankind.

The First Statement…

“And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:33-34).

Jesus Christ spoke these first words when the Roman soldiers took His hands and nailed them to the cross.

Imagine the crowds of people who followed Christ to Calvary, His place of execution. The horizontal beam of the cross was probably lying on the ground waiting for Him. No force was necessary on the part of the Roman officers. They did not have to force Jesus’ hands on the cross and hammer the nails through them, as was probably the case with the two men who were crucified with Him. Jesus stretched out His hands voluntarily. His executioners then pierced His hands with the nails. In this way Jesus atoned for sin where it came into the world. It is significant that this took place the moment He stretched out His hands and laid them on the “tree,” on the cross that was made from the wood of a tree. At the exact moment the nails pierced His hands, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

The Tree in Paradise and the Tree of Calvary

Did Adam and Eve know what they were doing? They were told “what,” but did they really know it? How did sin enter the world? The first human couple stretched out their hands and took the forbidden fruit from a tree (compare Genesis 3:6). Sin and its consequences entered the world the very moment they stretched out their hands, touched the tree and took the fruit (compare Romans 5:12). Sin has been passed on since then to each human being who has ever lived.

Spiritual and physical deaths were the direct results of Adam and Eve’s sin. In a manner of speaking, man died the moment he stretched out his hand and took hold of the tree. He lost his fellowship with God and was banished from the Garden of Eden.

But God’s Word says that one day, a Redeemer, a second or last Adam (man) would come: “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). This last Adam would abolish the line of death that had entered the world through the first Adam. He would overcome and
take away the sin that came into the world through Adam and Eve, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Jesus Christ is the second and last Adam.

Pontius Pilate was a hard and cruel man, but John 19:5 states: “Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man!” [Adam]. It is apparent then, that regardless of who a person is or what status he may possess, each and every one of us is on one of these two paths: Either we are like the first Adam, lost, or we are like the second Adam, Christ, and are saved unto eternal life. Those who remain in the first Adam are lost, but those who come to the second Adam will be saved. Jesus voluntarily stretched out His arms on the tree of the cross and pleaded with the Father to forgive man. A few comparisons should make clear the significance of Jesus’ first words on the cross:

• Adam came into the world by supernatural means; he was not born like you and me. Jesus also came into the world by supernatural means.

• Adam’s “father” was God, for He created him. Jesus’ Father is God.

• Adam entered this world without guilt. Jesus came into this world without sin and He left it without sin.

• Adam lived in closest fellowship with God before the fall of man. Jesus also lived in closest fellowship with the Father.

• Adam lived in a perfect world before the fall of man. Jesus also lived in a perfect world before His incarnation. He was equal with God(compare Philippians 2:6).

• We lost our innocence through Adam. We lose our guilt through Jesus.

• Sin entered the world in a garden— the Garden of Eden—where man decided for himself, against the will of God. The Son of God began to overcome sin in a garden—the Garden of Gethsemane—in that He decided the will of God, “not my will, but thine, be done.”

To Adam and Eve the tempter dangled the temptation that would cost them everything: “If you want to be like God, then touch the tree and take the fruit.” But the opposite occurred with Jesus. When He hung on the cross, the crowd challenged Him with the words: “If you are God, that is, the Son of God, then climb down!” In other words, Jesus reversed the curse; that is, He bore the sins of those who believe in Him. We can now enjoy fellowship with God, and we will enjoy the fruit of the Tree of Life forever.

The Second Statement…

Adam and Eve touched the tree and subsequently lost paradise. Jesus took hold of the tree of the cross, and we regained paradise. He said to the thief crucified next to Him, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). How was that possible? Paradise was closed up and man had been banished. The first sin had been committed in paradise. Man had stretched out his hand to touch the forbidden tree and had been banished from paradise. Here, the same thing takes place in the reverse sequence. We can be spiritually reborn now that Jesus has gone to Calvary’s cross.

Adam and Eve had lost their fellowship with God and died spiritually. We can be born again spiritually and live through Jesus. The sinless Son of God hung on the cross for sinners, thereby attaining forgiveness of sins and a return to paradise. It was no coincidence that the veil in the temple tore in two when Jesus triumphantly cried out from the cross, “It is finished!” The cherub who guarded the entry to Eden returned his sword to his sheath and allowed man access again.

This is why Jesus said to the thief, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” This applies to every one who believes.

The word “paradise” describes the new world of God. All who enter have come to Jesus to be forgiven of their sins. This paradise is unspeakably glorious. The Apostle Paul once said, “How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Corinthians 12:4).

Only those who have overcome themselves and have come to Jesus can enter paradise. No one is born a Christian. We must be converted just as the thief on the cross. He came to Jesus even though he was hanging on a cross. In spite of the mockery, he cried out, “Lord, remember me.” Jesus answered, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” The thief on the cross overcame himself and did not regret
it.

The Third Statement…

“When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her into his own home” (John 19:26-27).

Jesus remedied the fall of man with His first word on the cross and led us back to paradise with the second.

With His third statement, the Lord Jesus Christ made sure His mother was taken care of. Remember at that time there was no social security. But more than that, a new family was created from people who were not physically related. “Woman, behold thy son,” He said to His mother and to His disciple He said, “Behold thy mother.” A community was formed. The sequence of the words Jesus spoke on the cross was deliberately arranged. Is this not a miracle of Bible prophecy? We lost our fellowship with God when sin entered the world and as a result, we lost fellowship with one another; the family broke up. The first murder took place shortly after Adam and Eve fell when Cain slew his brother Abel. In Genesis 4 we see how rapidly man went downhill.

There is no fellowship in our world today. There are even dissensions and disagreements within the Body of Christ. But the effect of Jesus’ words on Calvary’s cross is significant: first comes forgiveness, then fellowship with God is restored, and a new family is formed by this fellowship.

This is why I see in this verse a prophetic vision of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church was created through the coming of Jesus. We should be there for and take care of one another. If we are not capable of this—when we hate and envy one another, fight among ourselves and are jealous of one another, when we do not understand one another because our own opinions are so important—we have distanced ourselves from the cross. When we no longer see the cares and needs of our neighbors we have distanced ourselves from the cross. The Church of Jesus Christ is comprised of many nationalities and races, yet it is a family.

Let us consider the opposites that took place at the cross:

• The people mocked and jeered. Jesus spoke words of love.

• The thief cursed and cried; he condemned himself and all others. Jesus thought of others and led them together.

• Mary stood at the foot of the cross utterly helpless. She saw how He suffered. His lips were dry, but she dared not wet them on account of the soldiers. Jesus looked at His mother, provided her with a future and saw to it that her needs would be met.

In John 15:17, Jesus said, “These things I command you, that ye love one another.” The colder these endtimes become the more necessary this command becomes, for we need one another in this world where every man seems to be out only for himself.

The Fourth Statement…

“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias” (Matthew 27:45-47).

Here God’s wrath was poured out upon Jesus Christ. He was crucified, and the first three hours after His crucifixion demonstrate the abysmal depths of man’s hatred for the Son of God. They mocked and blasphemed Him while the soldiers divided His garments among themselves. But in the second three hours on the cross, the sky became dark. The sun darkened and God’s wrath came upon the Son as He accomplished atonement for the world as the sacrificial lamb. Jesus bore for us the wrath of God we deserved.

Couldn’t this be a prophetic picture of the Day of the Lord, the Great Tribulation that will take place after the Church Age, after the Church has been taken from the earth? Then it will be dark because the light of the world will have been taken away (Matthew 5:14). If we look at Jesus’ third statement on the cross as a picture of the Church and her fellowship throughout the centuries, we see ourselves prophetically before mankind’s darkest hour. Are we now standing before this hour? Is it not becoming darker in every sense of the word? People despise the Gospel of Jesus in the “righteous” Christian West and reject His Word, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18).

The Gospel message is almost 2,000 years old. Of course there have been revivals throughout the years but it is becoming darker in Europe, people are rejecting the truth, and the wrath of God is coming upon our world. It is hard for people to be converted, and the Great Tribulation is coming upon them.

Significant about Jesus’ fourth statement on the cross is that He was no longer speaking, but calling, even crying out. The Lord said, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). God’s wrath will manifest itself in the Great Tribulation in an unprecedented way. I believe mankind’s “sixth hour” is imminent. The darkest night will come upon the earth and cover it and in the end even the sun and moon will lose their shine.

Israel will especially suffer at this time, when God forsakes a godless world. The words, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and “Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help” (Psalm 22:11) have profound prophetic significance. What will happen during the Great Tribulation? Second Thessalonians 2 states God will send people lies (“strong delusion”) because they will have lost the love of the truth. In a sense, God will forsake this world. He will remove His Spirit from this earth before the Great Tribulation, and therewith He will remove the Church of Jesus Christ, which is sealed with His Holy Spirit. The world will be left to its own devices during the Great Tribulation. Jesus said, “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” (Luke 23:30-31). The Great Tribulation is also called the “wrath of the Lamb” (compare Revelation 6:16- 17). Why? Can a lamb be full of wrath? Jesus bore the sins of the world as the Lamb of God, which is why He can also execute righteous judgment upon this world.

The Fifth Statement…

“After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst” (John 19:28). How Jesus longed to give people the water of life! But let’s apply this fifth statement in a different way. God had forsaken Jesus on the cross so that we could come to God. He achieved atonement for us and took God’s wrath upon Himself. But a world that continually rejects the Son of God will experience God’s wrath in the form of the Great Tribulation. What will take place at this time? Men will experience thirst!

Doesn’t the thirst for water express the desire of all men? “I am thirsty,” they say and then they go to the pools of this world, which cannot satiate their thirst. They get drunk on esotericism, new age, far Eastern mysticism, etc. They plunge themselves into the excitement of the world, drugs, addiction and sexual immorality, and think they can find fulfillment in their so-called “freedom,” but we can see just how they thirst. A person who does not have Jesus Christ has nothing. This becomes very clear in the story the Lord Jesus told about the rich man and Lazarus. After his death the rich man asked for Lazarus to be sent to quench his thirst, “for I am suffering in these flames.” But his request was turned down. He had to remain thirsty because he remained an unbeliever.

The Bible says, “Then he (God) shall speak unto them in his wrath.” God will send great hunger and thirst during the Great Tribulation. The prophet Amos wrote, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land” (Amos 8:11-13). The Great Tribulation will be a foretaste of hell.

My dear readers, you will remain eternally nailed to sin without Jesus. Jesus allowed Himself to be nailed to the cross, and although He could have come down from it, He didn’t. He died and after three days He rose again from the dead so we could be liberated from the “nails” of sin. But if you do not come to the Son of God and receive Jesus into your life, you will remain nailed to sin forever. Then that which the Lord
threatened the Pharisees will take place: “Ye shall die in your sins.” Your thirst will not be quenched for all eternity. But what will take place after the Great Tribulation?

The Sixth Statement…

“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished” (John 19:30).

These are surely the most liberating words in the Bible. You can become a free and redeemed child of Almighty God regardless of what lust you may have battled.

What did Jesus mean when He said it was finished? What was finished? There are hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Jesus’ first advent and His sufferings as the Son of man. It was finished when these numerous prophecies from Moses, the prophets (Isaiah, for instance) and the psalms were fulfilled. For instance, Psalm 22 was written many centuries before Christ: “They part my garments among them.” This also took place at the cross. And the soldiers cast lots for His robe (verse 19).

Our Lord could say, “It is finished” when everything that had been prophesied thousands of years before He was born had been fulfilled. If thirst can be used as a picture of the Great Tribulation, Jesus’ sixth statement on the cross is a picture of His return to earth at the end of the Great Tribulation.

These were words of victory. Jesus carried out God’s entire counsel for Israel, the Church and the nations. This is why I understand these words prophetically. Our Lord finished everything on Calvary’s cross and He will also finish that which lies in the future. When Jesus returns and the Jewish people see the One they pierced, and the remnant has been born again, then they will confess, “LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us” (Isaiah 26:12). They will see this at His return, for then their eyes will be opened, like those of the Apostle Paul when he was still called Saul. He was zealous for the law because he had not understood anything and was blind. Then Jesus came into his life like a light that was brighter than the sun, and it was as though scales dropped from his eyes.
The blind man became the apostle of the nations. When Jesus returns, the Jewish people will first look upon Him in terror, which will turn to sorrow and then joy. Psalm 22 relates this of Israel, “A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this” (verses 22:30-31).

The Seventh Statement…

“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost” (Luke 23:46). These were the last words Jesus spoke in His earthly life, which simultaneously serves as a picture of eternity in heaven. If the preceding words of the Lord refer to history of the world behind us and the future ahead, then these words refer to the completion of mankind’s history of man in the eternal glory of God, to the new heaven and the new earth.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he hath put all things under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:26-28). Jesus committed His spirit to the Father, and that is why He could not remain dead but had to rise again. And just as Jesus committed His spirit to the Father, so He will one day commit everything to the Father at the conclusion of history. Then all those who believe in Jesus and have been born again will dwell with God as spirits of the just with a new, glorious body, from eternity to eternity.

Summary

In a prophetic sense Jesus experienced the history of man, which is expressed in His seven statements on the cross:
1) “Father, forgive them” means forgiveness; Jesus abolished the fall of man.
2) “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise” means paradise is open to man again.
3) “Woman, behold thy son” is a picture of the beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ and fellowship among its members.
4) “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani” also has prophetic significance, indicating that the wrath of God came upon the Son. God’s wrath remains upon whoever rejects the Son (John 3:36).
5) “I thirst” is a picture of the judgment in the Great Tribulation for all
those who have rejected the water of life.
6) “It is finished” points to the return of Jesus.
7) “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” offers a picture of eternal glory in the heavenly world of God. Jesus did all this, but it is only appropriated for those who believe in Him. My dear readers, should that which Jesus did on the cross be in vain for you? Do you want to remain in your sins? Do you want to remain at the fountains of this world that cannot satisfy your thirst in spite of their attraction?
Or do you want to come to Jesus and say, “Your words are my words”?

The word “church” occurs for the first time in Matthew 16:18. The Greek word is ecclesia, which means “the called out.” The Church is a group of people who have let themselves be “called out.” This does not mean that we have become “religious.” Those who belong to the Church are the ones who, like Peter, have let themselves be called out. The Lord also saw two brothers in their father’s boat and called to them, “John and James, follow Me!” They arose, left their boat and followed Jesus. This is the Church, and this is why Jesus came into the world.

He is calling you out; His invitation also applies to you: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

MidnightCall Magazine

July 2008

News From Israel Magazine