KJV Luke 23:46 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.”
NASB Luke 23:46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” Having said this, He breathed His last.
Luke alone records for us the very last utterance of Christ on the cross. It is a fitting end to a life of dependence and obedience. Luke has been presenting to us, throughout His Gospel, the pathway of the Perfect Man, in all His Moral beauty. Here was man as man was meant to be, coming from the hand of God. But Adam asserted his independence and marred the intention of God. Our Lord Jesus lived a life of complete, unwavering dependence on His God, bringing infinite delight and joy to His heart.
Recall prophetically the words of the Psalmist that could only be true of the Lord Jesus: “I was cast upon Thee from the womb. Thou art My God from My mother’s belly” (Ps 22:10). Coming into the world, He came as a dependent Man. But it exceeds even that step of self-humbling. He came as a babe with its vulnerability, and the physical weakness and dependency that it created. He left Heaven for the womb of the virgin, leaving His physical welfare in the hand of His Father. He knew well that the sword of Herod awaited His arrival. He knew there was a precipice in Nazareth, stones in Capernaum, soldiers who would seek to take Him, and the animosity of Jerusalem’s leaders. All that was known to Him and had been part of the counsels of the Godhead. Yet, as a dependent Man, He willingly came.
No unforeseen event
E’er took Him by surprise
Toward the cross with fixed intent
He moved with open eyes
NBHB #365
Isaac Y. Ewan
The heart of God had longed to find a man on earth who would live not only a holy life, but a dependent life. His eye finally had someone to gaze upon with the deepest of satisfaction and joy. “This is My Beloved Son in Whom is all My delight.” But now the cross and death.
Death was foreign to the Prince of Life. But He had undertaken the massive responsibility of undoing the work of Satan (1 John 3:8). Death must be conquered. So He must enter into death. Here was virgin territory for Him. How would He enter it? He entered this new experience in the same manner in which He had taken every step since He descended from the shores of Heaven. He was totally dependent on His Father. “Into Thy hands I commend My spirit.”
What joy and pleasure the Father must have found that even in death, this unknown experience, He had a Son willing to confidently leave all with Him. The Father’s answer to this confidence and faith was resurrection. Death had been defeated by death. Life had been procured. God had been glorified. He was raised by the glory of the Father (Rom 6), Whose every attribute demanded that He rise. The dependent Man is now the Glorified Man and will be so, for all eternity.