Wednesday, December 14, 2016

John 19:23

John 19:23 says, Now the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also His coat: now His coat was coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.  Jesus did not leave many earthly possessions, only His garments.  Jesus was stripped bare on the cross.  Until sin came into the world, being naked was not considered wrong, and now Jesus was bearing even this first symbol of sin on the cross.  Jesus died for all sins, from the beginning to the end of time.  Verse twenty-four adds, They said therefore amongst themselves, "Let's not rend it, but let's cast lots for it, whose it shall be:" that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted My raiment among them, and for My vesture they did cast lots.  These things therefore the soldiers did. The soldiers were not concerned at all about Jesus on the cross.  They were only concerned with how much they could profit from His execution.  They were totally focused on material things, not the Savior on the cross.  Had they realized Who He really was, I think they would have changed their focus.  Some people today attempt to use Jesus only for their own gain.  They may attend worship services and religious events, but their eye is always on the garments, or how they can profit from their attendance.  Though, like the soldiers, Jesus was on the cross for them, they never look up to the cross.  When we are gathered in His name, we need to make sure that our focus is on Him.  As we go through everyday life, we need to make sure that we look to Jesus for salvation, not for material blessings.  The soldiers got a material blessing, but they missed the spiritual restoration that Jesus came to bring.  Even though they did not know it, they were fulfilling scripture.  This is another reason we can know that everything that Jesus did was not to cause scripture to be fulfilled, but that scripture was fulfilled because of what He did.  These soldiers were unaware of the scripture, but the scripture was fulfilled because of them.  We do not need to try to conform scripture to the world, because the world will be conformed to scripture.  All we have to do is keep our focus on Jesus, not the material things of this world.

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