“Pilate responded, “Only a Jew would care about this; do I look like a Jew?  It’s your own people and your religious leaders that have handed you over to me.  So tell me, Jesus, what have you done wrong?”  (John 18:35 TPT)

It’s Holy Week once again.  What perfect timing when I came across this verse that touched my heart so deeply as I was reading through it?  Yes, I stopped, pondered and remembered!  I whispered within my breath, “I did the numerous wrongdoings, Lord, and You had NONE, Lord Jesus, yet You Who knew NO SIN became sin that I may become the righteousness of God in You.”  Thank You, Jesus, for setting me free.  Truly, whom the Sons sets free is free indeed.

Jesus answered Pilate straightforwardly, “The royal power of my kingdom realm doesn’t come from this world.  If it did, then my followers would be fighting to the end to defend Me from the Jewish leaders.  My kingdom realm authority is not from this realm.”  (v.36)

“Then Pilate responded, ” Oh, so then you are a king?”  (v.37)

“You are right”.  Jesus said.  “I was born a King, and I have come into this world to prove what truth really is.  And everyone who loves the truth will receive My words.”

Then Pilate went back out to where the Jewish leaders were waiting and said to them, “He’s NOT guilty.  I couldn’t even find one fault with Him.” (v.38)

Though He wasn’t found guilty, Jesus was flogged.  Pilate ordered Jesus to be brutally beaten with a whip of leather straps embedded with sharpened pieces of bone and metal known as “the scorpion”.  Historians record that many people never survived this cruel flogging.  The whips were known to break open the flesh and cut through muscle and sinew all the way to the bone.  The result of this is a body beyond recognition.  If ordinary people never survived, Jesus did, for the JOY that was set before Him, seeing you and I reconciled back into the intimate loving embrace of the Father, He endured every bit of it.  It was His love for you and me that enabled Him.

A crown of thorns was set on His head and He was mocked.  He was repeatedly punched in the face one soldier after another and later on sentenced to be crucified.  He carried His own cross out of the city to Golgotha and there He was nailed to the cross.

His clothes was divided in to four shares but his tunic was seamless, woven from the top to the bottom as a single garment.  His tunic was an emblem of His perfect holiness and righteousness as one Who came from above, holy, blameless, perfect and pure.  When He took upon Himself the sin of the world, His tunic was taken from Him and are now made available to whoever believes in Him.  As believers, we are now robed in that seamless garment of righteousness in Christ.

When Jesus said, “It is finished, My bride!“, bowed His head and surrendered His spirit to God (John 19:30 TPT), what He did indeed denotes everything He has paid for for His bride, the church.  When we come to have a revelation of what His finished work accomplished, we become His glorious bride, not a weak, sick, broken or tired bride.  We partake of what has been made available … healing, provision, restored relationships, strength, courage, wholeness, completeness and victory over anything that you can think, dare or imagine, not by might nor by power, but by His Spirit.

When the soldiers realized that Jesus had already died, to break his legs was no longer necessary.  Instead, one of the soldiers took a spear and pierced Jesus’ side, and BLOOD and WATER gushed out (John 19:34 TPT).

All these years, I have been inquiring of the Lord what this blood and water means.  I have heard a few preachers speak about this and yes, I believed everything I heard.  But because He always take us from line upon line, precept upon precept, from faith to faith, from strength to strength from glory to glory, I have found this glorious answer as an added layer to what I have received in the past, shared by Dr Brian Simmons of The Passion Translation to be the best thus far.

Here it is:  “This becomes a picture of the cleansing by blood and the water of the Holy Spirit.  However, water and blood both come forth when a baby is born.  Christ gave birth on the cross to “sons”. He is the Everlasting Father and you must have children to be a Father.  We are all BORN AGAIN by the wounded side of Jesus Christ.  He not only died for His bride, but He also gave birth to her at the cross.”

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, thank You, thank You, thank You, for giving us Jesus Who is the atonement for our sin that we may be righteous before Your eyes, holy, sanctified, accepted, embraced, cared for, provided for and made whole ALL BECAUSE OF YOUR GREAT LOVE for us.  Thank You, Jesus, for withholding nothing, not even Yourself to the point of death, for the JOY that was set before You, seeing all of us welcomed into the presence of our Daddy God living life to its fullness, not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of God.  Amen!