Matthew 27:39-54
‘They…reviled Him…, saying…: “If you be the Son of God, come down from the cross!”… Jesus, when He had cried out…with a loud voice, yielded up the spirit…. The veil of the temple was rent into two, from top to bottom…. The Earth quaked…. The graves were opened…. Bodies of the dead saints arose…. When the centurion and those that were with him…saw the earthquake…, they were very afraid — saying: “Truly, this was the Son of God!”‘ Matthew 27:39-54.
Calvin comments: “Nothing…inflicts a more painful wound on pious minds than when ungodly men, in order to shake…faith, upbraid them with being deprived of the assistance and favour of God….. There never will be wanting wicked men who are disposed to insult our distresses!…
“‘If you are the Son of God!’ Wicked men demand from Christ such a proof of His power — so that, by proving Himself to be the Son of God, He may cease to be the Son of God!… In order to prove himself to be the Son of God, it was necessary that He should hang on the cross…. The Son of God determined to remain nailed to the cross for the sake of our salvation, until He had endured most cruel torments of the flesh and dreadful anguish of soul and even death itself….
“‘Jesus…again cried out with a loud voice.’ Luke…says that Jesus cried out: ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit!.’ In his Psychopannychia, Calvin says: “Christ admits that the body is killed, but…that the soul is safe…. In dying, He commends it into His Father’s hands, as Luke writes (23:46).” Calvin comments: “His faith was unshaken, and always kept its ground unvanquished…. Christ boldly expresses His assurance that God is the faithful Guardian of His soul…. He [died and] betook Himself directly to God, and committed to His bosom the assurance of His confidence….
“The Lord guards the souls of His people, even in death…. Christ…hastens cheerfully to death, and desires to be preserved beyond the world…. The chief reason why God receives our soul into His keeping, is so that our faith may rise beyond this transitory life…. It was not in reference to Himself alone that Christ committed His soul to the Father…. He included…in one bundle all the souls of those who believe in Him, so that they may be preserved along with His Own…. Everyone who when he comes to die…shall believe in Christ, will not breathe his soul at random into the air — but will resort to a faithful Guardian Who keeps in safety whatever has been delivered to Him by the Father….
“‘Look, the veil of the temple was rent!’… Luke blends the rending of the veil with the eclipse of the sun…. The sacrifice of expiation, had been completed…. Christ, the true and everlasting Priest…, opened up for us by His blood the way to the heavenly sanctuary…. ‘The Earth trembled’…. The Earth did bear the testimony to its Creator…. ‘Graves were opened’…. The fabric of the world shook and trembled!”
‘If you’re the Son of God,’ said the unbelievers, ‘save yourself from the cross!’ But Jesus didn’t. Why not? So that we who believe can be saved! And you?
