Introduction 

A fundamental teaching of the Good News of God’s Kingdom is that God the Son lived on the Earth in a human body. He obeyed God the Father perfectly and fulfilled His purpose for being here. This included sacrificing that body to redeem all of Humanity and rising again to give His life to all who believe and live for Him. We believers are now the spiritual body of Jesus.

Broken on the Cross

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Jesus cried out these words of Psalm 22:1 as He hung on a Roman execution device. That psalm goes on to describe the horrors He endured as God’s sacrificial Lamb. He had already been beaten with a Roman whip over every inch of His body. He had been mocked with a crown of thorns hammered onto His head.  

Now, nails in His wrists and feet held him paralyzed to the cross. He could only take the pressure of His weight off His feet, which put that pressure on the median nerves in His hands and kept His chest from expanding for breath. Or He could push Himself up with His feet and relieve the pressure on the wrist nerves and allow His chest to expand for breath. (Medical details of this can be found in William D. Edwards, MD; et. al.  The Journal of the American Medical Association, March 21, 1986, Volume 256. “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ”) As usual, this lasted for hours while His women followers and the beloved John stood by and mourned. The leaders among the Jews also stood by and mocked (Luke 23:35).

When the time came for the sacrifice of the Passover lamb in the Temple, the Lamb of God cried out, “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.” When He had said this, He breathed His last. (Luke 23:46) To make sure He was dead, a Roman soldier thrust a spear into His side.

Days later, Jesus proved to Thomas that He lived again by inviting the Twin to probe the holes in His wrists and thrust His hand into His side (John 20:27). Decades later, John had a vision of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He saw “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (Revelation 5:5-6). Obviously, its wounds were visible.

Spirit-Sustained Body

When Holy Spirit came upon Mary and sired a male child in her, Jesus took on a human body. He grew up a natural man and submitted that body to water burial to proclaim His desire to live for God – not Himself. The Spirit anointed Him for the work He was to do (Isaiah 61:1-2). And He obediently did only what the Father did through him (John 5:19).

This was the body that was broken on the cross. This was the body that died, taking on the holes in the wrists and feet and the wound in the side.

This was the body that was filled again with Holy Spirit and was brought back to life. Except that this body was changed. It had been sowed a natural body and was brought back to life a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:42-44). It still had the nail holes and wound in the side, as Thomas discovered, but Holy Spirit kept this body alive.

People Are Jesus’s body

The second half of Psalm 22 declared Jesus’s faith in God’s rescue – of Him and of all Humanity. Weeks later, He levitated to take His place on the Father’s Throne of Favor in the third heaven. However, He sent Holy Spirit to inhabit all of us who submit to water burial, believing in His raised-again life for us (Romans 8:11). All together, we reign as His Body on Earth while our Head reigns in Heaven (Ephesians 1:19-23). We members of His body, here on Earth, are His ecclesia, His body of citizens ruling here on Earth (Matthew 16:18-19).

Questions 

Do you believe you are one with Jesus, God’s Anointed? Then you have the power of Holy Spirit to declare His will and work for it here on Earth.