Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

unexpected turn of events in God’s plan. His death was actually planned
from the very beginning of time, long before this world even existed.
And this is why we can find it foretold in the Bible centuries before it
even took place. It was foretold in passages like Isaiah 53, Psalm 22,
Zechariah 12 and Daniel 9.
In fact, the Bible foretold almost every detail of Christ’s death.
Everything that happened at Calvary amazingly fulfilled all that
Scripture had predicted even to the very smallest detail, even to things
like the amount of money that Judas would be paid for betraying Him.
This brings us to the third wonderful thing we can see in Christ’s death:
III. The Fulfilment of His Word
Let us first look again at verse 24,
They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but
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.
Even this small detail was a fulfilment of God’s plan. And what is
more amazing is that the Roman soldiers who did these things did not
have the slightest inkling that even what they did had been foretold in
Scripture. The passage of Scripture which had foretold this is Psalm
22:18, “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my
vesture,” which was written by King David about 1,000 years earlier.
This is only the first of three times in this passage of John’s Gospel
where the fulfilment of God’s Word by the events surrounding Christ’s
death is emphasised. Look at verses 28–29,
After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now
accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I
thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they
filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it
to his mouth.
It was Matthew who provides the additional detail that the vinegar
they gave Christ also had a horrible tasting substance called gall mixed
into it. Why was gall mixed in it? It was not to help Him, as some have
24 A Consecrated Life