“Father, Into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit!”

This devotional is the last in a seven-part series leading up to Easter through the season of Lent. Each week’s devotional has focused on one of Jesus’ seven sayings from the cross. 

“Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!’ And having said this he breathed his last.” Luke 23:46

In our verse in Luke, Jesus cries out, declaring that He commits His Spirit into His Father’s—God’s—hands. Even though He is moments away from death, Jesus shows strength and authority in this moment, making sure everyone hears His final words. 

In this statement, Jesus quotes a Psalm, echoing the words of Psalm 31:5: “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.” In His last moments before He dies, Jesus continues to draw from Scripture and commit Himself to God.

After He says this, Jesus breathes His last. 

We can learn a few lessons from the final saying of Jesus from the cross. First, we understand that Jesus’ death was not an accident. Christ did not go to the cross unwillingly. God was not caught off guard by this event. Instead, Jesus laid down His life. He was in control the entire time, and out of obedience to His Father, Jesus let Himself suffer pain, agony, and death. He said in John 10:18, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

It is a comfort to know that, even on what seemed like humanity’s darkest day, when the sinless Son of God was slain, even that was a part of God’s plan. In fact, this was how God would bring about the redemption David wrote about in Psalm 31:5. Christ’s death was not just a historical event, and it was certainly not a mishap. No, this was God’s plan even before sin entered the world in the garden. Praise God, Jesus obeyed, and now, Jesus’ part in God’s plan for salvation was accomplished. 

Second, Jesus entrusted Himself to His Father in His life, and He also did it very clearly in His death. Everything He did was a willing act of obedience to God’s will. In His life, He continually prayed and sought the Lord, and in His death, He prayed this prayer of submission to His Father. Through these words, Jesus is saying that He trusts His Father and He trusts His plan. 

The Lord calls us to this same kind of trust and commitment. We must submit to God, our Father, not just when we are near death but every day of our lives! Do we lead lives of obedience to our faithful God that show others how He has redeemed us? Jesus’ life and death are an example for us of how we should aspire to live as His redeemed creation. 

In closing, as you ponder these last sayings of Jesus on the cross, I encourage you to think about what they mean. In His last moments, Jesus continued to speak. Even though His breathing was labored and it no doubt brought Him physical pain, Jesus still forgave, granted eternal life, took care of His family, spoke of his feelings of forsakenness and thirst, and declared that His work was completed. Salvation was accomplished because Jesus laid down His life of His own accord. 

If you do not know Jesus, will you turn to Him at this very moment? The Bible tells us, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9). Do you believe that Jesus is who the Bible says He is? Do you feel drawn to begin a relationship with the risen Christ and accept His free gift of eternal life? If so, please do so today. 

I may not know who you are, where you are from, or what your life has looked like, but I do know this: the salvation Jesus offers through His death is good news for you. It means forgiveness of sin and the defeat of death. If you would like to trust in Christ, cry out to Him today! If you have any further questions about salvation or making a decision to follow Christ, you can click a link for an article that explains this more in-depth here.

May the Lord bless you this Easter and make us grow in holiness. May He use this time to remind us of what Jesus gave. And may we go forth boldly proclaiming the message of Jesus, our Savior, who suffered on the cross for our sin.

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Some of the information used in this devotional was retrieved from the following source:

“Luke 23:46 – the Death of Jesus.” Bible Hub, 2025, biblehub.com/luke/23-46.htm.