Matthew 27:50 meaning
In the moment of His death, Jesus demonstrated His sovereign authority even at the end of His earthly existence. He did not succumb to death because of the brutality inflicted upon Him; rather, He willingly yielded up His life, showcasing divine control over His own fate. This act is significant in understanding the nature of His sacrifice - He laid down His life so that humanity could be redeemed from sin. His loud cry, a declaration of triumph and finality, marks the culmination of His mission on earth.
The profound implications of this moment were not solely spiritual; they were immediately accompanied by cosmic phenomena that reflected the gravity of His sacrifice. Earthquakes and the tearing of the temple veil symbolized the opening of access to God, representing the transition from the old covenant to the new. The division caused by Christ’s death marked a pivotal point in history, affirming that through Him, all can approach God directly without the need for intermediaries. This underscores the belief in Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, a central theme in Christian doctrine.
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Matthew 27:50 meaning
The parallel Gospel accounts of Matthew 27:50 are found in Mark 15:37, Luke 23:46-48 and John 19:30.
The Bible Says commentary for Matthew 27:50 is divided into three parts:
1. THE MOMENT OF THE MESSIAH’S DEATH
Shortly after receiving the sour wine (Matthew 27:48), Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit (v 50).
With these words, Matthew describes the moment of the Messiah’s death.
Matthew indicates that Jesus used His final breath and energy to say some things very loudly before He yielded His spirit to death.
Moments earlier Jesus cried out the first line of Psalm 22 with a loud voice when He said: “‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matthew 27:46). Now, He cried out with a loud voice—again.
This time Matthew does not record for us what Jesus said when He cried out. Matthew only mentions that Jesus cried out before yielding up or dismissing His spirit. This is Matthew’s way of associating Jesus’s loud outcry with His death. In other words, whatever it was that Jesus cried out at this time had to do with His human spirit leaving His physical body.
This is significant because as the Son of God, no one could take Jesus’s life—not even the crucifixion. Only Jesus had the power to yield up His spirit. Jesus once told the Pharisees:
“I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”
(John 10:17b-18)
Matthew does not explicitly tell us what things Jesus said when He cried out with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. But the Gospels of John and Luke directly quote Jesus in His last breaths.
The Gospel of John tells us what seems to be the first of Jesus’s two final outcries:
“Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished! And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”
(John 19:30)
This statement was a shout of victory and triumph. Jesus had completed His mission to fulfill the Law (Matthew 5:17-18). The Greek term which John used to translate Jesus’s victorious shout was a common accounting term used throughout the Roman Empire meaning “paid in full.” Jesus’s sacrificial death “paid in full” the penalty for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2).
Note how John, who was an eyewitness of the cross, comments how Jesus “bowed His head” first and then “gave up His spirit.” Normally when people die, their head bows or falls after their spirit departs their body. But this was not the case with Jesus. He bowed His head, offering His spirit up to God, and then His human spirit left His body.
This detail further demonstrates how Jesus was in complete control of His own life and death all the way to the end.
Considering what Jesus could have controlled and chosen for Himself, His experience on the cross is all the more remarkable. He could have called twelve legions of angels to save Him, but He did not (Matthew 26:53). He could have dismissed His spirit prior to the agony of experiencing separation from His Father and taking upon Himself the sins of the world, but He did not. Rather, He chose to obey His Father in all things (John 5:19, Philippians 2:8-9).
To learn more about this statement, see The Bible Says article, “Jesus’s Seven Last Words from the Cross—“6: A Word of Victory.”
John’s account of how Jesus “bowed His head” before He “gave up His spirit” (John 19:30) portrays what physically occurred as He yielded up His spirit (v 50). Both John and Matthew’s descriptions appear to allude to Jesus’s final comment, which was recorded by Luke.
The Gospel of Luke records the last thing Jesus said before He yielded up His spirit,
“And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last.”
(Luke 23:46)
The first line of Psalm 31:5 says: “Into Your hand I commit my spirit” (Psalm 31:5a).
The final statement Jesus made before dying was to recite and personally apply David’s prayer of faith in the face of death to His death, and thus demonstrate the prophetic message of Psalm 31. Psalm 31 is a psalm of trust, and it is prophetic of the Messiah’s faith in a time of suffering. Specifically, Psalm 31 is prophetic of Jesus the Messiah’s faith during His suffering and death on the cross.
With this final breath Jesus put His complete faith in God. Jesus entrusted His spirit to God and He trusted His Father unto death. Psalm 31:5 says:
“Into Your hand I commit my spirit;
You have ransomed me, O Lord, God of truth.”
(Psalm 31:5)
The Hebrew word translated “ransomed” can also mean “resurrect.” Jesus had faith that He would be resurrected from death three days later (Matthew 16:19, 20:18-19, 26:32). Jesus was raised and came back to life three days later (Matthew 28:5-7, 1 Corinthians 15:4). By personally appropriating the first half of Psalm 31:5—“Into Your hand I commit my spirit” with His dying breath and leaving its second line unspoken—“You have ransomed me, O LORD, God of truth”—Jesus was humbly alluding to this prophetic word that His Father would resurrect Him back to life.
Matthew seems to capture some of these sentiments when he records how Jesus yielded up His spirit. The word—up—indicates to whom Jesus was yielding His spirit. Jesus was yielding His spirit up to God, the Father—as Luke explicitly states and Psalm 31:5 predicts.
This is in contrast to Psalm 16:10 which alludes to Jesus going to Sheol, which is often described as a place to which people descend (Genesis 37:35, 42:38, 44:29). Peter quoted Psalm 16:10 in the gospel sermon he gave after the Holy Spirit descended, where he proved that Jesus is the Messiah (Acts 2:27). Jesus descended into the grave but His spirit ascended to His Father. This is consistent with the statement Jesus made to the thief on the cross, where He asserted that the thief who believed in Him would be with Him in paradise that very day (Luke 23:43).
One final comment regarding the moment of Jesus the Messiah’s death that is worth pointing out is that with His final breath, Jesus addresses God as “Father” (Luke 23:46).
This signifies that the divine relationship between God the Father and God the Son had been restored. Earlier on the cross, the divine relationship was paradoxically strained as the innocent Son of God sacrificially took on and became the sin of the world in order to redeem the world from sin’s penalty and power. During that moment, “darkness fell upon all the land” (Matthew 27:45) and the Father’s wrath was poured out upon His Son, prompting Jesus to cry out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46b). But with that terrible moment passed, the fellowship between Father and Son had been restored and Jesus commended His spirit into His Father’s loving hands.
To learn more about Jesus’s final statement, see The Bible Says article, “Jesus’s Seven Last Words from the Cross—“7: A Word of Trust.”
2. THE PROPHETIC FULFILLMENTS OF THE MESSIAH’S DEATH
Matthew’s allusion to Psalm 31:5 describing the very words He would state when Jesus yielded up His spirit is a tenth prophetic fulfillment within Matthew’s account of the Messiah’s crucifixion and death.
But Jesus’s death did not only fulfill Psalm 31:5. If fulfilled a host of Messianic prophecies.
Old Testament Prophecies
Jesus’s death on the cross further fulfills the prophecies of Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. Each describe in vivid detail the Messiah’s suffering and death on the cross. These prophecies describe crucifixion in accurate detail many hundreds of years before crucifixion was even invented. Psalm 31 and 35 and 55 and 56 and 57 and 69 and 116 and Isaiah 49, 50 are also prophetic of the Messiah’s suffering and death.
Below are citations of specific Old Testament prophecies that are predictive that the true Messiah would die, including descriptions that His death would be from crucifixion (Psalm 22:14), He would be crucified as a criminal but honored in burial (Isaiah 53:9) and that He would be pierced by a spear (Zechariah 12:10).
1. “I am poured out like water,
And all my bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It is melted within me.”
(Psalm 22:14)
2. “You lay me in the dust of death.”
(Psalm 22:15)
3. “Into Your hand I commit my spirit.”
(Psalm 31:5)
4. “I am forgotten as a dead man, out of mind;
I am like a broken vessel.”
(Psalm 31:12)
5. “I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me.”
(Psalm 69:2)
6. “The cords of death encompassed me
And the terrors of Sheol came upon me.”
(Psalm 116:2)
7. “Precious in the sight of the LORD
Is the death of His godly ones.”
(Psalm 116:15)
8. “But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities.”
(Isaiah 53:5)
9. “…like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.”
(Isaiah 53:7)
10. “That He was cut off out of the land of the living.”
(Isaiah 53:8)
11. “His grave was assigned with wicked men,”
Yet He was with a rich man in death.”
(Isaiah 53:9)
12. “Because He poured out Himself to death…”
(Isaiah 53:12)
13. “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing.”
(Daniel 9:26)
14. “They will look on Me whom they have pierced.”
(Zechariah 12:10a)
All of these verses contain prophecies that were fulfilled when Jesus yielded up His spirit.
Foreshadowing Events from the Old Testament
Additionally, there are historical events recorded in the Old Testament that foreshadow the Messiah’s death. It is also the case that Israel’s holy days foreshadow the Messiah’s death. Following is a list of some of these verses:
(Genesis 3:15)
(Genesis 3:21)
(Genesis 22:1-14)
(Genesis 37:18, 31).
(Exodus 12, Revelation 5:12)
(Leviticus 16:1-34)
(Numbers 21:8-9, John 3:14-15)
Jesus’s prophetic statements and allusions to His death
Jesus, Himself, explicitly predicted His death on the cross on at least three occasions:
1. Jesus’s first explicit prediction of His death was near Caesarea Philippi, shortly after Peter’s confession.
“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.”
(Matthew 16:21—see also: Mark 8:31 and Luke 9:22)
2. Jesus’s second explicit reference to His pending death was during His return to Galilee from Caesarea Philippi after the Mount of Transfiguration.
“And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.’”
(Matthew 17:22—see also: Mark 9:30 and Luke 9:43-45)
3. Jesus’s third explicit prediction about His death was in or near Jericho as He was about to enter Jerusalem for Passover.
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”
(Matthew 20:18-19—see also: Mark 10:32-34 and Luke 18:31-34)
On many other occasions Jesus alluded to His death:
4. Jesus predicted to Nicodemus that He would be lifted up (on the cross) to save the world when He compared Himself to the bronze serpent that was lifted up for the salvation of Israel.
(John 3:14-15)
5. Jesus taught His disciples to take up their cross and follow Him.
(Matthew 10:38 and again in 16:24—see also: Mark 8:34 and Luke 9:23)
6. Jesus foreshadowed His death and resurrection as “the sign of Jonah.”
(Matthew 12:39-40 and again in 16:4—see also: Luke 11:29-30.)
7. Jesus explained that He would suffer at the hands of those who killed John the Baptist.
(Matthew 17:12—see also Mark 9:12)
8. After saying, “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus promised to “lay down My life for the sheep” (John 10:15).
(John 10:14-18)
9. Jesus said that He came to give His life as a ransom for many.
(Matthew 20:28 -see also Mark 10:45)
10. Jesus referred to His own death through the “Parable of the Landowner and the Vine-growers,” and the subsequent conversation with the Sadducees and Pharisees. In that parable, the vinegrowers killed the landowner’s son, and it was clear that Jesus was represented by the son.
(Matthew 21:33-41—see also Mark 12:1-9 and Luke 20:9-16)
11. Jesus mentioned His burial when He defended the woman who anointed Him at Bethany.
(Matthew 26:12—see also: Mark 14:8 and John 12:7)
12. Jesus was predictive of His death when He taught about the wheat that must die and fall into the earth when He spoke of “this hour.”
(John 12:24-33)
13. During His final Seder (Passover meal), Jesus demonstrated how His death was a fulfillment of Passover’s true meaning to His
(Matthew 26:26-29—see also Mark 14:22-25 and Luke 22:15-20)
14. Jesus constantly referred to His death throughout His post-Seder conversations with His
(Matthew John 13:33, 13:36, 14:1-6, 14:18, 14:29)
15. Jesus continued to discuss His death with His disciples on the way to Gethsemane.
(Matthew 26:31—see also Mark 14:27, John 15:13, 16:5-6, 16:16-22, 16:31-33)
16. Finally, when Jesus confronted those who came to arrest Him, He told them that “all of this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures and the prophets.”
(Matthew 26:55-56—see also Mark 14:48-50)
Jesus knew He was going to die. And He predicted His death throughout His ministry. These predictions were fulfilled when He yielded up His spirit on the cross.
Other Prophecies Concerning Jesus’s Death
Lastly, two contemporaries prophetically alluded to Jesus’s death and its atoning significance during His lifetime. These two people were John the Baptizer and Caiaphas, the high priest of Israel.
1. John the Baptizer was the Messianic forerunner, who prepared the way for the Lord.
John the Baptist called Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”
(John 1:29).
2. Caiaphas, the high priest, illegally conspired to orchestrate Jesus’s murder.
Caiaphas prophesied that “it is expedient that one man [Jesus] die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish”
(John 11:50-51).
It is fascinating to consider how both Jesus’s prophetically and His priestly enemy independently alluded to His sacrificial death. Caiaphas prophesied unwittingly, showing the providential hand of God in the entire situation (John 11:50-51).
When Jesus died on the cross and yielded up His spirit—He fulfilled all the prophecies from the Old Testament as well as all the prophecies made during His own lifetime concerning His death.
3. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MESSIAH’S DEATH
It is difficult to overstate the importance of Jesus’s death. There is no atonement of sin without His sacrifice. And there is no resurrection without His death. Without Jesus’s death there is no Gift of Eternal Life and without the granting of the Gift of Eternal Life the Prize of Eternal Life would also be unavailable.
Simply put, Jesus’s death made the Gospel possible.
The death of God’s Son has infinite and eternal value.
Jesus was born as a mortal human while retaining His divinity. He did this so that as God He could die for the sins of the world (Matthew 1:21, John 12:27-28, Hebrews 2:9, 14-16) and redeem the world (Matthew 20:28, John 3:16).
The Gospel was predicated upon Jesus’s death. The first two of the three tenets stated by the Apostle Paul concerning what one must believe in order to experience the saving power of the Gospel expressly concern the Messiah’s death:
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:
[1] that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
[2] and that He was buried,
[3] and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
(1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
Jesus’s death completed His fulfillment of the Law (Matthew 5:17, John 19:30) and demonstrated His perfect obedience to God even unto death (Philippians 2:8).
By fulfilling the Law unto death, Jesus, through His death, was able to redeem those under the Law (Galatians 4:4-5).
What does His redemption entail?
In a nutshell, the redemption of Jesus through His death on the cross provides for God’s forgiveness of our sins, restores us into harmony with our Creator, and renews us to the divine purpose and eternal destiny for which we were made.
Consider the wonderful things which the Bible says Jesus’s death accomplished for us as it pertains to the Gift of Eternal Life, or what scripture calls being justified in the sight of God (Romans 3:23-24, 4:3):
1. The Ultimate Expression of Divine Love.
Jesus’s sacrificial death demonstrates God’s love for the world, even though the world is sinful.
(John 3:16, John 10:11, John 15:13, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:9)
Items 2—7 heavily correspond to God’s Mercy. Mercy is often described as not receiving something bad or unpleasant that we deserve:
2. Forgiveness of Sins
Forgiveness means not holding the wrong someone has done to you against them. It is to pardon an offense. It is allowing justice to be dealt with by a higher authority rather than ourselves.
Jesus’s death on the cross is the basis of God’s forgiveness of the world, because Jesus fully paid for our sins. The following points (3—6) describe various aspects of the forgiveness Christ’s death made available to the world
(Matthew 26:28, Luke 24:46-47, Acts 13:38-39, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:4):
3. Propitiation
Propitiation means “appeasement” or “satisfaction.” Jesus’s sacrificial death satisfied God’s wrath against us for our sin
(Romans 5:9, 1 Thessalonians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 5:9, 1 John 2:2, 1 John 4:10)
4. Breaking the Curse
Jesus’s sacrificial death removed the curse of the Law because He took it upon Himself on the cross.
(Galatians 3:13, Hebrews 9:15)
5. Paid the Debt
Jesus’s sacrificial death paid the penalty of sin—which is death—and gifted eternal life to all who believe in Him
(Romans 6:23, Colossians 2:13-14)
6. Abolition of Divine Condemnation
Jesus’s sacrificial death made a way to remove eternal judgement and condemnation against us.
(John 3:17-18, Romans 8:1, Colossians 2:13-14)
Items 7—11 heavily correspond to God’s Grace. Grace means “favor” or “kindness.” In the case of God, grace is always something that we do not deserve. This is because no human can obligate God in any way:
7. Atonement of Sin
Atonement refers to the act or process of making things right with God. Atonement removes the barrier of sin. Jesus’s sacrificial death goes beyond mere forgiveness and pardoning of our sins. His death is also reconciling and restorative. Atonement entails mercy and grace. The above items (2—6) are included in atonement as well as some of those below (8—9, 11)
(1 Peter 2:24, 1 Peter 3:28)
8. Imputed Righteousness
Jesus, who knew no sin, became the embodiment of all sin on the cross, so that we might become the righteousness (His righteousness) of God.
(Romans 5:17-19, 1 Corinthians 5:21, Philippians 3:9)
9. Reconciliation
Jesus’s sacrificial death reconciles both Jews and Gentiles, that any person might have a meaningful relationship with God.
(Romans 5:10, Ephesians 2:11-16, Colossians 1:20-22)
10. Adoption
Jesus’s sacrificial death allows us to be adopted into God’s eternal family.
(John 1:12-13, Romans 8:15, Ephesians 1:5, Ephesians 2:19)
11. Restoration
Jesus’s death restores us to our divine purpose for which we were created. This restoration provides the starting point for which a believer can receive their divine inheritance (the Prize of Eternal Life).
(Romans 8:16-18, Ephesians 1:11, Ephesians 2:10, Hebrews 2:8-10)
Jesus’s death on the cross made all of these things concerning God’s mercy and grace freely available to every person in the world. However, they do nothing for anyone unless that person believes that Jesus is the Son of God, lifted on a cross, and has the power to save us from the futility of our sin.
This is just as Jesus described to Nicodemus, using a parallel of the ancient Israelites looking at the bronze serpent lifted on a pole. Jesus said that just as the Israelites could be healed from the venom of vipers by having sufficient faith to look at the snake on the pole, any human can be healed of the deadly venom of sin by trusting Jesus’s death on the cross for their salvation (John 3:14-15).
Recall the three central tenets of the Gospel that Paul identified in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4:
“[1] that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
[2] and that He was buried,
[3] and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
This is what it means to believe in Jesus. That His death and resurrection is the proof that He is the Son of God, and likewise, as God, Jesus has the power to save us from the self-destruction of our sin. If we believe these things concerning Jesus, then we receive the Gift of Eternal Life.
To learn more about the Gift of Eternal Life, see The Bible Says article: “What is Eternal Life? How to Gain the Gift of Eternal Life.”
All of points 1—11 (listed above) show how Jesus’s sacrificial death directly concerns the Gift of Eternal Life, or what scripture refers to as being justified in God’s sight (Romans 3:23-24, 4:3).
All of points 12—13 (mentioned below) describe how Jesus’s sacrificial death provides the basis for our spiritual growth and being made like Him. They describe how the power of the cross continues to sanctify believers:
12. Cleansing of Sin
Jesus’s sacrificial death provides the constant and ongoing cleansing of our sin. It is what allows us as imperfect believers to have fellowship with God.
(1 John 1:7-9)
13. Victory over Sin
Jesus’s obedience unto death broke the power of sin. Believers are no longer enslaved to sin.
(Romans 6:17-18, Galatians 5:1, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15)
14. Path to Victory over Sin
Moreover, Jesus’s approach to the cross provides the perfect example and pattern for believers to follow as they encounter their own trials and temptations.
(Matthew 10:38, Philippians 2:5-8, Hebrews 12:1-2)
Finally, Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross laid the foundation for His reign in the new heaven and the new earth:
15. Christ’s Exaltation
Jesus will be exalted by God in the sight of every person who has ever lived because of His obedient and sacrificial death.
(Isaiah 53:12, Philippians 2:8-11)
16. The Establishment of His Kingdom
Jesus’s sinless life and sacrificial death make Him worthy to open the scroll and it qualifies Him to sit and reign on the throne forever and ever.
(Revelation 5:1-10, 11-14—See also: Psalm 118:22, “The Parable of the Vine-growers” and the discussion that follows in Matthew 21:33-44)
17. Christ’s Judgment of the World
Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross (and His resurrection from the dead) qualify Him to judge the world.
(John 5:26-30, Romans 14:9)
Matthew 27:50 is the final verse in Matthew that describes Jesus’s life before He died and yielded up His spirit. The Messiah’s death was foretold and depicted throughout the Old Testament, and was predicted by Jesus Himself and His contemporaries. Jesus’s death on the cross also fulfilled and established the foundation of the Gospel and up to this point is the climax of Matthew’s Gospel account of Jesus’s earthly life.
After describing the moment of Jesus the Messiah’s death, Matthew then begins to describe supernatural events that occurred in response to Him yielding up His spirit (Matthew 27:51-54).