When Jesus hung on the cross for six long hours, all kinds of things happened to Him, and each of them has great significance, for each is part of His redeeming work for our salvation. But one special thing happened to Him right before He gave up His spirit. And I am glad to share with you what the Lord revealed to me.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
–John 19:28-30

The first thing that catches the eye is that after all things were now accomplished, Jesus did one more thing, and only after that said “It is finished!” and gave up His spirit. It is written that Jesus received the sour wine. What is the meaning of the sour wine, and why did Jesus want to drink it after all things had already been accomplished?

The prophet Jeremiah writes: “In those days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.” [Jer.31:29-30] In Hebrew, sour grapes is boser, which literally means unripe grapes. We all know that all unripe fruit is sour. What was the Lord talking about here through the prophet Jeremiah, and what is this unripe fruit?

In the next verse the Lord speaks through the prophet Jeremiah about ripe fruit: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” [Jer.31:31] The new covenant is the ripe, mature and sweet fruit, or sweet wine, which God made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah on the cross. And the sour wine is the old covenant of the law, because in verse 32 the new covenant is set against the old: “not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.” [Jer.31:32] This is clearly about the covenant of the law of Moses, which God made with Israel when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.

The Letter Kills

So it turns out that eating sour or unripe grapes means living under the law of Moses, trying to fulfill its commandments and orders. Scripture says: “every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes…“. That is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” [2 Cor.3:6]

When some sorrow or misfortune happens in a Christian’s life, people often ask: “Why did this happen to him, when the whole church prayed and nothing helped?” The answer is simple: “The letter kills!” What letter is this about? The old covenant of the law of Moses, because in the next verse Paul explains: “But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones…” [2 Cor.3:7] Paul calls the law of Moses, or the 10 commandments, the ministry of death, for only it was engraved on stones, the two tablets. Preaching that compels a person to serve God according to the old letter, or according to the 10 commandments, kills! Remember this, for it is vitally important!

When Jesus hung on the cross, He took on the form of a serpent, or of sin in the flesh, for He Himself said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” [Jhn.3:14] Sin kills a person precisely at the moment when it receives the power to kill from the law. Paul writes: “The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” [1 Cor.15:56], and also: “…sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me” [Rom.7:11] At the very moment when Jesus received the sour wine, He died to the law for each of us. What does that mean? It means that there, in His body, each of us took the poison of the ministry of death and died to the law. That is why Paul writes: “But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” [Rom.7:6]

When were we delivered from the law of Moses? When we died to it, or more precisely, when Jesus received the sour wine and then breathed His last. From that very moment the law lost all power and authority over us, just as a husband over a wife who has died. It can no longer kill us — unless, out of ignorance or foolishness, like the Galatians, we put our own neck under the saw. Why drink the sour stuff that kills, when there is sweet wine that gives life?

Justification Brings Life

This morning my wife Svetlana told me an interesting dream she had. She dreamed that she was given some kind of device that looked like a bunch of grapes, only instead of the stems the berries hang on, there were wires with metal plates made of light metal hanging at the ends. For the device to work, the plates had to be put against the body. But every time she put them on, there was no effect. She thought: “What a useless device.” Then the thought came to her to put the plates on the right side of her body, because for some reason she had been putting them on the left side every time. After she put them on the right side, the result was stunning, and the device worked very effectively.

When she told me this dream, I remembered the story of how the disciples fished all night and caught nothing, but when Jesus told them to cast the net on the right side, they caught a huge catch, which they could not draw in because of the multitude of fish. [Jhn.21:3-6] It would seem to be one and the same action, but the result was exactly the opposite. Why is that? What is the meaning of the right side? Where does Jesus sit? At the right hand of the Father. The meaning of the right side is God’s righteousness. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father because He is the righteousness of God. In the letter to the Hebrews it is written: “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God” [Heb.10:12] Jesus offered His Body as a sacrifice for all the sins of mankind once and for all, and sat down at the right hand of God, because He is now our righteousness. Paul writes: “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God; and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” [1 Cor.1:30]

We very often try to act rightly, hoping that when we act rightly and make no mistakes, there will be right results in our life. But the point is not what we do to achieve a result, but from which side. You can do the very same works, but if you do them “from the left”, relying on your own efforts, your obedience, your exemplary and correct behavior, there will be no result. But if we do the same thing relying on the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the results will be like the disciples’ — a catch with a multitude of fish, enough not only for ourselves but also to bless others.

I can already hear the question: “And how do you fish on the right side?” When we live in the freedom Christ has given us, live in His grace, in the new covenant, or drink the new and sweet wine, then it is no longer the law and its commandments that govern our life, but the Spirit who lives in us. Here is one of the wonderful things of the new covenant: “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them” [Heb.10:16] What did the Lord do so that His disciples would catch a great catch? He pointed them to His righteousness, which every believer receives apart from the deeds of the law. [Rom.3:28] He put into their hearts the spirit of faith, which justifies. In other words, Jesus told them: “Do what you were doing, but don’t think that your works or efforts mean anything, for all night long your works brought no result. Now it is no longer you who are doing it, but My Spirit and My grace working through faith.”

Notice that when Jesus said: “Bring some of the fish which you have just caught“, Peter by himself dragged the net with the multitude of fish, which all the disciples together could not draw in. Where did he get such strength? Because it was not Peter dragging the nets, but the Spirit of God through Peter. That is why Paul writes: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” [1 Cor.15:10] When is grace in vain? When we rely on our own works and our correct behavior. [Rom.4:14] But when we rely on the righteousness of Jesus, knowing and believing that regardless of our works and deeds we are forever righteous because of His finished work on the cross, then the Spirit of God will do works through us that will bring tremendous results.