Why did blood and water come out of Jesus' side when He was pierced?

But the Evangelist specially concentrates our attention upon the result of that wanton deed — "forthwith came there out blood and water." When, in verse 35, he solemnly affirms the truth of his record, so that faith may spring up in the reader, it is to this he refers. In the first place, this piercing of His side publicly demonstrated that death had really taken place. In the second place, by it His blood was actually shed, and we have only to recall that, "without shedding of blood is no remission," (Heb. 9:22), to realize the importance of that fact. In the third place, we know what gracious and blessed results flow to us each individually when our faith reaches out and reposes in the Christ who died and in the blood that He shed. So we are not surprised at John's strong affirmation of the truth of his witness.

The blood was the expression of the death of Jesus. As it is written: — "When they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And, he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." (John 19:33-35.)

Here is presented to us what and whence the blood is. This was in our Lord's mind when speaking to the Jews, as is recorded in chapter 6, and which, though he saw and understood it all, neither could the Jews receive, nor could the disciples understand. But oh, what a tale of love! such love as many waters could not quench; such love as was stronger than death, does this foreknowledge on Jesus's part tell us of. The separation of the liquid blood into blood and water, showed death to have taken place: it is never so save after death. Some think the water here was that which fills the vessel in which "the heart" is placed, the breaking of which, they say, is what produces a broken heart; if so, then also, whether broken by the convulsions, of sorrow, or pierced by the spear, death must have taken place. I would only add, that I doubt not but that this fact had a further typical meaning. For not only is Jesus on the cross pouring forth His blood unto death, in atonement, our only resource, but there also I get not only that which cleanses me from all charge of guilt — the blood; but also that Spirit which is righteousness, and which seems typified by the water — even the Holy Ghost, which coming consequent upon Christ's death, is the pledge to those that have it of their being accepted in the beloved; partakers of the divine nature; and who makes the rivers of living water to flow out of their bellies even while in this life.

"And forthwith came there out blood and water." We seek for no natural cause to account for this strange result of this piercing. It is said that the Lord died of a broken heart, and the blood and water were the proof of it. He did not die of a broken heart, He lived with a broken heart, but His death was unique. He yielded up His life, and the blood and water from His side was as unique as His death. "He came by water and blood." And these two are symbols and bear witness to us that expiation for sins and purification for sin are an absolute necessity, and further they witness that in the death of Christ we have both. "And he that saw it bear record, and his record is true: and he knows that he says true. THAT YE MIGHT BELIEVE."

A soldier pierces His side with a spear. It is from a dead Saviour that flow forth the tokens of an eternal and perfect salvation — the water and the blood; the one to cleanse the sinner, the other to expiate his sins. The evangelist saw it. His love for the Lord makes him like to remember that he saw Him thus unto the end; he tells it in order that we may believe. But if we see in the beloved disciples the vessel that the Holy Ghost uses (and very sweet it is to see it, and according to the will of God), we see plainly who it is that uses it. How many things John witnessed which he did not relate! The cry of grief and of abandonment — the earthquake — the centurion's confession — the history of the thief: all these things took place before his eyes, which were fixed upon his Master; yet he does not mention them. He speaks of that which his Beloved was in the midst of all this. The Holy Ghost causes him to relate that which belonged to the personal glory of Jesus. His affections made him find it a sweet and easy task. The Holy Ghost attached him to it, employing him in that which he was well suited to perform. Through grace the instrument lent itself readily to the work for which the Holy Ghost set it apart. His memory and his heart were under the dominant and exclusive influence of the Spirit of God. That Spirit employed them in His work. One sympathises with the instrument; one believes in that which the Holy Ghost relates by his means, for the words are those of the Holy Ghost.

At the crucifixion of Jesus, the veil was rent; the holiest opened, and what God was within the veil was then shown out in all its fulness. When grace reveals this to me I get confidence. I see God holy and expecting holiness - true; but the peace of God is in knowing what He is to us, and not what we are to Him. He knows all the evil of our hearts. Nothing can be worse than the rejection of Jesus. Man's hatred is shown out there, and God's love, to the full. The wretched soldier who, in the cowardly impotence of the consciousness that he could with impunity insult the meek and lowly Jesus, pierced His side with a spear, let out, in that disgraceful act, the water and the blood, which was able to cleanse even such as he. Here God's heart was revealed, what He is to the sinner, and this is our salvation.

John alone of the evangelists mentions the flowing of the blood and water from Christ's side; he alludes to it in his epistle too. It is a beautiful testimony of divine grace, answering the last insult man could heap upon Him. They drove Him outside the camp, put Him to death on a cross, and then, to make assurance doubly sure, the soldier gives Him a blow with his spear. Salvation was God's answer to man's insult, sin in his rejection of Him, for the blood and water were the signs of it.

Even after His death the focus remains on the divine side. John emphasises the sovereignty of God rather than the responsibility of man in crucifying Christ (without, of course, ignoring the latter). Two more Scriptures are explicitly stated to have been fulfilled: the Roman soldiers do not break His legs (the sinless One had gone into death first; He had the power to lay down His life (10:17) and one of them pierced His side with a spear (v. 36.37). In response to this most audacious of crimes God provides a 'record' or 'witness': blood and and water flowing from the pierced side of Christ - showing that atonement and purification both flow from the death of Christ (see 1 John 5).

Having thus spoken of the water and the blood, the apostle adds, "And it is the Spirit that testifies, because the Spirit is the truth." He plainly refers to the water and the blood which came out of the pierced side of the dead body of Christ, as a divine testimony which God gave concerning His Son. It was not a natural phenomenon, but a supernatural one (see John 19:35), by which God was testifying that the death of His Son provides cleansing, or a new life, and propitiation. In recording the pouring forth of blood and water from the pierced side of Christ after death, John adds, "And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true; and he knoweth that he saith true." The Spirit by John thus attests and confirms the testimony of the blood and the water.

We read, “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record it true: and he knows that he says true, that ye might believe” (John 19:34-35). The solemn and full asseveration of what the Apostle John saw is very striking. The blood and water flowing from the side of a dead Christ was the proof of His death.

Here then we are led from the person of Christ, which had just been before us, to the work of Christ characterising His person. For His work it is which furnishes the witnesses. God deigns to give us more than sufficient testimony. Two witnesses were required in the things of man with man, two sufficed, three better still. Here God provides fully. He presents to man three witnesses of the greatest conceivable weight for leading into the truth. "This is He that came," neither by human birth, might, or wisdom, nor yet by divine power or glory. It was not through His incarnation nor through His unequalled ministry. "This is He that came through water and blood, Jesus Christ." He who was the true God and life eternal came to die as truly as any man, yet as no other could die, He by God made sin to save sinners and wash them, not only purified inwardly but in God's sight whiter than snow through His blood. Yes He came to die, for His death alone could blot out our sins or glorify God as to sin (John 13:31-32). The allusion is unquestionably to our Lord on the cross, dead already, pierced by the soldier to make sure of His death, out of whose side flowed blood and water. In the history the blood is that which caught the eye first of course, and so there first named. The water was observed however to flow also. Whoever saw or heard of a fact so extraordinary that blood and water should issue out of the side of a dead man? Yet so they did here.

The Gospel of John (John 19:33-37) had drawn attention to it more than to His most stupendous miracles. "But when they came to Jesus they broke not his legs; but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he that hath seen hath witnessed, and his witness is true, and he knoweth that he saith true that ye also may believe." It was really from the dead Man. God furnished this preternatural sign of a work peculiar to the incarnate Son of God alone; and the Spirit of God thought it so significant for His glory and man's reconciliation as first to record it signally in the last Gospel, and next to apply it to us in the Epistle before us.