John 19:32

The soldiers therefore came, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other that was crucified with him: but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: howbeit one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and straightway there came out blood and water.

Two prophecies regarding Jesus were fulfilled in this: (1) that no bone of him should be broken (Psalms 34:20), and (2) that "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12:10). The soldiers disobeyed one set of orders to fulfill the first, and instituted actions without any orders to fulfill the second. Soldiers in a disciplined army would not have followed such a pattern of behavior once in a million events. Who but God was commanding that detail of soldiers? One cannot resist the thought that there was not enough power in the Roman army to have broken the little finger of Jesus. And where was Satan when this happened? Maybe he was still talking to the Sanhedrin and gloating over the fact that they had contravened the prophecies!

There came out blood and water ... There has to be some element of the miraculous in this. Naturalistic explanations have some plausibility, as for example that of Dr. Stroud quoted by Westcott, who supposed that "the blood rapidly separated into its more solid and liquid parts, which flowed forth in a mingled stream."[17] But the trouble with that explanation is that blood serum is not water; and there is also the time factor, there having been insufficient time for such a separation to have taken place. In addition, as Westcott pointed out, "the separation of the blood into its constituent parts is a process of corruption."[18] The Father did not permit the Holy One to see corruption (Psalms 16:10).

John attached the greatest importance to this phenomenon, and also wrote, "This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood" (1 John 5:6).

The Ante-Nicene writers elaborated all kinds of fanciful teachings based on this occurrence, most of them finding a suggestion of the two baptisms (as they viewed it) of blood for the martyrs and water for all Christians. The most reasonable interpretations, as viewed here, are those of Augustine and Leo, as follows:

The sleep of the man (Adam) was the death of Christ; for when he hung lifeless on the cross, his side was pierced by the spear, and thence flowed forth blood and water, which we know to be the sacraments (baptism and the Lord's Supper), by which the church, the antitype of Eve, is built up.[19]

When the side of the Crucified was opened by the soldier's spear let the impugner of Christ's person understand whence flowed the blood and the water, that the church of God might be refreshed both by the laver (baptism) and the cup (the Lord's supper).[20]

Sacraments ... The so-called seven sacraments exhibit only two with Greek names (baptism and the Lord's supper), indicating that the other five are not mentioned in the Greek New Testament and are therefore excluded from apostolic Christianity.

I am poured out like water ... from Psalms 22:14 was also fulfilled by the event mentioned in this verse. As noted above, the great ordinances of the faith, baptism and the Lord's supper, typified by this issue from the side of Jesus, made it appropriate to observe that, in a sense, the church itself thus came forth from Jesus' side, as Eve, the type of the church, came from Adam's side; and, as the guilt (through the woman) came out of Adam's side, so salvation came out of the side of the Second Adam (Christ).

[17] Ibid., p. 279.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ibid., p. 286.

[20] Ibid.