‘When he received the drink, Jesus said,
“It is finished.”
With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.’
It has been said that these words were
“The greatest words ever uttered by the Greatest Man who ever lived!”
Allow me to briefly set the stage: Just over 33 years before these words were spoken, an angel named Gabriel was sent from heaven to a young virgin girl in
As the years passed, this baby named Jesus, from the town of
Just five days later, those same people were standing on those same
As we look at the Apostle John’s account of the last moments of Christ before His death, we are told that Jesus spoke three important words, “It is finished.” In the Greek text, however, the phrase actually just one word: tetelestai.
The question that is begged is simply, “WHAT is ‘finished’?”...
Well, I believe that Scripture clearly shows us elsewhere, outside of this passage in John, exactly what Christ meant when He made this proclamation.
Here we are going to look at 3 ways in which Jesus Christ finished the job.
I. He fulfilled prophesy.
Matthew Henry:
But what many, if not all of his persecutors did not realize was that they were playing a huge role in fulfilling Old Testament prophesy.
The first prophetic words in the Bible were given by God Himself in the Garden:
Genesis
Though God was specifically addressing the serpent here, He said it for Adam and Eve to hear the promise He was making so that in this they could hear the hint of grace and see the door of hope opened to them in spite of their tremendous fall from perfection.
And now, here in our passage in John, we see the fulfillment of this promise—the seed of the woman was Jesus. And we can see as Christ hung on the cross with nails through both of his feet that Satan had now truly struck and bruised his heel. But at the same time, when Christ said “It is finished,” and he gave up his spirit, he put the head of Satan under his foot, and I believe that on the Last Day, He will crush him forever!
He fulfilled the first prophecy in the Bible in three simple words, “It is finished!”
Elsewhere in the Old Testament, we see prophesy pointing to the crucifixion of Christ.
Isaiah 53:5—“But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”
(also Psalms 22 and John 3:14-15;
When Christ said, “It is finished,” he was saying, “All of the types and prophesies of the Old Testament pointing to the sufferings of the Messiah, I have now accomplished and answered.”
It is finished!
II. He did the will of His Father.
Just a year ago a motion picture came to movie theaters that caused quite a stir in
and around the world. The movie, of course, was The Passion of the Christ. Before its World Premiere, a number of outspoken Jews criticized the film for being anti-Semitic because it portrayed the Jewish people as the ones responsible for Christ’s crucifixion. Obviously, those offended Semites had not read the New Testament Gospel account very closely! And I wondered also why the Italians were not speaking out because it likewise portrayed the
At the center of the controversy was the movie’s creator, a very wealthy and charismatic Catholic man named Mel Gibson. In a post-premiere television interview with Gibson, Dianne Sawyer asked him a very pointed question, “So who is responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus?”
Gibson gave a reply to the effect of, “Well, we all are; I am, you are, everyone is responsible for the death of Jesus.” While I was surprised and initially pleased with his bold response and agree with it from one perspective, I think that we need to consider a greater, ultimate perspective.
We must realize that the death of Christ was on one hand, the doing of sinful men while on the other hand, at the same time, the will of God the Father.
When Jesus gave his disciples the Lord’s Prayer—a prayer by which to pray by—he prayed to His Father, “Thy will be done.” And now, it was as if he was saying, “Thy will IS done!”
Acts 2:23—“This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge...”
What an amazing God we have who would love us enough to give up His only Son to die for us!
III. He finished the work of atonement. (John 19:30)
First, Christ did not come to merely set us an example. In his book, Manly Dominion, author and pastor Mark Chanski shows his readers how Christ was a good example for men to imitate and follow:
Throughout history there have always been those who refuse to see Christ as anything more than a good man and a wise Jewish teacher. They’ll say he was a role model, a good example, an icon of morality, but they will refuse to accept Him for who he really is!
In his gospel account, John gets to the point right off the top: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”
I was teaching this to my third and fourth grade Sunday School class just a few months ago, and they came to understand that the “Word” that John speaks of here is the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, God’s only Son! And we need to accept that Jesus is not only the Son of God, but is God Himself, otherwise, His atonement was useless and empty.
In the final hours leading up to Jesus’ death, he faced, what Chanski calls, “wholesale desertion.” First, one of his own twelve closest friends betrayed him for a meager 30 pieces of silver. Then, in the Garden, in the moments of extreme mental and emotional agony, his disciples slept while he prayed, and once they woke, they fled. Then one of his dearest disciples, Simon Peter, denied—not once, not twice, but THREE times—that he even knew this man named Jesus!
But the ultimate desertion came at Christ’s darkest hour—as he hung upon the cross under the unbearable weight of the sins of you and I as the sole object of His Father’s wrath. But it was at that moment of Christ’s death that mankind’s liberation from the bondage of sin was procured by a merciful Lord!
Spurgeon: The last word but one, "It is finished." There is the complete justification of the believer, since the work by which he is accepted is fully accomplished.
He hung there until His Father’s will was accomplished, until his errand was completed, until his chore was done, until His people had been redeemed, until He said resolutely,
Philip Graham Ryken: When Christ said, “It is finished,” he was not merely uttering a sigh of relief or a moan of resignation...He was announcing a victorious proclamation: “IT IS FINISHED!”
Secondly, He came to deliver us from the wrath of God and to take away our sins.
(Romans
In the Old Testament, the priests would shed the blood of animals which symbolized a covering of one’s sins. But Christ’s death and the shedding of his blood did much more than cover the sins of sinners, it took their sins away entirely!
Matthew Henry says that with Christ’s statement, “It is finished,” came an end to transgression and the bringing in of an everlasting righteousness to those who call
upon His name!
Many people have criticized Christianity for holding the cross in such high esteem. They see the cross as a symbol of death and suffering; but as Christians we look at the cross and see life! “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.”
Hebrews 9.27-28—
He came and died once to bear our sins on himself, and after that...It Is Finished!
APPLICATION:
Hebrews 12:1b-2—“...And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Though the Christian life is long and hard and full of trials and temptations, Christ said it:
Let me share with you a quick story that Warren Wiersbe, in his commentary on John, gives. It’s the story of a rather eccentric evangelist who was once approached by a young man. The young man asked the evangelist flippantly, “What must I do to be saved?”The evangelist was quick to respond, “It’s too late!” and continued what he was doing. Naturally surprised, the boy asked, “Do you mean that it’s too late for me to be saved?!... Isn’t there something that I can do?!?”
“Too late,” said the evangelist. “It’s already been done...Now just believe!”
To the unbeliever: There is no one work or series of works that you could do that would add to the one work that Christ finished that day on Calvary! Just as “money can’t buy you love,” money can’t buy you heaven! Nothing can get you to heaven, save the righteousness of Jesus.
Anything that we in our own devices may attempt to do to earn our own salvation is done in vain. WHY?—Because Scripture says that all of our deeds are sinful, like filthy rags before Him who is holy.
But consider Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of God, who came to earth as a baby boy, lived a life of perfection, and then died a faultless man at the hands of angry sinners just like you and I! It was for you that He came! It was for you that he suffered! It was for you that he poured out his life unto death and rose again on the third day! Put your faith in Jesus! Turn from your sins with a repentant and sorrow-filled heart and call upon the name of the only one who saves you, the name of Jesus Christ!
And to you, dear Christian, take comfort here in that you do not have to work for your own salvation—It has already been worked out for you! Even if you tried your best to work toward heaven, as some teach that we can do, you would fall miserably short and would only find eternal death and damnation as the fruit of your labors! Stop trying to win His favor! Stop trying to climb to heaven! Jesus has already climbed that mountain for you and at the end of your life, He’ll carry you to the top with him!
In conclusion dear friends, when Christ cried, “Tetelestai!......It is Finished!” he sealed our pardon with his blood. It was all done. There was no more pain to be inflicted upon this spotless lamb. He had suffered all that the Father willed, and now He died with the weight of the sins of the world upon His back.
It had been completed. The law and prophesies of the Old Testament had been fulfilled perfectly throughout his life, and now, ultimately in his death.
The debt had been paid. The holiness and justice of God demanded a penalty for Adam’s sin; and now Christ, the one and only Son of God, had paid that ransom which relieved men from God’s eternal judgment.
The door had been opened. Now there was a way for sinners to directly meet with God the Father through God the Son. At Christ’s death, the curtain in the temple tore, symbolizing a new-found access to the very throne room of the Almighty. Christ became the new High Priest and Mediator between God and man.
And it could not be reversed. The death of Christ was once-and-for-all! It was a perfect, eternal atonement that could not and need not be altered or added to. Praise God for His Infinite Love!
The Captain of our Souls has already won the Victory! And on that Last Day, the trumpets will blare, the clouds will part, and Christ, the Servant-King, will ride triumphantly threw the ranks of His servants and will take each faithful follower up into Heaven to eternally live with Him!
He speaks now from on high,
“Behold, I am coming soon!
My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End.”
It is finished, indeed! Amen.
In the eighteen years of my life up to that point, I had seen my dad cry less than four times. He was a strong pillar in our family. But this time, without even seeing his face, I could hear his voice shaking and could imagine the tears welling in his eyes as he spoke his recorded message. “I just got a call from Dan’s brother Pat. Dan was in a terrible accident about an hour ago. He didn’t survive. The worst part is, the driver of the other vehicle was Dan’s older brother Ray.”
The words “He didn’t survive” were a devastating echo in my mind. “He didn’t survive.” This was the day after I was forced to say goodbye to my girlfriend, not knowing when I’d see her again (because she and her family were moving away to Kansas), and now I was forced to say goodbye to another dear, dear friend, never to see him again in this life.
Dan Mehan was thirty years old the day he was killed. He had been the music leader at our church for the previous five years. He was also my personal vocal coach, mentor, and a close friend. Just the previous summer, Dan and I were co-leaders on a mission trip to
There were over a thousand people at Dan’s funeral. Like with the death of my great-grandma, I was compelled to write a song after receiving news of Dan’s passing in honor of Dan and the God he loved. I was asked by Dan’s mother, Rosie, to play and sing this at his funeral. I did with humble gladness. I struggled with the rest of the semester that year. I was a senior looking forward to graduating, but found it difficult to find as much happiness in my life as I had felt when Paige was near and Dan was alive.
Here is the song that I wrote 5 years ago, "Danny's Song":
Read the rest of the story here.Tuesday, March 6, 2007. 2 a.m.
The big hospital clock in room 4326 of Greenville Memorial Hospital said, with both hands straight up, midnight. Daddy had just taken his last breath. My watch said 12:01, March 6, 2007.
I had slept a little since his last morphine shot at ten. One ear sleeping, one on the breathing. At 11:45, I awoke. The breaths were coming more frequently and were very shallow. I will not sleep again, I thought. For ten minutes, I prayed aloud into his left ear with Bible texts and pleadings to Jesus to come and take him. I had made this case before, and this time felt an unusual sense of partnership with Daddy as I pressed on the Lord to relieve this warrior of his burden.
