“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished,' and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” - John 19:30.
What was finished at that supreme moment on Calvary when our Lord breathed his last?
His 33 years of natural life in this world were finished.
He alone knew of the supernatural life that was soon to come — 40 days of resurrected victory here on earth, and an eternity of ascended glory at God’s right hand in heaven.
His days and hours of agony were finished — rejection, betrayal, desertion, humiliation, struggle, suffering, sorrow, grief, and dread, all for our sake.
While we were yet enemies he died for us (Romans 5:8-10).
His lifelong pilgrimage to a sacrificial atoning death to purchase us forgiveness and life was finished.
His fight to the finish with the Prince of this world was over at last (John 12:31).
Jesus, the obedient Son, friend of sinners, had utterly vanquished Satan, the rebellious angel, enemy of our souls.
The sacrificial victim had forever triumphed to become our victorious Savior.
All this was finished at that supreme moment on Calvary.
It didn’t mean God is finished with me. It didn’t mean I’m finished striving against my sin nature (Romans 7:21-25).
It’s the work of a lifetime for God to bring me to the finish he desires, to put a high polish on his formerly tarnished image in me.
But because of Christ crucified, I’m finished trying to do that on my own. I’m finished with the treadmill of self-salvation that was my upbringing.
I and my wife Donna both grew up knowing the Bible but not in the fulness of gospel truth, loving God but not in his triune completeness as Father, Son, and Spirit.
We didn’t know we were sinners in need of a Savior. We didn’t know that Savior was available to us in the person of Jesus Christ.
We believed we had to think our way and work our way and earn our way into right relationship with a holy God. It was exhausting — and impossible.
It was actually the mysterious, miraculous beauty of Palm Sunday and Good Friday and Easter that broke through for both of us 25 years ago.
We saw that when Jesus cried out, "It is finished,” he was doing for us what we could never do for ourselves — getting us right with his Father.
Someone has wisely said that “out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing can be made.” What a relief for Donna and me to realize that.
On the crooked timber of the cross, the God who became man finished for all time the divine rescue mission to straighten things out between humanity and divinity.
It’s still a long way to the finish line for all of us. We’re sure of heaven, but we also want to finish well in this life.
We want to have hope that ill health or bad finances or broken relationships or shattered dreams don’t have to mean we’re finished in the eyes of a gracious God and his redemptive Son.
We’re NOT finished— because Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, entered the holy of holies on our behalf that first Good Friday (Romans 9:25-28 and Romans 12:2).
Father, Son, and Spirit, my prayer for each of us on this somber evening is that we may partake fully of Christ’s finished work for the saving of our souls, and that by obeying his new commandment of love, we may live worthily of the unspeakable gift he gave us. Through Jesus our Lord, amen.
Note: I gave this as part of a series of short talks on the Seven Last Words of Christ, presented by elders of our Evangelical Presbyterian church for Good Friday services on April 19, 2019. Along with “It is finished,” the Seven Words include Jesus’ forgiveness of his persecutors in Luke 23:34, his saving mercy to the dying thief in Luke 23:43, his deeming Mary and John as mother and son in John 19:26, his forsaken cry in Mark 15:43, his gasp of thirst in John 19:28, and his dying appeal to the Father in Luke 23:46
