Grace Under Pressure: It is Finished (John 19:28-30)

"I’ve had enough”

Have you every started something and not finished it? I can think of at least 5 projects at the house that are that way. You start something because you have plenty of time and then it is not finished because you got interrupted and never went back to it?

One of the most famous pieces of art in the world was not finished by the world famous artist commissioned to paint it. Michelangelo was working on the pope’s tomb when he was pulled off of that project and commissioned to pain the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. He spent the next four years on scaffolding, brush in hand, often miserable from physical discomfort and doing something he didn’t really want to do. He did not lie down. He painted standing up with his neck bent backward. He spent hours in that position.

The pope didn’t make it any easier. In a biography of Michelangelo written by one of his students, we learn what it was like behind the scenes. Pope Julius was a micromanager. Things got so bad, finally Michelangelo had had enough. The pope asked Michelangelo when the ceiling would be done one too many times. Michelangelo took apart the scaffolding and walked out the door. The ceiling was finished. When the pope asked that he get back on the scaffolding and fill in the details with gold, the great artist said “no”. The ceiling was finished.

On the cross, Jesus said, “It is finished”. However, Jesus was not saying “We’re done. I’ve had enough.” We might like to go there. After all, God had spent the last 33 years as a human living among sinful humans. And he suffered all along the way, including beatings, a crown of thorns, nakedness, and crucifixion. And the mockery. And the thirst. “I’ve had enough.”

Salvation Accomplished

I’ll have to admit if I had all those things happen to me, I think I would be looking for the exit strategy. But Jesus wasn’t a quitter. This isn’t what he’s saying. He’s not Michelangelo deciding that he had had enough and so, “It is finished, I’m not doing that any more.” He was graceful under pressure all the way to the end. He wasn’t going to throw in the towel in frustration. He wasn’t going to crack under pressure and abandon His mission. He wasn’t going to give up.

Here’s what Jesus said:

John 19:30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.

He did not say, “I am finished.” His words were not an expression of defeat or exhaustion. His words were something entirely different. This word means “accomplished”. “Completed in full.” “Fulfilled the mission.” “Realized the goal”. When you’ve paid the last payment on a mortgage or car payment. It is finished. You’ve accomplished what you set out to do.

Jesus accomplished exactly what He came into this world to do. Our salvation was accomplished on the cross. John has already set his readers up for this: Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All the of the signs that John records.. from Jesus turning the water into wine, healing the man born blind, feeding the 5000 with only 5 loaves and 2 fish, raising Lazarus from the dead, walking on water and calming the sea… all of this is pointing to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus was laser-focused on being the Lamb who becomes the sacrifice for people and their sins. Jesus never gave up on his mission to save you and me from our sins and give us life.

What is “it”?

The natural question is to ask just what “it” is. We’ve already kind of answered it above… he accomplished his mission to save his people from their sins. But what is it that made that happen?

First,

Jesus perfectly obeyed all of the law’s requirements.

We can’t make it through one day without breaking one of God’s commands. Impossible. Jesus did for an entire lifetime.

There’s popular prayer that has become a meme on the internet:

Dear Lord, So far today, I’m doing all right. I have not gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or self-indulgent. I have not whined, cursed, or complained. But I will be getting out of bed in a minute, and I think that I will really need Your help then.

But Jesus wasn’t like this. He never ever sinned. He never had a bad thought. He was perfect. His obedience was perfect so that we would be good with God. He obeyed because we don’t and his obedience becomes ours in his death.

Romans 5:19 “For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

Obedience in life, obedience in death. Jesus perfectly obeyed God’s will. He’s the only one to ever do it. He’s the only one who can ever do it, because he was not born in sin like the rest of us. Jesus perfectly obeyed all of the do’s and don’ts. Jesus was the perfect Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. He finished the task of fulfilling God’s do’s and don’ts to their fullest, so that it would no longer have a hold on us. Ever. He finished the law on our behalf.

Second,

Jesus completely paid the penalty for our sin.

Sin has consequences. Jesus took the eternal consequences of sin upon Himself. He was the sacrifice that a holy God demands in payment for sin. And “payment” is the right word. This word “finished” is a banking term. The debt has been paid in full. The debt we owed God for our sin… the life for life requirements for our sin have been completely paid off. God doesn’t just wave a magic wand over our sin to get rid of it. He doesn’t simply sweep sin under the rug, or say, You know what, I’m going to give you a pass. No. Jesus was the Lamb of God. He was a sacrifice on our behalf. He gets death. We have complete forgiveness.

Third,

Jesus filled up to their fullest the Promises of Salvation History to destroy sin and defeat Satan

I can’t emphasize this enough. If we simply stop at “Jesus finished what he came to do”, we haven’t said enough about what “It” is. When Jesus says “It is finished”, he is bringing to completion thousands of years of work on our salvation.

The great missionary Paul has this fascinating thought in

Galatians 4:4-5 When the time came to completion, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

When the time came to completion. When history got to the point where the only thing left was for Jesus to make good on God’s Promises, Jesus came and did it. Jesus redeemed us and made us God’s children. Time itself came to its fullest and highest expression in the One Who Created Time Itself. And it was completed. It is finished.

Mission accomplished

When George W Bush declared those words, he became the subject of mockery. I’m not here to debate whether or not that mockery was warranted. But use of “mission accomplished” invited a certain kind of scrutiny on what was being claimed. That kind of scrutiny has been aimed at Jesus as well. But let me say this: you cannot begin to qualify just what is finished without doing serious damage to the idea that anything has been accomplished for our salvation.

When Jesus paid for our sins, here’s what he accomplished for our salvation:

EVERYTHING

Full stop. There’s nothing left for Jesus to do. When he paid for our sins, when he obeyed everything completely, he was brining an end to all the work for our salvation. All of history had a stake in Jesus finishing the task of salvation. This is big. This is huge. Here’s where it all started, back in the garden of Eden after our first parents, Adam and Eve sinned:

Genesis 3:15 “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

The plan to take care of sin starts there. And God says, I’m going to take care of it myself. What’s fascinating is that just prior to all this going down between Adam and Eve and the serpent, it says “God rested on the seventh day.” When Adam and Eve sinned, the time of rest was over. God went to work. And he worked and he worked and he worked. Through the law and promises to Abraham and Moses and David and Daniel and all the other saints… for hundreds and thousands of years, God was working out the plan for the salvation of sinners. And now, here on the cross, Jesus concludes all of that work:

It is Finished!

All the work, all the years, all the nations, all the people, all the sin, all the disappointment, all the rebellion and rejection… and then all of the Promises and Grace and Forgiveness and Salvation… it all comes down to this. It is Finished. There’s nothing left for Jesus to do. All those years and all that failure comes down to that one moment: It is Finished. Sin is atoned for. The devil is defeated. We’re done! It’s finished.

Jesus’ work on the cross could not be any more finished than it is right now! You see how insufficient it is to simply say finished means he paid for sin. Yes, he did do that, but he completed it all, all the way back to Adam, and whatever happens in the future. It is finished.

A couple of things we have to say here. First,

“It is finished” doesn’t mean salvation is now possible.

“It is finished” means he actually accomplished salvation for you. Always beware use of the word “possible” when it comes to Jesus’ death on the cross. Use of the word “possible” presumes it really isn’t finished. It presumes there is still something else to be done. And that leads us to this:

“It is finished” doesn’t mean “I’ve done my part. Now it’s up to you to do your part.”

It also doesn’t mean “I’ve done my part, now it’s up to you to do your part.” That presumes that our salvation and even our Christian life is part Jesus, part us. No, the whole thing was accomplished then. Nothing left for Jesus to do in order to make you God’s child, in order to give you his grace and his salvation. It’s all a work of God. It means he’s done his part and our part. It’s done. It’s finished. Nothing for him to do. AND...

“It is finished” means there’s nothing left for you to do.

I think this is why “It is Finished” is so offensive to Christians. And it is offensive. I don’t know how many times in just the last year that you say “It is Finished” and there isn’t some pastor or theologian or Christian immediately qualifying those words with “Yes, but.” People just can’t let “it is finished” be the final word. They say something along the lines of “Yes, it is finished, but you still need to repent, you still need to make sure your life is cleaned up, you still need to make sure you’re swearing off a life of sin, you still need to say the sinner’s prayer” and the list goes on and on.

The fear is that we’re letting people off the hook for sin. But the reality is that Jesus lets us off the hook for our sin. Jesus’ cross saves us. But we are absolutely bound and determined to weasel our way into the salvation equation. We want credit, even if it’s a little bit.

“It is finished” means that Satan cannot whisper in your ear and say, “it is finished, but.” He’s constantly trying to get us to believe and behave as if it is still up to us. That it is not finished. We still have to repent. We still have to make sure that we are always acting like Christians are supposed to act. It’s not finished. “It is finished” is only a possibility, and not a reality. When that happens, be assured that Satan is talking. "It is finished” cannot be neutered. It cannot be tamed. It places Jesus in control of all that happens in our salvation.

“It is finished” has everything to do with your Christian life, not just your conversion experience.

You’ve probably already picked up on this. This is one more way “It is finished” gets made less than, one more way it gets neutered. There’s the suggestion that “It is finished” is true only so far as your conversion, your justification. But your sanctification, your Christian walk… well, we help out God a bit. We make some effort.

But our Christian walk is just as much a part of our salvation as justification and conversion. This is how our effort and our works for our salvation come in the back door. Sanctification is also salvation. And we need Jesus and his cross and “it is finished” every bit as much now as when we first were made part of God’s family.

This takes all the pressure off. There’s nothing left for you to do. Jesus’ sacrifice was more than sufficient to atone for every sin you’ve committed, even the ones that haunt you. His sacrifice is sufficient enough to atone for every sin you will ever commit. Those sins, too, are washed by your Savior’s blood. Jesus’ death has earned for you complete acceptance in God’s eyes. His performance has met the Father’s approval. You and I cannot add to Jesus’ work. We don’t need to He did it all for us.

From beginning to end, you are Jesus’. What he starts, He finishes. The great missionary Paul says this:

Philippians 1:6 I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Jesus guarantees that His completion becomes our completion. “It is finished” means that you are safe with Jesus all the way to the final resurrection… the Day of Christ Jesus when all sin and all death are no longer part of our experience. There’s nothing left for Jesus to do. There’s nothing left for you to do. That’s grace. That’s love. We don’t deserve that kind of finished work. So today, tomorrow, live your life to the fullest. You’re free. You’re free to be everything Jesus saved you to be. Receive His Good News this morning in faith. Put your confidence in Jesus. He is completing what he started. His finished has become our finished.

Let’s Pray

This Table here is the finished work of Jesus for you. There’s nothing more to do. We simply show up and receive his work for us in faith. It is finished. For you. Right now. Here in his broken body and shed blood.