It is finished

John 19:28–30 (NKJV)

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!”

29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth.

30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.

Introduction:

There are seven words, the last seven expressions of Jesus Christ which he uttered on the Cross at Calvary (Golgotha in Hebrew according to John 19:17, meaning a place of a skull (Mark 15:22). The testimony of a dying man holds more value in the court. So the words of Christ on Calvary carry legal weight. In other words they are true. Supposedly crucifixion happened on a Friday, we call it Good Friday.

There are seven expressions traditionally attributed to Jesus during his crucifixion, gathered from the four Gospels. Three of the sayings appear exclusively in the Gospel of Luke and three appear exclusively in the Gospel of John.

The other saying appears both in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Mathew. In Mark and Matthew, Jesus cries out to God. In Luke, he forgives his killers, reassures the good thief, and commends his spirit to the Father. In John, he speaks to his mother, says he thirsts, and declares the end of his earthly life.

THE FIRST WORD

"Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

Gospel of Luke 23:34

Jesus says this first word only in the Gospel of Luke, just after he was crucified by the soldiers on Golgotha, with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. The timing of this suggests that Jesus asks his Father to primarily forgive his enemies, the soldiers, who have scourged him, mocked him, tortured him, and who have just nailed him to the cross. Even though He was dying on the Cross, His focus seems to be the other people. The other people are the Jews, Gentiles (all of us, not just Romans who crucified Him), His disciples who deserted Him. Forgiveness dominates his life style and his preachings. We see it in the Lord’s Prayer (Mathew 6:12), he tells it to Peter, his disciple (Mathew 18:21-22), at the last supper (Mathew 26:27-28), he forgives the Paralytic at Capernaum (Mark 2:5), the adulteress caught in act (John 8:1-11), after resurrection he commissions His disciples to forgive (John 20:22-23). Forgiveness flows in His blood. So we also can appreciate its importance on our lives as well.

THE SECOND WORD

"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Gospel of Luke 23:43

Luke 23:39-42 (New King James Version)

39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ,[a]save Yourself and us.”

40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?

41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”

42 Then he said to Jesus, “Lord,[b] remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

Here we see how one thief mocks Jesus, but the other one asks for forgiveness and receives it. The second word is about salvation with forgiveness underlying it. Here we see salvation through faith alone, not works as the thief had no time for good works, not even for Baptism. He just believed and was saved.

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Habakkuk 2:4, Hebrews 10:38).

THE THIRD WORD

"Jesus said to his mother: "Woman, this is your son".

Then he said to the disciple: "This is your mother."

Gospel of John 19:26-27

Jesus was with his mother at the beginning of his ministry in Cana and also now at the end of his public ministry at the Golgotha. There are four at the foot of the cross according to the Bible.

John 19:25

25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene.

26 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!”

27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home His third word is addressed to Mary and John, the only eye-witness of the Gospel writers. The third word is about affection or love he has for the mother who gave birth to him on earth. He is doing his duty as her eldest son, making sure her needs are met after he is dead and gone.

THE FOURTH WORD

Mark 15:34 (New King James Version)

34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”[a]

This is the only expression of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Both Gospels relate that it was in the ninth hour, after 3 hours of darkness, that Jesus cried out this fourth word. Here we see as a completely human with no God part in him as he feels loneliness deserted by His Father and the Holy Spirit, not to mention his earthly companions the Apostles. As if to emphasize his loneliness, Jesus feels separated from his Father. He is now all alone, and he must face death by himself. His fourth word expresses his loneliness and expresses pain of rejection by everybody including God, the father.

His fourth Word is the opening line of Psalm 22. Psalm 22 of David made a striking prophecy of the crucifixion of the Messiah, at a time when crucifixion did not exist: "They have pierced my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones" (22:16-17).

The Psalm continued: "they divide my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots" (22:18). It is by His death that we are redeemed. "For there is one God. There is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself as ransom for all" (l Timothy 2:5-6).

THE FIFTH WORD

"I thirst"

Gospel of John 19:28

This is mentioned in the Gospel of John 19:28. The fifth word of Jesus is His only human expression of His physical suffering. Jesus is now in shock. The wounds inflicted upon him in the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the nailing upon the cross are now taking their toll, especially after losing blood on the three-hour walk through the city of Jerusalem to Golgotha on the Way of the Cross.

"He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,

So that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed" (l Peter 2:24).

THE SIXTH WORD

When Jesus had received the wine, he said,

"It is finished";

and he bowed his head and handed over the spirit.

Bottom of Form

Gospel of John 19:30

As they say, he came to die. His mission is finished. He came from heaven for this purpose only, to provide salvation for the perishing human race. His birth and victory over the powers of darkness are clearly mentioned in the Bible. God has made a promise to the Mankind when Adam and Eve failed him at the Garden of Eden. God could not disown his own creation, so he came with a redemptive plan. Jesus fulfilled that redemptive plan of God for Man.

Genesis 3:15 (New King James Version)

15 And I will put enmity

Between you and the woman,

And between your seed and her Seed;

He shall bruise your head,

And you shall bruise His heel.”

When Jesus died, He "handed over" the Spirit. Jesus remains in control to the end and it is He who handed over his Spirit.

During the darkness three sayings passed Christ’s lips: “I am thirsty,” “It is finished,” “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” John recounts the first two (vv. 28, 30). The third is given in Luke 23:46.

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. (John 19:28–29)

Paul tells us, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). At this moment he fulfilled Psalm 69:21: “… and gave me vinegar for my thirst.” Even the unusual use of a branch of hyssop to extend the sponge to Christ’s lips suggests Scriptural parallels, because hyssop was the plant prescribed in Exodus 12:22 to be used in the application of the blood of the Passover lamb to the doorpost so the death angel would pass by.

The body of Jesus was by this time in extremis. He could feel the chill of death creeping through his limbs. Did he with great effort pull himself up and whisper an additional plea for relief? No. He shouted, “It is finished” and “bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (v. 30).

“It is finished” was not a submissive cry but a shout of victory. In the Greek it was only one word, in the Greek perfect tense, meaning, “It is finished and always will be finished!” What had Christ finished? The Law itself (he had completed and fulfilled it). The Old Testament types in the ceremonial law. The Messianic prophecies. But most of all, he had finished the atonement.

Lifted up was He to die,

“It is finished!” was his cry;

Now in heav’n exalted high:

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

—Philip P. Bliss

His cry of victory came not because he was dying a horrible death, but because “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He became a curse for us and was separated from God so we would never have to know the horror of eternal punishment for sin. Not even the most evil man, including Nero or Hitler, has ever known in this life the horror of being completely cut off from God. His presence was always there, if only through common grace. But Christ suffered total separation from the Father as he bore our penalty, then cried out with a joyous shout, “It is finished.”

Because he paid for our sins, we must come to him empty-handed. To come to Christ with some of our own work or goodness in hand is to commit the infinite insult. We must come like the thief who hung beside him on the cross.

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling.

If we have received Jesus Christ as our Savior, we will never be separated from God but rather will eternally enjoy fellowship with the Father and the Son and the Spirit! God’s face will shine upon us forever.[1]

THE SEVENTH WORD

Luke 23:46 (New King James Version)

46 And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’”[a] Having said this, He breathed His last.

Gospel of Luke 23:46

The seventh word of Jesus is from the Gospel of Luke, and is directed to the Father in heaven, just before He dies. Jesus recalls Psalm 31:5 - "Into thy hands I commend my spirit; thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God He died at the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon); about the same time as the Passover lambs were slaughtered in the Temple. Christ became the Paschal or Passover Lamb, as noted by Paul: "For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed" (1 Corinthians 5:7). The innocent Lamb was slain for our sins, so that we might be forgiven.

[1]Hughes, R. K. (1999). John: that you may believe (pp. 448–449). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.