It is Finished
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So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
Out of all the last words of Christ on the cross, none is more important or more touching than, “It is finished.”
Found only in the Gospel of John,
The Greek word translated “it is finished” is tetelestai
an accounting term that means “paid in full.”
When Jesus uttered those words, He was declaring the debt owed to His Father was wiped away completely and forever. Not that Jesus wiped away any debt that He owed to the Father; rather, Jesus eliminated the debt owed by mankind—the debt of sin.
Just prior to His arrest by the Romans, Jesus prayed His last public prayer, asking the Father to glorify Him, just as Jesus had glorified the Father on earth, having “finished the work you have given me to do.”
I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.
The work Jesus was sent to do was a threefold ministry.
To seek and save that which is lost
To seek and save that which is lost
for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
To provide atonement for the sins of all who would ever believe in Him
To provide atonement for the sins of all who would ever believe in Him
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
To reconcile sinful men to a holy God.
To reconcile sinful men to a holy God.
Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
None other but God in the flesh could accomplish this threefold mission.
Also completed was
The fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecies, symbols, and foreshadowings of the coming Messiah.
The fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecies, symbols, and foreshadowings of the coming Messiah.
From Genesis to Malachi, there are over 300 specific prophecies detailing the coming of the Anointed One, all fulfilled by Jesus. From the “seed” who would crush the serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15) to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, to the prediction of the “messenger” of the Lord (John the Baptist) who would “prepare the way” for the Messiah, all prophecies of Jesus’ life, ministry, and death were fulfilled and finished at the cross.
Although the redemption of mankind is the most important finished task, many other things were finished at the cross.
The sufferings Jesus endured while on the earth, and especially in His last hours, were at last over.
The sufferings Jesus endured while on the earth, and especially in His last hours, were at last over.
God’s will for Jesus was accomplished in His perfect obedience to the Father
I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.
For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
Something else came to completion,
The power of sin and Satan was finished.
The power of sin and Satan was finished.
No longer would mankind have to suffer the “flaming arrows of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16). By raising the “shield of faith” in the One who completed the work of redemption and salvation, we can, by faith, live as new creations in Christ. Jesus’ finished work on the cross was the beginning of new life for all who were once “dead in trespasses and sins” but who are now made “alive with Christ” (Ephesians 2:1, 5).