It is Finished!

As we come to celebrate Easter this month, I thought that it would be good for us to explore the most significant word ever uttered in human history. Granted, if it was said by anyone else in any other context, it would nowhere near carry the same weight as it does when coming from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ as He hung on the cross that Good Friday. The word that I am talking about is the Greek word tetelestai. It is rendered in most English translations as It is finished. This is the next to last saying that Jesus cried from the cross before His death and is recorded for us in John 19:30.

The term literally means bring to an end, finish, complete, accomplish. It conveys the idea of carrying out a task. It is what one would say triumphantly after laboring hours or days at something and now having finished it. In fact, Matthew and Mark indicate that Jesus said this with a loud voice or cry. This served as a cry of victory and not defeat.

Notice too that Jesus did not say I am finished but it is finished. He was not simply indicating that His life was over or that His end had come. The it referred to His mission, not Himself.

What was this mission? It doesn't take long for us to go through the Gospels to find out. In the opening chapter of Matthew's gospel, we read about the angel who appeared to Joseph tell him regarding Mary that She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). His mission was to save His people from their sins. In fact, Jesus' very name indicates this mission. In Aramaic, Jesus is Yeshua, which means Yahweh is Salvation or Yahweh Saves. Jesus Himself stated that He did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). His mission was to save His people from their sins by giving His life as a ransom; a price paid to purchase someone’s freedom. He came to live the obedient life that Adam didn't live and to die to experience God's full wrath on the cross in place of those who would trust in Him. A wrath that He did not deserve because He was sinless but that everyone of us does deserve because of Adam's sin and our many sins. He came to serve as a substitute. This was the mission that He declares accomplished. The ransom had been made and the substitution complete.

This Greek word communicates a full completion of the task at a specific point in the past with ongoing results into the present of its writing. This was something fully and completely done in the past with ramifications for years following. Like an earthquake or a hurricane that strikes fully but leaves results felt for years to come, what Jesus did on the cross was fully accomplished, leaving results felt far into the future. It could be translated as “It is finished, it stands finished, and it always will be finished.” There is a finality to Christ's work of redemption that He accomplished on the cross which we still benefit from today. In fact, this Greek word was often used in the marketplace during the time of Christ's life and would be stamped upon a receipt after a purchase of a good to indicate that the transaction had been "paid in full." Our debt of sin has been "paid in full" by Christ's death on the cross and remains paid for all those who put their trust in Him. And that would include all of our sins, whether they were past, present, or future.

This means that nothing more needs to be done pertaining to our redemption. There is nothing that we can add to Christ's already completed work. We cannot add our own works. In fact, to do so would be to say that the cross was meaningless and that Christ's work had not been sufficient. This truth is communicated well by the author of Hebrews when he writes Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins of all time, sat down at the right hand of God (Hebrews 10:11-12). The Old Testament priests were never allowed to sit down when they were doing their duty of offering the annual sacrifice for their people. This was symbolic of the fact that their work was not done. The sacrifice offered would only symbolically cover the sins of the previous year. They would have to enter into the "holy of holies" once again the next year for the sins of that year. However, Jesus is said to sit down as His work was finished when He offered Himself as the perfect and final sacrifice. No other sacrifice for sin was needed after His death. His cry from the cross communicated this. It was a declaration that those Old Testament priests could never have made since their work of offering sacrifices was not finished but our Lord could because His work was done. Everything needed to bring us into a right relationship with God had been fully accomplished.

For us, Easter is a specific celebration of the finished work of Christ. We celebrate the work of redemption that He has accomplished that Friday on Calvary and the His victorious defeat of death itself in His resurrection. And as I have heard it said, “The resurrection is the Father’s ‘amen’ to the Son’s ‘It is finished.’ ” Praise God that Christ's work is finished! Let's make sure that we trust the One whose work has been accomplished and live as if it has been complete by not trying to add our own works to the salvation equation.

Love In Christ,
Pastor Lee