IT IS FINISHED!

April 3

I have glorified You on the earth.  I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. John 17:4

Imagine yourself at Calvary.  God the Son has been hanging on a Roman cross for almost six hours, the last three in total darkness.  God the Father turned His back on His Son for the first and only time in history prompting Jesus to cry out loudly in horror at 12 noon, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).  Around 3 pm Jesus utters, “I am thirsty!”  The soldiers quickly lift a sponge soaked with cheap sour wine on a hyssop branch to His mouth.  This helps Him to cry out loudly a one-word announcement in Greek “tetelestai” or “It is finished!” (John 19:28-30).  It is a word of glorious triumph and not of utter defeat.

What did Jesus mean when He said, “It is finished!”?  It meant that His death totally paid for mankind’s debt of sin against God (Hebrews 9:12, 26-28).  He completed His Father’s business here on earth and fulfilled all His will including drinking to the very last drop that dreaded cup of suffering He recoiled at in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:38-44).  Jesus took all the punishment for our sin so we don’t have to (2 Corinthians 5:21).  All He needed to do now was to rise from the dead to prove that He was indeed God and that His death was sufficient to redeem us (Romans 4:25).  Satan was soundly defeated (John 16:11).  Hebrews 2:13 states that Christ took on flesh and blood “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.”  There was absolutely no more work to be done for us to be saved and forgiven of our sins.  We simply need to believe and trust Him alone, turn from our sins and receive His gift of eternal life (John 1:12-13; 3:16; Romans 6:23).  It is finished!

Bob Kulp