‘It is finished.’ (John 19:30)
After all the twists and turns, the betrayal and trials, the lying and sentencing, the beating and mocking, the nailing and humiliating, the pain and torture, things come to a climax. Jesus, knowing that all was now finished asked for a drink and then declared the work done.
A single word: Tetelestai.
This was a word written across a bill or invoice to show that nothing was left outstanding. Nothing more was owed. The debt was settled. Tetelestai – paid in full.
This cry is the moment when Jesus completed His mission on earth. He had done all He was sent to do. He had ‘proclaimed good news to the poor…liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind…set at liberty those who are oppressed and proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favour’ (Luke 4:18-19). He had ushered in the kingdom of God, demonstrated what it meant to be the people of God, pointed people to relationship with Father God, and now had made a way for all to have access to God. Every Scripture obeyed. Every prophecy fulfilled. Every person loved.
It is finished!
In these final hours on the cross He was going about His Fathers’ business: interceding for His enemies, caring for His mother, bestowing grace on the undeserving, experiencing suffering, fulfilling Scripture, trusting the Father, and now declaring completion. No stone unturned. No detail overlooked.
It is finished!
It is worth us noting that God always completes His work. Time began like this as God created the cosmos. Seven days: light and darkness; earth and sky; land, sea and plants; sun, moon and stars; sea creatures and birds; animals and people. All this was judged to be ‘very good’ (Genesis 1:31). And then we read, ‘Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done’ (Genesis 2:1-2, emphasis mine).
Did you notice it? The repetition of the word ‘finished’? God’s work was very good and it was complete. Done. Finished.
The author to the Hebrews writes that, ‘looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Heb 12:2).
The cross was endured, the shame despised, and now He is seated in glorious splendour at the right hand of the Father. Jesus’ work, His mission, was completed and finished, and ‘after making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high’ (Hebrews 1:3). He finished His work and now He is sat down.
It is finished!
Did you know that you, too, come under this remit? ‘And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ’ (Philippians 1:6). You may feel far from finished. You may feel that you have a long way to go. But God is in the business of finishing what He started. Always has. Always will. And so you, too, will be complete, perfect on the day you appear before Him.
That is what He accomplished on the cross. The statement that ‘It is finished’ reverberates across history and means that one day we will be with Him forever. Nothing can bar us from His presence because Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’
It is my prayer that today, on this Good Friday, you will see your Saviour on His cross with greater clarity, and that on this coming Easter Sunday you will marvel at the empty tomb with greater wonder.
It is finished!
The Sharpened Sword 