It Is Finished: From Death to Life
Describe Jesus’ last experiences just before He died (John 19:28–30). What did Jesus mean when He said that “it is finished”? What was finished?
Though the enemy, Satan, in conjunction with some of the leaders, had orchestrated Christ’s death, at the crucial moment Jesus voluntarily surrendered His life to the Father: “He bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30, NIV). The language suggests that He went to sleep, trusting in the goodness, benevolence, and love of the Father. He had said to the disciples, “ ‘I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord’ ” (John 10:17, 18, NIV). Now when the proper moment arrived, He did just that.
“It is finished” meant that the perfect atoning sacrifice had once and for all been offered and that heaven and earth had been reconnected through it. The plan of salvation, kept secret for ages, was now fully revealed to the universe in the obedient death of the Son of God on the cross. God had provided the sacrifice, and now its atoning power was available to every human being who will look to the Cross as the exclusive way of salvation. Consequently, the sacrificial system of the Old Testament ended. At the moment Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn apart, from top to bottom (Matt. 27:51, Mark 15:38), indicating that the presence of God and His accessibility to us was now located in the sacrifice and person of His beloved Son.
“It is finished” was a triumphal shout. He came to defeat Satan, and He accomplished this in the weakness of human flesh and in the midst of a mortal confrontation (Heb. 2:14). The ultimate destruction of Satan and his angels was fixed at the Cross.
This victory was revealed and sealed through His resurrection, when the forces of evil were unable to retain the Son of God inside the tomb. That glorious Sunday morning the words of Jesus were fulfilled: “ ‘I have authority to lay it [my life] down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father’ ” (John 10:18, NIV). Jesus is “ ‘the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades’ ” (Rev. 1:18, NIV).
What hope does the fact that Christ finished His work at the Cross offer us? What does that tell us about resting in Him and His works for us? How should this reality be expressed in our lives and behavior?
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