“IT IS FINISHED”

Religion

John 19:28-37

In his book ASIMOV LAUGHS AGAIN, Isaac Asimov tells his story. He was a science fiction writer and an atheist. He was brought up in the Jewish faith but had rejected any concept of God. He was interviewed on national television by David Frost. During the course of the conversation, Frost asked him about his views on God. He was reluctant to admit his atheism on television so he tried to get out of it by asking, “Whose God?” But Frost insisted, “I l mean the Judeo-Christian God of Western tradition. You know that very well, Dr. Asimov.” Again Asimov would not answer but said, “I haven’t given that much thought.” David Frost said, “I don’t believe that. I’m sure a person of your wide knowledge and attainments would have sought to find God.” Then Asimov said, “God is smarter than I am. Let him try to find me.” Everybody laughed and Frost did not pursue the question any longer. But the story did not end there.
All of this was done for the taping of the show that was to be aired later. Asimov wondered what would happen on the day that the show was aired. He had suffered from time to time with kidney stones. On the day that the show aired he had his worst attack. He wrote of the experience, “There’s no use trying to describe the bitter, unrelenting pain one experiences in such an attack. All I could do was to clutch my abdomen, stagger about and gasp, ‘All right , God. You’ve found me. Now let me go!’”

Have you ever prayed a similar prayer? The way that God has of finding us is through the cross. There may be countless circumstances by which he gets our attention, but it is all done to lead us to the foot of the cross.

Today, we come to the cross to look at the triumphant saying of Jesus, “It is Finished!” We all know what it is like to finish a great task that we have been assigned. I happened to be at the church last week and asked the last carpenter how much he lacked being finished. He held up two small pieces of wood and said, “As soon as I nail these in place, the carpentry work is finished.”

In order to get at what Jesus meant when he said, “It is Finished!” remind yourself of how you felt when you had reached a difficult goal.

Most of us have something within us that drives us to achieve a goal or to accomplish a task. It may be a desire for wealth to overcome a deprivation of our childhood. It may be a compulsion to prove to someone or to ourselves that we are a person of worth. It may be our desire to associate ourselves with something that is noble and great. It may be a response to a Divine call to fulfill a mission that we were assigned as our purpose in life.

“It is Finished,” these three words in English translate only one word in Greek tetelestai. It refers to a work completed. This was a cry of triumph, not a moan of defeat! As William Barclay comments in his study Bible:

“When we compare the four gospels we find a most illuminating thing. The other three do not tell us that Jesus said, “It is finished.” But they do tell us that he died with a great shout upon his lips (Matt 27:50; Mk 15:37; Lk 23:46). On the other hand, John does not speak of the great cry, but does say that Jesus’ last words were, “It is finished.” The explanation is that the great shout and the words, “It is finished,” are one and the same thing. “It is finished” is one word in Greek–tetelestai–and Jesus died with a shout of triumph on his lips. He did not say, “It is finished,” in weary defeat; he said it as one who shouts for joy because the victory is won. He seemed to be broken on the Cross, but he knew that his victory was won.”

The “It” in this saying from the cross has many layers of meaning.

FIRST OF ALL, JESUS MEANT THAT ALL OF THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING HIS DEATH WERE FULFILLED.

Genesis 3:15 “He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Just as man sinned in the garden of Eden, God promised to redeem him. Satan and evil would kill him, but he would strike evil at its most vulnerable spot – that of cleansing and forgiveness through a divine sin bearer.

Isaiah 53:6 “We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

So, in saying “It is finished!” Jesus was saying that the prophecies were fulfilled. Jesus also meant that he had accomplished the will of his Father.

John 4:34 “My Food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” Jesus knew that his coming to the earth would lead him to the cross and for that reason he came.

John 5:30 “I seek not to please myself but him who sent me

John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.”

John 8:29 “The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”

John 17:4 “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

John 18:37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying that I am a king.

In fact, for this reason was I born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”

So Jesus accomplished his reason for coming to the earth. Max Lucado states that, “Our Human tendency is to quit too soon. Our human tendency is to stop before we get to the finish-line. Our inability to finish what we start is seen in the smallest of things like: a partly mowed lawn, a half read book, a letter begun but never completed, an abandoned diet, a car up on blocks – or it show up in the most painful of areas: like an abandoned child, a cold faith, a job hopper, a wrecked marriage and un-evangelized world.”

IN SAYING, “IT IS FINISHED!” JESUS MEANT THAT ALL OF THE RIGHTEOUS DEMANDS OF THE LAW HAD BEEN MET. Man had never been able to keep the Ten Commandments and the Law demanded justice.

Romans 8:3-4 “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be met full in us, who did not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.”

We sing, “Free from the law, O happy condition, Jesus had bled, and there is remission, Cursed by the law and dead by the fall, Grace hath redeemed us once for all.”

IN SAYING “IT IS FINISHED!” JESUS MEANT THAT SATAN’S POWER TO DESTROY US WAS ITSELF DESTROYED.

Hebrews 2:14-15 “Sin the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

Colossians 2:13-15 “When you were dead in your sins and in the un-circumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood supposed to us: he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross.”

So Jesus made it possible for the works of Satan to be destroyed in our lives.
A pastor surveyed a hundred members of various churches a few years ago about the significance of the cross in their lives. He asked them, “Would it make any difference in your life if Jesus had not died on the cross?”

This is how they answered:

45 said that they did not feel that it would make any difference.
25 said that they thought so, but were not sure why.
20 said that it made all the difference in how they lived and believed.
10 said that they didn’t know because they didn’t understand what the cross was all about.

“There is a fable which tells of three apprentice devils who were coming to this earth to finish their apprenticeship. They were talking to Satan, the chief of the devils, about their plans to tempt and to ruin men. The first said, “I will tell them that there is no God.”

Satan said, “That will not delude many, for they know that there is a God.”

The second said, “I will tell men that there is no hell.”

Satan answered, “You will deceive no one that way; men know even now that there is a hell for sin.”

The third said, “I will tell men that there is no hurry.”

“Go,” said Satan, “and you will ruin men by the thousands.”

The most dangerous of all delusions is that there is plenty of time.” (Barclay)
IS THERE SOMETHING IN YOUR LIFE YOU WANT TO BE FINISHED WITH?

When Jesus said, “It is Finished!” he meant that God had done all he could to redeem you. Now it is up to you to believe it or to reject it.

Do you want to be free from legalistic religion that has no power to change your heart?
Do you want to be free from the curse that your sin places on you?
Do you want to be finished with some addictive habit that has crippled your life?
Do you want to be finished with some guilt that has stalked you for years?
Do you want to be free from the fear that saps your strength?
Do you want to live your life with a singleness of purpose that will bring you to the point where you can say, “I fulfilled God’s will for my life?

This is what the cross is all about. Jesus said that he had finished his work so that these things would be possible in our lives.

One of the songs of Bill Gaither is “It is Finished!”
“There’s a line that is drawn through the ages
On that line stands an old rugged cross On that cross, a battle is raging
To gain a man’s soul or it’s loss
On one side, march the forces of evil All the demons, all the devils of hell
On the other, the angels of glory
And they meet on Golgotha’s hill
The earth shakes with the force of the conflict
And the sun refuses to shine For there hangs God’s son, in the balance
And then through the darkness he cries
It is finished, the battle is over It is finished, there’ll be no more war It is finished, the end of the conflict It is finished and Jesus is Lord

Yet in my heart, the battle was still raging
Not all prisoners of war had come home
These were battlefields of my own making
I didn’t know that the war had been won Oh, but then I heard the king of the ages had fought all the battles for me
And that victory was mine for the claiming
And now praise his name, I am free.”

Back to Top