“It Is Finished”
[John 18:1-19:42]
April 10, 2009 Second Reformed Church
“Tetelestai! ” “It is finished! ”
We have just heard the history of what happened to Jesus after the Lord’s Supper and through His Burial. With these events in mind, I would like us to focus in on one verse, John 19:30, and have us consider what this cry of victory means: what did Jesus finish? What was finished in His final moments on the cross?
Jesus had been betrayed and the Pharisees and the chief priests had come with weapons to take Jesus away. They had tried Him – illegally – during the night. Peter had denied Him. The Pharisees and chief priests brought Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor, because Israel was occupied by the Romans – they were not allowed to put criminals to death. Pilate interviewed Jesus and was unnerved by Him. The crowd demanded the Jesus be crucified and Pilate relented when they threatened to tell Caesar that he was a traitor to the crown. So they crucified Him, and He died, and Jesus’ followers received His Body and laid Him in a tomb.
That sounds like failure: his own disciples thought He had failed. Some of them said, “But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21a, ESV). And we can understand that to a degree: Jesus had been condemned by the religious and the secular authority. He had been mocked, beaten, and scourged – we can hear the whip, studded with glass and sharp stones hitting Him again and again – thirty-nine times – the historians of the day wrote that there was not an inch of His Body that was not bruised, torn, or bleeding. Then He carried the beams of His cross, and they threw Him down on it and pounded spikes into His wrists and ankles. But that was not all – it was not just the suffering of being crucified that He endured, but Jesus cried out that the Father had forsaken Him – in a way that we cannot fully understand, the Father turned His back on the Son, and the Son received the eternal sufferings of Hell for each one who would believe, concentrated and all at once, as He hung on the cross. How could they not think He had failed?
But then, in His final moments, He cried out a cry of victory: “Tetelestai! ” “It is finished! ” It didn’t look like it on that first Good Friday, but in that moment, Jesus announced His Victory – His Completed Work – though it had not all played out, it was now secured in history. In that final moment, the curtain of the temple that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple was torn in two, from the top down, so, let us take a peek through and beyond the curtain:
Jesus fulfilled every prophecy about the Messiah – the Savior. Again and again, we see in the New Testament, references to Old Testament prophecies about the Coming Savior, and the text telling us that “this happened to fulfill the prophecy” or “He did this to fulfill the prophecy.” There are hundreds of prophecies about the Coming Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled every one.
Jesus kept the whole Law of God. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18, ESV). And the author of Hebrews wrote, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,” (Hebrews 4:15, 5:8-9, ESV). Jesus kept God’s Law perfectly; He never sinned. Therefore, He was able to take our place – to be our Substitute before God in judgment – to receive the judgment for our sins, and He was able to give those who believe His Perfect Righteousness – credited to us – to our accounts.
Similarly, Jesus did all the Father sent Him to do. As Jesus said, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that has been given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:38-40, ESV).
Jesus accomplished all that was necessary for our redemption, justification, and salvation: “Consequently, [Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. Since he always lives to make intercessions for them. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’ – ” (Hebrews 7:25; 9:15; Galatians 3:13, ESV).
He gave Himself as a ransom for all those who would believe: “even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. [Jesus] gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time” (Matthew 20:28; I Timothy 2:6, ESV).
He paid the wages of sin: “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, not to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy place every year with blood not his own, for then he would have to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But, as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Hebrews 9:24-26, ESV).
Since Jesus is Holy and Innocent and able to take our place in judgment, He was also able to satisfy God’s Justice by enduring the full penalty for all of our sin in Himself: “[Jesus] has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people. Since he did this once for all when he offer up himself” (Hebrews 7:27, ESV).
And He has provided a perfect standing before God for His people: “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet, For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:12-14, ESV).
He has secured our eternal salvation, as Jesus said, “‘Father, the hour has come, glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given to him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed’” (John 17:1b-5, ESV).
Jesus us secured our salvation by vanquishing the power of death, Hell, and the devil: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death we subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14-15, ESV).
And so we look forward to that day of victory when Jesus returns for us, “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying, as it is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting.’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Corinthians 15:53-57, ESV).
Let us also note that Jesus glorified the Father as part of His Finished Work: “‘Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again’” (John 12:27-28, ESV).
“Tetelestai! ” “It is finished! ”
God the Son incarnated, lived under God’s Law, kept it perfectly, fulfilled all the prophecies of the Savior, and accomplishing everything the Father sent Him to do. He paid the ransom for His people, He endured God’s Wrath – Hell on the cross for our sins, He satisfied God’s Justice, declaring His people justified and righteous, secure in eternal salvation, because death and Hell and the devil were defeated. And in all these things, He glorified His Father.
In that final moment on the cross, Jesus proclaimed victory, because He had finished the work He was sent to do. On the third day, He would rise, and forty days later, He would ascend back to His Throne. This horrible day is Good Friday, because Jesus accomplished all of this, for our sake, and to the glory of the Father.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we cannot truly imaging the extent of the horrors You endured on the cross, yet we understand something of what You did for us. We ask that we would not take sin so lightly, but remember what You endured to make us right with You. And keep us from thinking there is anything left that we must do to become right with You, for You declared the work finished, and the work is all of You and all for You and all to Your Glory. May Jesus Christ be praised. Amen.
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