Text: John 19:28-30
“All things were now accomplished…it is finished!” This declaration is filled with intense emotions: satisfaction, accomplishment, celebration and exhaustion. The wondrous work of salvation was completed – His last pain endured, His last service rendered, His substitionary work done!
IT IS FINISHED…THE WORK IS DONE
Anyone who has worked long and hard at a difficult job knows something of the great satisfaction that comes when you are able to say, “There, it is finished at last!” The following men could very well have made that statement.
Goodyear: It took eleven years of hard work for him to unlock the secret of vulcanizing rubber. The only one who believed in him was his wife!
Morse: After years of being criticized and jeered at, he silenced the world’s unbelief by telling them, “What hath God wrought? – through his telegraph.
Cyrus Field: They said of him: “A mad freak of stubborn ignorance.” After ten years and thirty attempts to span the ocean with the news of the word by cable, he succeeded.
Bell: In 1876, he was called a “mad man” just hours before he transmitted his voice across the continent by means of wires.
Solomon: He finished building the temple in seven and a half years, using 180,000 workers to accomplish the task.
These were but feeble expressions compared to the emotions of Christ as He cried, “It is finished!” – His teachings! His life! His miracles! His Cross!
IT IS FINISHED…A DISPENSATION IS ENDED!
This cry marks the ending of the Law with its ceremonies, rituals, types and symbols. Here are a few examples of the types and symbols of Christ:
- Adam – came directly from God.
- Melchizedek – without beginning or end.
- Isaac – a sacrificial lamb on the Father’s altar.
- Moses – a great deliverer from the land of bondage.
- Joseph – despised by his brethren.
- Solomon – a rich and powerful king.
- Joshua – a victorious conqueror.
- Samson – carried off the gates of impossibility.
- Jonah – went through the sea of death to save others.
- Noah’s ark – a place of safety.
- The high priest – representative of sinners before God.
- Sprinkled blood – seven times / a perfect atonement
There are many more which were shadows of God’s redemptive work that was yet future. These types and shadows opened the way for something better: they introduced people to Christ; they were redemption symbolized.
The work on the Cross finished the legal system of the patriarchs and Judaism. The Lord Jesus took all of its types, rites and symbols to the Cross with Him and nailed them there. They died with Him (Col. 2:14).
By the work of Christ on the Cross, there remain no priestly secrets. The old priesthood has been replaced. The old sacrifices have lost their value because of the one great sacrifice of Jesus Christ Himself!
IT IS FINISHED…A DEBT IS PAID
Man is in debt! He cannot pay his way out! However, the debt is paid by Christ: by every thorn that punctured His brow, by every nail that pierced His hands and feet, by the savage Roman spear that tore His side, and by every drop of His sinless blood.
The debt is paid – not with corruptible things, not with the traditions of the fathers, BUT by His precious blood.
Jesus Christ is the ripened fruit, made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law. All the demands of the Law were met and the bill of debt is removed.
As the songwriter so aptly puts it: “Jesus paid it all…all to Him I owe.” Thus:
We are free because He was bound.
We have Heaven because He suffered Hell.
We are exalted because He was humbled.
We are rich because He was poor.
We are healed because He was wounded.
We drink the water of salvation because He drank the cup of God’s wrath.
Dear sinner – drunkard – adulterer – self-righteous – liar – murderer: your sins were put to His account … AND, IT IS FINISHED! Trust Him today!