It is Finished (John 19:30)
The sixth cry of Jesus on the cross is a cry that points to a sense of achievement, that something has been accomplished by him. Obviously, it includes the aspect that something has come to an end, but it is possible for something to end in failure. There is no sense of failure here in this saying of Jesus. The word that Jesus used here would be used by an individual who had completed a task. A carpenter would use it when he finished making an item. Maybe Jesus had said the word often when speaking to a satisfied customer about something he had made. Of course, the activity on those occasions are not as important as the one he completed on the cross. Yet everything he did was perfect, whether in the carpenter’s shop or on the cross. So we should ask what was finished and completed when Jesus died?
His earthly life was completed
While we cannot be sure how old Jesus was when he died, he was somewhere in his early thirties. Luke says that Jesus was about thirty when he began his public ministry and it probably lasted about three years. The life of Jesus was a distinctive one, and it is important for us to think about it as often as we can.
His life was marked by sinlessness. This makes his life amazing. Adam and Eve were sinless for a short time after their creation by God at the beginning, but eventually they fell to the temptations of the devil. They fell in a place of perfection, but Jesus remained sinless in an environment of imperfection. Throughout his earthly life, he never found himself in a location where sin was not found, although he remained sinless in each of them. The home in Nazareth only had one sinless person within its walls, the synagogue there only had one sinless worshipper, the carpenter’s shop only ever had one sinless person within it, and we can say the same about everywhere he went. When he went to the annual religious feasts in Jerusalem, he was the only sinless person in attendance. While it is the case that he met sinners after his resurrection, all the ones that he met with were his people, even if the meeting with them brought about their conversion such as with regard to his brother James. So Jesus was not going to mingle with sinners again as he had done throughout his life. Calvary was the last time when he would be in their presence in the way that he had been throughout his life.
His life on earth was controlled by the Spirit. Because he was perfectly holy, Jesus as a man was constantly guided by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guided Jesus by the Scriptures, the Spirit led Jesus to pray, the Spirit enabled Jesus to perform the miracles that indicated he was the Messiah, and the Spirit led him to the cross and enabled him to continue his perfect life even in the most distressing of circumstances. It is the case that now in glory Jesus has been given the Spirit to enable him to fulfil his functions as the Mediator. Yet we can see that there is a difference between how the Spirit worked in his life while he was on earth and how he works in his life after his resurrection and ascension.
His life on earth had been marked by a servant attitude. He had been among people as one who serves. Indeed he had said on one occasion that he had come into the world not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. His death, we might say, was the culmination of his life of service. He had served people in numerous ways. His attitude of service did not mean that he had forgotten who he was. When he washed the feet of his disciples in the upper room on the evening of his arrest, he informed them that it was their Lord and Master who had washed their feet and showed such a spirit of servanthood. He would remain a servant of his Father after his ascension, although there would be many changes in his status and activities. He would still be a perfect servant, but his roles would be different after his exaltation.
In another of his sayings on the cross, Jesus had anticipated the closure of some of the relationships and activities he had engaged in during his earthly life. When he arranged for his mother to be taken care off by John the apostle, Jesus was indicating to them that previous relationships he had with her would no longer continue. The same could be said about his relationship with his siblings – they would become his disciples and fellow heirs of the kingdom of God, but the privilege would not be theirs because they had been members of the same family in Nazareth. Instead they had to enter the family of God through faith in the One who had lived in the same home as them, but who would now be living in a different place – his Father’s house.
We can say that his life on earth was marked by a singular goal, which was for him to go to the cross. On one occasion he informed his disciples that he had a baptism to face, and this baptism concentrated his thinking. The baptism that he had in mind was not a baptism in water, but one in which he would experience the outpouring of divine wrath. But that anticipated goal had now been completed, and it would not be his goal again. He would have other goals once he had ascended to heaven after his resurrection. Yet when he cried his sixth saying, he knew that he had achieved the goal that had dominated his earthly journey.
The need for the Old Testament ritual was finished
One of the unusual incidents that occurred at the time of the death of Jesus was the tearing of the curtain that divided the holy place from the holy of holies in the temple. Only the Jewish high priest could enter the holy of holies and he could only do so once a year on the Day of Atonement. That particular activity was one of many sacrifices and offerings that took place within the temple. It is impossible for us to calculate the number of sacrifices that had been offered there. They had been ordained by God when he brought the Israelites out of Egypt in order for them to be able to draw near to him.
The curtain had been torn from the top downwards, which indicates that it had not been torn by human hands. Moreover, it would have been impossible for a person to have torn it by himself, and it is very unlikely that there was anyone in Jerusalem who would have wanted to do so. The Roman authorities would have known that a riot would have occurred if they had attempted such a thing. The Jewish religious leaders took pride in their rituals and they would not have wanted to commit such an action – they would have regarded it as sacrilege. But there was One who wanted to tear it, and that was God in heaven. He declared in a very public manner that there was no longer any need to continue those sacrifices.
How could the Lord remove what he has instituted centuries before? The answer is that the death of Jesus on the cross had made those sacrifices redundant. No longer would his people have to travel to Jerusalem and engage in activities connected to the temple worship. What Jesus had completed meant an end to those rituals as illustrations of his work on the cross.
His sufferings were over
Jesus suffered in different ways during his life on earth. He suffered from poverty, a form of suffering that began when he was born. Connected to that kind of suffering was the suffering of rejection, which also began at his birth and continued throughout his life. This method of suffering had been predicted by Isaiah the prophet in his amazing prediction in Isaiah 53 when he said that the Messiah would be despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
The sufferings of Jesus on the cross were also over. The physical sufferings connected to crucifixion were intense for any person who suffered in that way because it was designed to be very painful, indeed as painful as possible. Now he would never suffer physical pain again. The spiritual sufferings of Jesus were much more distressing than his physical pain. He had experienced the wrath of God against the sins of his people, but he had endured all that was required. His atoning sufferings were complete, there was nothing more demanded of him after he died as far as the atonement was concerned.
The work given to him to do by the Father was completed
Jesus had taught that he had come to do the will of the heavenly Father who had sent him into the world and complete the work that was given him to do. This sending had been arranged in the eternal counsels and we can say that three things were required of the Son of God as far as this stage in his role as Mediator was concerned. The first requirement was that he should become a man, and this took place at his incarnation when his human nature was conceived in the womb of Mary.
The second requirement was that he should live a life of perfect obedience to God’s law and so provide a righteousness that could be imputed to his people as their standing before the justice of God. This he had done throughout his life, a life in which there had been nothing but obedience to the law of his Father. His perfect life included his thoughts, his words and his actions, and when we believe in him it is reckoned to our account in the sight of God.
The third requirement was that he pay the penalty that was demanded of his people because of their sins. It was a penalty that they could never pay by themselves. Unless he paid it, they would suffer eternally the wrath of God. On the cross, he paid the price and finished the work that had been entrusted to him.
In finishing this work, Jesus revealed the wisdom of God found in that divine plan. Who could have imagined that this would be the way by which sinners could be pardoned? Jesus also revealed the love of God that was the powerful motive of this plan. Both the Father and the Son loved the sinners for whom this plan was devised, as did the Holy Spirit. In completing this work, the divine Saviour brought great glory and honour to the God of salvation, and this great God will be praised eternally for his wonderful plan of mercy.
Where was this saying heard?
We can see by comparing the Gospel accounts that this sixth saying on the cross was a loud cry. This detail indicates that the cry was that of a victor, an achiever, and that his words were an exclamation of triumph. Jesus had gained total victory over the powers of darkness who had imagined that victory was theirs by working to put him on the cross. By paying the penalty of the sins of his people, he had forever removed the argument of the powers of darkness that the people of God should be punished for their sins. Instead the enemy has to accept that his claim is illegitimate in the court of heaven, and at the end of the day it is the only court that truly matters. The opinion of the Judge of all the earth, who always act justly and never makes a wrong decision, is that the death of Christ means that there is no condemnation for all who trust in him. The devil, who is described as the accuser of the brothers, has found that his accusations no longer carry any weight because Jesus paid the penalty for his guilty people.
As we consider the significance of this wonderful saying, we can ask where it is heard and accepted. One place where it was known was heaven. From one point of view, although the outcome was never in doubt, there would have been real interest among the inhabitants of heaven over whether or not Jesus would succeed in his mission. The visit of Moses and Elijah to the Mount of Transfiguration tells us that the citizens of the heavenly city were very interested in the deliverance that Jesus would provide on the cross. Their security was never in doubt, but that is not a reason to assume that they would not be interested in what had taken place on the cross. The fact that Jesus had completed the work given to him to accomplish would have caused great praise to ascend to the God on the throne.
The other place where it should be heard is in the hearts of sinners on earth, including converted sinners. It is a common complaint among believers that they find it difficult to maintain a sense of their assurance of salvation. One common reason for lack of assurance is that they sense their failures and their consciences, abetted by the temptations of the devil, can convince them that such failures mean that they were not truly converted. No doubt, there are many Bible verses that can be used to solve this dilemma, and one of them is this marvellous saying that Jesus by himself provided all that is needed in order for all of his people to be saved. The knowledge that he finished the work leads to the strengthening of their assurance.
Unconverted sinners also need to pay attention to this saying of Jesus because it reminds such that they have no need to try and produce a quality of life that will make them suitable for acceptance with God. It is often the case that when people first sense their sin and even after they hear the gospel invitation they persist in imagining that somehow they must improve themselves before God will accept them. They need to hear what this saying says about the work of Jesus, that he has done all that is required for sinners to be saved, and that the only way by which a sinner can be saved is through dependence on the finished work of Christ.
Spurgeon said on one occasion that although this saying of Jesus is only one word it requires all other words to explain its meaning. By this suggestion he meant that there is a height and a depth of meaning in this word that requires a great deal of explanation. That is true, but it is also the case that trusting in Jesus because he completed the work of salvation is the most appropriate response we can make to his incredible sixth saying on the cross.