What Was Understood When Jesus Said, ‘It Is Finished’?

Just a few weeks ago Christians around the world completed their annual observance of Holy Week, commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, followers of Christ understand that the significance of Good Friday and Easter has no real season. The impact of what those days represent, individually and collectively, is experienced 365 days a year.

 

I’d go so far as to say that all of humanity ultimately hinges on three small words, the last ones uttered by Jesus on the cross that gruesome yet glorious day: “It is finished” (John 19:30). That is an English translation of the Greek word tetelestai, which also can be translated “it is completed” or “paid in full.” 

 

After uttering those words, certainly in excruciating pain as the last bit of strength oozed from His body, Jesus bowed His head and died. With the benefit of historical hindsight, we now know what He meant by that simple declaration, but I wonder how those words were understood by those who heard them on that day 2,000 years ago.

 

For the Roman guards charged with nailing Jesus to the cross and then lifting it for Him to hang there for hours, they probably interpreted the meaning as what seemed obvious – He was breathing His last.

 

For the Pharisees and other religious leaders who had orchestrated the rigged trial and trumped-up charges that would justify Christ’s crucifixion, hearing “It is finished” probably meant the threat that “troublemaker” Jesus had posed to their prominence, prestige and authority had been put to an end. They must have been thinking, ”Good riddance!”

 

For Jesus’ followers, who had devoted the previous three years to joining Him in ministry and leaving behind their families and livelihoods, those words must have sounded like the crushing climax to their hopes and dreams. Their charismatic, miracle-working leader hung lifeless as blood continued to seep from His body. The great cause He had personified seemingly had come to a tragic conclusion.

 

Thankfully, they all were wrong. When Jesus declared, “It is finished,” in no way did He mean defeat or failure. Rather, He was announcing that His mission was complete. His ultimate purpose, to become the atoning sacrifice for sin and make it possible for broken, sinful people to establish personal relationships with the holy, righteous God, had been accomplished.

 

This is the message throughout the New Testament. As the apostle Paul asserted in Romans 8:1-3, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 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.”

 

In another New Testament letter, writing to believers in the ancient church of Corinth, itself a wicked, sin-infested city, Paul said, “And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

 

At times, we all have seen our own hopes and aspirations dissolve, falling short of much-desired goals. With dismay and even despair we’ve thought, “It’s over. I’m done.” And we struggled to pick ourselves up from the heap of humiliation to try again, hoping for more success the next time. 

 

But for Jesus there was no need for a “next time.” For Him, “It is finished” meant He had provided the ultimate remedy for sin’s consequences and death would be dealt its ultimate defeat. On the third day, the empty tomb would serve as vivid, tangible evidence of that. Because of that reality, we can cling to this wonderful promise: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Thank God we can live according to His perspective and not our own. For us, because of what Jesus has done,  “It is finished” means it’s only just begun. 

The Day That’s ‘Good’ Because of What Happened Next

Christmas has given us Santa Claus, reindeer, festive lights and candy canes. Easter brings us the Easter Bunny, Easter eggs, beautiful flowers and jellybeans. But what both annual holidays have in common is Jesus Christ. One commemorates His birth; the other celebrates His resurrection. Without the latter, Easter, there would be no reason for the former, Christmas.

 

When I was a boy, my parents would take me to church on Good Friday, where we would sing mournful hymns and hear a somber message. Two days later we’d return to church for Easter, where hymns of joy and triumph would be sung and an uplifting sermon would be spoken.

I vividly recall one Good Friday, I might have been eight or nine, sitting quietly in the pew pondering. If I had been a character in a comic strip, there might have been a question mark hovering over my head. I remember turning to my mother and asking her, “If this is the day Jesus was crucified, why do we call it ‘Good Friday’?” In my mind the thought kept recurring – what’s so good about being crucified?

 

My mom, even though she liked to play albums of hymns by the likes of Perry Como and Tennessee Ernie Ford and proudly possessed a lighted reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “The Lord’s Supper,” was hardly a theologian. So, she suggested we ask “the Reverend” after the service was over.

 

That sounded like a good idea. As we slowly shuffled toward the church doors to leave, I knew the minister would be there greeting the congregants as they departed. When we reached the door and he gripped my hand, I popped the same question. 

 

Apparently, he didn’t view this as an important, teachable moment, because I don’t remember him giving me much of an authoritative answer. I know he mumbled something, but he definitely didn’t suggest anything like, “Son, that’s a great question. Why don’t you ask your parents to bring you to my office this week where we can talk about it?”

 

It wasn’t until many years later that I discovered the answer to my youthful question. Good Friday isn’t “good” because a sinless, blameless Jesus Christ was wrongfully scourged, then forced to carry His own cross to be executed in perhaps the most horrific manner ever devised by humankind. It’s good because on that cross He became the propitiation – the absolute substitutionary atonement – for our sins. 

 

The words of 2 Corinthians 5:15,21 express it perfectly: “And He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf…. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Try chewing on that for a while.

 

Because of this, the apostle Paul could announce to believers in the ancient church of Rome, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). As a good friend of mine used to say whenever he spoke, “Jesus took the rap for you and me.”

 

In isolation, the events of Good Friday weren’t good: Angry, spiteful and frightened religious leaders bringing trumped-up charges against an individual who threatened their positions of power and authority. A spineless Roman official, Pontius Pilate, willing to sacrifice his conscience and sense of rightness to appease an increasingly hostile mob. Torture, mocking, and then the crucifixion Jesus endured, the Son of God crying out in His last breaths, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).

 

And yet even then, Jesus’ heart of love and compassion could not be defeated. He pleaded, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Who could do that? Only the incarnate God, in His limitless and unfathomable mercy and grace.

 

If things had stopped at that point, we’d have no Good Friday. Maybe history might have even forgotten that moment. However, on the morning after the Sabbath, the greatest event in the history of the world occurred. 

 

The stone placed across the tomb’s opening to “secure” it had been supernaturally rolled away to reveal what lay inside – no body, only no longer needed burial cloths. As angels proclaimed to the women who had come intending to minister to their Lord’s body, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He is risen!” (Luke 24:5-6).

 

The fact of His resurrection is miraculous enough. But because Jesus lives today, He offers new life to any and all who will put their trust in Him. Amazingly the Scriptures declare, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Because of the glorious celebration of Easter and all it represents, we also can rejoice in what the Lord did for us on that truly Good Friday. And we can affirm, "He is risen; He is risen indeed!"