The Cry of Victory
In John 19:30 we read, “When Jesus had received the drink he called out with a loud voice, it is finished!” In the original Greek language of the New Testament this phrase, it is finished, is one word of 10 letters,TETELESTAI! It has been affirmed to be perhaps the greatest single word ever pronounced on planet Earth.
That cry, IT IS FINISHED, was heard on earth, was heard in heaven, was heard in hell. Today, it echoes around the walls of our churches. At the end of time it will be heard, not from the cross, but from the throne of God.
Notice Jesus did not say, I am finished; it's all over with me; you will have to work out your own salvation. No, this word was not a wail of despair. Three Gospel writers tell us it was uttered in a loud voice. It was a shout of triumph, completion. It was not the cry of defeat, but the cry of victory.
If the hands of Jesus had not been nailed down I think he would have raised a triumphant fist toward heaven crying- TETELESTAI.
In Bible times,this was a word often used in business transaction. If you had purchased something, the merchant would take your money and then give you a receipt. The receipt would say TETELESTAI; meaning the debt had been paid in full.
You and I as sinners, are in debt before God and we cannot pay. We have broken God's law and we are bankrupt. The wages of sin is death. But Jesus came and paid the debt for us.“Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”
It also was the word used in the Temple. When some devote worshipper, with heart overflowing with wonder, love and praise, brought to the temple a lamb without blemish or spot ,the pride of the whole flock. The priest would exclaim over this perfect Lamb, it is finished.
In the fullness of time, when the sinless Lamb of God offered himself willingly on the altar of the ages. The sacrifice was stainless, perfect, the debt paid in full.
At this point we may ask a question, what was finished? What precisely is the meaning of that strange cry from the cross? I don't pretend to understand it all or explain it fully.
1. First of all, I believe this cry teaches us that the atonement of Christ, the work of redemption was completed. Christ had finished the task for which he had come into the world. It was a work that was begun before the foundation of the world, for Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
But that great work reached its climax, its consummation on the cross. Let us take a few moments to review the great drama of salvation as it runs through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
In Genesis 3:15 we have the promise that God gave to man after his fall into sin. That someday a deliverer would come and crush the head of Satan.
We think of the covenants God made with Noah and Abraham. The deliverance of the Jewish people from the bondage of Egypt. The giving of the law and the 10 Commandments. The tabernacle and the Temple with their altars of sacrifice.
The prophecies and preparations concerning the coming of Christ into the world. His virgin birth, his baptism in the River Jordan and by the Holy Spirit. His temptations in the wilderness. His parables, his miracles, his prayers, his tears. His Last Supper with the disciples. His agony in the garden of Gethsemane. His betrayal by Judas, his denial by Peter. His trial, the awful scourging, the crown of thorns, rejection by his own people.
All of this, up to the last nail was driven into his hands and feet and the spear thrust into his side. It was all part of God's plan of salvation. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. He came to seek and to save the lost. To give us life in all of its fullness. He came to die the just for the unjust to bring us to God. Now all that work is finished, complete. And Jesus, seeing that all things were accomplished, cried with a loud voice – it is finished! His sacrifice was stainless, perfect, complete.
2. But let us go one step further. I believe that when Christ uttered that cry it not only meant his atonement for sin was finished but also the kingdom of Satan was finished. The Prince of darkness was crushed and defeated.
The story of Samson in the Old Testament might illustrate what I'm trying to say. You remember how through disobedience and sin Samson lost his strength. And we find him blind and bound in prison grinding out the corn for the Philistines. Then one day the Philistines took blind Samson or of his dungeon into the Temple of Dagon, to make sport of him and mock the God of Israel.
You remember how Samson asked the boy who led him, to take him to the 2 pillars which supported the roof. Then Samson put one arm around each pillar and with a prayer to God he cries, “O Lord God, remember me I pray thee and strengthen me I pray” ( Judges 16:18). And then Samson bowed himself with all his might, even unto death and the house fell on his captors and all the enemies of God.
So it was at the cross. With eyes blinded with love for mankind, Christ put one arm around the dark pillar of sin and the other arm around the dark pillar of death. And then he bowed himself with all his might, even unto death, and Satan's empire fell.
But you might be thinking, how can this be? If Christ defeated the powers of evil, why don't we see more evidence of that in the world today. We look around our world and the devil seems to be having a heyday. We see his disguises and deceptions and the the power of evil on every hand.
There's some truth in that, but let us never forget that something happened on the cross which has changed the course of history. There on the cross, Christ delivered Satan a death blow from which he never will recover. There on the cross there was a head-on collision between good and evil, light and darkness, God and Satan, heaven and hell. Sin did its worst but it's worse was not enough. Death seemed to win, but its victory was short-lived. Hallelujah, Christ arose from the dead and is alive for evermore.
O yes, the powers of evil are still at large in our world but their doom is sealed. The sentence of death has been pronounced upon them and the day is coming when all wrongs will be righted, Justice vindicated and truth prevail. And though the wrong seems off so strong, God is the Ruler yet.
“Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet tis truth alone is strong.
Though her portion be the scaffold and upon the throne be wrong.
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.”James R. Lowell
So we see the work of salvation is finished, and we certainly cannot add anything to the sacrifice or the work of Christ accomplished there on the cross. But that doesn't mean we can just sit back and do nothing.
There are two sides to salvation. One-- accepting Christ's finished work. Two-- following Christ and obeying his commandments. Trust and obey there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but trust and obey. Faith without obedience to the Lord is dead.
Salvation is a gift. We cannot buy it, earn it or even deserve it. All we can do is repent, believe, accept it by faith and then out of love and gratitude, seek to live for the one who died for us.
I want to close this message with a true story that some of you might have heard before. Some years ago an English evangelist by the name of Ebenezer Wooten was holding tent meetings in a place called Lidford Brook, England. The last service had been conducted, the crowd had left, and the evangelist was busy taking down the tent.
A young man approached him and rather casually said, Mr. Wooten what must I do to become a Christian? Immediately he replied, you're too late my friend, you're too late! This reply startled the young man and his spirit of indifference disappeared. Oh don't say that Mr. Wooten, surely it is not too late because the meetings are over?
And now looking young man straight in the eye he said, yes my friend, it's too late. You want to know what you must do to be saved, I tell you, you are thousands of years too late. The work of salvation is done, complete, finished. It was finished there at the cross, Jesus said so with his last breath.
Then it dawned upon the heart of that young man that since the entire work of salvation is finished, and the whole debt has been paid at the Cross, there was nothing for him to do but to fall upon his knees and accept the Savior. And there under the stars, he knelt in thanksgiving and rested his soul for time and eternity upon the finished work of Christ.
Have you done so? If not, may you do so now. Let us respond in the words of –CT Studd, one of England's great athletes-- “If Christ is God and he died for me, then no sacrifice is too great, for me, to make for him.”
Lifted up was He to die. It is finished, was His cry;
now in heaven exalted high; hallelujah what a Savior!
