John 19:17-30
“It Is Finished”
By: Rev. Kenneth Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
The crucifixion is an extraordinary scene of darkness and despair!
The events surrounding the death of Christ portray a picture of evil....
The unfair trial, the agony of Jesus, Peter’s 3 denials, the fleeing disciples, the crown of thorns, the mockery
of the soldiers and the cries of “Crucify Him!”....the darkness that covered the land from noon to 3pm....the
earthquake, and the cry of Jesus: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
Up until this time, Jesus Christ had never experienced separation from God the Father and God the
Holy Spirit.
“through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”
As Christ Himself said, “I and the Father are One.”
But He experienced this separation....this agony for us....so that we won’t have too.
Oh what love God has for you and for me!!!
That He would give His One and Only Son, so that whoever believes in Him--and accepts Him as their Lord
and Savior--will be saved from death and hell--eternal separation from God.
In the despair of these moments however, another cry comes from Christ.
Near the moment of death Christ makes another pronouncement that some at the time may have perceived
as the cry of defeat, but in reality it was the great cry of Victory!: “It Is FINISHED!”
This was the cry of victory.
It was followed by the cry of confidence: “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”
This was a victory for Christ and for us!
In Christ we have victory over death and the devil! Christ’s death and His sacrifice destroyed sin’s hold on
humankind, and a new way was opened to God.
Rather than a moment of defeat, it was the moment of victory!
So what is this victory?
It is the victory of God’s Will to provide a Perfect sacrifice for our sins....so that we can be restored to a
right relationship with God.
In Hebrews chapter 10 the Bible tells us that by the death of Jesus, we who have been saved through faith
have been sanctified through the offering of Christ’s body once and for all!
Jesus Christ became our atonement for sin.
By atonement it means that Jesus covers our sins by His substitutionary death on the cross.
Jesus’ death is also the victory of God’s will concerning the Scriptures.
Soon after humankind fell into sin, God made a promise that He would send a Messiah to save us.
And within the Old Testament is a complete set of prophecies having to do with Jesus’life and death.
When all of the prophecies had been fulfilled--Jesus knew it, and He said, “It is finished.”
At that moment Christ had fulfilled God’s promise to humankind, and we can shout the victory because of
it!
Christ’s death on our behalf is also a victory because without it....there is only the Law....the Law which
none of us can keep.
For all of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.
And our payment...what we deserve for our sins is death!
But Christ completed the Law.
In Matthew chapter 5 Jesus says, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not
come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Jesus did something that we as humans cannot do...He lived under the Law’s demands--and without
fail--He kept the Law fully.
He was completly without sin.
As the Bible declares in Galations chapter 3: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us.”
Therefore we are saved through the sacrifice of the body of Christ once and for all!
Christ’s death is also a victory concerning the devil.
Christ’s death sounded the eternal sentence against our enemy, Satan.
As the Bible says in Hebrews: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also
Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil.”
When Jesus said: “It is finished.”
The enemy, who had the power, stood defeated and doomed.
There is nothing left for us to do but to praise and worship the Lord for not leaving the work of our
redemption incomplete!
Three days following Christ’s death---He rose again!!!
Death had no hold on Christ, and it has no hold on those who call on His name to be saved.
Christ has paid our debt. All we have to do is believe!
In John Chapter 11 Christ has declared: Whoever “believes in me will live, even though” they die; “and
whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
The work of salvation was, and remains, totally and completely finished.
There is nothing that we can do by human efforts to gain it or add to it.
It is finished!
Thus, we can breath a sigh of relief!
