April 11
“When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’” John 19:30.
Having completed the work for which He had been sent by the heavenly Father, Jesus said, “It is finished!” This sixth Word spoken by Jesus from the cross tells us that the suffering and the pain, the horrible agony and anguish, had come to a close. To the Philippians, the apostle Paul wrote, “He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross,” Philippians 2:8. Everything that was required for the salvation of all people was finished.
Now the Scriptures were fulfilled. Everything that the Old Testament prophets had spoken and written with reference to God’s promise to send a Savior into the world was fulfilled. It takes us back to that first promise of God to send a Savior, which was made to Adam and Eve after they had sinned by eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. God said to the devil, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel,” Genesis 3:15. Jesus crushed the Serpent’s head; He destroyed the devil’s power. In his First Epistle, the evangelist John wrote, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil,” 1 John 3:8.
The promise that a Descendant of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David through whom all nations of the earth would be blessed was fulfilled through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The virgin-born Son of whom the prophet Isaiah foretold was Jesus, the Immanuel, which is interpreted, “God with us,” God and Man in one Person. The God-Man who hung on the cross and cried out, “It is finished!” was the Fulfiller of all the prophetic sayings.
Isaiah portrayed Jesus’ innocent suffering and death in the most comforting words: “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all . . . He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors,” Isaiah 53:3-6, 12. The total price that had to be paid for our redemption, of which Isaiah wrote, was fulfilled when Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”
We could quote a multitude of passages from Scripture written by Moses, the Psalmist, and the prophets; Moses wrote, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,” Deuteronomy 18:15. Jesus said, “(Moses) wrote about Me,” John 5:46. Read Psalm 22, in which the psalmist graphically portrays the heart-touching scene of Calvary. Much more could be quoted from the other prophets; let this suffice for now.
There is a note of joy in the Savior’s words, “It is finished!” Our redemption is complete! Thank God on bended knee! Jesus completed everything for you and me, so that we who believe and trust in Him as God’s Son and our Savior will be received by Him into the halls of heaven when we leave this world.
“Calvary’s mournful mountain climb;
There, adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time,
God’s own sacrifice complete.
‘It is finished!’ hear Him cry;
Learn of Jesus Christ to die.” Amen.