Transcript

Visitors to the Smithsonian Museum of American History see the flag that flew over Fort McHenry when Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner” in 1814.

The original flag measured 42 by 30 feet. It was the immense size of the flag that allowed Key to see it from his position 10 miles out to sea, following a night of gunfire.

The means by which a flag that large could fly on a pole 189 feet in the air is on display at Fort McHenry on Baltimore’s inner harbor. There, in one of the barracks, are two oak timbers, 8 foot by 8 foot, joined as a cross.

National Park Service personnel discovered this cross-shaped support near the entrance to Fort McHenry in 1958, buried nine feet below ground.

Not only did the cross help rangers locate the original site from which the star spangled banner flew, but it answered the mystery of how such a large flag could fly in stormy weather without snapping the pole. This unseen wooden device provided a firm foundation for the symbol of our national freedom.

Similarly, the cross of Christ provides the foundation by which our faith is rooted and supported. And our spiritual freedom finds it foundation and basis in the Cross.

When Christ cried out, “It is finished,” He was announcing that the work of redemption was complete. Those in bondage to sin find their freedom through Christ’s perfect sacrifice for sin at the Cross.

John 19:30: “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”

After Christ had said the words, “I thirst,” one of the Roman soldiers soaked a sponge in vinegar or sour wine, put it on a hyssop branch, and lifted it the Lord.

The Lord drank from that sponge. The drink of sour wine did not quench the Lord’s thirst, but it was for the purpose that He might fulfill prophecy and also because His burning, tormenting thirst was so great He needed that vinegar, so He could say the last two sayings of the Cross.

After He “received the vinegar,” the Lord said, “It is finished.” Both Matthew 27:50 and Mark 15:37 state that when He said, “It is finished,” He said it “with a loud voice.”

Matthew 27:50 reads, “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” Mark 15:37 says, “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.”

When Matthew 27:50 says “when He had cried AGAIN with a loud voice,” it was because He had just said, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” also with “a loud voice.”

The Lord cried out “It is finished,” at the top of His voice. It wasn’t said with a whimper, but rather it was the cry of a conqueror. It was a shout of victory, a word of triumph.

Christ was not just announcing that He was about to die. Rather, the blood had been poured out. The sacrifice had been made. The enemy had been defeated. Thus, this was a cry of completion, of victory, and of fulfillment.

Charles Spurgeon put it well that “It is the cry of One who has completed a tremendous labor.” And the Cross was a labor of love in taking on Him the sins of the world and paying for them.

The crucifixion did not thwart Christ’s mission, instead it accomplished it. Christ died in triumph having fully accomplished the work His Father had sent Him to do. And “It is finished” is the triumphant recognition by Christ of that fact.

He had been sent to this world for this hour and this very purpose: to die the death of the cross. The way had been provided by which all could be saved. The work of redemption was complete, and thus the Lord cried out, “It is finished.”

In English this sixth saying from the Cross contains three words: “It is finished.” In Greek, it is only one word: “Tetelestai.”

One single word can change everything. “Guilty” in a court of law changes everything. “Fair” on a baseball field can change everything. When a woman says “Yes” to a marriage proposal it changes everything. The word, “Goodbye,” can change everything.

Yet, there has never been a single word said that has impacted history more than the word “tetelestai” in John 19:30.

It’s important to understand that this word is a verb and is in the perfect tense in the original Greek. That’s significant because this means it refers to an action that has been completed in the past with results that continue into the present.

The past tense says, “This happened.” The perfect tense adds the idea that “this happened and it is still in effect today.” It literally means, “It was finished and as a result it is forever done.” Or, “It was finished in the past, and it is still finished in the present, and it will continue to be finished in the future.”

And this is all true of the work of redemption, this happened and it is still in effect today. Redemption was finished and it is forever done. Redemption was finished in the past, redemption is still finished in the present, and it will continue to be finished in the future.

A Christian once said to his religious neighbor, “There is a great difference between your faith and mine.” The neighbor replied, “Oh yeah, what’s that?” The Christian said, “Your faith has only two letters, while mine has four.”

The neighbor asked, “What do you mean?” The Christian said, “Your faith says DO. Mine says DONE.”

Redemption is done, finished, completed. All has been done that needed to be done for our redemption. Nothing more is needed.

Since salvation is a finished work, nothing needs to be added to it, nothing should be taken away from it, and nothing should be substituted for it.

A. W. Pink wrote this: “It is Finished—a single word in the original. It was the briefest and yet the fullest of His seven cross-utterances. Eternity will be needed to make manifest all that it contains.

“All things had been done which the law of God required; all things established which prophecy predicted; all things brought to pass which the types foreshadowed; all things accomplished which the Father had given Him to do.

“All things performed which were needed for our redemption. Nothing was left wanting. The costly ransom was given, the great conflict had been endured, sin’s wages had been paid, Divine justice satisfied.”

The word, “tetelestai” was a common and familiar word in our Lord’s day. It’s the kind of word we would use today if you climbed to the top of a mountain, or you completed a large project at work, and you made the final payment on your car: Tetelestai, It is finished.

This word in our Lord’s time was commonly used with masters and servants.

A master would tell his servant to go do something, and when the servant had completed the task, he would come back and report, Tetelestai. It is finished.

An artist after putting the finishing touches on a painting would step back and pronounce, Tetelestai. It is finished.

Merchants and bankers used this term. If you purchased something, the merchant would take your money and then give you a receipt. The receipt would say, Tetelestai, it is finished, meaning that the price has been fully paid.

Same thing with a banker, when a person would fully pay off his debt, the banker would hand him a receipt with the word Tetelestai written on it. It is finished meant the debt is paid in full.

And interestingly, “Papyri receipts for taxes have been recovered [from that time period] with the word tetelestai written across them.”

And with the Cross, we see all of these things. The Lord came as a servant. In Mark 10:45, the Lord said, “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” He was obedient to the Father’s will. He ministered to Israel, and He was obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross.

The work He was given to do in His earthly ministry was carried out exactly as the Father desired. Thus in the hours before the cross, the Lord prayed to the Father, “I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have FINISHED the work which Thou gavest me to do” (John 17:4).

And then the work He was given to do by the Father at the Cross, in giving Himself as an offering for sin and providing salvation for all, that work was complete, and thus He cried out to the Father, “Tetelestai,” it is finished.

And the Cross completes the picture that God had been painting of redemption and which God had painted from eternity past. All the many types and prophecies of the Cross and of the Messiah from the Old Testament found their fulfillment in Christ.

And two verses earlier, John wrote, “Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished.” The word “accomplished” is the same Greek word for “It is finished.”

By Christ’s life, suffering, and death, He completed the picture, He fulfilled all the prophetic Scriptures concerning the Cross, and like an Artist, He stepped back, looked at it in all its many details, and the picture was complete and perfect, thus He pronounced: Tetelestai, It is finished.

And like a merchant, He came to pay the price for our sin and to purchase our redemption.

And after facing the 3 hours of darkness when He was made sin, and God’s full divine wrath and fury was unleashed and poured out against Him, He completed the payment, and declared, Tetelestai, it is finished, paid in full.

Veterinarian James Herriot tells of an unforgettable wedding anniversary he and his wife celebrated early in their marriage. His boss had encouraged him to take his wife to a fancy restaurant. James balked. He was a young veterinarian and couldn’t afford it.

“Oh, just do it!” the boss insisted. “It’s a special day.” James reluctantly agreed and surprised his wife with the news. On the way to the restaurant, James and his wife stopped at a farm to examine a farmer’s horse.

Having finished the routine exam, he returned to his car and drove to the restaurant unaware that his checkbook had fallen in the mud.

After the meal, James reached for his checkbook only to discover it was gone. Embarrassed, he tried to offer a way of making it up.

“Not to worry,” came the waiter’s reply. “Your dinner has already been taken care of!” James’s employer had paid for the dinner in advance.

When Christ said on the cross, “It is finished,” it meant “paid in full.” He paid the price for us. We are in debt no more. And “paid in full” means that once something is paid for, you never have to pay for it again. It’s foolish to even try. You don’t owe anything.

As sinners, each of us are in debt before God. We have broken God’s law and are under its curse of condemnation and death. And we cannot pay this debt. But Christ came and paid the debt for us at the Cross. Our sin-debt is paid in full. All of our sins and each of them have been stamped by God with one word—Tetelestai—Paid in full.

And today, all we need to do to be saved and have everlasting life is to trust Christ’s “finished” work that He died for my sins and rose again the third day.

And at the moment of trusting Christ as our personal Savior, we are forgiven of all our sins and our great debt is removed.

It was paid in full by Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. The Savior shed His precious blood to pay for the price for all our sins. And now we are free from our sins.

The only thing we owe now is an eternal debt of thanks and praise to our Savior. And we are set free to pursue a relationship with God that is motivated by grace and gratitude and empowered by the power of the Holy Spirit.

J. Hudson Taylor was from a Christian home. His mother prayed for him constantly, praying for his salvation. For a long time, he resisted, but then one day someone put a little gospel tract in his hand, and in that tract was the expression, “It is finished.”

This troubled him a great deal. He didn’t understand exactly what that meant. One day, he went up into a hay loft and there with the tract he mediated upon it. “It is finished.”

Finally, out of that experience came his conviction of his own salvation. And he put it this way, “Then there dawned upon me the joyous conviction that since the whole work was finished and the whole debt was paid upon the cross there was nothing for me to do but to fall upon my knees, accept the Savior and praise Him forevermore.”

That’s what it is to be saved, to realize that Christ has paid it all and to trust it.

Since Christ paid it all, there is nothing more that needs to be done. Salvation is not a do-it-yourself project or a 50-50 arrangement, where you do your part and Christ does His. Christ has done it all. You just trust what He did for you and you are saved.

As one poet expressed it: “Upon a death I did not die, Upon a life I did not live, Another’s death—Another’s life, I cast my whole eternity.”

This is how we are forgiven of our sins and given eternal life: upon the life and death of another, trusting Jesus Christ and that He died for us and rose again.

Christ shouted “It is finished” from the Cross, for all to hear through all the ages that the work of redemption is done, sin’s wages have been paid, the justice of God had been satisfied. The task is done, salvation is won, Satan is destroyed, and sin is defeated.

And Christ as God has full knowledge of that. He knew every specific detail of the plan of God had been fulfilled. He did everything that needed to be done. And thus, with the authority of God, this pronouncement of “It is finished” was made from the Cross.

God has furnished us with three strong proofs that the work of redemption is finished and that Christ’s sacrifice for sin was accepted by the Father.

The first is the rending of the veil at Christ’s death. Matthew 27:50-51 reads, “Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice” which is Him crying out “It is finished,” verse 50 then continues, “yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom…”

The veil was the curtain which separated the holy place from the holy of holies in the temple, which was where God’s presence resided in the Temple in time past.

The veil was a barrier so that no one could go into the Holy of holies.

Only the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement could go into the Holy of holies, where the ark of the covenant was, and he didn’t go without blood, as once in there he sprinkled blood on the mercy seat on behalf of the nation for their sins.

The veil was symbolic to all that people were shut out of God’s presence. It was a constant reminder that sin renders humanity unfit for the presence of God, and that there was a separation from God because of sin.

But the moment Christ died, showing that the Father was satisfied with Christ’s shed blood and sacrifice for our sins, that thick veil was torn “from the top to the bottom,” which tells us that God tore it.

It was torn the moment Christ died, right after He cried out “It is finished.” The rending of the veil showed that the way to God was now open and that the price of redemption, as Christ said, was truly finished and paid in full.

The second proof that that the work of redemption is finished and that Christ’s sacrifice for sin was accepted by the Father is the resurrection of Christ.

Romans 4:25 reads, “Who [Christ] was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.”

The fact that God raised Christ from the dead tells us that the work is finished, the price has been paid, and God is infinitely satisfied with the redemptive work of the Savior.

Christ’s resurrection was the proof, the demonstration, the vindication of God’s acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice for sin at the Cross. If Christ had not risen, it would have shown that Christ’s words, It is finished, were not true.

But because God did raise Him from the dead, it demonstrates the truth and reality of Christ’s words, and that sin has been defeated, and the price of redemption has been paid, and the Father was satisfied with the Son’s work on the cross.

His resurrection was the divine assurance that He had, as Hebrews 9:26 puts it, “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”

The third proof that that the work of redemption is finished and that Christ’s sacrifice for sin was accepted by the Father is the exaltation of Christ.

Following His death, resurrection and ascension back to heaven, the Bible tells us in Philippians 2:9: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.”

And in Ephesians we read that God has “set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come” (1:20-22).

The Father’s exaltation of the Son on high attests to us all that He was completely satisfied with Christ’s sacrifice at the Cross.

The Cross of Christ is the perfect, all-sufficient, once-for-all sacrifice for sin. Nothing can be added to it. The work of redemption truly is finished.

Hebrews 10:11-12 also reads: “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.”

The Old Testament sacrificial system has been summed up in three words. Blood. Death. Sacrifice. That is what God demands as payment for sin.

And for hundreds of years, blood flowed from the brazen altar of God and yet the cost of sin was never fully paid. The Book of Leviticus describes the complex system under the Mosaic Law that involved the various offerings and sacrifices of different animals.

Day after day the priests shed the blood of animals and offered them as sacrifices.

In Hebrews 10:11, the ministry of Israel’s priests in the tabernacle or temple is contrasted sharply with that of Christ. All of Israel’s priests “standeth daily” or stood daily in the performance of their duties. There was no chair in the tabernacle or temple.

Because sin was repeatedly and continually committed, there could be no rest and their work was never finished. Each day brought the need for blood to shed and sacrifices to be offered. And they repeatedly offered the same sacrifices. It was an unending routine.

All these lambs and goats sacrificed in Israel’s history pointed to the One who was to come, the Lamb of God who would shed His blood and died as the perfect sacrifice for sin.

None of those Old Testament sacrifices could take away sins. The blood of all those animals only atoned and covered sin. But when THE Lamb of God shed His blood and offered His one sacrifice for sins at the Cross, that blood CAN and does take away our sins.

The one sacrifice of Christ did the work that the many sacrifices failed to do.

The work of Christ is complete and perfect. And thus, when He ascended to heaven, unlike the priests who stood daily offering sacrifices in the temple, the Lord sat down.

He is seated, not standing because the one sacrifice of Himself for sin was perfect and all-sufficient. He sat down because the work is finished. And He is seated at the right hand of God, the highest place of honor, power, authority, and affection.

God honoring His Son with the seat at His right hand, demonstrates the infinite worth, greatness, and victory of Christ’s work and the Father’s acceptance of His sacrifice.

God is forever satisfied with the sacrifice of His Son. This is a great picture to encourage us that our sins are fully dealt with.

These two verses give the following contrasts: Thousands of priests versus one Priest; the thousands of priests continually standing versus the sitting down of Christ; the repeated, never-finished sacrifices versus the once-for-all, finished sacrifice; and the sacrifices that only covered sin versus the sacrifice that completely removes sin.

And these things are true, because as Christ said at the Cross, “It is finished,” the price for sin is paid in full. Christ fully paid the penalty of God’s justice which sin deserved and His redemptive work was completed and accepted by God.

As Hebrews 1:3 states, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

“It is finished” means that all that a holy God requires for salvation has been done. Nothing is left for the sinner to add. No works from us are demanded for our salvation. All that is necessary today is to rest in what Christ did for us and to trust it.

As Ephesians 2:8-9 states, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

All this together teaches us where we need to look for salvation and eternal life. We need to look to Christ and His Cross and resurrection. It’s by His finished work, and trusting Him as our personal Savior that we know we are going to heaven.

Max Lucado wrote the following: The immensity of the Nazarene’s execution makes it impossible to ignore. Everybody has an opinion. Everyone is choosing a side.

You cannot be neutral on this issue. Apathy? Not this time. It’s one side or the other and all have to choose. You are either on one side or the other. A choice is demanded.

We can do what we want with the Cross and the Tomb. We can examine its history and study its theology and reflect upon its prophecies, yet the one thing we cannot do is to walk away neutral. No fence sitting is permitted.

The Cross, the tomb in their absurd splendor don’t allow that. That is one luxury God in His awful mercy does not permit. On which side are you?