Jesus' Work Is Done - "It Is Finished"

"Today's Devotion" For April 6, 2007 (Good Friday)

Read: John 19:16-30; Isaiah 53:1-12

JESUS' WORK IS DONE - IT IS FINISHED

"When He had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' With that He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." (John.19:30)

If our calendars are correct, Christians all over the world are observing the 1,977th Good Friday. Today we remember the emotionally packed, violence strewn, and spiritually devastating events that changed the world forever. On a hill outside the city gates of Jerusalem, a place called Golgotha ("The Place of the Skull) God completed His plan for the world's salvation from Sin by allowing the crucifixion of His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. It was an ignominious death, one reserved for the worst criminals and enemies of the Roman state. It placed Jesus the Christ of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Prince of Peace, the sinless, holy Son of the Father on a cross flanked on either side by two criminals.

Jesus final words from the Cross, "It is finished" draw our attention to the most important truth in the world - His perfect obedience to God's Law, His righteousness and holiness, and His selfless, total love for humanity fulfilled the Father's will, met His justice, and once and for all time paid the price every sinner deserves to pay for disobedience to God. God makes His forgiveness available to all humanity, and we, by the faith worked in us by God's Word and Spirit, are the recipients of are declared just and righteous before Him for the sake of Jesus. Because of Jesus' selfless act of love for us, when He says "It is finished" we are assured that God's grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness are ours.

Jesus' words, "It is finished," stand in stark contrast to our own failures to please God. Our human nature always believes that it can do that which is necessary to please God. Bound by the chains of Sin and unbelief by nature however, we are unable to obey God's Will in any way shape or form. We have the testimony of the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - King David, the Prophets - Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Malachi - and a host of others that God's promise of salvation was necessary and essential. And, even though many of God's people were confused or unbelieving about the truth of His plan of salvation (so many looked for a political messiah rather than a spiritual messiah) Jesus still completed His mission. "It is finished" assures us that God's plan has come to fruition and we are saved.

So the words of Jesus Christ on the Cross resound like the clear pealing of a bell. "It is finished" is the dying utterance of the Son of God, the Savior of the world, declaring that once and for all time, God's peace rests upon this world and its inhabitants. "It is finished" sounds the death knell for Sin's power over us. "It is finished" means the job is done, it can't be improved upon, it will never need doing over, nor will it ever fade away. Our sins are forgiven and removed from us by faith in Him. We need do nothing. He has done it all. "It is finished."

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You gave Yourself as a ransom for many, paying the ultimate price for my sins and the sins of the whole world. On the Cross You suffered the indignity of innocence being punished in the place of the guilty. You became "guilty" for the whole world so that I and all people might be forgiven and restored to the Father once and for all times. As I remember Your words, "It is finished," help me to also hear the finality and completeness of those words. Help me to understand and believe that there truly is nothing that I can do to save myself, but that You have done it totally and completely for me. Lead me to share that fully with others as I live in its total message of forgiveness each and every day. Thank You Lord for this marvelous gift that gives me life and hope. In Your name I pray. Amen.
***************************************

--Pastor Boeck

Copyright © 2007 by Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.