Finished

Turn with me to John chapter 19. I'll begin in verse 28. I had a three-word title, and I've narrowed it down to one word. Finished. Finished. Finished means an action, an activity, a work that's done Completed. Concluded. Ended. Accomplished. Fulfilled. And achieved. Finished. Before we consider the passage before us, I want us to picture the setting of what's going on in our minds.

The streets of Jerusalem are overflowing with people. Noise, activity, it's the Passover feast. Men and women and children move toward the temple bringing sheep and goats for a Passover sacrifice. Vendors line the streets attempting to talk above the crowd as they sell food and bread and oil and wine and feast day necessities and supplies. And throughout the city, Roman soldiers are present and on alert, especially near and around the temple where tensions could easily arise. And you could hear people in the distance singing the Psalms of ascent as they make their way toward the temple courts.

Every available guest room is occupied. Homes are packed with relatives and visitors. Many people camp on the surrounding hillsides. However, the Jews' religious leaders are vividly absent Normally they stood on the street corners with their robes stuffed full of prayers just to show everyone how holy they were, but they're not around on this particular day. They're preoccupied with a far more pressing matter.

On the outskirts of Jerusalem, at this particular Passover feast, there's a place called Golgotha. It was a place that the Roman government purposely chose for crucifixion. This particular crucifixion was also chosen at this particular time of the Passover feast on purpose. The time of this execution was meant to be a warning to all who opposed Caesar. And what better time to make that warning than at the Passover when so many people were there.

Three crosses stand against the sky. Nails are driven deep in the hands and feet of the proposed offenders. Blood is already falling and staining the beams of the wood. Two guilty men are there, one on each side of the one in the middle, who are there because of their crimes. They're guilty. And they're reviling one another. They're criticizing one another.

One on the sinner cross is different. He's been falsely accused and convicted. There's a strange silence coming from His cross. Not because there's no pain. He was in more pain than the others. There was nothing audibly coming from His cross because He's resolved in His purpose. No curses coming from His mouth. No rage, no bargaining, just fragments of prayer here and there.

Even forgiveness is offered for those who are killing him. Soldiers divide his garments. Some sit with satisfaction and watch him there, the scripture says. And the sky begins to dim in the middle of the day. And the man in the middle, wounded, beyond all recognition, is lifted up between heaven and earth.

Scripture said He would be. And this is the moment where sin meets judgment. This is the place where justice meets mercy. And this is where the Lord Jesus Christ cries three words that will forever, ever shake eternity. It is finished. Verse 28, John 19. After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished. You know what that word means? Same Greek word. Finished. That the Scripture might be fulfilled. Do you know what that word means? Same Greek word. Complete. Fulfilled. Finished. He saith, I thirst.

That's why Paul said, I'm determined not to know anything among you save or except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You see, friends, that is the gospel. The crucifixion of Christ is all about His people's redemption being accomplished by Him. Nothing will be left undone. It's going to be finished. The debt of sin, as we sung, Jesus paid it all. It's going to be paid. It's going to be paid in full. And in the end, that is all that will matter. Now, let me first say that the Lord Jesus is not merely experiencing pain here, though He is. He's fulfilling Scripture. All these things that are happening this day have been foretold. in the Old Testament. And notice that verse 28 begins with the words, after this. What happened before this? Well, we've alluded to some of it already. Christ had been beaten and scourged. He had been crucified and lifted up. He'd been nailed to a cross and a public execution is underway. And that's what it was.

Our Lord's not merely suffering physically, He is consciously and deliberately saving His people from their sin. He's fulfilling the Scripture in every detail. But the deeper suffering is not on the outside, it's within His soul. It's from His deliberate bearing of sin. The guilt of others is not around Him, it's being laid on Him. And every rebellion and every defiance of God's holiness and all the sin of all God's people throughout all time is being imputed to Him as if it's His own. Nothing about the cross was accidental. Every detail confirms that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Savior, the One who would come into the world to save His people from their sin.

And we see the true humanity of the Lord Jesus is here on display. He said, I thirst. Our Lord often hungered and thirsted and was tired and had to rest His head. He was a man. He was all man, and yet He was the God-man. He was all God. And our thirst shows His physical depletion. Christ enters fully into human weakness. He was in all points tempted as you and I are. He doesn't redeem humanity from a distance. He doesn't wave a magic wand and say, everybody's saved. That's the way men preach Him today. He Himself enters in completely to the pain of God's holy and strict justice. The debt that we incurred. He bears the curse to the bitter end. Thirst in Scripture refers to judgment. It has reference to curse bearing. The Lord Jesus enters into complete suffering and deprivation. Can you see Him there? That's what you and I deserve. The gospel is not simply that the Lord Jesus Christ died. The gospel is that He finished what the Father sent Him to do. He accomplished redemption with precision and intention.

This is not chaos. Every detail, every single detail to the minute is controlled and purposed and done in a providential manner. Verse 29, Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar, and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon Hisa, and put it to his mouth. And listen, As cruel as that is, it's not just cruelty.

It's the unfolding of divine execution. This is God's purpose and God's will being fulfilled. And you say, how can it be? This was His beloved Son. No, this is you and I hanging on the cross. such as our union with Christ, is that He actually went to the cross in our room instead. This is what we deserve.

The One who is the living water is given sour vinegar to drink. The One who satisfied every single thirst for His people is Himself left in thirst. This is the heart of substitution. Christ is treated as the guilty, that the guilty might be satisfied in Him, and His thirst is the price of the believer's satisfaction. Christ drinks the bitter cup so that His people might receive the living water freely.

That's just a small part of divine substitution. Just a small part. At our Lord's lowest physical moment, Nothing is out of control. Nothing. God is accomplishing the salvation of His chosen people through the suffering of His beloved Son. In verse 30, when Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. And He bowed His head and He gave up the ghost. God died. How can that be? He had to become a man to die. And he had to become a man to die for his people. For the believer, these are the sweetest words our Lord ever uttered.

It's finished. Finished. The work of redemption was completed. The debt was paid. The sacrifice was accepted. Nothing, nothing, nothing can be added to Christ's finished work. These are the words of completion, not collapse. This is no defeat this day. This is victory. Our Lord's not being overpowered here.

When he stood before Pilate, Pilate said, why are you, won't you defend yourself? He said, your honor, not a word. And Pilate said, don't you know I've got the power to kill you or let you go free? And the Lord Jesus said, you've got no power at all but that which God gave you.

This has all been ordained of my father. This is my purpose. I've set my face like a flint to go to the cross and to die for those whom my Father gave me. He hasn't lost control. He's finishing a mission. He gave up the ghost. It wasn't taken from Him. He gave it up. He laid down His life. No man took it from Me. He said so Himself. I lay down My life. No man taketh it from Me.

And here is what I'm trying, endeavoring to drive home. The debt of sin has been paid in full. Your sin, those that love the Lord Jesus Christ, those who trust in Him to put their sin away, yes, all your sin, every bit of it put away. This is no tragic accident. This is a divine transaction. Sin always produces a debt. Real guilt before a holy God.

So it demands a real payment. And you and I can't pay it. Can't pay it. Religion can't pay it. Good behavior can't pay it. Morality cannot pay it. Time cannot erase it. When Christ cried, it is finished, heaven hears the words, PAID AND FULL. No balance remains. No interest accumulating. No judgment still coming for the believer. Did you hear me? It's all been paid. The law has been fully satisfied.

The law of God is not flexible. It demands perfect obedience. It requires perfect justice. The question is never, can I do better next time? You see, the question is, what can I do with the law that I've already broken? I'm already guilty. Doesn't have anything to do with doing better next time. We've already failed. We've already incurred guilt. The issue for us is now accountability.

Christ provided the only means of forgiveness. There's no forgiveness apart from Him. At the cross, Christ did not cancel the law. He fulfilled the law. He absorbed the law's penalty. He satisfied holy justice. That's no light thing. If we offend in one point of the law, if we don't cross every T and dot every single I, Scripture says we're guilty of the whole law. But he did. He did. He fulfilled the law. He absorbed its penalty.

He satisfied God's holy, strict, unbendable justice. And nothing about God's holiness is compromised. Nothing about His righteousness is reduced. Instead, both are upheld justly and perfectly by His sacrifice. The Law has spoken and Christ has answered. And this is the best news a sinner could ever hear. The work of redemption is complete.

Listen, redemption is not Christ plus our effort. Not Christ plus our sincerity. not Christ plus our righteousness. If anything can be added to the finished work of the cross, then it is never finished at all. You can't add to something that's finished. You can't add to anything that's full. Our Lord did not say it's mostly done. He said it's finished. Completed.

Christ's death brings life. Christ died so that sinners might live. Christ was judged so the guilty could go free. Christ was forsaken so that the redeemed might be received. The cross is where justice and mercy meet, and neither were compromised. What does this mean for the believing sinner today? Not just in our Lord's time, but now, today. You know, the Scripture talks a great deal about today being the day of salvation. The question of the hour is the question of every hour. What do you think of Christ? What does this mean for us? It means salvation. Salvation is of the Lord.

There's nothing left for us to pay. Good thing, we don't have anything to pay. But let me say this in the most respectful way I can. There is something left for us to do. And you say, well, that's not what you've been telling us all this time. What could that be, you might ask.

You can stop trying to pay what's already been paid. You want something to do, do that. Stop trying to pay something that's already been paid for. You know, you go out to eat, and you have a full course meal, and I mean a nice meal. You get a nice steak, and all the fixings, and a nice salad, and you finish the meal, and the waitress tells you, you say, OK, can I have my check? And she says, oh, somebody's already paid your check.

But you still insist on paying the bill yourself. dishonoring to the one who had already paid it. You'd be refusing the gift that that person had already given. And it wouldn't be humility to pay it again. Well, no, no, no. I appreciate that, but, you know, as an act of being humble, no. It would actually be an insult to the one who already settled the debt. And that's exactly what happens when someone keeps trying to pay for what Christ has already finished paying for. To continue to try to pay the debt of forgiveness is like it's a debt that's still owed. When Christ's payment on the cross declared it, paid in full, Well, that would not only be impossible for us, but it would be a refusal of His mercy and His grace to us, would it not? Christ is not offering a cooperative salvation.

Where did that start? Salvations of the Lord. Period. Period. His salvation is complete, finished, accomplished. The gospel message is done, not do. And that's why these three words, it is finished, are so precious to every believer. Every true believer says, oh, that's the greatest news I ever heard. It's finished.

There's nothing for me to do. There's nothing for me to pay. My salvation doesn't rest on my weakness or on my performance, but on the strength and the perfection of the Lord Jesus' accomplishment. That's right. Salvation is not a thing to be done. Salvation is something already done. It's finished. Therefore, the heart of the gospel is not that Christ is trying to save those that God gave him to save. The gospel is that Christ has finished the work necessary to save his people. It takes you totally out of it. And I'm so thankful about that because I can't do anything to save myself. I can't make myself perfect. I can't do. I can't do good, much less perfect. And we're all in that boat. There's none that do it good. How many? None.

Hebrews chapter 10 tells us, let me just read a little of this to you, says we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. You know what that mean? Finish. Nothing else to do once for all. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. You know what that means? It's finished. There's nothing left to do. For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Same name. Finished. Accomplished. Christ has obtained eternal redemption for us. Christ has blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that were against us. How? Nailing it to the cross.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, Romans 8.1. Before the Lord ever went to the cross, He said to His Father, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." You know what? It's finished. That's what He said. The Lord Jesus revealed the Father.

He provided perfect obedience to the law. He entered into our suffering as the sin bearer. He went to the cross as the spotless Lamb of God. Isn't that what John said when He came that day? to be baptized. Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, all types of men and women throughout this world, all in the world that will believe and trust in Him. He is the spotless Lamb of God. Salvation is grounded in His obedience, not ours. So where does this leave the child of God? It leaves us with a finished work. It leaves us with an empty debt ledger.

I was going through some things with my parents not long ago. I found an old bank note. You know, back then they wrote everything on like a card. Each week, you know, or each month when they would take their mortgage into the bank, they'd write down the date, the amount of the payment, how much went to interest, how much went to principal. And then finally, this thing had five or six cards, you know, stapled together. And I finally got to the last card. And down at the bottom, it said, zero balance, paid in full. And it was stamped with red ink. And I thought to myself, that's what Christ did for me. He paid the debt in full with His own blood.

This leaves us with nothing to do but to believe and trust and rest. And we have such a hard time doing that. Christ didn't come to make salvation possible for all. He came to make it certain for some, and some being all who believe. This means the guilt is gone. The sacrifice is complete. The wrath of God is satisfied. God who is angry with the wicked every day is no longer angry with the believing child of God. Isn't that good news? Was Christ's finished work enough? Well, there's no doubt about that. The question is, will you rest in that finished work? Will you? Well, there's really no question about that either.

Because if you're truly one of His, His command to you is, come unto Me and I'll give you rest. And it's always effectual. There's no body that the Lord has said, come unto Me and I'll give you rest. That really needed rest, didn't come. The only prerequisite is that you labor in a heavy laden overseeing. And if you are, you'll come, for there's no other place to go. And if you come, and you will, He will give you rest. Again, Hebrews 10, 12. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice, why one? That's all it took.

He was the perfect, spotless Lamb of God. One sacrifice for sins forever set down on the right hand of God. Sitting down is the posture of a finished work. No priest ever sat down in the tabernacle of old because the work was never done. It was never finished. Year after year, year after year, on constant sacrifice, constant, constant putting the blood upon the altar.

Finished. No more. No more sacrifice for sin. THE sacrifice has been made. And God has accepted it. Our Lord said it's finished and God said that's enough. Christ sits because nothing remains to be added. Now the redeemed sinner can rest because the work of their redemption is finished. What are we going to do? Rest. Lord Jesus, please help us to rest. Ask the Lord to help you to rest. Lay your burdens down at the foot of the cross. They've already been paid. And rest. Help us, Lord, to rest. Help us to rest. Because it's finished.

Finished

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