The Week in Review

IT IS FINISHED

This was presented one Good Friday as the Seven Last Words of Christ was shared. I pray you receive a reminder about the wonderful gift we received in Christ as we draw closer to the Resurrection (Easter) season. God bless.

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


I asked myself this question, “What did Jesus finish?” Before time as we understand it, before the very first man, God had a mission in place for his son. God’s mission was to redeem sinful man back into a right relationship with him through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross, paying for all of our transgressions. Therefore God originated the mission that Jesus came to fulfill. However, Jesus’ purpose did not start the day he was born, but his birth began the process of fulfillment, of finishing the mission.

It is imperative for us to understand that Jesus when he calls out, “it is finished”, that he finished everything required of him. He did not finish 50% of the job, or 99.9%, but 100%.


Jesus finished or fulfilled the prophetic words that pointed to him. He is the Lamb of God, The Son of man, the bread of life, the living bread, the light of the world, the gate for the sheep, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth and the life. He is the counselor; he is the true vine and so much more.

Jesus also finished any doubt about who he was and still is. He showed his authority over illness and diseases, over blindness, and leprosy, over sin and demons, over nature, over history, over space, over time and the future, over the wind and the water, over death, over Satan and even over his own future.

When he states it is finished, he is also saying, there is nothing left to be done, I have done it all, for now and forever more. And nothing was able to keep him from finishing his mission. Mockers, liars, betrayers, the power of men, nor physical pain. Not even the feeling of separation from his father and the emotional and spiritual pain that entailed, kept him from finishing his mission. Even when he called out like David did in Psalm 22:1, My God, My God, why have thou forsaken me?!”


Nothing stopped Jesus from calling out from the cross it is finished. And his words serve to let us know two things. First he finished everything the Father told him to and in the manner that God wanted it done. He did not do things his way, but Gods way. He was obedient to ALL that the Father asked of him. We know this because he said, not my will, but thou will be done, when he asked for the cup to be removed. And then secondly his words serve as a call to all believers to come after him.

What do you and I need to finish? Before you or I were born, God knew that we would be here this very moment this very day, and he had a mission ready for us to fulfill, to finish. He is calling us to be a living sacrifice and pick up our cross and follow his son. He is calling us to fulfill our mission not 50%, not 99 ½% but 100%. This can be done because it is not in ourselves that we do it. Jesus came to show us how to do it and his spirit will equipped us to do it. We can finish our mission in spite of mockers, liars, betrayers or nay Sayers. We can finish our mission even through the physical agony. Even through the emotional and spiritual pain, when we feel like calling out in a loud voice and saying, My God, My God why have thou forsaken me?!” When we want to put down our cross because it seems to hard to bear, yet we can carry on, because God’s spirit is there to lift the weight of it when it feels too heavy. Why? So that when you or I get to the end of our journey with a shout of victory we can say, It is finished!

And let us not forget this, Jesus finished his mission but he also took the time to take others by the hand and teach them how to follow after him, as he followed after his father. So as you and I set out to fulfill our mission, let us not forget to grab someone by the hand and teach them how to follow after Jesus, who did the father’s will. So we can say as Jesus did, not a saying of despair or one of failure, but in a shout of victory “It is finished”.