It Is Finished!

by Calvin Burrell

"What was finished?"

There is an easy answer to this question - easy as well as accurate: The personal suffering of Jesus Christ - His humiliation - was finished.

For nearly 35 years, Christ had been a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He wearied . . . He wept . . . and He bled, refusing even the potion that would have blunted the agony of the Crucifixion. It even could be said of Jesus that He learned obedience by the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:8).

But the Cross ended that! When the last stab of pain wrote its agony into His mind and body just before He lapsed into unconsciousness and merciful death, Jesus knew He would never suffer again. For Him there would be no more sorrow or crying or pain; those things were passing away. Only exaltation awaited Christ; His humiliation and anguish were finished.

Sacrifice for Sins

This first answer to our question sees Jesus' three-word statement on the cross as relating to Himself. But there is a second response to "What was finished?" It is this: The perfect and complete sacrifice for sins had been made. The sin problem had been defeated.

This latter answer sees Jesus' three words as having universal, not merely personal, significance. They relate to Christ's accomplished work in behalf of all people. There is truth in this view, but it is more complex than the first answer and isn't as easily expressed with precision.

We must use caution in our statements about the finality of the work of Christ's death. It is true that the offering of God's Son for sin is a once-for-all event; it can never be repeated or improved on (Hebrews 9:25-28; 10:10-14). It is just as true that the Bible emphasizes the life, resurrection, ascension, intercession, and return of Christ as also vital with respect to our eternal salvation. For example, Paul insists that, if Christ is not raised from the dead, our faith is in vain and we are yet in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17).

Yes, Christ crucified is the gospel, but it is not the total gospel. The good news also includes Christ risen, reigning, and returning.

What Was Finished

This leaves us to identify the aspect of salvation that was completed with the shout of Jesus from the cross. If not everything in God's plan to save mankind was finished when Jesus gave up the ghost, at least something was! What was it? The explanation of three terms connected with the Cross event in Scripture will help us understand.

First, Jesus's death meant an offering or sacrifice toward God (1 John 2:1, 2). Through the death of God's Son, God's wrath against sin has been satisfied. By the shedding of Christ's blood, the remission of sins is now a reality. The penitent sinner is forgiven, because the Lamb of God has taken away the sins of the world. Propitiation for our sins was finished - at Calvary!

Second, Jesus' death meant a reconciliation (or atonement) toward men and women (Romans 5:10, 11). The Bible describes all people as having been alienated from God. Through their own wicked works, they are actually enemies of God. But this chasm of broken fellowship has been bridged by the cross of Christ. By His death, Jesus reveals God's love, and we sinners are welcomed into the Father's peaceable presence. Reconciliation with God was finished - at Calvary!

Third, Jesus' death meant a redemption (or ransom) from the power of evil. Previously, all of us were servants of sin, firmly enslaved to the rule of Satan. But Christ has purchased us out of the Devil's marketplace and off his auction block. The purchase price of our freedom was Christ's own blood (1 Peter 1:18, 19). The payment for our freedom from sin was paid in full - finished - at Calvary!

Thus, the Bible teaches that God's provision for our forgiveness, fellowship, and freedom was completed when Jesus died. The Cross event represents the full and final basis on which God calls us out of sin and unto Himself. Nothing we can do will increase or improve on the right standing we have with God, simply because "Christ died for us."

Forgiveness of sin, fellowship with God, freedom from sin's slavery: All these were accomplished when Christ died. On the one hand, it is evident that there are further aspects of our salvation, which may be conceived as an ongoing process. In this sense, our salvation is not yet complete. Nevertheless, the ground and support for the entirety of salvation is the finished work of Christ on the cross. Our trust and assurance - indeed, the very faith by which we stand - must ever be driven back to Calvary!

A Word of Caution

Beware of any teaching that would substitute some commodity other than the death of Christ for our acceptance before God. We will mention only two here.

In one way or another, it is commonly believed that what God is doing in each heart and life will put the believer right with God. What God is doing within each Christian by His indwelling Spirit is vital, but it is not an equal substitute for what God has already done for us by the death of His Son. The former is an unfinished and imperfect work; the latter is complete and perfect.

Another teaching that dilutes the completeness of Christ's doing and dying at Calvary says God did not begin to apply the spoils of Christ's death until 1844, when a supposed investigative judgment began in heaven. The Bible, however, says that Jesus ascended and went directly into the most holy presence of the Father. Since that time, He has continually been there interceding, so that the benefits of His finished work on Calvary shall apply to all those who come to God by Him. The substitutionary work was finished that dark day at Calvary. Only the application of its benefits to individuals goes on constantly from that time until now.

Conclusion

We have seen in this article that the crucifixion of Jesus was a finishing of His personal humiliation and a finishing of God's provision in dealing with mankind's sin problem. Similarly, the Crucifixion can be a finishing of each individual's personal struggle to find acceptance in the sight of God. The Cross tells us that what we cannot do for ourselves Jesus did for us. By His doing and dying, we are accepted - now - in Him! It is finished! The only thing left is for us to receive it by faith!

Calvin Burrell is editor of the Bible Advocate and pastor of the Church of God (Seventh Day) in Houston, TX. A version of this article appeared in a past issue of the Bible Advocate magazine. For a free subscription, contact us at BibleAdvocate@cog7.org.

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