What did Jesus finish?

“It is finished”

(John 19:30, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, August 22, 2010)

30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

When Jesus had received the sour wine...

In the verse before us, our Savior dies. From the beginning of this gospel it has been clear that Jesus understood what He was doing, and that the way that grace and truth would come to us, would be through the Lord fulfilling the role that is His alone as the Lamb of God. It has also been clear that those around Him did not understand what He was doing. When He came to His own people, they did not receive Him as King and Savior on His own terms.

Jesus came to fulfill something. He fulfilled the divine plan between the Father and Son. He fulfilled all of the Law of God, keeping it to the end. He fulfilled the penalty of the Law, taking upon Himself the wrath that we deserved. He was faithful in all of this. And He understood what He was doing.

The list of those who did not understand what Jesus was doing in His life and death is a large list. Mark 3 and Mark 7 tell us that His family did not understand Him. They were trying to take Him away from the crowds, and they were afraid that something bad had happened to His mind. The religious leaders certainly did not understand Him, and what they did understand they rejected. They conspired against Him in fulfillment of this very unflattering role of being the rebellious builders when He was the Rock of the new Israel, as Psalm 118 had predicted, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Jesus would be the number one solid rock in the new temple of the Holy Spirit, and the political and religious leaders in Israel were the blind builders who did not see Him for who He was and is. Finally the crowds that observed Him in these last hours did not appreciate what Jesus was doing. As He patiently fulfills passage after passage from the Old Testament Scriptures, they show no sign of seeing what this was all about. Most recently, as almost His final words, He says, “I thirst,” and they do not see the greatness of the Man who had been cut off from the presence of the Father in order to be our sin offering, who from the depths of His righteous soul thirsts for God, the living God. They can only see the obvious, that a man dying on a cross is thirsty, and they lift up something for him to take in. The sour wine, the vinegar, is at hand. They unwittingly fulfill Psalm 69:21, “for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.”

He said, “It is finished,” ...

They did not understand, but He did. This is important to remember. You and I do not really understand what was required for our salvation. We can look at the cross and wonder, but we need to understand the whole Bible, and even more, the mind of God, in order to really know what it took for sinners to be saved. We can do what the hymn writer wrote about in “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted.” We sing, “Ye who think of sin but lightly, nor suppose the evil great, here may view its nature rightly, here it's guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load. 'Tis the Word, the Lord's Anointed, Son of Man, and Son of God.” Yet we only get a glimpse of what these words mean. Hopefully we see enough to appreciate the seriousness of what it means that “Christ Jesus came to save sinners,” and to begin to accept the call that He gives to His disciples when He says, “Follow Me.”

But He needed to know what He was doing. There are some jobs and even some games in life where close is not good enough. There can be little doubt that atoning for our sins is in that category. It is of the greatest importance for the glory of God and for your eternal well-being that when Jesus says, “It is finished,” that He be entirely and completely right about that.

What needed to be finished for your sins to be atoned for?

1. The being who lived and died for you as the Lamb of God had to be the right one. He had to be both true man, to be our accurate substitute, and truly God, who could face an infinite penalty in a finite period of time. Someone less than the mystery of Jesus, the Son of David, and David's Lord could not have said with any credibility, “It is finished.”

2. He also had to fulfill all divine prophesy. The list of passages that Jesus had to attend to are far more numerous than we could consider now. But isn't that the point? Even if someone else could have somehow done some of the things that the Messiah was supposed to do, how many passages would He have not understood to be about Him, and how many would He have just missed, or not fulfilled with the richness of the Lord's divine intention. Earlier this year I went through the New Testament to identify all the Old Testament passages that were directly quoted or alluded to there, and tried to identify all of the Christian doctrines supported by those passages using a basic historic statement like the Apostles Creed. My spreadsheet had 1,184 rows, from hundreds of passages. How many did I miss? And these are just the Old Testament passages that are noted in the New Testament. Think of all the passages from the Old Testament that the Lord fulfilled that were never quoted in the New Testament. But everything had to be faithfully done, or the Lord could not have said, “It is finished.”

3. Specifically, all of the requirements of the Law of God had to be satisfied... Think of the enormity of the task of obeying the Law of God without fault. One sin of thought, word, or action, one duty omitted, or one prohibition transgressed, and Jesus could not say, “It is finished.”

4. Finally, all that God required in the everlasting curse that was against us, all of what eternal hell is, all of what can be seen in the sufferings of the cross, and all of what no man could ever see, but was there, had to be accomplished for Jesus to say, “It is finished.”

There is no other Messiah. No one else is the right being. No one else could understand and fulfill all of the Scriptures about Him. No one else could have obeyed all of the Lord's holy commandments, culminating in that great work of love that is the fulfillment of the Law. No one else could have taken the curse and fully done the job that had to be done. It is finished.

And He bowed His head ...

So when He had given the last measure of devotion, when He was utterly spent, when the Man Jesus had done it all, He bowed His head.

This is a sad moment. The precious head of Jesus rests.

And gave up His Spirit.

And He gave up His Spirit. It was finished. Jesus died. Where did His Spirit go? There can be no doubt. We know from Luke's gospel that Jesus had earlier said to one of the other men who died with him that day, “Today, you will be with Me in paradise.” This paradise is the present heaven. His Spirit went there. Home again. Then back again to earth for the resurrection unto immortal human existence. This is the same pattern for all of the Lord's people who die in this age.

Application: All that was necessary for your sin to be atoned for was accomplished by Jesus Christ. There is no other Savior but Him. See in the cross a Person and an action that is infinitely impressive. Then be moved in love that this amazing fullness of obedience was for you.

1. Why did people give Jesus sour wine?

2. In what sense was the work of Jesus now finished?

3. What does this account reveal to us of the weakness of Jesus' body”

4. What does it say to us of the strength of His Spirit?