It Is Finished!
John 19:30
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
St. John 19:30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ our Lord… “The war is over.” Those words, printed on the front pages of newspapers and spoken over the radio, proclaimed the victorious end of World War II. With those words a deep sigh came across our country and much of the world. “The war is over.” The worrying, the waiting, and the dying was finally done. It was finished. You can imagine – and some of you can remember – the depth of emotion after so much suffering.
On this day, Good Friday, we hear our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross speak a similar but infinitely more powerful declaration, “It is finished.” He, too, was saying, “The war is over.” But this war goes back not just a few years but to the beginning of time.
It began in heaven by a powerful and glorious angel named Lucifer, who rebelled against God out of envy and jealousy and wanted to make Himself equal with God. For his rebellion, Lucifer and the other angels who joined him were cast out of heaven. Then the war spilled over to earth where these fallen angels, the devil and his demons, were cast down. In his diabolical craftiness, Satan engineered the rebellion of man against God as well. And with Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, the war for man’s soul was on. Man had fallen into the hands of the enemy, but God was not about to let that stand. He undertook a rescue operation that He had planned from the beginning.
Already in the Garden the Lord prophesied how this victory would be won. To the devil He spoke this curse: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel” (Gen 3:15). With those words, the Lord foretold how He would Himself become man. He would become the Seed, the descendant of the woman. In the war the devil would strike the heel of the Son of God on the cross, but in the very act of striking the Son, the devil’s own head would be crushed. Jesus would grind the serpent’s head into the ground with His wounded heel.
Down through history man has struggled much in that war with the devil and the world and his own sinful flesh. There has been so much suffering, so much crying, so much dying. And for those who will not listen to Christ or believe in Him, the war will continue, and it will ultimately end in defeat and eternal damnation in hell.
But on Good Friday, our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to listen to His words, to believe them, and to rejoice. From the cross Christ declared, “It is finished.” The war is over; it has been won. The war that no man could ever win – for we are no match for the devil and the grave – that war has been won by the God-man, Jesus Christ for us. He took the worst that the enemy could throw at Him and suffered it all to death in His body. Satan has no more ammunition left to shoot at you because Jesus took it all and destroyed it all for you and in your place. The enemy is conquered and defeated. Everything that needed to be accomplished in order to pay for the world’s sins was finished.
When Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”, it does not mean that He has lost. It means that the victory is complete. It does not mean that He is finished, it means that His work is finished. Everything that is necessary to rescue you who were held hostage in the devil’s kingdom, Jesus has done. Everything that is necessary to pay for your sins fully and completely, Jesus has done. Everything that is necessary to release you from the power of the grave and give you eternal life, Jesus has done. It is complete. It is fulfilled. It is perfected in His holy death. It is finished.
When Jesus said, “It is finished!” it is as if our Savior turned His gaze from the first sinner to the last sinner across all time, and there is not one single person whose guilt He has not atoned for. There is not one person whose peace He has not won. There is nothing more that you need to do to be saved, no good work you need to accomplish to finish the job. Jesus here declared that He had already finished the job. All you are given to do is believe and trust in Him by faith alone.
Christ has reopened way to the Garden of Eden. That is why this day is called Good Friday. Just as God declared everything He had created in the beginning to be good, so now He makes all things good again, putting to death the old order of death and bringing the new creation to life. The perfection of and return to Paradise is promised to all who live and die in and with Christ. And on the Last Day we will be invited back in to lie down in green pastures and to be led by the still waters. By faith we are reconciled to God. By faith we are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The desperation of the war is done. The victorious outcome is now and forever certain.
“It is finished!” This mighty cry of triumph reverberated into the depths of hell, filling the devil and his minions with terror. It reverberates into the heights of heaven, filling all saints and angels with eternal joy and praise. And it reverberates into our hearts and the hearts of all believers yet on earth, filling us with comfort, filling us with sure, certain, and confident hope.
When you are troubled by your sins that separate you from God and from each other, and you wonder if you can ever be truly forgiven, Jesus says, “Yes, it is finished.” When you are tempted and tested and persecuted by the world, and you wonder if you will ever be victorious in these battles, Jesus says, “Yes, it is finished.” When you begin to doubt whether eternal life can really be yours or whether or not you will really rise from the dead, Jesus says, “Yes, it is finished.”
The war was terrible indeed. And during that war there was so much crying, suffering, and sadness. But listen to Jesus’ proclamation today and believe it: “The war is over. “It is finished.” Mission accomplished, for you and for your salvation.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
